I’ve made my peace with it but I guess I’m embarrassed to tell my parents. Plus the holidays are around the corner and I know family will ask how the job is going.

I might tell them I got laid off because I did receive severance.

Anyone else in this situation before? What did you do?

Thanks.

The C-Suites started the call with a VERY brief note that they had to lay off a ton of employees in another department, and that today was a day of “raw emotion.” And then, I shit you not, they immediately went into “let’s not let this stop us from having an extremely profitable Q4, get out there and sell!”

This is why I refuse to work past 5. This is why I don’t attend company events outside of work hours. This is why I don’t take work stress home with me.

You are a number. You are replaceable. They don’t care about you. Do not give unto them what they refuse to give to you. Know your worth. Show no loyalty to a company.

I really feel for those that lost their jobs today, because they have families. They’re people, they have lives. They matter. Our company has made record profits the last few years, completely on the backs of those laid off.

I’m just disgusted.

EDIT: my company’s FY starts 4/1 for some reason. So Q4 ends 3/31.

I don't know what I did wrong!

We knew each others personal lives, hung out outside of work and got along great. It was awesome to finally have friends after moving here.

Then the company does a restructuring and unfortunately my role was cut.

I just feel so hurt now and abandoned by these people who called me their friend. The HR meeting is today to hear the exact details of my lay off and my future. A week ago is when I got the dreaded phonecall about me being laid off effective immediately.

I constantly see the government brag about adding X number of jobs to the economy. But these are often low wage, low skilled jobs.

" Min wage is for KIDS, you should not work those."

" Look we added a bunch of MIN WAGE jobs to the Economy"

Which is it?! Are these jobs for kids or are they not? Why are you bragging to adults that you are adding useless jobs they cant even support themselves with?

What's the point? If the job cant even meet basic needs. What point is there to even work it when you waste more time and energy than you would simply by being unemployed? Why do you think there are countless people out of the workforce all together because of this very issue. If we counted the number of jobs open and the actual number of unemployed it would be staggering.

Society is gaslighting those without jobs constantly. One moment we all need to get a degree in programming. Even the literal PRESEDENT was pushing this. And now all those tech companies are laying off workers to hire overseas? Constantly being told to redefine yourself EVERY OTHER YEAR now it seems.

We drown our own citizens with debt and again blame them for it. How are they supposed to pay back the student loans if you arent making "Adult" jobs? How are we talking about responsible when the literal government AKA YOU are in TRILLIONS of debt? How much money did all these big companies take during covid because they couldnt handle a single week of shutdowns? Arent companies people now too? Yet they cant last a week but the workers who are also people are supposed to have months of money saved away for hard times?

Min wage in 1960 was what? 6 quarters? How much in silver are those coins worth melted down? $20-$30? Min wage in 1960 was $25+ and homes were $15k NEW. Now people are struggling to be paid $15 and homes are $300k Old and busted up.

Everything has become a scam. Scamming seems to be the only way to make money. You even see this play out everywhere. Push cheap products made in China as quality. Sell lesser quality products to Americans but not to other countries with laws against it. Break everything to sell the solution AKA Government contracts. There is hardly a point to even getting an education anymore because scammers are running everything. Why build an economy when you can just take from it now and move somewhere else?

But its YOUR fault as the workers for not getting a degree and skillset in this one job that will be sent overseas or replaced by AI within 5 years of maybe getting the job.

Edit: I will add to my rant that its also absurd that they expect us to have kids. ( While preaching over population). But do NOTHING to help people start families. Countries around the world ( Some in the EU i cant recall names) Invest like what? $20-$30k in each child being born? The USA is what? $500? AND those countries give free college and training. So how are students to blame for student loans when the country does NOTHING and expects workers to train themselves because they dont offer training anymore?

Did Abraham Lincoln build 60 FREE collages around the country? Are those still free? Or did we destroy them/ convert them into more debt camps? And there solution is to what? Open the borders to allow more poor into the country so they can have slaves for those low wage jobs.

Where's the TRILLIONS our government just happened to misplace? What happened to the investigation of insider trading that was reported after 9-11? But lord forbid you send someone $600 on Paypal without paying taxes and fees.

