This post was submitted by David T.Thompson.

The post Officer Down ! first appeared on How I Got Laid Off.

I’ve worked in Silicon Valley for 15+ yrs now as a SW engineer. I look back and see that I was brash and overconfident. I was good at what I did. I got raises, promotions. Hell, after less than 10 yrs out of college, I was worth millions on paper.

These were the dot com days, from 1998 to 2002.

Then the music stopped.

I remember I thought the company would have layoffs because there were rumors in the grapevine that our revenues were far below for the quarter. But I didn’t think I’d be one of those laid off. After all, I was a good programmer and I felt invincible. They needed me, no other people in the company knew the component I was working on.

But one day, about a week before the quarterly results were to be announced to the public, my manager told me, abruptly, to hand over what I was working on to a junior developer, someone just 7 months of out of college.

I became suspicious and I talked to my manager’s manager (Emily). I asked why my work was being transferred and what I would be doing instead. At our meeting, Emily told me that I would be tasked to do something else. I pointedly asked her, to her face, if I should be concerned about getting laid off. She responded that I had nothing to worry about. But from her body language, I could tell that she was lying and that she was uncomfortable about lying — she felt guilty about doing this to me.

I went home and even though I hadn’t been laid off, I was in shock. I went into work the next few days in a fog. My junior developer was helping me but she could tell that I was just out of it.

My manager’s manager Emily came to talk to me and asked me why I thought I was going to get laid off. I told her it was because my work was being transferred to another junior developer when I had no other tasks being given to me. She understood and asked me to keep it quiet, but that I would get laid off. She promised that she’d do me a favor if I did.

So I, now despondent, just went through the motions. I cleared out my cube the next day, just waiting to get laid off. I expected the layoff to be on the same day as the public release of our quarterly results.

Well, the day before the release of the quarterly results, I had a planned day off. But Emily called me, on a conference call with HR, to inform me that I was being laid off. The HR person took over from there and I got the usual spiel. I told them that I was willing to come over and hand over my badge that day, rather than wait until the next day, because I felt I’d be better off if I ended this as soon as possible. They agreed. I came back to my office, which surprised a few of my coworkers.

What bothered me most was that I was specifically told not to say anything. I could not warn any of my friends at work what was going down. I found out later that some had suspicions that there’d be a layoff but some were just oblivious. I guess they thought that the dot-com bubble would go on forever, like Henry Blodgett.

Anyways, I drove to my office, and 30 min. later, I turned in my badge, picked up the severance agreement and left.

Emily did feel sorry for me, and because I kept my mouth shut, she got the company to accelerate my vesting schedule so I was able to get more stock options that weren’t to be vested until 2 more months. I really appreciated that.

Well, the next day, my phone started ringing. From my coworkers. I knew there’d be layoffs but I didn’t expect 40% reduction in headcount. It wasn’t just the rank and file. One VP got let go, so did whole groups, including department heads. It was a bloodbath. One of my good friends Susan, vomited, as she left the office for the last time. That’s how shocked she was.

My coworker Mark complained why I didn’t give him a heads up on the upcoming layoffs when I knew about it. He accused me of betraying his friendship. I told him that I was instructed not to. I couldn’t help it. Mark too was shocked and he said he sat in his car in the parking lot for hours before driving home.

For 3 months after that, I was in a funk. I rarely left my house and spent most of the days slacking, not even changing out of my PJs. I was depressed. I felt my world had ended, all my dreams of being a successful guy by 30 was gone. Oh, and my girlfriend dumping me for a doctor, yeah, that was like getting kicked in the balls after my company gave me a hard punch to the guts.

But eventually, I snapped out of it and the trauma of my first layoff slowly faded and faded as time progressed.

I was out of work for 29 months. Yes, 29 months. Thankfully, my stock options and savings kept me afloat for that period. I didn’t have money for “funemployment”, like travelling, but I did have money to pay the rent, pay the bills, and eat on the cheap. But it was close – I had panic attacks of becoming homeless. At 28. Asking myself how the hell did it come to this?

