Step 1 - protect your energy & grieve !

You wake up, and for a split second, everything feels normal.

Then it hits you—like a slap that you faintly saw coming but still catches you unawares.

Stop Work Order. Technically, you been made redundant. Just like that. Yesterday, you had plans. Strategic Plans. Work-plans. Vacation. Obligations. Loans. Routine. Today, the ground beneath your feet feels shaky. Your mind spins...is this really happening?

Job loss is a peculiar kind of grief. Like a thief, it doesn’t announce itself with sirens or send a polite email in advance. It sneaks in. Its creeps in. Slowly dismantling your sense of security, your identity, and, if you’re not careful, your self-worth.

And here’s the truth nobody tells you; beyond loosing the pay check, you loose a rhythm, momentum, purpose, occupation, a sense of certainty.

Your email is empty. Your calendar, once full, is now empty.

No more lunches. No more dinner invites. No more travel. The entry pass is taken.

The credit card cancelled.

Loneliness.

Like Bitange Ndemo once said "The day I left office, my phone literally ceased to ring".

I know this feeling too well. I’ve been through two seasons of it.

Each time, I thought I had learned enough from the last to be ready. But no. It still arrived like an unexpected guest, one who overstays their welcome and rearranges your furniture without asking.

And so, if you’re here, whether as a result of Trump's Stop Work Order, or the changing tides of the global economy, let’s talk about what comes next.

Stage One - Denial & The False Sense of Hope

At first, like many sudden instances that bring lots of grief, you convince yourself it’s probably temporary. Maybe there’s been a mistake? Maybe the funding will come through? Maybe someone will fight for us? For Me? You wait.

Worse, the rumours kick in. "The can't probably do that type of thing, its even illegal" "There’s a restructuring happening, you might get a spot." These whispers keep you hanging onto a dream that isn’t real. I’ve learned the hard way that this is where conspiracy and anxiety mostly builds up.

You sit in limbo, emotionally suspended between what was and what you hope it could be, instead of stepping forward into what is, what Ram Das calls - Be Here and Now!

While somewhat unfortunate, you have to protect your energy, and that includes cutting of some colleagues and friends who often generate more conspiracy and anxiety.

Stage Two - The Self-Blame Spiral

Then comes the flood of questions: Was it me? Should I have seen this coming? Should I have taken that other job? Why didn’t I prepare better? The mind loves to ruminate on regret, as if replaying the past will miraculously change the outcome. It won’t.

Here’s what you need to know: self-blame is an illusion of control. It makes you feel like if you had done something differently, this wouldn’t have happened. But sometimes, the world moves in ways beyond your control. For example, if you are facing a tooth decay and are at the dentist for extraction, you cant blame the sweet cake you ate on that sunny Sunday afternoon, it wont extract or refill the tooth.

Accepting frees you. Its helps you move from the problem space, into the (much needed) solution space.

Stage Three - The Grieving Ritual

This part is very important. You must grieve the loss before you move forward. I don’t mean a quick sigh and “on to the next.” I mean grieve properly....like we do when we lose a loved one. Because, in many ways, a job is a relationship. It gave you something, and now it’s gone. If you try to skip this step, you’ll carry the wound forward, unprocessed and heavy.

How you grieve is up to you. Cry, journal, walk, talk to a friend, sit under a tree and listen to the wind. Wear beach clothes for a week, as if you were on the final vacation of your job. If you need to wear a metaphorical sackcloth and mourn like our ancestors did, do it. But set a deadline.

Give yourself a clear "I will grieve fully until this date, and then I will move to what’s next."

"Even if you give yourself a grieving period, YOU MAY have bouts and flashes of grief or memories/thoughts from that loss. Because like you said a job is like a relationship. So....Kindly allow yourself the grace and brevity to grieve here and know what it is, and that you are in grief. Don't ignore it and most importantly don't beat yourself up for stepping back instead of "moving forward". Collins Otieno adds.

Stage Four - Acceptance & The Next Step

The real shift happens when you accept the loss—not just intellectually, but emotionally and physically. You wake up one morning, and instead of asking

"Why did this happen?" you ask, "What do I do now?" "Where do I start?"

This is where movement begins. This is where clarity starts to form. And this is where we continue in the next article—on how to reorganize your resources, plan your next steps, and move from loss to reinvention.

For now, breathe. You’re not alone in this. You never were.

Let’s keep going.