Among the ways you can do layoffs, this is one of the better ones for sure. People who are kind of checked out already anyway can get a nice paycheck on their way out and start looking for something new, while people who still have something important to get out of the job get the option to stay.
Consent matters!
I’m 4 weeks away from my voluntary redundancy. I was planning on leaving the job this year anyway, as I wanted to move, so to get a nice paycheck with it was a definite bonus.
Of the people that chose voluntary redundancy, it was mostly those without ties to the area, those that could move, young enough to re-skill, or old enough to retire. The ones that were forced into redundancy have families, mortgages, history in the area, enough baggage to cause inertia. Part of my reasoning to take the voluntary redundancy was to help save at least one person from that.
So absolutely, consent matters. It just sucks that this is happening at all.
The company’s stated reasons for redundancy was to move skills to other locations in the country. This is after a year’s long effort to co-locate in order to facilitate collaboration. What it really seems to be is that our location has very high staff retention, and therefore high salaries, and the company thinks it can hire younger and cheaper elsewhere. The skill and knowledge lost with this move is staggering, everyone can see that, but profit is the most important factor the company cares about, so it’ll inflict its own wounds to get profit up. Capitalism is weird.
I got laid off a couple of years ago by a large tech company (rhymes with Brisco). It sort of sucked, but it was part of a mass layoff of about half the employees who had come into Brisco when our original small company was acquired by them. Interestingly enough, everybody who was laid off was single and childless - all the people who were married and/or had kids were kept on. At least until this new round of layoffs, because fuck everybody we’re going with AI.
I mean if there are severance packages, I wouldn’t say no.
I was laid-off in 2022 and got a pretty nice severance, and my new job pays 40% more. I wish I had known how relatively quickly I was going to find another job because I would have enjoyed my time off a lot more. I personally don’t know anyone who has been laid-off and ended up worse off.
Hope that’s true for me! I’m 2 months in and no strong leads. Trying to work my network though.
Hang in there… It took me 3 months to find a job and I worked my ass off every day of those 3 months sending out resumes, reworking my resumes, doing applications, having interviews with headhunters (which I’m retrospect was likely a waste of time since they really didn’t do anything for me).
I certainly didn’t want to come off as sounding like getting laid-off was easy, because it was an extremely stressful time of my life, buy I do think back on those 3 months and how I would have liked to have been doing literally anything else other that marketing myself.
And I will say that as a social network LinkedIn is shit, but it does seem to be a good place for job hunting. Make your profile look like someone they’d want to hire, and then try to be that person on the interview (and maybe even the first few months on the job, of you can).
I was laid off from a big company in 2023, after being with them for 5 years. They told us in March, had it hang over our heads for 2 months, while they did rounds of layoffs. My coworker and myself got laid off finally at the very end. So did the guy I got hired, and had been with the company for like 3 years.
When I tell people I got laid off, they give me sympathy, but I tell them it’s not that bad because due to a contract they had to give me 3 months notice in order to lay me off. My boss said I didn’t have to work those 3 months, so it was a paid vacation. I also got like 12 grand in severance, and possibly 25 grand in benefits in an investment account. I can still get unemployment, which I’m on, and will run out soon. I’ve moved cities and haven’t worked a day since the end of May 2023… I did live with my parents for 4 months though, I’m 38.
Yeah, sorry if I came across as aloof, I do know that it’s tough out there, but I do believe that most people come out ahead after a layoff. But there are still many others who don’t, and I do recognize just how lucky I am.
This is called a VRIF, Voluntary Reduction in Force, and usually comes with a sizable severance. Lots of people close to retirement at my last job took the offer because it was worth it.
Severance package? Unemployment? References?
Yeah, I’d take it.
Was given the option about 6 years ago at IBM. Jumped at the opportunity, unfortunately wasn’t approved. “no, we still have a lot of work for you”
Ended up leaving 3 months later, ah well
