r/Layoffs

I just got laid off. I am having a hard time because I had the worst year of my life, and I'm worried that this contributed to my team not seeing me as valuable anymore. I lost my home in the beginning of the year in a disaster and so I haven't been on top of things since being displaced. But my work didn't suffer, I didn't make any huge mistakes or mess anything up. I think I was just maybe more stressed than usual, maybe I was more unpleasant due to not having a home? I try very very hard to keep that stuff away from work but sometimes I guess mental state just bleeds into everything, especially when dealing with something like this.

Things got weird a few months ago when my direct manager was out, and our team communication sort of fell apart. I spoke with two other people on my team who both seemed frazzled and upset, and one of them said they got yelled at, the other was just like "yeah... everything is chaos recently". When my manager got back she yelled at me and wrote me up, which was really jarring to me because we were friends outside of work and I didn't see this coming. I had never in my years of working here ever had a problem, never had a performance issue, always had very good relationships with everyone I work with. The reason she wrote me up was actually not even true, and I swear I am not lying or making excuses -- she wrote that I had made mistakes that I didn't make. But because I didn't want to cause issues further, I just sort of accepted it and said yes I would definitely improve. She even later admitted that it was half her fault and said HER manager wrote her up for it as well. It was just weird all around.

This put me even more on edge, and again I tried really hard not to be paranoid but my manager stopped being friendly to me, stopped speaking to me outside of work, etc. I tried to ignore it as just that she was going through something, the company was struggling, etc. I spoke with another person on my team who expressed similar anxiety and dissatisfaction about how the management was handling issues (yelling at us).

Then a few days ago I got called into a meeting and it was my direct manager's manager and HR. They said they were eliminating my position and it had nothing to do with my performance and explained everything to me, etc. I thanked them for giving me some time and for the years of growth and opportunity, etc.

What I am worried about is that I could have avoided this layoff had I not lost my home and become more frazzled and stressed. I don't know why my direct manager started not liking me, and I worry that I was doing some sort of self-fulfilling prophecy by noticing it and having some kind of energy that made her dislike me even more. I am worried that this is going to keep happening, although I have never been laid off or fired at all in my life.

I'm also a bit stressed because my entire life is in shambles because I lost my home and now I lost my job.

I guess I'm just looking for advice, like if it sounds like I did something wrong, or if being under stress can cause someone to be targeted for a layoff. I can't help but think if I had not experienced the loss of my home I would still have a job. I know rationally that the company is strapped for cash and many of my coworkers are stressed and worried as well, but I guess it just stings that I was the only one laid off to my knowledge.

I was recently laid off from a remote position at a large, multibillion-dollar company. They sent me supplies to return my equipment, but the box was too small, and they didn’t include shipping tape.

I contacted IT requesting a larger box, shipping tape, and a UPS pickup since bringing everything to a UPS location isn’t feasible. They agreed to arrange a pickup and provide another shipping label for a larger item that I still have the original box for, but said they don’t supply tape.

There were also two HDMI cables on the return list that stopped working shortly after I received them, so I discarded them. IT told me to return what I have, and HR confirmed that equipment returns are independent of my severance payout, although my separation agreement vaguely states that company property must be returned promptly.

Here’s where I’m frustrated. From what I’ve read online, UPS drivers aren’t expected to carry shipping tape with them or tape up packages during scheduled pickups. So if the driver arrives without tape, I would have no way to properly seal the boxes.

This is especially frustrating because the company also denied my request for two additional months of health insurance coverage, despite my explaining that I was hired shortly after major surgery (which my managers knew about) and have ongoing medical needs. Now I’m facing expensive COBRA coverage for the remainder of the year.

I realize shipping tape isn’t expensive, but it’s the principle of the matter. After an involuntary layoff, I don’t think I should have to spend my own money returning company equipment, especially when we’re talking about a multibillion-dollar corporation.

Would it be reasonable to insist they provide shipping tape or arrange another solution? Or am I making too big a deal out of this?

This is my first time dealing with a layoff and I’m finding I am very jaded by the tech industry. The rate at which they have hopped on the AI train is concerning and I don’t want to have a job that requires minimal critical thinking (in essence make the AI better). How do you handle this when job searching? Are you also considering a pivot or is every industry going to make me feel this way??

