Joe Granitto
Helping Creators Turn Passion into Profit—Authentically Grow, Monetize, and Build a Sustainable Brand.
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Jul 14, 2025 Issue #009:5 Years Ago, My Life ChangedHey Reader, 5 years ago this week, I lost my job due to the Pandemic. It was the first time I was unemployed. It was the first time I was left behind. It was the first time I truly felt like I was nothing. It changed my perspective on my career and my life. It forced me to be more resourceful than ever before. And although it was a tough time of my life, it was the most transformative time of my life. This is the story of how I went from working for a startup-turned-IPO company (Uber) to starting up my creative business. My PeakI had been working for Uber for 5 years. I started as a contracted worker handling driver support in person. In 2017 I was converted to a FTE (Full time employee) and I felt a sense of relief. I was a year out of college and ready to grow into a leadership role. 2018 I was promoted to a leadership position. I was now managing people in my physical location and another remote location in a different state. I had been the coordinator for the 100th running of the Indy 500 as Uber was an official partner with the motor speedway. 2019 I was promoted to a senior position of my same role and I was now making $48k USD, the most money I ever made. I was primed to move up the corporate ladder and I had a great manager mentoring me. The Start of the DownfallI started taking interviews for higher positions in Uber in different areas / cities. I kept getting told no over and over. I started getting fatigued from all the excitement and then disappointment. My wife, then girlfriend, was supporting me every step of the way. I was considering moving to DC, Chicago and then Dallas for positions. Indiana was not a central location for Uber so I would have to move to a more central region. This move would give me a raise to roughly $61k. Uber based their salaries off the city level you lived in. Chicago, DC and Dallas were all the same level. Could I have afforded living there with that salary? Probably not today. Dallas turned into my main target, for Uber was launching Uber Air, the vertical take off and landing (VTOL) service where they were developing battery-powered vehicles with Hyundai. They took the designer of the Tesla battery from Tesla and had her lead the charge on developing the battery to power the vehicles. Dallas was one of the first two cities to receive this service, the other being LA, to reduce road congestion. This was meant to be the next level of Uber service that would help people get from point A to point B. I wanted to be on that team as a Project Manager. I kept going through the motions, getting interviews, going through multiple runs of calls, all to just get a no. Uber pride themselves on promoting from within, but this was not the case for me. Every time I was told no the position would be filled with an external hire. I know this because I could see the person in Workday after the position was filled. I started feeling like this was not my true home and that I wasn't welcomed. My current role was exhausting and I longed for more. I felt unfulfilled in my position. Jackie was ready to up and move with me, transferring her nursing license to another state just so I could pursue my career. I felt like a failure, unwanted and that no one saw my potential. I consumed so much content on YouTube in my spare time and I felt like I needed something else in my life to work towards. I attempted YouTube and content creation in the past but had so many false starts. The BottomMarch 13, 2020 we were ordered to go home from Uber, like millions of others. We were to work from home for the next two weeks. Two weeks prior to this we were in a town hall with the Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, who had the hardest conversation with us as a company... What are we going to do about this Pandemic? He assured us that Uber was in a strong position, despite not having turned a profit since it's inception, and that they had a large pool of unrestricted cash. I won't say the exact amount for I like to not be sued for divulging information. But I want you to imagine Donald Trump saying "billions and billions". Then you can get the picture. It helped relieve our worries, for a time. But not knowing what we were to do going forward concerned us, for we were physically in person for support. There was no infrastructure for us to provide virtual support. We attempted it in the past where we'd come in earlier than normal and commit 2 hours to virtual support (it failed). So instead of doing our normal jobs, we were turned to the Uber Eats team to help design and publish menus for local restaurants, for the lock in order forced restaurants to turn to delivery methods. I designed dozens of menus for business throughout the midwest and each time I finished one, I felt like I was helping those local business have a fighting chance against something they were not prepared for. I felt fulfilled for the first time in that company, believe it or not. May 3rd we had a team meeting with my manager. He stated that he doesn't think we'd be at risk due to our inherent need for physical support for the drivers. So many depended on us. I felt a false sense of relief during this call. And that would bite me in the ass just two days later... The Hammer Coming DownI woke up May 5th to a notification of a HR meeting. I had text messages from my employees that I managed asking if I knew what it was. Of course I knew what it was, but I pretended that I didn't. I know what a lay off looks like. I hopped from my bed to my computer which was in my bedroom at the time, still in my PJs, rubbing my eyes in disbelief. This call was a webinar, so we could only see and hear one person. I saw the attendee count climb... 