Tuesday was perhaps the hardest day in my working professional life. I have worked in the corporate world for just about 32 years, and on Tuesday I had 13 conversations with people who had been informed, on Monday, that they no longer had a job. That it’s not them, it’s us; here’s a package, it’s a super nice package and by all accounts nicer than they’d get at another company, and best of luck. I didn’t get to have that conversation. The conversation I got to have is, “now that your world has been upended can you let me know just how much work is going to drop to the floor or have to be reprioritized and oh by the way is everything documented?” I got to have that conversation on Tuesday. With 13 people.
Thirteen of course is not the number of impacted people from last week’s layoffs. It’s more than 100 times that, and there promises to be more. Those that have left are given a package and luck; LinkedIn is awash with green “open to work” and badge pics. Those that are left are awash in ambiguity, apprehension, and more than a little agita. As one person put it, “The herd is spooked. The herd is spooked and feels like they have been lifted from grass to desert, and do not know where the grass is.”
This is valid.
Tuesday was hard for me, but it wasn’t nearly as hard as it was for some 1600 people on Monday. Some of those folks have small children at home. Some of those folks are taking care of parents and extended family. Some of those folks are in the prime of their career and if you need security professionals, compliance professionals, and technical program managers deeply familiar with AI please do hit me up as I have a roster.
Tuesday was hard for me, but it wasn’t nearly as hard as it will be for the remaining thousands of folks who have the unenviable task of identifying what work — work that is/was good, righteous, and important — has to drop, or somehow has to fit in; inasmuch as we would like to think “removal of bodies == removal of work” I have never seen it work that way. We are consistently encouraged to do more with less, although I am certain someone has a calculus formula that proves that isn’t a permanently tenable position.
Tuesday was hard for me, but it did serve to show me a few sides of the collective humanity of the working community: I had several people checking in on me (some at work, some not at work) to genuinely see if I was okay. (I’m okay). I had a few more that popped onto my LinkedIn to view my profile, in what I could charitably assume was a check-in (or uncharitably assume was an attempt at schadenfreude). The most gracious, empathetic, and optimistic people I encountered on Tuesday, *and since*, are the people I had those first conversations with. Riddle me that.
If you are/were impacted by recent layoffs:
Bobbie Conti 