I was recently impacted by the Amazon layoffs after 11 years with the company. It’s strange to suddenly find yourself at a point you never planned for, especially after spending so much of your career in one place.
The surprising part is that I’m not particularly sad about it. I think I’m more curious about what comes next, even though I haven’t figured that out yet.
For those who’ve been through a similar experience, how did you approach this phase? Did you take it as an opportunity to try something different or stick to what you knew?

I know that people want to maintain business relationships and keep things professional but I’m kind of disgusted but all these people on linked thanking the companies that just laid them off for all they learned, experienced gained, etc. I’m not saying trash them publicly but these posts are not necessary and it helps to normalize this layoff culture when what we should be doing is talking more about how messed it up it is that profitable business are laying people off left and right

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Long post here, but I just wanted to share here in case there is anyone else who is in a situation who feels hopeless and you're getting discouraged.

I am 61 years old now so close to retirement but not quite there. I need health insurance for another 4 years and a salary to get to FRA which is 67 and hopefully a little longer to max out SS payments. I cannot retire yet. What I I do now will significantly affect the next 20 years of my life if I live that long. These were my highest income years and that was taken away from me in the most vicious way. I'm a healthcare clinician who did hands on for 16 years , but my last role was a combo clinical/admin job. I was at the same large local non profit for 21 years. I trained all new employees in my dept, lead pilots, was given numerous awards, appeared in media etc I never had a bad performance appraisal the entire time. My company started seriously struggling when I was 58 but things had stabilized. Suddenly when I was 59 after having a new manager, who I previously trained before she was promoted to manager, at the age of 60 I was given a horrible appraisal and put on a pip along with 10 other employees who also never had any issues. During this time there were daily announcements of sudden c suite departures. Layoffs were common too. 

I had to consult an employment attorney who educated me that it was being done to force me out because the company was struggling and my salary was maxed out after all those years. What followed was pure torture. I won't go into deets, but I experienced total betrayal and intense harassment like you cannot imagine. I was physically ill and emotionally wrecked for months. I couldn't eat, sleep, concentrate. I cried a lot and felt so low I can't even describe it. I refused to quit because I wasn't voluntarily forfeiting anything after 21 years. This hell went on for 7 months. The way they tried to drive me and many others out was absolutely diabolical. In the end they suddenly eliminated my entire dept and I ended up with severance and then unemployment which ended two months ago and I was grateful for that because if they had their way I would have been kicked to the curb with nothing.

I spent this past year healing. There were days I couldn't get out of bed. I sent out hundreds of applications and never got a single bite. I constantly  wondered if anyone would ever want to hire me again or if I should just accept being put out to pasture and get a job in an unrelated field for 1/3 of my salary and no benefits. Occasionally I'd get a rejection but nothing more. I am older now with arthritic joints so I cannot do the level of physical work I used to which limited the types of roles I could perform. It's extremely hard to find non physical roles in my profession.

A few weeks ago a former coworker I hadn't spoken to in two years randomly called me. She had no idea what happened. Turns out she's working for another place part time and she told me they have lots of work. I went to their website and found a job that sounded like it was written with me in mind. I never would have seen this job had she not been thinking of me and reached out. I applied. A few days later HR reached out and scheduled an HR screen. It was very a natural and easy, maybe because I had accepted I might never work in my field ever again. A day after that I moved forward to an interview with the VP and director. I got this extremely  strong feeling that something was finally about to happen but I was afraid to be hopeful. Out of all the places I applied to this was the only one that replied to me. I know the company and have had friends who worked for them and they are well regarded.

I stayed up half the night "studying" and preparing. After all the trauma I've experienced I went into it thinking it would be awful and further destroy my confidence even more. The interview was the best interview I have ever had. I felt like I knew these people and the feeling was mutual. It flowed so easily and every "negative" thing about me was seen as a positive by them. They loved my extensive experience. They loved that I stayed at the same place for 21 years and found it impressive. They loved my honesty. I felt very comfortable just being myself.

At the end of the interview the VP said to me that they had interviewed quite a few candidates and had a few more to go but they really loved me and I was now the frontrunner. They were hiring an entire team so it would take some time, but the next step would be meeting the existing  team that is currently there to learn more about what the role entails from clinicians who are doing it and to see if I'd be a good fit. The VP and director said that they felt I'm a perfect fit though and they felt fortunate that I saw the posting. They said no one else they'd interviewed had the type of well rounded experience as I did and that's what they needed. I went from feeling worn out and useless to feeling like I might have another chapter in my life coming up.