500... 1,000.... 2,000..... 3,700 And at that moment, the HR rep that we could only see but not hear because she was muted, unmuted herself. She read her lines from a script like she was new to the play and each word felt like a needle being slowly shoved into my skin. I took this photo as she was speaking. She had delivered the final blow, stating that as of this moment, we were no longer employees of Uber and that our access and laptops will be locked down within the hour. She cut off, then our Director of Operations came on, in tears. She also didn't know this was coming... She said so in her statement, and that she was terribly sorry that this had happened. I saw the count of the attendees drop... 3,000 2,300 1,500 People were panicking and leaving so they could figure out what was next. I stayed until the end, because I wanted to know how fucked I was. The HR rep came back on after the Director delivered her farewell speech, even though she was not leaving, just us. We were told that we would receive information on our severance in our personal mailbox and that we will also receive information on COBRA (for unemployment health insurance). The video feed cut off, and then there was silence. I sat there, furious. I cried. I yelled in frustration. My brother came to my room and he comforted me. Jackie had just finished her 16 hour shift at the hospital, watching people die left and right in the ICU. She called me, and I was in tears. I told her what happened. She came over, exhausted and not having slept well in weeks. She told me that we will figure it all out. That everything will be okay. I was not okay. The FalloutUber will go on to layoff over 12,000 people in the next month, all across the world. It was city-specific so those higher level areas like Chicago, DC and SF were not impacted like more remote cities, like Indianapolis... and Dallas. The new HQ that Uber was building for their flagship VTOL service was halted. All new hires that I saw get hired instead of me, were laid off without even starting. The program would eventually get sold in pieces, like a broken down car. Before this all happened I had prepared myself mentally and financially for I saw the writing on the wall. I secured 12 months of expenses just in case I needed the time. My severance was a smooth $15,000, so that secured me another 6 months. Unemployment was increased by $600 a week in Indiana, so I caught that before it ended. For the first month, I was still being paid my regular income with my final day of employment being June 6th. This delayed me from receiving any government benefit, which would have been better than my salary. I remember being in a state of brain fog. Feeling like I had no direction. Jackie and I would go out and do something, come back to our apartment and I'd just sit there, silent. She'd ask me if I was okay, and I wouldn't respond. I'd just scream. Why me? I felt like my loyalty, my grit, my devotion to helping others and building a future for myself was all shot in the head, without hesitation. My dreams, axed. I never had so much hatred towards the corporate world as I did then. I was taught to work hard, go to school and work a job. That I would be cared for if I showed up and did the work and do it well. No, I was not cared for. I was a number, and I was expendable. Not that billions of unrestricted cash existed. That wasn't the problem. The problem was that they no longer saw value in what me and my team did and they were eventually going to phase us out. This just accelerated it for them. The Rest is HistoryI will save the rest for our next issue, for I want to keep this short enough to where you will read it all. But if you have read it this far, I thank you. This experience birthed a new perspective in my life to work and life and the balance that is supposed to exist between the two. I look at the work life balance like I do the separation of Church and State... It's non-existent. It's a lie. One has major influence over the other, no matter how you spin it. So I will save you time and end it here. I will, however, ask that you watch / listen to my friends podcast where they hosted me to talk about my journey, including this and what came from it So if you want to hear the rest of the story before the next newsletter, listen to it and support my friends.
Chat Soon, Joe Granitto
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Joe Granitto
Helping Creators Turn Passion into Profit—Authentically Grow, Monetize, and Build a Sustainable Brand.