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
Going deeper:
Public shares of lay-offs happened mostly on LinkedIn: This was the most common platform cited for those that did share the news publicly. Coming in a close second was a soft share, where people posted the news only to close friends on Instagram. For those that didn’t, they attributed it to embarrassment and shame. And not everyone posted right away — some wanted to either process their feelings or waited until they received their final paycheck and severance.
Most of the group chats are a pun or cheeky nod to their trauma bond: 37.2% of those surveyed said they have a group chat with former coworkers, which mostly take place over text but some created Slack, Discord, and WhatsApp groups. A lot of people said that these chats have died down with time and as people move on to new jobs.
Some group chat names shared: Xooglers (for ex-Googlers), The Redundants, PlayStationClassof2024, Layoff Ladies Who Lunch, RestInPx (for the product experience team), Bathroom Friends (since that was a safe space for them to vent at work), The Pivot Posse, Ex-Skimmr’s, #[company name]traumabonded, [agency name] Survivors, DAMA: Don’t Ask Me Anythings (making fun on leadership’s “annoying” AMAs), The Gays Are Calling From Inside The House, and Support Group
Crying is normal: When asked what the first thing they did was after receiving the news, crying was easily the most common. People cried over sandwiches with coworkers also laid off, on the subway ride home, on a walk downtown, on a bench by a park, in their car, in the shower, at the beach, on the floor, while snuggling their pets, over birthday cake, playing with their kids, nursing their babies, while making a tombstone in Animal Crossing that read “my job”
Other notable immediate plans after being laid off: Getting an Oreo McFlurry from McDonald’s, watching their favorite movies, applying for unemployment, grabbing a drink, going on long walks to clear their head, working on their resume, cooking a comfort meal, taking their dogs for a walk, working out, making a therapy appointment, throwing company swag into the trash or stuffing a bunch into their tote on the way out of the office
“Ominous meetings” were a sign many people said to look out for if you’re playing lay-off detective: Specifically, an increase in leadership meetings. If your team calendars are public, pay attention to higher-ups routinely meeting outside of regularly scheduled programming, especially if those meetings involve HR
Other signs people said to look out for included “weird vibes” from higher-ups and managers, flustered senior leadership teams, hiring and discretionary spending freezes, silence across Slack, changes in communication patterns, budget cuts, cutting contractors, hiring more offshore workers and reducing your workload, and trusting your gut.
Follow the money: If your company is public, look at earnings. If they are transparent around financial updates, watch out for when they are routinely missing their revenue projections.
Almost everyone said being laid off changed their relationship to work. Of the few that said it didn’t, nearly all of them voiced a version of “I have always known work is not your family, that I am expendable, and that this is a business transaction.” And as one person said, “trust no bitch.”
Advice for someone just laid off, from those that’ve been laid off: Apply for unemployment benefits ASAP if they are available to you. It can take some time to process. Negotiate for more severance. Use your healthcare as soon as you get laid off and schedule all your specialist appointments. If you can, start going to therapy. Keep your resume and portfolio updated. Use an app that shows you all your subscriptions and cancel the ones you don’t really use right now. Post on LinkedIn — it’s vulnerable, but there are so many people who want to help.
If you know someone recently laid off, do this: Buy them a meal or send them a Doordash gift card. Offer to pick up personal items from their office if they worked in-person. Write them a LinkedIn recommendation. Offer to review their resume and cover letter. Suggest connections between them and people hiring in your network. Check in — not just right after, but also more regularly. Get them out of the house and take them on a little adventure (on you).
But not this: Empty platitudes and toxic positivity. Essentially any version of “You’ll get snatched up in no time” or “Things have a way of working out” or “You hated that job anyway.” Instead of asking someone how you can help, show up. Send something. They might not have the emotional bandwidth or energy to tell you what they need. Don’t tell someone to take advantage of this time off, or belittle their experience — “at least you don’t have kids” or “at least you don’t have a mortgage” — just because something can be worse doesn’t mean it’s not traumatic.
The first interview will drop in a few days. Thank you to everyone for being vulnerable, brave, and cool, and sharing your lay-off experiences.
And if you’re reading this and know of a job opportunity, drop it in the comments.
This is great. Normalizing being laid off, especially in today's world, needs to happen. I'm really glad I clicked on your LinkedIn post and submitted my story. I'm ready to talk about it!
One warning sign that was omitted was a new CEO. Like a dog urinating on a firehydrant, a new CEO feels compelled to "make their mark" - the easiest way to do this is by reducing headcount to increase short-term earnings. No CEO in the history of CEOs has ever started a new role and said "Everything looks good. No need to change anything..."
When your company announces a new CEO has been hired - or that the current CEO is going to be "spending more time with their family" - consider this to be your 90 day notice of layoff.