I grew antagonistic toward mgmt through the pan. The books were bad and there were two rounds of layoffs. I was included in the first round. They actually did me a favor because I was unhappy but too lazy to look for a different job. I got a better job (in every way - commute, pay, workload, etc) six months later. I’m approaching one year at the new gig.
I was unusually lucky.
It’s been close to a decade and I’m still traumatized by it. Fuckers almost cost me my marriage, my family, my home… Have never hated a company more. I can’t wait for the revolution.
Which time?
First time happened after I’d been with my first real job for ten years because the business was changing and there wasn’t a role for me. I was out of work for 7 shitty months trying to have my own business starting from the few customers we had left when they let me go. It was right after I bought a house and had a baby. It was fucking awful.
Second time was after COVID. First we all took a 10% pay cut to avoid layoffs. Then two months later when federal assistance expired, they cut 1/3 of the company across the board. I’m a little fucking bitter about that to be honest, but I had a new remote job lined up within a couple of weeks that paid quite a bit better.
Last time was 5 months ago. Just got hired this week. Start next month. It sucked. Wiped out my whole retirement savings, so I get to start over at 51. But we made it through and potentially I won’t have to switch companies again.
Weird angel investor took us all out to a fancy dinner and made a weird extensive speech about the importance of the future; kind of “Godspeed my young protégés I know you’ll do wonderful things.” Kind of sounded like he finally believed in us and wanted to let us know with a nice gesture. Idk. No one could make any sense of it.
The next day his lackey informed us we were all fired. Oooh, that’s what that was about; makes sense, oh well, we have to get real jobs now apparently.
Lol what the hell, your old boss is fucked in the head
He was a weird motherfucker in several different ways
He had money though. That’s the great thing about money; you can just kind of motor around with whatever priorities you want and for the most part no one intervenes or tells you to stop
Soul crushing.
Worked at a place for 16 years, made many close friends there, helped the company grow from a $2M company into a $2B company. Then one day they decided that it looked like they might not be add profitable in the coming quarter so they needed to cut 20% of the company. I was my family’s sole provider and now wasn’t sure how we were going to survive. I did get a nice severance of 6 months pay, but only 3 months of COBRA coverage. I was very fortunate to find a better paying job a little over 3 months later. Financially it was a good thing for us, but mentally I’m pretty fucked up now. I’ve never had anxiety issues but now I’m on 2 different medications for it. I’m depressed. I hate my new job and coworkers. I have no joy in work. I know if I get laid off again that I won’t get nearly as good of a severance package. I realize that my lifestyle only exists as long as my employer chooses to keep me employed. I feel like I not only have no safety net, but if I fall I take my family with me. It sucks.
I’ve been there. Posted my story, but I didn’t talk about the lifelong anxiety that comes with a lengthy layoff. Continually pursued higher pay at shittier jobs to try to get ahead of things for when the rug gets pulled out from under me again. It’s corrosive. Losing income and insurance when everyone is counting on you to provide makes you feel like your self-worth is completely tied to your job and ability to provide.
Same for me, but 13 years. No one mentions the shame and isolation. I felt like a disease that no one wanted to be around.
If I ran into any old colleagues, it was clear they pitied me. The ones that did stay in contact just wanted the “gossip” (there was none), or wanted confirmation that I was somehow to blame so they could be comforted in knowing it won’t happen to them.
I “didn’t do anything to deserve this”, but it’s hard not to take it personally. The ruminating – trying to understand “why me, and not someone else” – hasn’t stopped.
The betrayal and shame is overwhelming.
Your comment has made me understand this better than anything I’ve previously read has. Thanks for sharing your perspective.
Thank you for saying this 💔
It is amazing that. You pour life and soul into something, and take pride in seeing your work flourish, only for them to slap you in the face like that and make it clear that despite the “we’re a family, so please do your best” rhetoric does not extend both ways.
And for what? Because their share price wasn’t going up as much as they wanted, despite the company being profitable for decades? I’m sick of shareholders wants hollowing out the hard work that loyal employees generated for them
The system was built by sociopaths.
The system doesn’t care if sociopaths exploit it; there is no empathy line item in capitalism.
For me it was fine, maybe about 15 years ago. Small startup company I was at ran out of funding, we got something like 1-2 months severance. We all got along fine so it wasn’t like everyone hated the job or the owners, sometimes startup companies just don’t make it through those first few years.
Summer is probably the best time to be unemployed, spent a lot of time exploring my neighborhood during the weekday afternoons and was practicing making cold brew & other summer drinks LOL.
Was doing freelance work while being on unemployment / looking for a new steady job. Think it was about 4-5 months before I landed a new job (did get 1-2 job offers during that time but was maybe being a bit picky & turned them down).
