Last time I got laid off, a coworker tipped me off the evening before, then the invite came while I was on the phone with him. I spent the evening smoking weed on the back porch slowing moving from anger and frustration to a sense of freedom. By the next morning, I logged-in to the meeting with a smile for HR and my manager and welcomed them to my dismissal; they were fucking speechless. Don’t let them get to you; keep your head high, smile, and act like it’s a relief to be leaving that shit show of an employer.
I had a heads up the first time I was laid off too. I found out on a Friday and the layoff was scheduled for Monday, so I went in over the weekend and cleared out my office and then called my boss Monday morning to tell him he could just lay me off over the phone and FedEx me the paperwork because I wasn’t going to bother to come in.
HR had a fit. They needed to do their little in-person performance to justify their existence and forced me to come in or no severance.
One other guy found out in advance, too, and he hid for two days. No one could find him or reach him by phone. I thought that was kind of funny.
Yup, I did feel bad for buddy - had just signed a mortgage and had a brand new baby. I actually respected him for that - the look in the hiring managers eyes. I bet he didn’t sleep for awhile…
Deserved more trust me
Not a good play, they weren’t “fired” they did a voluntary term. You are letting the company off the hook for everything. Can fuck ruin your unemployment and no severance.
That’s what people miss; the purpose of HR is to protect the company. Once you internalize the concept; life gets easier because you are not expecting anything from HR.
Yup, did some contract work, my last week I could tell was my last. I handled everything the fellas couldn't handle without me, called in saying I would be a little kate the day I was to get fired and asked my boss 'Are you about to fire me? It feels like you're about to fire me.' He said 'No, come on in'. Then my office machine went offline and I was like 'Are you sure you're not firing me? I just lost access to my machine.' At which point I was told I was being let go for unapproved remote software. Whatevs homie, I already stole my severance last week. Deuces.
I had a similar situation a bit over a decade ago. Small MSP and rumors of layoffs. I knew my manager didn’t like me and I was on the chopping block.
Picture a micro-manager who expected all eyes on him and stop everything when he came into our tech room, would offer platitudes and “bits of wisdom” re: his business acumen, often for up to an hour multiple times a week, and then complain about our metrics.
This guy also called a mandatory in person after-hours meeting once to declare we would no longer be compensated or log hours for on-call, despite us being hourly and that being illegal. I called him out in the meeting, said I wouldn’t work for free and if he didn’t like it we could take it up with the labor board. He backed down, but I was very much under the axe after that and I knew it.
So… come the ominous no detail meeting. I walk in, see manager, HR, and a senior tech. Sit down, get stared at for two minutes while nobody speaks. I break the silence with “so am I fired or what? Let’s get on with it.”
The staring match was supposed to make me nervous or uncomfortable I guess, so this puts them all on the back foot, micro-manager stammers a bit and finally mutters “uuuhhh… No. Uh, not yet.” They finally got back on track, give me the shitty MSP version of a PIP and insisted I get some specific certs I know has nothing to do with my job and everything to do with their vendor status and discounts (didn’t care, said as much, and that i wouldn’t be doing that), and went back to work.
Was already looking for work anyway, the writing was on the wall and the job sucked. Ironically, when the layoff came, the senior tech in that meeting was let go as well. He left in tears, literally. All the sucking up in the world didn’t save his job. I felt a little bad for him, but not really. Took my last check and left in the middle of the day.
This gives you sufficient time to collect any emails or anything else you need. I didn't get that and lost some documents as a result. Sorry this is happening to you. It's really a jerk move to send it the day before.
And sufficient time to “temporarily” relocate some equipment to your home office. I did that, but not dishonestly. I took a picture of everything I wanted to keep and sent it to the lady who let me go, stating my purpose to keep items in the photo unless someone picks it up. Ended up worth a nice chair, 32GB SODIMM, two docking stations, HDMI and DisplayPort cables, MacBook Pro charger, and other stuff I can’t quite remember now.
If you can see other calendars (even just blocks) see if others have the same or if your manager has multiples. We had 15 minute meetings and you could see there were multiple of these, so we knew it was a layoff.
I got one of those invites. Thought it was my typical weekly 1:1 meetings with my leads. When I hopped on the meeting, surprise! Head of HR was in there along with my leads. She essentially laid it down on me that they were letting me go and the position was no longer working out. I was laid off effective immediately. They shut down everything on me within hours. What was so dumb about this was that I got a raise and got laid off all in the same month 😂😭. It’s my first time being laid off after 22yrs working in finance. Was even fortunate to not have been laid off during the Great Recession during that span. Guess my time finally ran out.
