How is 了 being used in 没有了职务?

Question

没有了职务，王建男像是从捆绑状态中被释放出来，一身轻松。
_{HSK6上 Standard Course, chapter 14, page 136 (original)}

This violates the rule of thumb: we don't use 了 in conjunction with 没 (see e.g. A verb negated with 没 / 没有 cannot be suffixed with 了. Is this true?). It appears to be some kind of exceptional usage. It means something in the ballpark of:

Now that he doesn't have a job, it's like Wang Jiannan has been released from his state of bondage, completely relaxed.

I'm wondering if there's a grammar rule or some explanation behind this 了 usage.

Question: How is 了 being used in 没有了职务?

Answer 1

Your translation is precise.

In my opinion, 了 here emphasises that the affair 职务没了 HAS occurred. Consider the following variation.

没有职务，王建男像是从捆绑状态中被释放出来，一身轻松。

I would say that's also OK.

没有职务了——王建男像是从捆绑状态中被释放出来，一身轻松。

This is also good. “没有职务了” sounds like a speech from 王建男, so I prefer to use a 破折号（——）.

Last but not least, I agree with Romanazzi that 了 can be used in conjunction with 没 - a view as a native speaker without grammar knowledge.

Answer 2

没有了职务，王建男像是从捆绑状态中被释放出来，一身轻松。

As @dan said in the comment, here 没 is not the negation of 了, but of the verb 有.

we don't use 了 in conjunction with 没

That is true (with only a few exceptions) if the structure of the sentence is 没(有)+Verb. But in our case, 有 is the verb and the structure is Verb+Noun.

More examples:

一时吓得他没有了主意。
扬声器没有了声音。

Answer 3

The difference is the "simple present tense" vs the "past tense". Also, the meaning differs:

没有了职务 - lost one's duty for work.

没有职务 - one has no assigned duty of work.