I spent months and months sending out resumes, only to find that for every open position, there were 200 other applicants. It was dead in Sillicon Valley. No one was hiring.

I spent this part of my life either chasing jobs or taking programming classes at the local community college to upgrade my skills. But those 29 months, especially the first 3, were harrowing

I seriously considered becoming an electrician. To get out of tech and do something blue collar.

I had no love life. Who wants to go out with an unemployed dude? That made me realize that we put way too much of our identity in our jobs.

After 14 months of job hunting, I received one offer. The salary was 40% of what I was making at my last job. I really thought long and hard about this offer. I was scared that this would be the only offer I would see for the next 6 months.

But I turned it down. I couldn’t go back to 40% of my previous salary and try to make it back up again.

But finally, I found a job, 29 months later. It was a contracting position but it paid me more than I had previously made.

That contract led to another contract, then another contract, and finally, to a permanent job.

What did I learn from my 1st layoff?

1) Your job is not your only identity. It defines what you do, not who you are.

2) Your first layoff is like your first breakup in high school. Yes, it will hurt and it will hurt a lot. But you can get through it and it will make you tougher.

I’ve been laid off 3 more times since then. Layoffs don’t bother me anymore because I am psychologically prepared for them.

3) I spent more time with my family when I was unemployed. Funny how being unemployed made me realize the importance of my family. I cherish the time I spent with my family. Having them give me moral support when I was down and out. Yeah, that was a reset. For the better.

4) Save at least one year of your salary. This is your emergency fund. After getting a new job, I didn’t splurge and buy things I didn’t have the money for when I was out of work. I paid off my debt. Credit card, student loan, everything. That meant I spent a lot of weekends at home, watching movies from Netflix or playing video games. It didn’t help my social life. I no longer had the nicest clothes or the newest technical toys or a honking 40 inch TV. But I had something better – piece of mind. If I get laid off tomorrow, I have no debt and I don’t have to worry about whether I can make the mortgage or car payments. I have over 1 yr of my salary in savings. I learned this the hard way. I learned to give up vacations or buying a new car every 5 yrs so I have a piece of mind if I ever get laid off suddenly.

Looking back, I don’t feel invincible as I was back then. But I feel more secure now.

That first layoff really changed my life and lifestyle around. I think for the better. Because I don’t fear layoffs anymore.

This post was submitted by DotCommed.

The post My first layoff first appeared on How I Got Laid Off.

For those of you who are still looking, keep staying positive no matter what!

This post was submitted by Chris.

The post Dealing with stress first appeared on How I Got Laid Off.

This post was submitted by Teresa.

The post Guess I live in the wrong country first appeared on How I Got Laid Off.

The day after I got my first paycheck, I was given notice that I am being let go. Our company had a meeting that afternoon, with our CEO announcing we had to cut our expenses in half in order to get more funding (hmm? sounds sketchy right..) and that there would be lay-offs. There goes the first person in the room with a manila envelope… second person… third person… and then, me. Two weeks in my new job, and that’s it. I am a 23-year old professional, I shouldn’t have taken this personally, but I am also an emotional, fragile, disappointed, frustrated and stressed woman – so I broke down and cried to my female coworker. Yes, I did that… in front of my CEO.

Now, I am back at job searching again, hoping next time would be better.

This post was submitted by Andrea.

The post New Girl Laid Off After Two Weeks...Cutbacks Kill. first appeared on How I Got Laid Off.

Six weeks later, I was told I was no longer needed, and I shouldn’t be surprised because this company is a start-up.

Through a friend, I interviewed and found another job as a trainee machinist. I worked hard, and came home exhausted every single day. Once again, six weeks later, I was pulled into the office and told I was no longer needed due to a soft forging market.

I called my old boss back at my stable sales job, and was rehired.

About one year later, my former employer, the machine shop, called and said they had an opportunity for me. I interviewed and took the job. It paid 30% more, and was a better work environment than my sales job.

