Don’t Make This All About You
By: Cj Bargamian
Tags: Work, Compassion, Restaurant, Unemployment, Layoffs

“There are starving kids out there who would LOVE to have that.” Growing up lower-middle class, I’d often hear this from my mom as I resisted eating reheated broccoli or beans. The point of course being that no matter how bad you think you have it, there’s always someone who has it worse.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, as I try to navigate the job market in these insane times. Not about who has it better or worse per se, as if there’s a formal scale for such things, but more just about how we’re all in this together despite our differing individual situations. Sure, getting laid off 10 minutes before a global pandemic shut everything down and tanked the economy, while being the sole breadwinner with a family of 5 definitely stinks… I absolutely refuse to do any of these things:

1. Wallow in self-pity. That achieves literally nothing, and will only hinder my progress forward.

2. Be bitter towards my former employer. Again, achieves nothing. Difficult decisions have to be made, and I honestly can’t say I wouldn’t have eliminated my position if I were the one making the call.

3. Make any of this about me. This is the big one. We all must resist the temptation to act like this is in any way something we are individually suffering.

Instead of feeling pitiful or making yourself the center of the story, think about the OTHER people who are suffering because YOU’RE not working. Here are some folks I’m thinking of:

1. The very nice lady who worked the counter at the small, delicious but never busy Mediterranean restaurant around the corner from my old office. I made it a point to eat there about once a week, and with all nearby businesses closed…they are likely not doing well.

2. Everyone at the little sushi & ramen joint where I used to eat once a week. They had a killer lunch special and most of the staff there knew my order and took great care of me. Without me and all the other business clientele…

3. All of the facility support staff at the WarnerMedia Techwood campus. With that campus operating on a skeleton crew, there isn’t really anything to clean, no mail to go out, no trash to be collected…

4. The students of Georgia Tech and Georgia State, both of which have sprawling campuses near the WarnerMedia offices. The university experience for all of those students is forever changed.

5. The owners and employees of every small, often immigrant-owned businesses in my old neighborhood in Los Angeles. I’m sure a lot of the restaurants (shout out to Joe Peeps Pizza, Taco Llama, and Shiki Sushi!) are doing some take-out business, but the working-class populations of Studio City and North Hollywood likely don’t have much money to spend on take-out since every production in town is shut down.

These are just a few examples. But I definitely suggest that you take a minute to step back from your own situation and take a good look around you. Take stock of the things you are grateful for, no matter how big or small, and instead of comparing your situation to others’ — just simply THINK of others. Have empathy. Have compassion. Have camaraderie. And if you have a few bucks and need to eat, maybe go grab a cheap falafel from the shack up the street that’s doing take-out.

We have to take care of each other — we HAVE TO.

Thanks for coming to my latest #CJtalk!

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