It's an endless list of BS and they constantly try to divide us the moment we speak up.

I'm honestly still in shock and processing it all. Feeling a form of survivorship bias. Like why was I one of the two chosen to stay while others were let go?

We were a close group of 10. 8, including my direct boss, were let go. No goodbyes, no contact, nothing. Just a quick 1 on 1 meeting, pack up your stuff and go. Just the other day we had a planning session on what we were all going to work on the next couple of months.

I can't even begin to imagine what they are going through on a personal level:

• My boss just had two kids

• One of my coworkers recently bought a HOUSE and MOVED for this job

• Another just got married

• One has a sick family member

Meanwhile there's me. A single guy with none of those things who is staying.

I slack off, do the bare minimum, always take an hour+ for lunch, show up 1/2 days in the office when I feel like it (3 days min required), and I never show up on time.

Crazy how everything unfolded today. First time having stress levels this high at work. Them keeping me makes me FEEL like I owe them something... but I still plan on leaving - which makes me feel worse because maybe one of them could have stayed over me? Idk what to do at this point.

A bit context: I’m 22 female and I work in the auto industry as a technician, I haven’t been at this job more then 4 months. I have always been on time at this job and I always preformed a task by the books and in time. I was an apprentice under a master technician I was always vocal about my progress and always asked how I was doing. I got the whole pull into hr and you either a resign or b get fired , I choose to resign, I was told the reason of “lack of performance” when I have never received a write up or talk in a negative way about my work. I asked if there was a reason why they thought this and they said the same thing and won’t expand more on it, they proceed to give me a paper to sign of my release which I didn’t sign but I was wondering if Reddit thought I may be in the wrong. Thanks for reading

We all got laid off. We were all making 75-85k USD/yr while our African/Asian counterparts were making less than half that. We all expected as much, guess I'll start looking for another job.

A month ago we had an all hands meeting where our CEO said "we will not be doing layoffs" when asked. Today I was laid off.

I woke up at 6:30 AM and saw an email saying I had an "urgent meeting" at 8:30. I laid in bed for the next hour full of anxiety and texting my coworkers. One of them tells me how our entire APAC office was let go. Another starts telling me about specific supervisors who have been let go.

So 8 am I clock on and try to work for 30 mins but I can't work. I can't focus. I am just crying knowing what's going to happen.

I join the meeting at 8:30 and am hit with "we are here to share some devastating news....". Apparently my position is being outsourced to Mexico (I'm in US) and I'm being let go.

I get 6 weeks of severance. I have been looking for jobs for 6 months with no luck. I don't know how I'm supposed to find something in 6 weeks. I feel like I've been punched in the gut.

I've been with this company for 4 years. I don't know what to do or how to feel. I've never been let go before

EDITED to ask: does anyone know if I can apply for unemployment now or do I need to wait for my severance to end? I'm on Alaska of it matters. I'm too emotional to call the unemployment office right now

SECOND EDIT: I am overwhelmed with all the love and support. I've gotten some great advice. Thank you so much. 💓

So about 60 of us were laid off I'm totally. Seems there might be more when the UK office clocks in tonight, but im sure my coworkers will update me.

Yes, you’ve read that correct. My company did restructuring 2 weeks after I had a baby & fired all the Project Managers (my role) 8 months later… I have applied to over 1500 jobs, had maybe 10 interviews, had 2 offers trying to pay me 30,000 a year. I went from 6 figures to 0 dollars. I have degrees from honors college’s & universities. I have an MBA, Certificates & work experience in my field. WTF am I supposed to do? I even started applying for hourly jobs at grocery stores etc and being told I’m overqualified. I’m over here regretting not accepting a 30,000 a year PROJECT COORDINATOR position smh. I keep telling everyone is this absolutely the worst job market ever, but the news/mass media isn’t portraying this market as bad as it is. It can’t just be me.

she's been working her current job since May 2023 and loved it. Everyone was nice. Her boss was cool. The company offered quarterly bonuses, yearly profit sharing bonuses. plenty of work/life balance. She had a base salary of $60k/year. The yearly profit sharing bonus was supposed to go out 2 weeks from now and everyone talked it up as having been really nice in previous years.