A week later I met two team members and it went pretty well. One of them was great and the other was a bit tougher but even with that I never felt nervous or unable to answer questions I always had a response that they seemed to agree with. 

7 days later I was contacted by HR again and told they received very positive fb about me and I should expect a decision and then outreach again within a week's time. I truly appreciated the respect shown to me by not leaving me hanging at any point. This company also states in their job postings that they do not use AI to review resumes and that every application is reviewed by a recruiter and no application is automatically rejected before being read by a human. I am guessing that probably helped me break though all the barriers we have now when applying to jobs. 

The job is fully remote which is rare now and I didn't even want a remote job. I've worked remotely and I don't like it but I'm not going to focus on that I know it's a gift for most people and I'm grateful. The VP actually said he wanted to have an in office day occasionally but staff is all over geographically and he didn't want to do that to people as it would be a huge burden to people with families and obligations. My last employer forced people to come in as a means of a soft layoff.

Now 14 months after the worst hell I've ever experienced in a work environment and an absolute "dark night of the soul" I am now employed again. This has restored a part of me that grieved being forced out of my profession before I was ready. I never thought I'd feel that I have value as a clinician again. I can now truly put this nightmare behind me and move on. My H said to me "you experienced total betrayal and bs and now look what's come your way!"  The salary is even the same as what I was making and the benefits are the same as well. 

To finish here, I just want to say that my confidence in my abilities was shot and I felt like a worthless old loser after the insane gaslighting and abuse my last employer subjected me to. This past year forced me to step away at a certain point so things could resolve in their own time. Just before this happened I stopped trying so hard and stopped trying to make things happen. I realized that sometimes when you force things too hard it just doesn't work out for you and just when you feel like it's all pointless and why even try anymore life can surprise you. Never give up. If an old girl like me can get back in the game I know you can too! 

Imagine dedicating over 25 years of your life to a multinational corporation.

Imagine working 11+ hours a day, 6 days a week, and regularly going into the office on Sundays—consistently working well beyond legal standards—without ever demanding extra overtime pay, purely out of dedication and loyalty to your work.

Now imagine that same company deciding it’s time to cut costs by purging veteran employees to replace them with freshers at lower salaries.

How do they choose to send off someone who spent a quarter-century building their business? With a formal thank you? A respectful farewell?

No. They slap them with a termination letter citing "performance issues."

Are you seriously telling me it took your management 25 YEARS to evaluate performance?

For 25 years, the work was good enough to profit off of. The 60+ hour workweeks were good enough to accept. The Sunday shifts were good enough to exploit. But the moment an employee reaches the final stretch before retirement—the moment their experience carries a higher salary—suddenly there’s a "performance issue"?

When confronted, upper management and the CEO hide behind the ultimate corporate shield: "It’s company policy."

"Company policy" didn't stop you from accepting 25 years of unpaid overtime. "Company policy" didn't stop you from relying on veteran expertise to keep your operations running. "Company policy" is just a spineless excuse to throw human beings away like disposable line items on a spreadsheet.

This isn't management—it's corporate greed at its absolute worst. Replacing decades of institutional knowledge, loyalty, and sacrifice with cheap labor right before a worker's well-deserved retirement isn't strategic; it's morally bankrupt.

To the executives hiding behind administrative buzzwords: no policy justifies stripping a loyal worker of their dignity. You haven't hidden your cost-cutting measures—you've just exposed how little your company values the people who made it successful.

I’ve been out of work for two years. Landed a job that paid extremely well. Got my kids on insurance. Was thrilled. Then I get called in to learn they are doing a restructuring. No job for me to the end of the week. So that’s my life. I want to end my life if I could. My home is in forbearance. I told them I would have the funds to save it. Guess joke is on me. One of my kids has autism and would not survive without me. But if I could jump off a bridge I would.

I genuinely feel for everyone who has been laid off.
Losing a job sucks. Losing a job after 5, 10, 20 years can feel like a betrayal. You gave the company your time, your energy, your loyalty, and then one day you get a calendar invite and suddenly you’re out.

That hurts.

But here’s the part I want people to hear:

Do not confuse your feelings about the system with your understanding of the system.

