Is Corporate Job Security Real? What Two Layoffs Taught Me About Who Really Provides

I appreciate the illusion of safety that corporate gives us. I appreciated it and felt like I needed it for years, and I'm not turning away from it now. There is real comfort in knowing a check is coming every two weeks, knowing exactly how much it is, knowing your insurance is covered and your 401(k) is building.

But the person who writes that check also decides when you get it, how you get it, how long you receive it, what you do, how you do it, and who you do it with. That is the cost of that security. It can all be taken away at someone else's whim. I know because it happened to me twice. Twice I woke up thinking my day would look like every other day, and instead I was told that season was over.

The difference between those two layoffs is the whole reason I'm writing this.

The first time, I turned to my résumé. I looked at it and thought, this is no big deal. With this résumé I'll be hired soon, probably within weeks, and I'll use the severance to pay down debt. And when my résumé didn't save me, that is when I finally turned to God. I was asking Him, where are you? Why haven't you done something? You know my needs. You know my struggle.

This second time, not once did I think my résumé was going to save me. And it's a much better résumé than it was seven years ago. That very day I said, God, you knew this was going to happen. According to your promises, you are my provider and my protector. Since you allowed this door to be closed, that must mean you have another door ready for me. A better door. A bigger door. One that is already open. I wanted Him to know that this time, I surrendered. I'm not depending on a résumé to save me. I'm depending on Him as my creator, my sustainer, my provider, and my protector.

I wasn't even surprised when the call came. I had been looking at the numbers and attending the meetings, and I wasn't seeing my area of expertise in the business coming in. And the timing was almost perfect. I was coming back from vacation straight into one of my least favorite tasks for a client, wondering when I'd get a chance to recuperate. Instead, the next morning I woke up feeling free. I actually posted about it. I woke up like a new person, happy and ready to start my new season. Most of my mornings since have started that way. I even elevated my room to be better than it was before.

Would I take a corporate role again? I would, but it would need to feel truly aligned. Contractual over full time, work from home options, a genuinely good company. There are only two or three companies on my "I really want to go here" list, and I'm sure there are others I just don't know about yet. But I'm enjoying this season, and after years of being too concerned about losing that illusion of security to pursue entrepreneurship fully, this time it feels like it will work.

Here is what carried me through every corporate season, including the unhappy ones. The Bible tells us we don't work for men, we work for Him. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord (Colossians 3:23). No matter how I felt, I always gave my best. It was never about competing with anyone else. I want to feel proud of the work I deliver. And I believe if God placed you somewhere, you're there for a reason, and He's not going to hand you something better if you won't give your best to what He already blessed you with.

There's one more thing you take back when you launch your own lane. When you work for a corporation, they decide the culture. They decide the environment and how people get treated. When you build your own, you decide. I was talking with one of my collaborators, Pastor LaDonna, and she mentioned creating her employee handbook. It reminded me of writing mine. In mine, work life is more flexible, more supportive, more empowering. I know what worked for me when I was younger doesn't work for me now, and what worked before I had a family doesn't work today. I believe businesses would thrive if they architected a different atmosphere for their teams. Yes, as my sixth grade teacher used to say, there's always one who will try to get over on the system. Work with that person individually. Manipulation usually shows up when people feel undervalued and out of place. Embrace people differently and they treat the work differently.

So evaluate your own situation. The income game has changed, and it's going to be necessary for most of us to have more than one stream, because you don't know what's going to happen. Even entrepreneurship has up and down seasons. You can't guarantee sales. You have to be open and willing to pivot. I've technically been doing this since January 2025, and my reasons for starting, what I'm doing, and how I'm doing it have all transformed. Every time it does, the results are better than where I started. At one point I was embarrassed. I thought, how does someone start a business and it's still not making major money? But when I look at what I created a year ago, that is what would embarrass me now. I thought it was good then. Now I know it wasn't. So I'm happy things didn't work out like I expected. They worked out the way I needed.

Peace, Love and Joy always. Infinite Faith and Favor | InfiniteFaithandFavor.com