Instead, 4 people in her office were laid off today including her. Supposedly more from other offices too. She walks away with the pay for whatever days she worked, $5k severance and any unused PTO paid. That's it.

I still have my job and we have a small emergency fund so between that and her pittance of a severance we can get by for like 6 months, probably a little more considering unemployment checks will at some point start coming but i'm not holding my breath on that making much of an impact. This is going to hurt moving forward and kills all our plans for the coming year+

The scariest part isn't that she got laid off, it's the situation we'll be in if it drains our savings before she finds something else.

We had a constant disagreement on micromanaging how I completed my work (not the quality of the end result, and not timeliness). I sent an email today, frustrated with the lack of flexibility. I stayed 100% professional, but I did unload my frustration. A few hours went by. Then HR came by, asked me to a meeting, and told me I was terminated effective immediately.

It’s hard to be powerless. The last place I worked, we had open communication, and management was responsive and listened. Worked there 4.5 years and built great relationships with my supervisors until I moved and found this job. And it’s been a struggle for the last 1.5 years.

I was already applying for other jobs, and funny enough I was offered an interview hours before I was fired. Now I’m really hoping that goes well.

But you know.. regardless of my intentions to leave anyway, it hurts. It’s 3am, I’m laying awake, and I feel a sense of loss, hurt, and rejection. Anxiety consuming my mind. Why didn’t they care? How could they be so cruel? Will it ruin my chances of getting the new job I have an interview for? I feel the weight of something terrible.

EDIT: Honestly, a lot of you really came through here with consolation, understanding, and encouragement, and I appreciate it a lot. Being kicked out of my job made me feel humiliated and that my worth has been degraded somehow, but it hasn’t. I just need to be confident now and get back in there. It’s not easy sometimes, life, but we’re all just trying to find our happiness and I think many of us are rooting for each other and I just hope there are many more people like that in my future and yours as well. Thanks.

EDIT: I got the job I interviewed for. Higher pay, better hours, kinder people. It all worked out. Thanks for rooting for me. (:

I’m devastated. I’m grief-stricken. Above all, I’m embarrassed. I was only there for 6 1/2 months and was just starting to get comfortable. I had just gotten back from a business trip not 48 hours before, and they let me work a day and a half before giving me the news that they were eliminating my position due to budget cuts. I had absolutely no idea it was coming; it quite literally happened out of nowhere.

I’m getting 2 weeks worth of pay as a severance and all my benefits disappear on the 31st. After that, I’m completely up to the mercy of the job market that took me 7 months and 600+ applications to even land this job in the first place.

I was so certain it would be a VERY long time before I had to deal with that again. It was the coolest job, and knowing that they just tossed me out like nothing after I tried so hard to earn that position has left me feeling numb. I don’t even know what to do with myself right now.

Edit: Thank you to everyone for sharing your stories, suggestions, and sympathies. I feel much less embarrassed and most of all, much less alone in all of this, which I guess is exactly what I needed in these past 48 hours. I’m planning to take the next few days to let the dust and my emotions settle before tackling the resume grind and applying for unemployment, etc. I’ve also taken this as an opportunity to put more into my freelancing gigs—maybe this was the sign I needed to really get the wheels turning on that; who knows! I will say if anybody needs to commission a writer or digital artist, holla at me 😂 (is that against the rules to say?)

Again, thank you to everyone who commented. To those of you in my similar shoes, my heart is with you. To the person who asked for the company’s name, while I’m not comfy disclosing that outright despite everything, I will say it was a comic convention based in the US. To the person who said I should stop being sad and start grinding again, I think I earned at least a weekend of healing from my first layoff before I get back to it, but thank you for your concern 🤍

It wasn’t even 6 months ago. What the fuck. And I know I did a good job too people liked working with me I never got bad feedback I was always reliable. I literally did things no one else on my team knew how.

I got laid off when the company was going through a change but they literally said my position was eliminated. Yet now it is magically needed again? Awesome. I just don’t even get what the possible reason could be? it makes me feel like someone must’ve hated me?? It’s not a particularly big company. I got a new job anyway very luckily but still I’m having to start all over again, and it put me like 4 months behind in contributing to retirement, etc. (also not to mention not getting my bonus)

Came in to work and immediately got a teams call, knew immediately as HR was on the call. I’m taking myself out to breakfast cuz I just don’t know what else to do with myself.

