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Sorry to break up the like’s list but I had to get this off of my chest. Today I went into work like any other day. I grabbed a donut, turned on my computer and started my day. It was like almost any other morning that I have had here since I have been at my new job. Then around 9:30 I got an e-mail that took me aback.

My friend Chuck, sent me an e-mail letting me know that a former co-worker of ours from Chase had taken his own life. Now, I can’t say I was friends with the guy or that I knew him that well. Still, he sat two cubes from me for a year. I talked to him and was friendly with him in our work environment. Still, after leaving the bank it would have been unlikely that I would have thought of him much anymore.

But for some reason this news has really hit me hard. I heard that he had recently broken up with his fiancé and that may have been a contributing factor. Still, I am sure the uncertainty over his job situation and all the layoffs the bank was having had to weigh on his mind. I mean not that I ever contemplated such a drastic measure but that stress over my job was taxing. Thank God, I have a good woman who loved me. If Joyce were to leave me in the middle of that living hell that was Chase bank, I am not sure what I would have done.

So, I sure hope those corporate assholes who kept stressing job cuts and off-shoring so that their profit margin didn’t dip can sleep well tonight. I am not blaming them entirely but at some point you have to start to realize that these are people you are fucking with, not numbers.

With that said, I wish I knew what was going on in my co-worker’s mind. I’ve been dumped, I’ve lost jobs. I would have liked to tell him that it is not the end of the world. There are other women out there and I could have personally told him that there are better jobs out there. But, I didn’t know him and sadly I will never get the chance to run into him on the street and tell him what I have told all the other Chase employees I’ve run into. That, there is a life after JPM Morgan Chase, a better life. That working there you tend to forget sometimes that not all companies operate like they do. I tell them all that, leaving that God forsaken place was the best thing that has happened to me in a long, long time. Keith, I wish I could have told you that. Sorry, I didn’t try to get to know you better.