Why You’re Terrified to Lose the Job You Hate

It’s not a financial crisis. It’s an identity crisis.

*What's left when they take away the badge?*

I got an interesting letter last week. So did about 3,300 of my colleagues. The subject matter was polite, bureaucratic, and chilling: “Your services may no longer be required.”

We are caught in the push to reduce the size of the public service in the Government of Canada. For many, this letter is a nightmare scenario. It triggers a primal panic.

But I didn’t panic.

Not because I’m rich (I’m not). Not because I don’t have bills (I certainly do).

It’s because in 2012, when I went through this exact same process, I didn’t know who I was without my job title.

Today, I do.

If getting a letter like this makes you break out in a cold sweat, we need to talk. Not about your finances. About your identity.

The Lifecycle of a Job You Settled For

Think about your relationship with your current position. It might’ve followed a predictable arc:

The Chase: You wanted this job. You polished your resume, sweated the interview, prayed you’d get the offer. You were hungry.
The Grind: You got in. You got comfortable. Then, the rot set in. You began rolling your eyes at meetings, complaining about the bureaucracy, and quietly resenting the very thing you once wanted.
The Threat: You get a letter saying it might be taken away.

Suddenly, the job you’ve spent years complaining about is the most precious thing in the world. You are terrified to lose the very thing you claimed you didn’t want.

Why?

It’s Not About the Money

If this panic was purely about paying the mortgage, that would be one thing. But look around your office. Look at the people who have maxed out their pension. Thirty-five years of service. They could walk out the door today with a stable income—maybe even with more net pay than they make working.

But they don’t leave.

They show up every day to a job they complain about, fighting battles that don’t matter, sitting in meetings they hate.

Why?

Because they don’t know who they are outside of the building.

They aren’t staying for the money, in spite of what they tell everyone (including themselves).

They are staying for the relevance.

The job gives them a place to go, a hierarchy to navigate, and a badge that tells the world they matter. Familiar misery beats terrifying uncertainty. If you strip away the job title, they are terrified they’ll disappear.

The Identity Trap

This is what I call the Identity Trap. You’ve conflated your Job (what you do for money) with your Work (the contribution you’re here to make). When these two things are fused together, a threat to your employment feels like a threat to your very existence. • If I lose my job —>I lose my paycheck (Fixable). • If I lose my identity —> I lose myself (Catastrophic).

In 2012, I was terrified because I was relying on my government role to signal that I was valuable. My job title was proof of my worth.

In 2026, I know my value exists independently of any organization.

The government is just a client. Sometimes clients fire you. Sometimes you fire clients. But the Work remains intact.

The “Services No Longer Required” Test

Use this letter as a diagnostic tool. If the thought of losing your position sends you into a spiral, your Operating System has a bug. You’ve installed your self-worth on hardware you don’t own.

You need to start building a sense of Work—and a sense of self—that exists outside the org chart.

If you are scared to lose a job you don’t even like, you’re not trapped by the economy or your financial situation. You’re trapped by your own lack of imagination and a lack of confidence in your ability to add value to the world.

The good news? It’s a systems problem. And systems problems can be fixed.

One Thing to Do This Week

Write down three things you’d love to build, even if no one ever paid you to do it. That’s where your next bit of Work lives.

You can survive the loss of a job. You cannot survive the loss of yourself.

Until next week!!

Work and live well.

Tim

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