Hundreds of layoff stories
And a lot of group chats
I am overwhelmed (in a good way!) by the response to Laid Off. In just a few days, 500 of you shared your lay-off experiences in my survey, with even more in this comment thread.
Note: I temporarily paused survey submissions once we hit 500 to make sure I have time to read through the ones already shared.
A lot of you mentioned the embarrassment or loneliness you felt after being laid off. My intention with this newsletter is to humanize the lay-off experience so that readers going through a similar thing can feel a little less alone, and to hopefully destigmatize talking about lay-offs.
We’ve got interviews with a former social media producer at Condé Nast, a talent sourcer for video game designers, a design leader at Google, and more on deck.
Today, I wanted to share a few findings from the survey.
A quick snapshot:
41.7% are 25-34 years-old and 40.1% are 35-44 years-old
Less than 5% were laid off pre-pandemic (which I’m characterizing as March 2020)
About half worked there for 1-3 years before being laid off
37.1% were making $120,000+ at the time of lay-offs, with 26.5% making $60,000 to $89,999 and 21.7% making $90,000 to $119,000
16.7% said they didn’t receive severance, and 34.9% said they received a severance package of one month or less
Many said they had to sign an NDA in order to receive their severance
There was a significant amount of people that said their company’s policy was to receive one week’s pay for every year they were employed
58.5% said it was their first time being laid off
45.3% said they didn’t see it coming
With many saying that it should have been obvious upon reflection, but at the time they were stunned
51.9% said they shared the news publicly
94.5% said being laid off changed their relationship to work
The most common reasons cited for lay-offs were restructuring, reduction in workforce, a change in company strategy (aka the dreaded “pivot”), position eliminated, budget cuts, no more remote work, outsourcing offshores, couldn’t raise capital, not enough work, the economy, and simply “a business decision”
A large majority was laid off over Zoom while they were working from home
The most common immediate financial concerns were rent, health insurance, student loans, mortgages, car payments, kids, partners, parents, medications, and groceries
Most people told their partners first, with parents and best friends coming in second and third