Layoff

We are seeing news of lay-offs from many companies- in India as well as RoW; Being at the receiving end of it is utterly painful. But who is to blame? Hindsight is always 20/20; So in the current moment, we can go about and blame the management for overhiring and now firing. But since a lot us would get into similar shoes over time, would love to know how others would have done it differently. When the market was kind and capital was cheap, companies/functions/leaders wanted to experiment with every or more ideas having some potential. They wanted to test every market (in terms of geo expansion) and if they wouldn’t competitors would. Definitely some experiments become successful while some fail. There would have been a pressure from Investors which would have translated to internal pressures. Even most of us were just shifting jobs for money without even having conviction in business models of companies we were joining. Who to blame? Investors for seeking growth or CEOs to not have enough hindsight or experience to know such times will come or functional leaders to comply to wishes of their management? Or us to fall into unsustainable greed trap? But now it is about survival. Cutting off vestigial or infected organs vs letting the whole org die. What would you have done differently in the shoes of these CEOs?

AMA about what actually goes behind those rangolis in the HR dept and work that better compensated people in HR do.

It's getting dirtier by the day and sure some orgs are still up to their dirty tricks. The models: - Appraise and then Lay Off: Why bother putting bandaid on a stab wound? Anyways the folks are going to fight how to answer the ..why were you laid off war, and now you are adding another twist.. why were you appraised and then laid off? - Low appraisals to force quit: Undervalue them so they leave on their own. It’s a leeches way to cut costs. Kill morale 100%. Severance penny spent $0. - Trap them in PIP: Dress it up however you want - very very few escape this death sentence. - Silent treatment: No assignments, No meetings. Watch them spiral into anxiety and leave to save their sanity. - Workload overload: Drown them in work until they break. No need for layoffs list until they make it to your collapse list first. - Strategic reorg: Re-organize them out of existence. Offer a demotion or a proxy role in a random team that you know they dont want as an alternative. - Sudden policy changes: oh! I have seen so many I can't keep up with this one. New policies that make their life hell. People leave to escape your pettiness. - Mandatory relocation: Demand they move to an undesirable location. Then you treat remote employees like outsiders. Exclude them from key projects, conversations until they feel like foster care kids, second-class citizens. You know the outcome from there on. - Use the "Culture Fit" excuse: Call out how they’re not a culture fit. Vague, unchallengeable, and forces them out without severance. And don't sell me "the org has got to do what it has got to do to survive" line. I don't buy that If you have seen this being done, I understand your silence, but I don't value it. If this has been done to you or someone close to you, I am sorry. Orgs and the people failed you. We could be 1000x better than what we are operating as.

Been hearing this a lot these days where companies are firing a bunch of people and forcing some others to resign, to bring down the severance cost. What are these situations created by these companies which actually force people to resign?

Going through something similar where the management has laid off 1/3rd the total team via forced resignation and without any severance. A bunch of folks who stood up to ask for reasons, severance etc are being threatened with termination and bad experience letter (and even lawsuits) Could really use your take if you or your colleagues have gone through something similar.

Lately that amount of Layoffs that have happened and I have seen it happen in my previous company, where I was part of the laying off panel. I have seen leaders shying away from having tough conversations (giving feedback) or having them let go of certain people. These are leaders who have either risen in ranks or Founders / Co- founders who just don’t want to face that. What’s your take on it?

Hi folks, I recently got laid off from a startup where 50% of the engineering team was let go. I was working as an SDE and during a restructuring, my role was changed to SDE-2 without any increase in pay or responsibilities. I have a total of 2.5 years of experience. In my first company (where I worked for a year), there weren't many projects, so I didn't have the opportunity to learn or code much. However, in my second company, I primarily worked on the backend using Go, Django, Kafka, MongoDB, & PostgreSQL. I realize that although I gained exposure in my second job, I didn't delve deeply into the technologies. I mainly focused on completing business tasks quickly, learning new things just to finish the task at hand, without solidifying my understanding afterward. My experience seems suitable for an SDE-2 role, but I'm unsure if I can perform the role with complete honesty and may struggle. Some friends in similar situations reassure me that this struggle is common in SDE-2 roles. However, I feel I might be better off starting again as an SDE-1, focusing on my weak areas, and aiming for a promotion later. There are very few SDE-1 job openings currently. I am actively interviewing for SDE-2, and not able to clear system design interviews. Tbh, I feel very humiliated as when I am not able to answer their questions it feels like I am wasting their time or they would be thinking: Oh this guy has been working for so long and doesn't even know anything. Now I get it why people think Indian Software engineers are not that good in comparison to other countries' devs: the reason is people like me. This realization burdens me with guilt, occupying my thoughts constantly. However, I am confident that I can crack SDE-1 easily. I have good DSA & good enough LLD, &HLD skills for SDE1. I am looking for companies who can match my prev Salary: 22 L, 2 Bonus. Can u help how to navigate this career situation effectively without increasing my guilt or feeling constantly humiliated?