Laid Off, Part II

I realized with some bemusement today that it's not the dread of staying home all day and doing nothing that's making me feel so bad about getting laid off. It's not losing the paycheck, it's not feeling useless or unwanted.

What's making me feel bad is that I genuinely like the people I work with, and I'll miss them. I liked the work I was doing, and I'll miss that, too, because I was good at it. And I feel really sad that I'll never be a person of influence in my institution because if I may be so bold, I had an awful lot of good ideas for the place.

But most of all, I feel terribly disappointed that my institution has been doing so badly for so long. I really worry about its future.