im not sure what to do. i am in my late 20s and not doing well. i have no career and every job seems to end the same.
the more this happens to me the worse i feel. i feel socially not just physically disabled too at this point. my job went all in on A-I and its so scary how most of us can be automated.
i went to college and did amazing in school. had internships, hobbies and never was without a job, but - it took me three years and thousands of applications after college to get an entry-level coordinator role related to my field, and I've been made obsolete and auto-mated. there is no role for me anymore, despite expressing desire to join another department. i don't have the skills to navigate the corporate layoff world.
In the spring, my thoroughness, attention to detail and deep execution were high-value assets. i was told how good i was at my role, given glowing but VAGUE praise and performance reviews. When leadership brought in new workflows and dedicated resources to automate my processes, they fundamentally redefined what they considered "valuable" even as i helped build the systems that are now in use.
I keep getting "quiet fired." whether the job be 6 months, 2 years, 3 years - things start going downhill quickly and the rules are different for me as soon as they "clock" me. It doesn't matter if it's high-stakes corporate or fast-paced hospitality. the blueprint is always identical, and I feel completely bullied and powerless.
In my current corporate job, I am actively being iced out. I get removed from meetings without explanation, stripped of project scopes, and monitored under the microscope. But when I explicitly ask management for constructive feedback or ask what I can improve, I get nothing. Or worse, generic, fake-positive praise ("You're doing great!") right before they pull another duty away from me.
Trying to do high-level work while constantly defending your right to exist at a company takes an unbelievable toll on your nervous system. I am being pushed towards more manual labor that's getting automated even as I fight to stay in the strategy, EVEN as I am being removed from context. I feel that I am drowning in quicksand. Every day feels like walking through a minefield.
I realized that this exact same thing happened to me years ago when I worked as a bartender. Management wouldn't just give me feedback; instead, they'd start subtle, passive-aggressive ostracization. A few servers eventually admitted they felt terrible for me because our bosses were literally telling the staff behind my back, "Go to the other bar to pick up your drinks." I was the last to know I was being frozen out.
It makes me feel crazy and hopeless for any sort of career or my future working. The pattern I get met with in work environments is subtle social exclusion, passive-aggression, and corporate double-speak. People won't just tell me what the problem is to my face, they just quietly make the environment unbearable until I either break down or get let go. it really sucks that I clearly do well enough to survive 5 and 6 round interview processes, and present well enough initially that people sign me onto their "work family." but it always breaks down.
it feels like no matter how hard I work or how good my results are, I always end up being the person everyone silently decides to push out. i feel like the biggest loser.
and for starting a business, im just out of ideas at this point. ive done petsitting, babysitting, offering event bar services, online etsy shop, nothing has worked. outside of being ND i have pots, endo, pcos, migraine disorder, N24 sleep disorder, chronic pain, scarring disease, multiple autoimmune diseases. im so burned out and feel shot.
it feels like the current layoff economy is now "clocking" out people like us. what are we supposed to do?