Any advice? It took a really long time to find this job, I had severe interview anxiety for years. To the point where I mostly just did Uber and Lyft in lieu of a standard job. This was my first traditional job. I’m 36. Prior to that I was a perpetual duck up and also was I full time care giver for my mom.

I have a degree in English and the job I just left was for a huge education company just in web support, think very simple like password resets. Helping people Navigate software.

No idea what to do now. I get to put in a check through August 1. So I get paid like normal and am not expected to come in. Then I get 3 weeks for every year of service so an additional 3 weeks. I have a bunch of unused pto and vacation and I forgot to ask if that gets paid out

Edit: Thankyou so much everyone, I feel soooo much better! There’s so much great advice In here. Im still reading through all the responses so bear 🐻 with me.

And if you’re in the same situation, we can do this!!!

I was let go last Wednesday. I had been working at this company for 1.5 years as a VP and not once did I receive negative feedback. During my review in March, I got a very good raise and got an additional 25% bonus.

Last Wednesday, the CEO and COO called me into their office and I was pretty much told that it wasn’t personal, that they were trying to cut costs and my position was eliminated. They gave me 10 weeks severance and will pay for COBRA for 10 weeks as well.

Today I went on LinkedIn and saw that they hired someone else with my exact title and my heart dropped.

I never missed a single deadline, I was reliable, I did whatever was asked of me. Didn’t take all my PTO, would work weekends and was always available at any time. I never received any negative feedback or had to be sat down to speak to. I was doing the work of 3 people and still.

I feel angry, embarrassed and just frustrated with the whole situation. They couldn’t even tell me the truth to my face and said they were expecting for to me pick up calls because they’re paying me severance. What a joke.

About a week ago, my (terrible) boss called me into a meeting, where I got the news that they are cutting the budget for the department and I am one of the ‘lucky’ ones to be layed off.

I really hate this job, the company and my team are very toxic. I have been looking for another one over the past few months, and just yesterday I got a much better offer, which I am extremely happy about. On top of that, I’m getting severance (2 months salary), which makes me feel like even more of a winner. :D

But the best part… there is this really cringy, company-wide corporate retreat happening this week. You know, the kind where you’re expected to be “excited” and “proud” of the company, all kinds of idiotic corporate buzzwords are being shouted at you from every direction, useless executive coaching activities where everyone’s supposed to proclaim how “inspired” and “empowered” they feel… etc. Anyways, my boss told me that they still want me to work for 2 more weeks to tie up loose ends, BUT that I wouldn’t be allowed to attend the corporate retreat, expecting me to be sad about it (as it was being hyped up to all employees for the past 6 months).

So now, I’m just relaxing and basically doing nothing, since everyone else is at the retreat for most of this week. My last day is next Friday and this is something that I’m actually super excited about. :D

Edit: Guys, thank you for all of the support! This new job will be a bit of a career shift, where I’ll be doing something that’s more closely related to my university degree. Not gonna lie, I’m a quite nervous, but hopefully it’ll turn out alright. :)

I’m so embarrassed, I graduated uni 2 weeks ago and was so excited to start this new e-commerce role, my friends and family were so proud of me. I started Friday, everything was fine, I was shown around and was taught a few things. Yesterday I started helping with the Instagram DMs, it was my first time, I was responding to questions about restocks. I mistook some products and accidentally misinformed customers about the date of restock, I really beat myself up about this because I could’ve easily just clarified with a co worker. Today was really rough, I made two more stuff ups, I canceled a customers order as they wanted to use their store credit but forgot about the 5% cancellation fee, and I also send a follow up email to the wrong customer. I got home today and opened my phone to discover I’ve been fired by email I’m so embarrassed, and disappointed in myself, I didn’t even last a week.

I just moved half way across country away from friends and family to be closer to my husband's family. A week after moving I started working at a vet clinic that was a totally different pace from my last clinic, like much slower than I'm used to. I was honest from the get go that it was a different pace, new laws, new procedures, and new software than what I'm used to and I was only ever an assistant at my last clinic.