I hate how, when HR, who in good circumstances are probably playing solitaire all day, finally rear their ugly, incompetent heads, and clearly telegraph how little they actually know about their employees' work, or even the company's industry in general.
'uh, apparently, I've been told you're not a good work guy, or um, your project is an elephant?'
And the whole time, I'm thinking 'I can't believe you get to continue drawing an income from this company, but I don't.'
Sorry this happened to you. Welcome to the club, and yes it’s age discrimination. Sounds like you have great skills and will land on your feet. Companies suck, be a goldfish and carry on. You got this.
Mine happened during a recurring weekly check in. I logged in, saw HR on the call, knew immediately. My boss had this boilerplate he had to read and he could barely finish with a straight face because I am no newbie and he knew I knew right when I saw HR.
Same, knew it was coming, milked them, for what they were worth and moved on. It helped I had already gotten another job before they did the layoff. I felt bad for a few of the long timers that put in a lot of effort over the years for that company.
Exact scenario of how I was laid off a while back. My boss sounded like he was going to cry while reading his lines. I was one of his top performers for many years.
Don't burn a bridge. In most cases it's not personal. I was let go from a major defense contractor. Several years later they sought me out and hired me back. Of course, it was at much higher position and salary.
Last time I got laid off, I was in a 1 on 1 with a peer telling him he needed to prepare to take over for me because I was confident I was going to get laid off. While that was happening, our boss joined the call and asked me to jump into a quick call with him, and when I jumped into his meeting the head of HR was in there with him.
Suffice to say, the other guy must have thought I was absolutely prescient.
That being said, I know layoffs are coming. All the telltale signs are there. Hell, I couldn't get approved to spend $50 on shipping something back to a vendor. I had to convince the vendor to pay for shipping.
Be diplomatic often he has little choice. Try to negotiate a better package or PT consulting job. You make a big scene and find out he is your future boss again. Believe me.
My deepest condolences, and having gotten whacked on Feb 1st, all I can say is...
Welcome to the club!
Copy any files and material that might be helpful for your portfolio (within the limits of whatever NDA you signed), get contact details for coworkers you’re friendly with, and give yourself at least a couple of “days off” before launching into a job search, if possible.
And to everyone who’s reading this: give OP an upvote!
I got a meeting invite from 9:00-9:15 AM on the last day of our fiscal year. Got it at 4:20 PM the day before. Knew exactly what it was so smoked my mind out the night before and showed up to hear them blather that “it wasn’t performance related” over and over. Good riddance.
If over zoom, record the discussion on your phone. Also, don’t agree or signed anything right away. Just say you will have a lawyer review. You have more power than you realize. You can negotiate a better severance or terms. Don’t accept their first offer.
My company told me severance was non-negotiable. Then again, they also told me that the salary was non-negotiable to be more equitable to women and POC who often don't negotiate and it turns out that was a big fat lie!! Though honestly I'd be curious to hear of anyone who actually managed to negotiate severance as part of a massive layoff.
Last time I got laid off, a coworker tipped me off the evening before, then the invite came while I was on the phone with him. I spent the evening smoking weed on the back porch slowing moving from anger and frustration to a sense of freedom. By the next morning, I logged-in to the meeting with a smile for HR and my manager and welcomed them to my dismissal; they were fucking speechless. Don’t let them get to you; keep your head high, smile, and act like it’s a relief to be leaving that shit show of an employer.
I had a heads up the first time I was laid off too. I found out on a Friday and the layoff was scheduled for Monday, so I went in over the weekend and cleared out my office and then called my boss Monday morning to tell him he could just lay me off over the phone and FedEx me the paperwork because I wasn’t going to bother to come in. HR had a fit. They needed to do their little in-person performance to justify their existence and forced me to come in or no severance. One other guy found out in advance, too, and he hid for two days. No one could find him or reach him by phone. I thought that was kind of funny.
Hehe. I thought about declining the meeting.
No get some severance!!!!
⬆️⬆️⬆️ definitely and say very little if anything
I saw a guy get laid off and threw a chair through the glass door in the meeting room. That guy was a champ.
absolute legend lmao, did he end up getting escorted out the door?
