job security myth - Jason's Fuse

“They don’t fire you in one moment. They prepare you to fail first, then expect you to sit still and call it job security.”

TL;DR

They don’t fire you suddenly. They fire you slowly through behavior, silence and staged stability.
You see the signs long before HR says the words.
Debt keeps you compliant. Sovereignty breaks that control.
HR delivers the script, not the truth.
When you build a life outside the job, the collapse hits different.

They Don’t Fire You They Prepare You to Fail First

“Most people notice the signs. They just pretend those signs mean something else.”

This episode pulls apart one of the biggest lies in corporate life. They don’t fire you suddenly. They don’t fire you at all. They prepare you, condition you and slowly push you toward the edge while calling it stability.

If you read my Friday article The Job Security Myth, you already understand part of the story. This episode goes deeper. It shows you how the collapse looks from the inside, how it feels to live through it and how you protect your future before the system makes its move.

How They Fire You Slowly

“Your instinct knows before your inbox does.”

People imagine layoffs like movie scenes. Boss calls you in. HR sits down. Folder on the table. Boom. Done.

Reality is different. They don’t fire you. They prepare you to fail first. And the pattern always starts the same:

The Signs You Pretend Not to See

Meetings move for no reason.
Eye contact drops off.
Slack messages get shorter.
People start acting like they’re hiding something.
A retreat gets scheduled right before the department “restructure.”

In the episode, I walk through the exact patterns that showed up before my department disappeared. I saw it coming months before they said a word because I wasn’t waiting for the announcement. I was reading their behavior.

Why Debt Makes You Easy to Fire

“When your mortgage depends on someone else’s mood, you are not secure. You are trapped.”

This is the part no one wants to admit. Debt makes you obedient.

When every bill depends on your job, you ignore the signs. You tolerate nonsense. You become predictable, and predictable people are easy to remove.

We spent ten years paying off everything. Credit cards. Cars. And yes, the mortgage. Four months after becoming fully debt free, they cut my department.

Because we prepared, the collapse didn’t break us. That’s the difference sovereignty makes. They don’t fire you when you’re sovereign. They lose power over you.

What HR Really Does When They Let You Go

“By the time HR speaks, you’re hearing the ending. They wrote it weeks earlier.”

I detail the HR meeting in the episode because people need to hear the truth.

The folder with the termination letters.
The HR director trying not to break.
My boss showing up late because he went for coffee.
Letting us go on Veterans Day while one of my employees was a medically discharged vet.

This is the part people miss: HR is not your advocate. HR protects the system. HR closes loops. HR delivers the script.

They don’t fire you. They finalize the paperwork.

The Day After They Prepare You to Fail

“The job security myth collapsed, but my life didn’t.”

The next morning, my wife and I loaded the dogs into the truck and went to the park four blocks from the building I no longer worked in. Magnum ran like he had no past. Rogue sniffed everything like it was a good surprise.

It wasn’t celebration. It wasn’t relief. It was clarity.

Stability doesn’t come from a corporation. Stability comes from sovereignty.

You Are Your Own Boss Now

“Treat every job like a contract. Because the company already does.”

I talk in the episode about being your own boss. This isn’t a slogan. It’s survival. Companies already see your job as a contract. Workers are the only ones who pretend it’s family.

Here’s how you shift control back to you:

Train yourself even when your employer won’t.
Learn skills outside your job description.
Use AI to expand your capabilities without permission.
Build a network that lives outside your job.
Keep your resume and portfolio ready as routine maintenance.

You don’t work for the company. You contract with them. Start acting like it.

How to Prepare Before They Don’t Fire You

“You cannot control when they do it. You can control whether it destroys you.”

This episode outlines the steps I took—and the steps you need to take—to stay ahead of the slow firing cycle.

Your Move Now

Do a real risk assessment with your family.
Attack one piece of debt today.
Cut one unnecessary expense.
Build a small buffer.
Learn one new skill that travels with you.
Stop assuming loyalty protects you.

Eliminating debt is rebellion. Saving money is rebellion. Thinking with clarity is rebellion.

Every act of rebellion gives you more control when the system removes its version of stability.

FAQ

“You don’t owe the system obedience. You owe yourself sovereignty.”

Why is the episode titled They Don’t Fire You They Prepare You to Fail First?
Because it describes exactly how modern layoffs work. You get conditioned through silence long before you hear the words. They don’t fire you suddenly. They fire you slowly.

How does this tie into the job security myth article?
The article gives the structured breakdown. The podcast shows the lived reality and the mindset you need to survive it.

What’s the first step to protect myself?
Start with debt. Every dollar you owe is a piece of leverage they hold over you.

Where can I listen to the full episode?
Right here: jasonsfuse.com/podcast.

Reclaim Control Before They Move First

“They don’t fire you. They remove your illusion. You decide what happens next.”

