Asking for obvious reasons.
12 replies (most recent on top)
@1a5 Do you think your boss knew?
As someone part of one of the 2023 layoffs….I never saw it coming. I did not know about this site, but boy was it shared with me that day. I did not get a same day calendar for the layoff discussion. It was on my calendar for over a week as my usual monthly 1:1 with my boss. Looking back, I don’t know how my boss looked at that calendar knowing it was like a “death date”. I mention it as death because I went through all of the stages of grief. The loss was devastating. The job search even harder. I finally found a job, in the area of my degree, but not necessarily where my experience was. It turns out I found ny people, a company that I have no problem working for and the peace knowing that I have done my job at the end of the day and it was good enough.
@nh Many of my peers over age 55 who were laid off (not VRP) can’t get interviews. It’s turning out to be permanent for us.
I would never say to myself that I’m 100% insulated that I won’t be laid off ever. I have this mindset every where I work. It’s inevitable and part of corporate America. It’s better than getting fired because you don’t get severance. Being laid off is a reset moment. It’s temporary. Not the end of your career. Take it with strides stay positive.
As a former leader who had to let people go, the hardest part was not being able to give employees time to say goodbye or to access things on their work laptop.
I have learned to keep my work emails, calendar and chats focused on things I’d be ok with my manager and HR reading.
They can access anything they want on your work laptop when you are gone.
@e1 I don't think most of us are going to be in that situation though...
But even if we are, it seems like it would be smarter to NOT pay off your mortgage until after you find a new job. You don't know how long it it will take. What if you need that money to live off of?
Usually you want to pay off your loans when you have reliable income. But I think one should favor cash-on-hand instead when laid off.
@OP Well when I lost my job way back in 2023, I did what anyone else would have done, panic. What am I going to do, how am I going to find something new, etc. However I was sitting at my desk thinking one day and realized, hey I have enough money to pay off my house. So I called the mortgage company and I said what do I have to do to pay off this house and they sent me the instructions. The next day I went to the bank and paid off the house. A few weeks later I received the payoff notice in the mail. Again sitting at my desk and realized "hey I can pay off my vehicle and be done with it" so I called the finance company for payoff instructions and then paid it off. I went for months without a single bill rolling into my mailbox. Surviving with no bills is actually quite easy. It was awesome. In the end leaving Cigna (even though I had always been a loyal cig-nation) was the best thing that happened to me. Not having any bills at all really changes the landscape a lot. I could take a really low end job or go back to what I was doing if I wanted the cash (hint: I took the cash).
Layoffs are only temporary and not always destructive.
A big push to offshore work.
The resulting poor quality actually accelerated the company’s demise.
The first time I was laid off, after not quite 20 years, I was really angry with the company (not Cigna - whose motto was Respect for the Individual). I should have seen it coming (management changes, closing out previous project, etc. as mentioned below). I had 9 boxes of stuff to remove from my office!
I got hired by another company within a month but had now learned to not store anything important at the office, especially since there were no offices, just cubes. Family photos stayed on my phone. I only kept some pens, pad, phone charger, stuff I didn’t care about if it got left behind.
Had I been laid off from Cigna in Nov 2023, I would not have seen it coming. The day after that layoff, I took home my favorite coffee mug and a few other little things. I updated a list already on my phone of who I wanted to send a goodbye email to. I had been following rumors here since then. The day before I got laid off from Cigna last year, I thought I might be going, so I took my extra sweatshirt and phone charger in my backpack. I forgot to leave my desk key but mailed it back with my badge. My boss did not make me come in for the layoff meeting, which was a wfh day for me. I would have been surprised if I survived that round of layoffs. Instead I was relieved.
Good luck to everyone. Try to find something else if you can. It’s tough out there now.
I havent gotten layed off yet but here are some potential things to look out for:
- Your team is struggling to get "funding"/"budget".
- Your team has recently added an offshore coworker.
- Your company went through an acquisition/merger recently.
- Your company is publicly traded and the ceo is payed 90% in stock.
- You are not well networked with others.
Always assume you are getting let go. I’ve seen people that looked like they were untouchable, knew everything, and basically ran the place get canned without a clue it was coming. These were probably the smartest people in the company and loved by almost everyone.
I was surprised I went through the typical grieving stages. Over two decades with the company, so it was a big change for me to come to terms and deal with.