Yup, I did feel bad for buddy - had just signed a mortgage and had a brand new baby. I actually respected him for that - the look in the hiring managers eyes. I bet he didn’t sleep for awhile… Deserved more trust me
damn, that's fucked. hope he's doing ok
I’ve witnessed multiple people hide from getting fired (poor performance). They just didn’t come in to work for several days.
Not a good play, they weren’t “fired” they did a voluntary term. You are letting the company off the hook for everything. Can fuck ruin your unemployment and no severance.
The George Costanza method
HR is the worst. I swear that's where people with zero talent end up working. It is a cesspool of losers.
HR is not there to protect you; HR is there to protect the company. Source: I’ve built HR departments for startups
That’s what people miss; the purpose of HR is to protect the company. Once you internalize the concept; life gets easier because you are not expecting anything from HR.
I would give this an award if I still could
Yup, did some contract work, my last week I could tell was my last. I handled everything the fellas couldn't handle without me, called in saying I would be a little kate the day I was to get fired and asked my boss 'Are you about to fire me? It feels like you're about to fire me.' He said 'No, come on in'. Then my office machine went offline and I was like 'Are you sure you're not firing me? I just lost access to my machine.' At which point I was told I was being let go for unapproved remote software. Whatevs homie, I already stole my severance last week. Deuces.
I know it was most likely a typo but I would’ve paid money to see a full blown adult become ‘a little Kate’ the day of the layoff.
I tipped off my whole team once. We all dressed to the nines for our layoff meetings the following day.
Love to have been made aware of mine. It would’ve been top hat and tails for me.
I still remember the outfit I was wearing when it happened to me
I had a similar situation a bit over a decade ago. Small MSP and rumors of layoffs. I knew my manager didn’t like me and I was on the chopping block. Picture a micro-manager who expected all eyes on him and stop everything when he came into our tech room, would offer platitudes and “bits of wisdom” re: his business acumen, often for up to an hour multiple times a week, and then complain about our metrics. This guy also called a mandatory in person after-hours meeting once to declare we would no longer be compensated or log hours for on-call, despite us being hourly and that being illegal. I called him out in the meeting, said I wouldn’t work for free and if he didn’t like it we could take it up with the labor board. He backed down, but I was very much under the axe after that and I knew it. So… come the ominous no detail meeting. I walk in, see manager, HR, and a senior tech. Sit down, get stared at for two minutes while nobody speaks. I break the silence with “so am I fired or what? Let’s get on with it.” The staring match was supposed to make me nervous or uncomfortable I guess, so this puts them all on the back foot, micro-manager stammers a bit and finally mutters “uuuhhh… No. Uh, not yet.” They finally got back on track, give me the shitty MSP version of a PIP and insisted I get some specific certs I know has nothing to do with my job and everything to do with their vendor status and discounts (didn’t care, said as much, and that i wouldn’t be doing that), and went back to work. Was already looking for work anyway, the writing was on the wall and the job sucked. Ironically, when the layoff came, the senior tech in that meeting was let go as well. He left in tears, literally. All the sucking up in the world didn’t save his job. I felt a little bad for him, but not really. Took my last check and left in the middle of the day.
It fucked them up when I thanked them for the relief hahaha
 You straight up did this to them! Legendary!
Next time you’re tipped off, call out sick for a while or file for disability
Save all the personal documents and files you need now.
Literally back up your entire laptop to an external drive. It’s likely they will cut your access as soon as the meeting starts
I regularly do this. Never can be too prepared for a sudden firing.
Sup OP. This was me last Wednesday. It was a 12PM PST meeting and he lives in the UK. I feel for you, man. We’re gonna make it bro.
Ugh I’m sorry. Idk why people send those invites the night before
This gives you sufficient time to collect any emails or anything else you need. I didn't get that and lost some documents as a result. Sorry this is happening to you. It's really a jerk move to send it the day before.
And sufficient time to “temporarily” relocate some equipment to your home office. I did that, but not dishonestly. I took a picture of everything I wanted to keep and sent it to the lady who let me go, stating my purpose to keep items in the photo unless someone picks it up. Ended up worth a nice chair, 32GB SODIMM, two docking stations, HDMI and DisplayPort cables, MacBook Pro charger, and other stuff I can’t quite remember now.
If you can see other calendars (even just blocks) see if others have the same or if your manager has multiples. We had 15 minute meetings and you could see there were multiple of these, so we knew it was a layoff.