Corporate stability is a costume. It looks solid until someone above you changes the script. The only stability that counts is the one you build with discipline, clarity and sovereignty. They don’t fire you immediately, they plan it weeks and months before.

Freedom starts in the mind. Light the Fuse.

Think. Resist. Become. Now light the damn fuse.

“The job security myth survives because it looks stable. It feels like a structure you can trust until the moment the people inside it stop looking you in the eye.”

TL;DR

The job security myth keeps you comfortable long enough for comfort to become a liability.
You recognize its collapse through subtle shifts long before anyone acknowledges the truth.
Debt makes job loss dangerous. Preparation makes it survivable.
Systems avoid honesty because honesty disrupts compliance.
Financial sovereignty begins the moment you stop trusting stability that depends on someone else’s decisions.

The Job Security Myth Starts Before Anyone Speaks

The job security myth never announces itself. It builds through small changes that feel harmless at first. A meeting shifts, a conversation shortens or a decision that once moved cleanly through normal channels starts dragging. Each change stays quiet and polite, which convinces you the surface remains stable while something underneath shifts in a way that demands attention.

How the Signs Started Showing

The week before my department collapsed, nothing on paper pointed to trouble, yet everything in practice told a different story. My boss started shuffling meetings for reasons that made no sense. Meanwhile, my board member mentor, who usually met with me without hesitation, suddenly pushed appointments “to align with a board meeting.” I watched familiar rhythms lose their timing and felt the weight of a silence no one wanted to break. Years in cybersecurity train you to see patterns long before anyone speaks openly. The pattern spoke clearly.

I spent that week collecting every company-owned device. The process stayed clean because I wanted everything accounted for and organized. I understood where the next week would land and used preparation to control the part of the situation that still belonged to me. Experience from both sides of similar moments told me exactly what this pattern meant.

“You often sense the truth before anyone is willing to speak it. The job security myth depends on your willingness to ignore that feeling.”

By Monday I stopped chasing a feeling and pushed for confirmation. I pinned my boss down on a Teams call and asked the question he kept dodging. Then I asked if I would have a department or a job by Friday. His expression answered before the words left his mouth. After he confirmed it, I told him I wouldn’t attend the division retreat scheduled for Wednesday. He didn’t argue because nothing remained to protect. A day later I met with him and our HR Director to complete the process.

How the Job Security Myth Uses Hesitation

Last Friday we talked about The Action Trap and how hesitation turns into a routine. The Job Security Myth feeds on that same hesitation. You wait for the right moment and let fear shape the excuse. I always told my employees they might work for me and the company for a paycheck, but they ultimately worked for themselves and simply consulted for me. My hope was that they stayed because they wanted to, not because they feared leaving.

The Mechanics Behind the Job Security Myth

“Stability survives by hiding uncertainty. It convinces you to trust the pattern long after the pattern has collapsed.”

The job security myth relies on familiar structure. As long as meetings continue, emails arrive and calendars stay full, you assume the system remains stable. Routine functions as a shield, not to mislead you outright, but to mask the discomfort that honesty forces into the room. Leaders delay difficult conversations to maintain order. Colleagues avoid direct acknowledgment because they don’t want to participate in the truth. People move with polite distance because distance feels easier than honesty.

Jobs rarely end in a single moment. They fade through avoidance and hesitation. Ordinary scheduling friction often signals decisions made elsewhere. The collapse always starts in the shadows, long before anyone announces it. Many people miss the signs because they trust the company to maintain stability. Stability disappears the moment someone above you shifts priorities.

Debt intensifies the danger. When payments define your life, any disruption threatens your stability. Bills add weight to fear and shrink your margin for error. That pressure keeps people clinging to the job security myth. Believing nothing threatens your livelihood feels safer than imagining the consequences.

Preparation turns the situation around. That preparation gives you space to respond instead of react. It creates distance between your survival and the system’s decisions. That distance clears your mind when the truth finally arrives because panic no longer clouds your judgment.

What You Gain When the Job Security Myth Falls Apart

“Clarity is not comfortable. It gives you the chance to act before circumstances choose for you.”

Recognizing the job security myth doesn’t eliminate pain, but it restores control. When you stop trusting stability that someone else controls, you start building habits that strengthen your own foundation. Debt becomes something you refuse to carry. Savings move from optional to essential. Comfort spending shifts into intentional choices. None of these actions look dramatic. They look ordinary, yet those ordinary decisions build sovereignty long before you need it.

We paid off every debt four months before my department ended, and it took ten years to reach that point. The mortgage disappeared. So did every credit card, every car loan and every leftover obligation. Our savings wasn’t perfect, but it created room to breathe. That room changed everything by letting me hear the truth without breaking, plan without panicking and protect my family and my employee because fear no longer dictated my decisions.

Financial sovereignty starts long before you lose a job. It begins the moment you stop believing the job security myth. When my wife and I evaluated our risks, we identified job loss as the biggest threat to our family. We prepared for it.