Yesterday, four months later, I was once again called into the office and told I was no longer needed. I cannot go back to my sales job as I have already quit once.

I feel like a total failure who cannot provide for my wife. I am ready to never take another risk in my life again as it is apparent that they do not pay off. Is this just visited on me? How many times am I going to be laid off in my life? Why bother trying to work, when I’ll just be let go soon?

This post was submitted by Kevin.

The post Another Layoff? first appeared on How I Got Laid Off.

The first time I was laid off from my job I worked for a guy that I thought had it all together. He was a little younger than me and knew he didn’t have the knowledge or experiences that I had but he was smart enough to ask good questions and generally came up with some good suggestions. Then one day everything changed and I don’t know why. My yearly review was due and he called me in to his office. I sat down feeling pretty confident that it would be the usual “Exceeds Expectations” since I had just won a company wide efficiency award, just got back from training where I earned an advanced industry certification and had just completed a major project way ahead of schedule and below budget.
That was not to be. I was told that I had “communication issues” with members of senior management, I was difficult to get along with and I had let some deadlines slip on some major projects. I protested but I might as well have been talking to a wall.

The facts were this: The “communications issues” were from several years before when a VP wanted new equipment but then decided that it would not help him. This happened the first week I started working for this company like I said several years before. The other “communications issue” was when I asked a VP a question in a meeting that he was unprepared to answer. Instead of saying he would get back to me or something like that he made up some BS and I let it slide. I even thanked him for the response knowing it was BS. Later he told my boss that I was harassing the ladies in his office. He was the HR VP for pete’s sake. It was BS and never happened. The complaint about the harassment was not true and he could not get anyone from his department to file a complaint. Also this supposedly occurred a good 2 years before my review. So really I couldn’t understand why this came up. I asked but wasn’t given an answer that made sense. Then I questioned the “Missing Deadline on Major Projects” issue. The Major project was a major political football in the company. No one wanted to change the way they were doing things and some company VP’s went to the CEO and raised a fuss. Needless to say we were told to stop the project and it was acknowledged by my boss that it was not because of something we had or had not done but simple office politics. We had actually finished 90% of the project before we stopped. The other projects were all finished ahead of schedule.

I actually received a “Needs Improvement” on that review although 4 of the 11 criteria were “exceeds”, 6 were “meets expectations” and only 1 was “Needs Improvement” I was floored. He was supposed to average it out and it should have been an “Exceeds” When I brought that up he told me he could do what he wanted with the final rating. I had NEVER in my 25 years of working had ever received a review of “Needs Improvement”. 90% of my reviews were always “Exceeds Exceptions” or whatever the highest rating was. I let it go. If I had brought it up to HR it would have made it worse.

11 months later I was called in and told that the company was “Eliminating My Position” because they knew I was looking for a job (I was) and because I had production issues. I had no warning that I had production issues except for that review 11 months prior. I was not warned that I had “Production issues” nor was I warned to not look for a job.

I ended up in Unemployemnt court where the manager that let me go admitted that I was not a problem employee and that they let me go because I was seeking employment outside the company which by the way was not something that you could be fired for at our company. I got my unemployment since the company according to the judge “Did not have any reason to terminate my employment but in this state which is a right to work state the company does not need a reason to terminate your employment.” The company changed the reason to “Reduction in Force – Position Eliminated” and I was eligible for rehire immediately IF a position became available. I was not interested. My bosses boss was fired 6 months later when service levels plummeted in my old department. I found out later that over 20 people in my division were let go the same way I was.

2 weeks passed and I found another job through a headhunter. The job was a departmental management position and the company which was small didn’t really have a reputation to research but I was assured that the company was solid and the people that I spoke with were long term employees. I thought it was a great fit. I worked my magic just like I did at my 2 previous positions and saved the company a ton of money and came up with ways to save the company a ton more. The company’s vendors were ripping off the company by charging retail rates when we were buying in bulk. The people providing services were charging us for equipment that wasn’t even in the company and a service provider was really overcharging the company by 10’s of thousands of dollars a month. There were other issues that were covered up and there were management issues that management refused to address and pushed under the rug. This company was unethical to say the least. I felt slimy working there and yet on the outside it appeared to be a respectable business.

