Freya had been a customer service manager at a large marketing company for nine years. She had worked her way up in the company from the time she was twenty-two years old, receiving good reviews and consistent promotions all the time. As manager, she had come up with a way to limit customers’ waiting time on the phone to fifteen second or less, therefore raising the efficiency of her department by 40 percent.
She was in the middle of working on a pilot program that do away with recorded responses to customer calls entirely, and live operators were helping every inquiry.
Business was still down because of the recession, but news reports were beginning to say that the economy was turning around and things were looking up.
It was an average Thursday afternoon and the workday was winding down. When her boss called Freya into her office for their weekly meeting, Susan was ready to produce the latest figures, still improving, and possibly kick back for a few minutes and chat with her boss about their children, who were in the same grade.
The minute she walked into Renee’s office, Freya could tell there’d be no chatting that day. Renee looked upset. She offered Freya a cup of coffee and then told her that the company was cutting back; that they’d done eveything possible to trim budgets, but they were still losing money. Four managers were fired, and unfortunately, Freya was one of them. She could tie up loose ends the next day and then say good-bye to her colleagues. Renee was terribly sorry; it had nothing to do with Freya’s performance and eveything to do with trying to keep the company afloat. Freya walked out of her boss’s office in a daze. At first she couldn’t believe it. Surely she was dreaming.
One minute life is good; the next, the world is turned upside down, and shock and surprise set in.
God has created us in such a way that our brains are very protective of us. The brain understands that sometimes we just can’t take in the reality of a big change; it would be too overwhelming to absorb everything at once. So it refuses to let all the impact hit us right away. I like to say that God has built us with shock absorbers like a car has that soften the impact when we hit a huge pothole in the road. During this stage, you feel numb, as if you’re sleepwalking. You may watch yourself just staring at the walls, unable to focus or do even everyday tasks. Out of the blue you’ll shake your head and say to no one in particular, “I just can’t believe it.”
Comment