Destinies can change in just five minutes
The boss called the team into the conference room. "One of you is getting laid off. You guys decide who."
I wasn't there, but I can imagine the wide-eyed terror that comes from being blindsided. The heat of anger at being left to make this decision. The rock in the stomach from wondering if one of your coworkers is going to tear you down in order to build themselves up. The awful, terrible unknowing.
My friend, single and childless, volunteered to take the hit.
For my friend, this decision had to hurt, but would it have hurt more if he'd stayed knowing that one of his coworkers was now out of a job? He doesn't know what's next for him, but it's a different path than he saw just a month ago. He's free to return to school, work overseas, find another position in his field, or pursue another career entirely. And I'm sure there are dozens of other options that are now open to him that he wouldn't have seen had he stayed where he was.
It isn't just his destiny that he affected. By sacrificing himself, my friend spared his coworkers.
I don't know them. I don't know their lives. But I do know that money problems is one of the top relationship killers. I know that the stress of unemployment can cause fathers and husbands, mothers and wives to act out against their kids or spouses, or retreat within themselves. Whether anything like that would have happened, we'll never know. My friend spared them the stress of being laid off.. He affected their destinies by letting them remain on their current paths.
What choices have you made that changed peoples destinies?
note: As of this post my friend still hasn't been told whether or not they're actually going to lay him off. He's in limbo, waiting to find out.
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