You need to learn how this thing works.
- Read your handbook.
- Understand your severance.
- Understand your benefits.
- Understand your equity.
- Understand your state’s employment laws.
- Keep your résumé updated.
- Keep your network alive.
- Keep some money outside of your paycheck.

And most importantly, never let one company become your entire identity.

You can work somewhere for one year or fifty years. You can be employee of the month. You can have an incredible relationship with your boss. You can genuinely love your coworkers.

None of that guarantees you a job tomorrow.

And honestly, you shouldn’t expect a company to give you a deeply personal goodbye when it lays you off.

Not necessarily because they don’t care.

Because the system doesn’t work that way.

Companies have HR departments, attorneys, policies, documentation requirements, and legal obligations. The more subjective and personal these decisions become, the more risk the company can create for itself.

Imagine two people get laid off.

One gets a heartfelt goodbye, three months of extra severance, and a manager personally calling them every week.

The other gets a 15-minute Zoom call and a box shipped to their house.

Now ask yourself what happens when the second employee says, “Why did they treat me differently?”

That’s the system.

You don’t have to like it.
But you should understand it.

Because here’s where I think people get stuck:
They spend all of their energy demanding that the system become something it isn’t, instead of learning how to operate within it without becoming dependent on it.

That’s the difference between being bitter and being prepared.

- Don’t become cynical.
- Become capable.
- Don’t assume your employer will save you.
- Build a life where you can save yourself.
- Don’t stop caring about your work.
- Just don’t give your employer ownership of your identity.
- And if a company treats people badly, you have more power than you think. Your labor has value. Your attention has value. Your money has value.

You can leave.
You can stop buying from them.
You can tell other people what happened.
You can build something of your own.
You can take your talent somewhere else.

But don’t let seeing red convince you to stay emotionally trapped inside the same system you’re angry about.

Learn the rules. Protect yourself. Build leverage. Keep your options open.

The goal isn’t to beat the system.
The goal is to make sure the system never has complete control over you.

That’s what freedom actually looks like.

I wanted to make this post to give people some HOPE, as I had ALMOST lost all of mine!! I was laid off near the end of April ‘26 unexpectedly. I was very fortunate to receive 3 months of pay/benefits per my contract. However, I started looking for positions RIGHT AWAY, and was literally coming up EMPTY for a LONG time!!

I started getting very concerned, and after discussion with my husband, (I am the main breadwinner in our family, including benefits), we elected to cancel our home phone and cable subscription. Additionally, I was running the house much warmer in the summer months (around 73!), and the much cooler when the fall came to save on energy bills & then cutting water usage significantly wherever we could. There were a few expensive bills that we couldn’t escape (and I was starting to panic), and they were coming due very soon.

I work in a very niche industry where everyone knows each other in one way or another. Fortunately, I had worked in an even more niche subset. Although I hadn’t intended to go back to that line of work, I decided to apply to some roles since it does usually pay well (but there weren’t any near me, and the ones that were there required a move.)

Anyway, I want everyone to know that once I accepted the fact that I might have to work in an area that I had not intended to go back to, and prayed on it (yes, I definitely believe in the power of prayer! Do with it what you want!), it happened! I received a FT job offer with benefits and a pension! I literally wanted to cry! And it paid almost exactly the same as my other position.

I wanted to share this because I felt like I was literally near the end of my proverbial rope. And trust me, if it can happen to me, it ABSOLUTELY CAN happen for you! Don’t give up, don’t lose hope. Try some unconventional things if you believe in them!

Lastly, I am hoping that all of you find some sense of security, peace, and respite in the near future, as I know how hard all of you have been at it!

I heard from my friends that massive layoffs are expected to happen at FICO next week. Has anyone else heard about this or can confirm if there’s any truth to it?

Hi, I have just been laid off 1 month before I’m due to give birth (in Colorado/salary exempt) and I am very stressed and have a lot of questions on what to do next.

The company is not offering me severance pay after 2.5 years there. From the letter they sent, my medical plan will continue to be in effect until the end of October, but I am not sure if I am paying for it. The company is offering reimbursement for COBRA for the month of November. I have met my deductible for my insurance, but I’m not sure about how much COBRA will cost since no information has been provided yet.

I plan on reaching out to the company and asking some of the questions above, but I’m not sure if that’s recommended or if legal advice is the best route?

Has anyone been through this or have advice on steps to take? TIA!