How the Job Security Myth Broke Down in Real Time

“The paperwork always arrives last. The truth shows itself the moment the pattern breaks.”

My last employee followed me from a previous company. We had worked through difficult situations together for years. He trusted my judgment and I trusted his. COVID gutted my department. I lost one employee to layoffs and moved another to a different department, leaving only him. He planned to leave to care for his family, but I asked him to wait because I saw changes coming months before they arrived. Eventually, he went on unpaid leave while we waited for the inevitable.

The Moment the Truth Reached Us Both

Before the HR meeting, I called him and told him the truth. He deserved that respect. Because of that, he stayed ready when the company handed him a severance package for a decision he already made months earlier. The system accidentally rewarded him for stepping away from something that no longer functioned.

When we walked into the conference room, the folder with our termination letters sat on the table. HR fought to keep their composure, but emotion showed through. My employee was a medically discharged veteran, and the company chose Veterans Day to let both of us go. I looked at him and said we had fought many battles together in cybersecurity, and we lost this one on Veterans Day. HR nearly broke. Their silence carried more truth than the paperwork.

The decision landed hard, but preparation kept us steady. We built our stability long before the company removed its version of it. After the meeting, we gathered our things and went to breakfast together one last time. The next morning my wife and I took the dogs to the park four blocks from the building that once structured my days. Magnum chased the toy I always throw, and Rogue explored every scent in the grass. The moment felt quiet and honest, not triumphant or relieved. It confirmed a simple truth: the job security myth collapsed, but my life remained intact.

What the Job Security Myth Takes from You

“You lose more to the illusion of stability than you ever lose to uncertainty.”

The myth steals clarity and pushes you to ignore your instincts. It encourages you to rely on routines that break the moment someone above you shifts direction. When you follow a system that changes without warning, you gamble with your future every time you trust comfort more than truth. The real loss doesn’t come from the job itself. Those years spent believing the structure would hold create the real loss.

You don’t need stability from the system. What you need instead is stability free from their control.

Rebuilding Sovereignty After the Job Security Myth

“Sovereignty grows through private decisions that protect you long before anyone notices you needed protection.”

You rebuild independence through discipline. Independence returns through discipline. Removing debt matters because debt fuels fear. Building savings matters because savings create distance from panic. Your habits shape the way you act when your foundation shifts. None of these actions appear dramatic. They appear simple and consistent until they form something solid. That solidity carries you through moments when the system fails.

If you want to escape the job security myth, make one change today. Reduce an expense. Add extra to a debt. Build a small buffer. Strengthen the part of your life that depends only on you. Each decision in this direction expands your sovereignty and shrinks the power of decisions you don’t control.

Clarity rarely feels comfortable, but it marks the beginning of freedom.

Freedom starts in the mind. Light the Fuse.

FAQ

“Systems falter without warning. Preparation turns uncertainty into something you can manage.”

What is the job security myth?
The job security myth claims a job guarantees stability, even though employers shift priorities without warning and expect you to absorb the impact.

How can I recognize the signs early?
Watch behavior instead of announcements. You see the truth in shifting meetings, delayed conversations and unusual timing long before anyone admits it.

Why does debt make job loss worse?
Debt limits your options and turns any disruption into a full crisis.

How does financial sovereignty protect me?
Financial sovereignty gives you space to think clearly when the system changes direction. Preparation creates distance from panic and helps you act with intention.

What is the first step I should take?
Strengthen one financial area today. Small improvements beat waiting for the perfect moment.

Stay Sharp. Stay Free

No noise. No fluff. Just unfiltered insight on independence, mindset, and critical thought direct from Jason Schaller.

Support & Resources

If you value what I write here, share it. Every repost, mention, and conversation helps spread the spark of independent thought.

Credits and Socials

Connect with Me:
Follow for new articles, behind-the-scenes content, and thought experiments that challenge the system:

Credits:
Original Content by Jason’s Fuse / My Rogue Solutions LLC
Credit: Jason Schaller
Email: jschaller@jasonsfuse.com

About the Author:
Jason Schaller is the creator of Jason’s Fuse — unfiltered thinking on independence, critical thought, and the courage to question everything. He is also the founder of The Rogue Banshee, a former professional gunsmith of 10 years, and a cybersecurity professional with nearly 30 years of experience. He holds some of the top Cybersecurity credentials like the CISSP, CISA and CRISC.

Disclaimers

Content Use & Responsibility
Jason’s Fuse publishes opinion and commentary designed to encourage independent thought. The ideas shared here are for informational and educational purposes only. Readers are encouraged to verify sources, form their own opinions, and apply judgment responsibly.

Affiliate Disclaimer
Some links may be affiliate-based. They cost you nothing but help support the mission of building true independence and critical thought.

Ethics Notice
Opinions expressed are Jason’s own and do not represent any employer or partner organization. All statements are made in good faith based on verified information at the time of writing.