… Also helps that I keep savings so short term unemployment won’t wreck me. I’ve seen posts about people being out of work for years, that would be a far worse scenario.
I can imagine in a small startup with good interpersonal relationships it hurts less. I was never laid off but I worked in a small company like that and there were risky periods. It might have been an exception among most companies but we all had access to the revenue and expense data. There can be no surprises if everyone knows the financials.
One time, we were given six month’s wages plus a month’s wages for each year we had worked there (I had been there 12 years). The company paid for career counseling, resume training, self awareness (similar to Myers Briggs only it was useful), use of an office space and computers and printers to hunt for jobs.
Another time, we were told that our entire IT department wasn’t important enough to keep and our jobs had been outsourced to India. But they still wanted us to stay for four weeks and train our replacements. Bitch, if I’m not important enough to keep, then I’m not important enough to train anyone. I collected my stuff and walked out that day.
There were signs it was coming, but I didn’t really accept it. When it did happen it was pretty distressing, but I had been planning to leave anyway. It ended up working out because I got to leave with some extra runway. They gave us 60 days notice, during which time we collected paychecks. I didn’t work at all during this time though. Instead I searched for a job. At the end of the 60 days we got about 6 weeks worth of pay, a prorated bonus, and our vacation days. I ended up finding a job that paid 3x as much before my 60 days were up and was able to pocket the severance money rather than live off it.
My partner was the only one holding her company together as operations manager. She got put on a HUGE project and promised two weeks vacation after, then laid off right before the vacation. Now the company is trying to make her sign a contract that forces her to give up her severance in exchange for four weeks of labor.
On the bright side, the professional relationships she built outside the company are paying off, and she has a dozen or so job leads
My employer sued IBM in early 2k for breach of contract but lost all their money, rep, staff, dreams, hopes and future in the ensuing legal/PR fight.
I was laid-off after dodging so many proverbial bullets. I got a call on a Thursday from my boss, and he checked the HR was on the line and didn’t say another word until the official stuff was done. Then he made sure I was okay, asked if I had any options, and rang off.
I didn’t cry, beg, rage, or question: I felt relieved that I could stop working 16 hours a day, guilt over being let-go, and a general feeling of worthlessness. And then I was out.
The element of surprise.
I was laid off in late July of 2023. I dodged a massive layoff in November of 2022 so I knew it was a possibility.
It fucking sucked. I miss that company. I miss it all. It made me feel worthless. I kept comparing myself to the others that didn’t get laid off as if there was any sense made in the decision.
I get work through my skilled trades union. We’re constantly getting hired onto jobs and laid off when the work is complete. Jobs can last 1 shift, up to a few months, or even years. Getting laid off is a time for celebration after being on the job for a while.
My last job laid off over half of their staff. They hired a bunch during COVID after getting relief grants and then laid off whole departments once ChatGPT started to get popular. First it was marketing and communications. Had a work buddy who had some health problems there but he passed away a week after being laid off from a heart attack.
Then it was HR, to be replaced by ChatGPT as a bot. It started giving incorrect information so they hired 2 teams of consultants to work on that.
Then when that wasn’t working a third crew of consultants were hired but we never got a straight answer to what they were working on. Turns out they were working on a report to senior management of additional efficiencies the company could make? And guess what they concluded? More cuts!
So the company cut the IT department 15% and they figured it would be fair if they did it at random. I was one of the “lucky” 15%. I was asked to help train one of the consultants on one of our internal programs so I walk into the meeting room but it’s my manager and two security guards and she says “Your employment with company is complete, your position has been eliminated. Vacate your desk and hand over your laptop and badge”.
Very cold, no emotion. This was a woman who would joke with me on Teams and shoot the shit all day. Both security guards walked on either side of me out the door with my backpack. Felt like I was being arrested.
Found a job two months later. Blew through my entire savings and lost a friend of mine (yes heart attack but I still hold firm that the layoffs triggered it - he has money problems at home with kids. They didn’t deserve this). No severance pay but I was able to collect a little bit of employment insurance so I could still afford food to eat.
got given 4 grand + got to loot the hotels freezer for as much food as I could carry between me and my partner.
I remember taking about 50 sirloin steaks, 30 ribeyes, 5 pounds of mince, 20 rumps and 20 lamb shanks all in bin bags + my backpack.
I gave out as much as I could to my friends and froze the rest, I was handing out frozen steaks to my friends everytime I saw them for months lol.
I got a public sector job within a week that let me work from home.
Overall 10/10 nice opportuntiy to loot corporate.
This was a covid hospitality lay off.