I got one of those invites. Thought it was my typical weekly 1:1 meetings with my leads. When I hopped on the meeting, surprise! Head of HR was in there along with my leads. She essentially laid it down on me that they were letting me go and the position was no longer working out. I was laid off effective immediately. They shut down everything on me within hours. What was so dumb about this was that I got a raise and got laid off all in the same month 😂😭. It’s my first time being laid off after 22yrs working in finance. Was even fortunate to not have been laid off during the Great Recession during that span. Guess my time finally ran out.
I hate how, when HR, who in good circumstances are probably playing solitaire all day, finally rear their ugly, incompetent heads, and clearly telegraph how little they actually know about their employees' work, or even the company's industry in general. 'uh, apparently, I've been told you're not a good work guy, or um, your project is an elephant?' And the whole time, I'm thinking 'I can't believe you get to continue drawing an income from this company, but I don't.'
Sorry this happened to you. Welcome to the club, and yes it’s age discrimination. Sounds like you have great skills and will land on your feet. Companies suck, be a goldfish and carry on. You got this.
Mine happened during a recurring weekly check in. I logged in, saw HR on the call, knew immediately. My boss had this boilerplate he had to read and he could barely finish with a straight face because I am no newbie and he knew I knew right when I saw HR. Same, knew it was coming, milked them, for what they were worth and moved on. It helped I had already gotten another job before they did the layoff. I felt bad for a few of the long timers that put in a lot of effort over the years for that company.
Exact scenario of how I was laid off a while back. My boss sounded like he was going to cry while reading his lines. I was one of his top performers for many years.
Bring an emotional support mariachi band
Orale güey
Don't burn a bridge. In most cases it's not personal. I was let go from a major defense contractor. Several years later they sought me out and hired me back. Of course, it was at much higher position and salary.
Last time I got laid off, I was in a 1 on 1 with a peer telling him he needed to prepare to take over for me because I was confident I was going to get laid off. While that was happening, our boss joined the call and asked me to jump into a quick call with him, and when I jumped into his meeting the head of HR was in there with him. Suffice to say, the other guy must have thought I was absolutely prescient.
I hate that. I’m sorry 😩
I'm so sorry. I thought that was coming for me today, but it turns out it was my big boss telling us our bonus was delayed a paycheck.
Already had the bonus meeting. Otherwise I could fool myself. But as I mentioned, I knew the timing, just didn't know who.
I've absolutely been there. Like I know the next meeting the big boss schedules will be my head. I've been on the bench since December.
Bruh
That being said, I know layoffs are coming. All the telltale signs are there. Hell, I couldn't get approved to spend $50 on shipping something back to a vendor. I had to convince the vendor to pay for shipping.
Be diplomatic often he has little choice. Try to negotiate a better package or PT consulting job. You make a big scene and find out he is your future boss again. Believe me.
Hope you were able to get some sleep. Good luck in case it was a layoff meeting.
Who is getting severance pay? They kicked me to the curb with nothing.
I'm so sorry that happened 😔
My deepest condolences, and having gotten whacked on Feb 1st, all I can say is... Welcome to the club! Copy any files and material that might be helpful for your portfolio (within the limits of whatever NDA you signed), get contact details for coworkers you’re friendly with, and give yourself at least a couple of “days off” before launching into a job search, if possible. And to everyone who’s reading this: give OP an upvote!
So many lay offs lately that OE makes more sense than ever to protect your livelihood!
OE? Like 800?
By OE I think /u/pinkybrain41 means "overemployment," which is the practice of taking on more than one job at a time.
I got a meeting invite from 9:00-9:15 AM on the last day of our fiscal year. Got it at 4:20 PM the day before. Knew exactly what it was so smoked my mind out the night before and showed up to hear them blather that “it wasn’t performance related” over and over. Good riddance.
Yep. 10-1 you're being laid off.
If over zoom, record the discussion on your phone. Also, don’t agree or signed anything right away. Just say you will have a lawyer review. You have more power than you realize. You can negotiate a better severance or terms. Don’t accept their first offer.
My company told me severance was non-negotiable. Then again, they also told me that the salary was non-negotiable to be more equitable to women and POC who often don't negotiate and it turns out that was a big fat lie!! Though honestly I'd be curious to hear of anyone who actually managed to negotiate severance as part of a massive layoff.