I’m 57, and 10 months ago at the age of 56, I lost my job. It’s been a long 10 months. I’ve been building this channel, writing, connecting with people. I thought I was moving forward. And then yesterday, a simple notification on my phone proved me wrong.
It was LinkedIn. Not a message, not anything directed at me. Just a notification I hadn’t checked in a while. So I opened it.
My former employer typically makes their promotions in April. And there they were. A list of my former colleagues, the ones who had just been promoted. People I worked alongside for years. And something I thought I had processed came flooding back.
The Feelings You Don’t Plan For
What surprised me wasn’t that I felt something. It was the mix. There was a bit of anger, but not really. Sadness, strangely enough. I missed the camaraderie. The shared jokes in a Slack channel. The rhythm of working alongside people who knew your strengths.
And then there was something harder to name. Betrayal is the closest word I can find for it.
I worked for that company for 11 years. My employee number was 59. Fifty-nine. When I joined them, they were a startup of about 60 people out of California. I watched them grow from that small team to nearly a thousand employees by the time I left. I worked the long days, covered the time zones, put in the weekends. That was expected. We were building something. You do that because you believe in the company and you identify with it.
And then one afternoon, it’s over. Just like that.
So seeing those names on a promotion list, people still climbing in a building I helped build, hit differently than I expected. Not because I begrudge anyone their success. But because it reminded me of something I hadn’t fully dealt with.
If You’re Still Feeling It, That’s Normal
I wanted to share this because I know some of you are in the same place. You might be two months out, or six, or two years. And you might think that by now, you should have moved on. That the sting of it should have faded.
It doesn’t work like that. These feelings don’t operate on a schedule. A song, a notification, a drive past an old office building. The smallest thing can bring it all rushing back. And when it does, you might feel like you’ve gone backwards. You haven’t. You’re just human.
Moving forward doesn’t mean the past stops mattering. It means you carry it differently.
A Comment That Stopped Me
I also received a comment on YouTube recently that really hit hard. It was short. Blunt. And painfully familiar.
“I am 52. I lost my job today. I don’t know what to do.”
That was it. No context needed. If you’ve been there, you get it. You don’t need a backstory to understand what that person was feeling in that moment. The confusion. The fear. The silence that follows when the door closes behind you for the last time.
That comment, combined with what I felt scrolling through those LinkedIn promotions, crystalized something for me. There is a real need for a support system for people going through this. Not from experts or career coaches, but from other people who have been there and are still going through it. People who understand the weight of it because they’re carrying it too.
Building a Space for Us
So I built one.
On the Empower Over 50 website, there is now a free community message board. You sign up with your email, get a quick verification code, and you’re in. No cost, no catch.
It’s a space where people over 50 can talk openly about what they’re going through. Share experiences. Ask questions. Help each other. I’ll be in there regularly, especially in these early weeks, contributing and engaging with the community.
I want to be honest, right now it’s very new. But that means you get to help shape it from the beginning. And I’m not going anywhere. I’ll put a lot of my time into this, particularly in the early months as it gets going.
I also don’t want to take away from the comment section on YouTube. That’s not going anywhere either. But this is a dedicated space where conversations can go deeper. Where you can start a thread, come back to it, and build real connections with people who understand.
Check it out at empowerover50.com under the Community tab.
Watch This Week’s Video
I talked about all of this in today’s video. The LinkedIn moment, the comment that stopped me, and why I decided to build the community board. If you want to hear the full story, give it a watch.
I’m 57, 10 Months Out of a Job. If You’re Here, This Might Help.
And if you haven’t seen the original video where I talk about the day I lost my job, that’s linked at the end of this one. It’s where this whole journey started.
Cheers,
Max