Fortunately, I wasn't affected although I am still very anxious. I am sorry for all those affected and I hope that they will soon find much better opportunities. For those affected, I'm wondering if there were any signs or red flags that you noticed before you got laid off?
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Often, your immediate boss will have no idea and may be out too. Never believe anything your immediate manager says, they don't know anything and are not part of anything important. Front line managers have tough jobs.
My entire team/program was eliminated and I was laid off in the first round of Enabling our Future cuts back in March. I was a middle manager. I didn’t perceive these as red flags at the time, since we were among the first, but looking back I can see:
- Major expenses related to our work were delayed or deferred
- Left off of meetings for projects I expected to be involved with
- Our work was conspicuously absent from senior leader’s 2022 priorities
- Open positions were put on hold, even when I had great candidates in queue
- At my annual review, my manager said they wanted to promote me but was told that all promotions for our team were delayed “until March” (I.e., never)
- New HR rep seemed interested in meeting the leadership team but had zero interest in supporting the things we requested his help with, such as how to effectively manage return to office/hybrid work situation, or helping us with talent planning/job levels for our employees
For those that lost jobs, at least you didn't lose a good job at a good company that cares about you.
Having to list out what your duties are. Being switched to a new team unexpectedly. Both happened to me. I listed out what I did for a “promotion” that never came and was recently switched to a new team, that was severed entirely.
When you are told to stop trying to solve for important problems or issues your team faces, when leaders shift your goals almost 180, when your leader seems to be indecisive for too long regarding decisions they should be able to make, when new reviewal processes or bottlenecks appear for promotions or hiring: these are signs you or your area may be impacted by major change (layoff, reorg, etc.) in my experience.
The letter f will show up on your forehead in bright red
The problem is that, in a reduction in force, good employees are let go in addition to bad ones. Of course not everyone that claims to be a star employee really is, but some are! The best thing to do is to look at your value versus cost. You could be a wonderful employee and earn promotions over years, but could a newcomer do the same job for less? Could the role be shipped overseas? What about consolidating the role with another? Could the role be done "good enough" for a fraction of the cost? If a department seems to always be growing, I think it's a time bo-b. My team was decimated a few years back after growing for many years. The higher employees were let go, and although the lost experience sucked, the work got done.
A ton! You just don’t realize they are signs until you get cut. They you see all the writing that was on the wall right in front of you!