How to Cope With Losing a Job: The Letterman Edition

You don't need me to tell you that David Letterman was a US TV institution—his Late Show ran for more than 20 years, and was (usually) the second-most-watched late night show in the country.

Since stepping away from the show in 2015, he seems to have been taking it easy, but what about the people who worked for him? As the following video from LinkedIn demonstrates, it takes a small army to create an institution like the Late Show, and when Letterman decided that the end was nigh for him, it meant that time was also up for everyone who worked for him.

If you have the 7 minutes to spare, I'd thoroughly recommend watching the full thing—it’s unexpectedly poignant in places, and gives a great sense of how even the most accomplished professionals can experience doubt and uncertainty when they find themselves facing the prospect of finding a new employer.

But if you don’t have time for the whole thing, here's my personal highlight: one of the show's older former employees, summing up his experiences of coming to terms with his new role in life:

"It's been exhilarating to be out in the world. This thing that I feared isn't as ugly as I thought it would be. It's actually kind of enlightening and it's part of this whole journey: what can I do next that builds off of what I've just done, and will I get the opportunity to do that? And that chapter is yet to be written."

How's that for a little motivation for the rest of your day?

(Article image source: By Hey Paul from State College, PA, USA - Flickr.com - image description page, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=341996)