A writer in the advertising business in Detroit, who seems to specialize in the automotive industry just posted a heart-wrenching essay on how it feels to be fired from a job you love, and promptly escorted out the building.

“First off, you don’t think you’re going to get laid off. Not you… you’ve been given too many high-profile, hot projects, and the client has just recently fallen madly and deeply in love with you.

In fact, at a one o’clock meeting the client and you were practically brushing each other’s hair and painting each other’s toenails. Who could have predicted that at 3:45 you would be fired?

… You cried as you fumbled for your purse and keys. You cried as they escorted you to the lobby.

There wasn’t a moment of grace until you saw a co-worker walking in as you were being escorted out. There was a moment of grace as she walked up and embraced you, and kissed the side of your head as she told you, ‘I loved working with you. I love you,’ and she kept hugging you as though her love would hold you together.”

No one is safe these days. And it stings like a mother when you get let go of a job in which you’ve hung your self esteem, dreams and ambitions. You live through it, mourn through it, and find a different purpose. With all these layoffs, I think a giant shift is occurring in American society. The social currency of making-lots-of-money-and-getting-a-fancy-job-title is decreasing in value. Type A personalities and career-driven professionals will have to slow down and find alternative measures of success.