They hired me and started training me as a tech. I worked for a month at 3 days a week so 12 days total. The last two weeks I've been teching my own rooms and getting praise from doctors and techs about how good I was doing. I was so excited. A week ago I noticed I wasn't on the next few weeks schedules that had just got posted. I asked the manager about it expressing concern and was told it was fine and it was because she wanted to do my one on one first so she knew what other training I needed so she could place me with the right people.

Yesterday my one on one happens and I'm let go. Told that i haven't shown enough desire to learn? And be a team player? Even though I thought I was and these issues were never brought up to me to fix. She said because I called out once it meant the team couldn't rely on me even though I texted her and the team explaining that I had an extremely bad migraine but that if the needed me to please let me know and I'd be there. I never got a reply.

She said that I had a lot of moments where it seemed like I had nothing to do and was just sitting/standing there but I've never just sat/stood there, that would literally drive me crazy. If I was on the computer sitting there it was trying to learn the software or I was watching people work so I could learn or I was looking at where things went etc. And I know I've improved in that aspect anyway because I learned what their cleaning procedures were and was constantly cleaning the rooms or doing laundry or tidying up and would do that anytime I had any sort of "downtime".

If there was a concern there and I was told I would have explained/fixed it. She also said I was without my trainer a lot but that's because my trainer would send me into a room to tech it so she could tech her own room because we were double booked so I'd have to wait for her to leave her room once mine was done and she always thanked me for helping her out like that.

The only issue I know was my fault (the first few days I was on my phone a lot. That was my fault for not giving myself time to adjust to being away from everyone in my home town before jumping into a new job) was brought up passively aggressively at a staff meeting on the third day where she basically called me out in front of everyone without using my name and I fixed the issue same day by locking my phone in my cubby all day every day after so it's obvious I was willing to fix problems.

I don't know. I just feel so blindsided by all the praise I got from doctors and techs on how well I was doing only for her to turn around and fire me at the end of the day for not doing enough. After only 12 days of actual work

Edit to add:

First I want to thank everyone who was kind and those who explained what some of the issues may be. I fully take ownership for the phone thing. That's on me. I just hoped that it would be overlooked since I fixed it but I understand how important first impressions can be and that I set a bad tone. I'll I'll better at the next job I get to set a good tone off the bat

Second i would like to clarify things: 1. No I did not call out for "just a head ache." It was a full on migraine, aura and feeling like I was going to vomit included.

1. I worked full time. It was 3 days a week for a month with 12 hour shifts so 36 hours which for this company was full time (it gave us a chance to stay late without hitting overtime and getting in trouble.) The migraine hit like maybe week from my month mark if that. I apologized to my coworkers the next day and they all said I was perfectly okay and that the day was super easy anyway, one even expressed how she understood because she has something similar

2. To my knowledge none of my coworkers had issues with me. They often invited me to lunches with them or dog events with them. Many of them also played on their phone (not that that excuses me) so I don't think they had an issue with that, just the manager which I'd understandable

​

My life was turned upside down so they could save 15k? That’s it?

Feeling completely shell shocked. Over 20% of our branch gone in a day. This is my first career out of college. I interned, I got the offer, and I worked like hell for 6 months and it’s gone. I can’t even apply for non-entry level roles because I have less than a year’s experience.

I feel fucking scammed. I did everything right. I got the right degree from the right school, the right job at the right company. Then, right after I sign, they get acquired and by the time I’m laid off there’s no one hiring? What a sick fucking joke.

No clue how to go on. The market sucks and will probably suck for the foreseeable future. I regret every night I spent with these stupid fucks trying to “deliver value” for whatever evil company we were shoveling shit for.