I went to work there on the first day and was given a list of tasks that needed to be accomplished over the next 12 months. I finished these tasks in 7 months and then proposed a new group of projects that would have saved the company hundreds of thousands of dollars to my boss For the next month I answered phones and performed Customer support tasks along with my regular duties. The assigned projects were all finished and I had just proposed a bunch of new projects to the State VP’s, COO, the Comptroller, CFO and CEO. I was told “No” (actually I was told “Hxll No! by the CEO and COO. I never did understand where the anger came from because this proposal was part of a presentation to the executive board half of which had already approved the expenditures) on all these projects even though it was going to save the company millions and improve services drastically. As I said, I had already passed these projects by the CFO, the Comptroller and my boss and they agreed that these projects were great ideas. I was disappointed but just smiled and moved on. I never brought it back up. I just went back to my desk and answered phones for the rest of the day. That was a Wednesday. Friday we had Birthday cake. On Monday I was called in and told that I was being Laid Off due to economic conditions. I was given 2 weeks of severance and a Letter of Recommendation that stated that I was great employee, that I was well liked and that I was really good at my job. However the company was cutting costs because it was not meeting budgetary goals and my position was identified as not necessary at this time (Remember all my projects were completed). Several people were laid off at the same time so apparently it was a legitimate lay off. Anyway I was kind of glad it ended. Remember I felt slimy working for this company. It was not an immoral business like a house of prostitution but it was not exactly as good as running a payday lending operation.

So now I had been laid off from 2 jobs in 9 months. What could happen next right?

I was out of work for 3 months and finally found a job again through another headhunter. The job was advertised as one thing and told that it was another better thing. They liked my experience, education, training and answers to the interview questions. The job was a demotion, paid less but was still in my profession. I was thinking that it might be a long term position that would enable me to clean up my resume. The second day after I took the position my new boss quit. When he told me why he quit I was not surprised he quit. The job was terrible. He offered me the position and I told him I would do what the company needed me to do. but I really didn’t want it. It didn’t happen. The company was looking for someone with heavy experience in that industry and I didn’t have any experience in that industry. Like I said I have 25 years of experience in my field and multiple advanced degrees. The person they hired as my boss’s replacement didn’t have a degree one. He also didn’t really have any skills that were applicable to our area. He had a few years of experience in the industry and had been a manager at his last company. He also made less at his last job than I made at this company.

He came to work and I was moved to an area away from the main area. For 2 weeks I fully expected to see him come walking up and introduce himself. He never did. Finally one day he came up to my office and introduced himself. It’s not like I hadn’t tried to contact him. I called several times and stopped by his office but either he was not there or he was in a meeting. For the next 2 months I never saw him again. Then something changed and I got an email from him asking for me to stop by his office one morning. I knew what was coming. I was laid off again. I was told that I would get severance and a letter of recommendation. I received both but had to fight to get the severance. The reason given was that the company was cutting back due to economic conditions and in fact they had released several people but my area thought we were safe because there were so few of us. What the company did was to go find cheaper people to do our jobs and then laid us off. I had heard that those kind of things happened but had never seen it occur until now. The people they brought in were inexperienced and worked for a little more than minimum wage. Of course the company is really suffering but apparently they cut payroll by 50% which was their goal.

To sum up: For 23 years I had 2 places of employment. After 27 years I had 3 places of employment. 1 1/2 years later I had worked for 3 different companies in the prior 18 months.

I can’t blame any of this on immigrants taking my job nor directly on Obamacare but as a highly educated Finance Professional I can without a doubt blame it on a terrible, terrible economy that is caused by stupid policies that have decimated America. Unless we reduce the deficit and tax rates quickly, reduce the number of legal and illegal immigrants and rework Obamacare we are all going to end up “Laid-Off”.

