I was laid off early this week. Other than my direct manager, none of my remaining coworkers have reached out, even though we were all close and got along well. It feels very odd to me. I have survived layoffs in past jobs and I always checked in on former colleagues, offered to write LinkedIn recs, etc.
Tip for layoff survivors: check in on your former colleagues! Even a quick LinkedIn message to say hi and sorry it ended. It can feel very isolating and it's nice to receive a friendly note.
Been there, had the same experience. This fueled my desire to see my former org fall on its face - like many of us predicted it would.
The lack of empathy will fuel the efforts those who have moved to competitors.
Schadenfreude.
duh you think people at work actually give a dayum about you? as long as you have utility yes, once you're useless you're thrown to the wolves
That’s how Nike has always been. You’re either in the tribe or you aren’t. When you no longer are, for whatever reason, most of your colleagues will disappear on you.
100% agree. My mentor at work sent me one text that said “I’m sorry” and I have not heard from him again. Disappointing.
I’ve had a ton of people reach out and I have to say that it is best thing that you can do. Reach out and say, how are you doing?
Also agree about the LinkedIn comment. If you look at my profile reach out and ask, how are you doing? We can see that you looked at the profile!
Sorry to hear this. Sending you warm vibes and happy tidings! You are not alone. I used to be one of those colleagues who found it extremely hard to check in on people after they were let go. Call it survivor's guilt, not knowing if connecting is welcomed or intrusive and just trying to give space to people as they process. Then, I was laid off last year and so many former colleagues reached out, even people whom I hadn't worked closely. It went a long way in helping me cope. I hope you hear from them soon.
Best of luck. Your job at Nike is not who you are. You are above and beyond of that.
Even more awkward is when people stalk your LinkedIn profile when you’re laid off but don’t bother to say anything.
The don’t contact them is not something they can mandate, they don’t own personal relationships. Be a human and reach out. You never know where people will land and it will be remembered, especially if you need them in your network if you end up in the same situation.
Being laid off is such a lonely and isolated feeling, those reach outs make a world of difference to keep confidence up in the search.
Hey immigrant here! ( Chill I am a citizen and not a H1B). Americans act and behave friendly at work but that is not to be confused with friendship! Learnt this the hard way here. It is not like this in other cultures. We never share weekend stories or our pet photos or we never put our spouse photos on our desk... Just culturally we distinguish between friend and coworker, personal life and work.... In U.S, I see the line get blurred often. When I was let go from a company, those who were my working buddy, blocked me on Linkedin! Americans act friendly but they are not your friend!
There's no internal comms about who was let go. Post your status on LinkedIn, otherwise they may not know. I've been reaching out to folks who were let got as I know it's a rough transition.
I had the same experience, too, at a previous company. While I was there, we chatted every day in the hallway like close friends do. After I was laid off, none of them bothered to message me even thou I provided my personal contact info in my last farewell email to them before I headed out the door.
@tal+1rdkdOGO - you don't have to say anything fancy when contacting them after they are laid off. Just say "Hello! how are you today?" is enough to treat a former coworker as a human being.
In my experience at a past company, sometimes they tell people not to contact you. Which is horrible. But even if not, some people don’t know what to say and there’s almost a feeling of survivors guilt.
It’s so true, and incredibly disorienting to have everyone just disappear like you never existed.
So much complaining on this board about Nike but can’t treat laid off colleagues as humans
Called this awhile back …. It’s Nike’s nice not kind culture… say all the nice things, safe spaces, hype videos and virtue signal but never do the little kind things.
Sorry to hear this, it could be that they might not know. As you know communication has been slim to none, outside of my direct area it's radio silence.
Odds are your coworkers don’t even know yet
Hey, sorry to hear about that OP. Some people are just awkward around bad news and don't know how to approach people. Some people are just self-absorbed and treat it like an infectious disease.
Let us know your name, phone number and post history and we’ll give you a ring.
I'm sorry to hear you got laid off! I agree, I've been through this in the past and would always check in! Maybe not the same day, but at least 24 hours after or so... So far, none of my direct teammates or friends have been impacted luckily.
But... If you want to talk, not sure how since it's anonymous, but I would be there :)