Lessons from the layoffs?

What are your learning from this layoffs wave?

Layoffs are bad I know, but there's always a silver lining Now since that's in the past, we can ponder what was good

Having recently been laid off, these last 2 months was a life changing experience and it taught me a lot of things than any degree or organisation ever did. Some pointers: 1. The people who make the decisions never get punished or are held responsible, its the folks like us who are the first to be pushed out of the door. 2. Its shocking to see the layoffs like firesale, affecting almost each and every company in the IT sector. But it makes you think, did some companies really need to layoff people or did they just do it to inflate their share price and Mcap. The upper management and LT are paid in crores to make the decisions and how could they unanimously fail in such a critical part of business planning. 3. Its all about profits. There's no humanity in any of these companies or rather the folks making the decisions and it doesn't matter if you have been with them for 2 years or 20. If I was responsible for 100 people under me and some of them lost jobs because of the decision I made, I would have stepped down myself and wouldn't be able to sleep at night knowing I uprooted the dreams and hopes of not just employees but their families as well, many of whom are sole bread earners of the family. 4. Treat your employer just as you would treat any brand outside when you go out to shop - treat it like a transaction and nothing else. This layoff also taught me to never compromise about your career and position within an organisation. If the organisation can layoff so many people without a second thought, there's nothing holding you back from joining the next organisation who is offering a better role/compensation. 5. Be a risk taker. Thankfully I have always been this and this helped me rise quickly in my 6 year career but it's my suggestion to everyone and not just folks affected by layoffs - Never get comfortable in any organisation or any role. Would love to hear what others think or went through during this difficult period.

I don't know why everyone is making a big deal out of layoffs. Even the ones who laid off are not that concerned than the ones who comment. Laid off employees literally get free money upwards of 10 lakhs in many cases of senior developers who are laid off from top tech startups. Companies pay severance equal to 3-6 months salary of laid off employees. Some even offer other benefits as well. I personally know a couple of Devs who got around ~9-10L in severance pay. So, yeah if there are layoffs happening in funded tech startups or leading tech companies, considering their pay range, laid off employees get handsome severance pay including employee benefits

Don’t fkng give your life to the company!!

It's gonna be long thread. I have been working as lead engineer in a early stage startup since last one year. Founder (20 years exp in Product Management) raised some money from friends & family to start it and but company was running negative from February and he put his money to pay employees salary for March & April and We were hoping for some investment in April but that didn't happen. During May & June, he was looking for funding more aggressively and even after having a good background in academics & top tech work experience in product management, no investor got convinced to invest in it. Our salary for March & April was delayed from actual payroll date by 7 days and 21 days respectively and We were expecting our May salary to be delayed by same period and our company was about to complete one year in first week of July so we had some one year benefits associated as well. But Boom, he invited everyone on call and tells that company will shutting it's operation from next day itself. And he will help us find our new jobs and he doesn't any clarity on pending salary. Although we knew, our company is not in good shape so salary cut or something might be happening soon but didn't expect this. Now, we have to find other jobs and also be unemployed while searching for job and also get exploited by other companies because we will be desperate to find jobs to pay our bills. I think, he did this just before 5-6 days of our one year anniversary just because he doesn't get legally bound to pay our one year benefits. I for sure, not gonna join any early stage in future who doesn't have enough funding. Just wanted to put this story out of my mind. Open for any suggestions you have for me Thank you

I got layed off 2022 Dec , Consulted at a startup for 3 months , started with a large org with a paycut early 2023 and got promoted within a year of joining. Not boasting here but just know that bad tines are momentary and good times will happen sooner or later .

Someone in ur team or someone u had good relationship (work wise) with gets laid off? Do u discontinue working as hard? Does ur team velocity decrease or increase as everyone does better for survival? Just wanna hear from folks who have gone through this and does employer not see any affect in work? (E.g. Twitter case)