Based on the Law of Supply and Demand, if there are just a few people seeking employment wages will go up to attract the best and brightest. If there are many people seeking employment demand for people will be lower and wages will fall. Right now we have many people seeking the few available jobs and companies are letting the well paid go and hiring the less experienced at half the pay. Simple Economics.

This post was submitted by Knowledge Worker - MBA.

The post Fired 3 Times in 2 years...Is it me? first appeared on How I Got Laid Off.

This post was submitted by Mac.

The post Life as a Executive Chef first appeared on How I Got Laid Off.

When I was laid off of my previous job, my boss connected me to the agency that just laid me off. I was hired to lead the digital strategy group which was quite a mess when I took it over. I managed to rally the team, create process and deliverables that our clients were ecstatic about! I grew the team and gained the confidence of my peers and the company leadership – so much so, that when my boss left, I got a promotion to take over for her and to manage the technology team as well.

Sounds great so far, right? Well, a few months back, our incompetent finance director said we were off forecast (in a great part due to her misrepresenting the financials). The partners wanted the management team to cut costs – we did. We also cranked up the sales effort – but to no avail.

A couple of months ago, my boss from my previous job came on board to the agency I was working at. I was happy to work with her again, but warned her of the problems that were going on (too long to mention here). Within the first couple of weeks, she told me how well regarded I was amongst the staff, partners and clients.

From the beginning of her time with the company, she was stuck in financial review meetings. The upshot was that we were missing the mark by over $1M and that there would be a staff reduction.

I was asked to provide guidance on who in my team to let go. There weren’t any good answers – everybody was necessary and excellent at what they do. I made a recommendation and left it with my boss and the partners.

Well imagine my surprise, when I come in the next week and they decide that I’m the one to go. Even though I was the first person to successfully run the digital side of the business. Even though everybody loved me and thought I was great at what I do. Even though nobody could make decisions there without consulting me for my input.

I asked my former boss later why I was let go – the answer, “I made too much.” What a crock of sh!t – Well I don’t make it now. Now I have to find another job to support my family. I know I can probably find another job – but to what end? So I can get laid off again?

There has got to be a better way than these stupid corporations who don’t know how to manage from day to day.

I hope to find it.

This post was submitted by Jay.

The post Ad/Mktg/Digital Media Expert: Laid Off Twice in 18 Months first appeared on How I Got Laid Off.

The following week when I didn’t show up on Monday (which was not a regularly scheduled day for me), HR phoned and said nobody knew where I was. I explained the situation, and was told I put the extraordinary workload on myself, that it was all my fault, and that no one could believe I couldn’t help my team out. I asked what Kay’s hours would be when she returned to work, and was told it was none of my business, that it had nothing to do with her and everything to do with me. I was asked why I hadn’t worked that Monday, and I said I hadn’t been scheduled for Mondays for about a year and a half, that I was scheduled for 30 hour weeks. I was then asked how well I communicate with my boss, who we shall call Denny the D Bag. He had clearly sandbagged me with HR. I was then asked if I would work 40 hours, to which I said no. I asked if the HR manager had any clue how much of myself I had given the bank for 7 years, and again was told I did not know how to set boundaries and that I put things on myself. According to the new manager Ashley who did not know me for more than a week at least. Denny called me up next to tell me to turn my key in, and that they were accepting my resignation. Now Kay works her 30 hours, another gal from another office gets to work 30 hours, and they hired another full time person.

“I am so mad at myself for all the extra overtime, time away from my family, for all the energy and effort I gave them. In the end it meant NOTHING.”

Denny even had the gall to send me a “Happy Birthday” greeting after it happened. I didn’t respond. Hopefully it will turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to me, but I am incredibly resentful of the fact that Denny treated others so much better than me.

This post was submitted by Rochelle.

The post You put it on yourself!! first appeared on How I Got Laid Off.