[silverquiet]

Yes, I've been in a company that was being dismantled by private equity. People would act like everything was normal in meetings and then you'd hear reports about people crying in more one-on-one type situations. Certainly it tore me up to the point that when the layoff came, I was actually relieved.

I'm extremely introverted and have a hard time telling this sort of thing to anyone but my therapist, but I was under the impression that I'm a bit unusual. Obviously in this forum, I can speak my mind because of the relative anonymity.

I often wonder if people do in fact understand what is making them unhappy; it often seems so clear to me. For instance, working from home is so sought after, but for me it was a disaster; the thought of being chained to a desk in my house for the next few decades of worked seemed close to living in hell (or at least the office). As I said, I'm quite introverted, but that level of singular toil is incredibly unnatural to me; I don't understand how anyone can do it, and yet people would accuse me of being some sort of shill on this site for laying that out.

And so, I got an in person job at a company that makes a product that I think is useful. I would be laughed at if I said what I got paid or some of the old technologies we use, but you know what - I might actually be in the twenty percent these days. I've actually told people that my job is a source of pride and satisfaction for me. Now my biggest fear (it'll probably never go away) is that we lose relevance/customers and I'll have to find something else.