DevRanters, Have you witnessed a mass layoff in your company where you weren't the one getting fired? If yes, what was it like?

Daily stress wondering if I'm next.

I haven't been so lucky yet...

No

@Kernel Sorry to hear that. I can kinda guess how it must be for you.

kinda, It's frustrating. I'm not really worried about job security, cause we're a contractor for SF. But our project manager was fired literally from one hour to the other and it left us all quite baffled with what to do next.

Left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth seeing how it was handled... Marc said he's taking responsibility for SF hiring so many people without actually needing them, but that's just words. In the end, 7000 people lost their jobs suddenly, and despite the pretty good severance package, this is not a good time to be loosing a job in the first place...

Our manager has 2 small kids too, so it just felt so much worse that he of all people would get fired. He was a good manager who listened and didn't freak out about numbers or anything -_-...

Yeah, due to corona. We weren't a huge company, only 30 people or so. After we were about 10. Usually in Sweden companies must follow the "last in first out" rule, but apparently because we were so few in my apartment they kept me anyways because the company needed it. So I felt really really unfairly lucky.

All my good friends left the company and suddenly nothing was like before anymore. Eventually I switched to one of my old colleagues new company.

About 20 years ago, the big S&P 500 company where I was employed laid off 20% of the IT staff. I didn’t get caught up in that, but it was rough on both ends of the spectrum. The folks that lost their jobs were able to move on. Those that were not laid off were slammed with the same amount of work but with 20% less staff. I was working 60-80 hr weeks for months on end, almost quit once after a scream fest with my boss (I hadn’t slept much in 2 days working all nighters). I hated it. Plus they had me fly all over and learn the jobs of the folks that were laid off - from the folks themselves while in their final weeks. It was messed up.

@TheEnd Did you get a raise on your base pay at least?

@Sid2006
Not me, but where I worked the company celebrated numerous such spectacular events.
Often letting people go in waves.
Threatening that more people will have to go.
Offering the fewest people packages.
People who asked for such treatment got fired without compensation right on the spot.
Following waves got less and less favourable conditions. Work and package wise.
All together I cont to call this company an active dumpster fire.
Held by Germanys largest and most successful holding. One that held majority of 'Jack Wolfskin' and 'Wellensteyn' for instance.
People got suicided for money while I was sat there. This Corp is under permanent investigation.
Just don't.

I'm not sure what constitutes "mass" layoffs, but I've survived multiple rounds of layoffs over the years. Sometimes just a couple of people, sometimes double digits.

It's always stressful because you don' t know where it's going to end. Are the 2-3 people that got canned the end of it or are more inbound? Who knows.

It is of course also more hard-hitting when you know the people getting let go. Most of the time I've been fortunate enough to avoid that issue, but a few times it hit people I knew and directly worked with, and that definitely sucks even more.

It ALWAYS seems unnecessary. Like, we all kind of understand the realities of business, but you very often look at the people let go and wonder "really, you couldn't find some use for them somewhere?!". Like, it's all the bottom line, but in the end, every person you let go is also institutional knowledge you let go, and that hurts the business in the long term. It nearly always seems self-defeating to me.

We've removed ~100k people in past 6 years or so.

Our team was safe so far. Not really stressed about if we're next. In case I am, there's plenty of other job opportunities. But it creates such a hassle to report the "correct" metrics so our team stays below the radar.

Also loss of know how and general availability has been visible as we've remove people which had in-depth product experience over 10 years.

@Hazarth @TheEnd That's sad man

@Sid2006 unfortunately no, they even froze pay and reduced benefits. I was young and dumb so I thought I was “doing my part”.

Not firing of employees but nearly all consultants were let go due to covid to keep all employees. They were integral part of the teams, treated just as employees.

So it was quite sad. But after a while it's surprisingly easy to get crass about it. Since it was a financial necessity and a reasonable call and they could return after covid. Would've felt different if the company was doing poorly and downsizing permanently

@TheEnd You know, this is why people start to Quiet Quit. I hope you're doing well now.

@MeowHeart well done

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