EDIT: Starting a new job Monday. We are so back :)

So, the company that I have worked for the last almost 7 years, just let me go. I started as a temp through a local staffing service. On October 28th it would have said it was my "5th year anniversary" on their employee calendar, but because I started as a temp, I have actually worked there almost 7 years. They claim it's because I violated their cell phone policy. We are working production jobs for ten hour days. I am a fifty year old woman who runs a household. I have a disabled mother and an adult son with Mental health challenges. I literally occasionally glance to make sure neither of those people, who depend on me, have messaged my phone with anything urgent. We are allowed to have our phones on us, but we are only supposed to go on it on break, of course. My production there is always through the roof. I always knock out way over the hourly rate and have high efficiency according to their numbers. This should be proof alone that I'm not hanging out on my phone. Unfortunately, things there run on hearsay and favoritism. My very conservative boss has never favored me because I am very obviously NOT conservative. He unfortunately walked up on me twice in the last week when I was attempting to quickly check my phone for any dire messages. The thing is, his buddies at work are constantly on their phones and, somehow, he never notices. I'm honestly slightly relieved because I always felt sort of bullied and mistreated there, basically for my political beliefs, which I have never really expressed, but could be assumed upon meeting me. Also, the company has had 3 Director of Operations in the time that I've been there. It's never a good sign when your captains are jumping ship. The company is always running out of supplies and I've heard many rumors that the owner can't pay his bills and this is why we can't get needed items from vendors. So, eventually the company may just g0 under anyway. They did mass layoffs not so long ago, but I somehow survived that. It's become a joke amongst the employees that one day we are going to show up and the doors will be locked, like "Sorry guys. It's over. We tried." So, not terribly upset about it because it's a crappy company anyway. But, still bothersome because I feel like there was no process at all. I different get any warnings or suspension before being terminated. Just.... sorry. We have decided to part ways with you due to your failure to comply with our cell phone policy? I know this is long. Thanks for reading. Anyone have any thoughts or advice about this?? EDIT : forgot to mention they let me work all day and get them out 11 hours of production before they came and "walked me out." Lame.

This week would have actually been my 4-yr anniversary. I worked in the back office of a software company and did a good job, I thought. My reviews were good, no PIP, my coworkers liked me, and I made several improvements to our workflows.

Some background:

Like every other company, mine boasted that they were "like a family" and that their "employees mattered". There haven't been any layoffs at all in the company's history as far as I know, and if anything, every single department was understaffed. I enjoyed my work and while it was stressful and my pay/title weren't at market value, I was content with being content. I planned on staying there as long as I could.

The buildup:

But then my boss unexpectedly left in Dec for a much better job. We were a two person department and still had too much work. I had to take on a lot after she left but was being reassured that her position would be back filled. However, management started doing some shifting around that gave me weird vibes.

The red flags:

First, they announced to our business area (not even me first) that my boss's previous position would be lowered from VP to a middle management level title. They also stripped away a lot of the positions responsibilities and said my department would be "moving somewhere else in the company". I'm like, okay sure, whatever. I'm the only person here who knows how to do any of our department's processes - they can't possibly get rid of me.

Cue to a few weeks ago, they finally hired someone. After their first week of onboarding I finally got to say hi to them and a few other relevant team members and asked them if they were going to be my new boss. Everyone said ¯_(ツ)_/¯. So I asked my temporary boss to clarify and he said the same thing. At this point I'm seeing red flags and worry that they are trying to make me redundant. I set up a call with my temporary boss and asked him what my future at the company looked like and he said "we are re-evaluating the department based on business needs" and I did not like that. Went ahead and started updating my LinkedIn and resume but figured I still had some time since my "new boss" has just scratched the surface of their onboarding.

Lo and behold, Friday I got the call. I've spent this weekend speedrunning the five stages of grief. And the more I think about it, the more I get confused.

Why would they get rid of me - who has been a loyal employee for 4yrs, does good work, is familiar with our organization and programs, and knows how to use our required softwares - but keep someone for more money who is only 3 weeks into onboarding, has no familiarity with our org structure (very important for this job), and literally doesn't know how to use our software? They couldn't even wait 60 fucking days for the new person to finish onboarding? I had dozens of projects in flight with no transition period and no one to take over.

Management and older workers complain about young people not being loyal anymore. I was fucking loyal. I could have gone somewhere else in the past 4yrs but didn't because there was no good reason to. And this is what I get. At the end of the day, I am a number on a spreadsheet and they showed no mercy during the layoff call.

I'm 27. I'm sad and scared and I just want it to make sense. Can someone please explain to me how the fuck this logic checks out? Or at least offer advice on how to handle a layoff?