(Image credit: Getty Images)
https://www.bbc.com/-By Megan Tatum
Getting your job cut can be jarring, to say the least. But for workers who’ve never been through layoffs, it can sting particularly badly.
Shamari Coleman never considered herself a person who’d get laid off. But in September 2022, five months after taking a product-marketing position at multinational tech firm AvePoint, the 28-year-old found herself without a job.
“I loved the team I was working with and the culture that was fostered there,” says New Jersey, US-based Coleman. “It was my first taste of working at a big tech company, and I felt like I’d be there as long as they’d have me.”
But five months later, she woke up to an email from the CEO, announcing they’d decided to lay off 5% of their workforce. All Coleman could do was wait to see if she was affected. “A few hours later, I was invited to a meeting with someone from HR and a department manager, and that was that.”
The layoff was unexpected, of course, but the possibility she could be axed in the current climate wasn’t unfathomable, she says. “I was always uneasy, because working in the tech industry, I’d been seeing post after post since around May that year of people getting laid off. It was always in the back of my mind.” Indeed, according to layoffs.fyi, which has tracked tech layoffs globally since the pandemic, more than 150,000 people were laid off in 2022, across more than 1,000 tech companies.
Still, being jobless shook Coleman’s self-confidence. Having graduated with a degree in political sciences in New York, she’d immediately set her sights on the tech sector, working with early-stage start-ups in San Francisco for nearly two years before finding this large tech job. “I was the person that would go out and get interviews and get offers or leverage offers. I felt like I was always in control of my career, and this was the first time I felt like I wasn’t.”
Like Coleman, many people affected by the layoffs that have swept the globe in the past 12 months have never faced redundancy before. Lots of these workers have been ambitious high achievers at top firms, who are now confronted by the brutal reality that hard work and talent isn’t always enough. Beyond scrambling to re-think career plans, some workers have found their confidence dented in an unexpected way. Yet it’s not all bad news.
‘What do I do with myself now?’
It isn’t surprising that Coleman was left with a shaken sense of identity after being laid off, says Paula Allen, global leader and senior vice-president of research and total wellbeing at Canadian HR- and tech-firm LifeWorks.
“For anyone, being laid off is difficult … But for people early in their career who have always been high achievers, it can be particularly hard, because there’s a feeling they’ve always been in control of their destiny – that they’re the one that people want,” she says.
I felt like I was always in control of my career, and this was the first time I felt like I wasn’t – Shamari Coleman
As a result, they’re left questioning what they may have done or how they might have performed differently. But that often has no value, adds Allen. “You’re not going to find any insights, because you didn’t do anything wrong.”
Even workers who understand their layoffs weren’t personal in nature can experience these ripple effects. Toronto-based Stella Alexandrova had been at Canadian e-commerce company Shopify for three-and-a-half years when she found out she was one of roughly 1,000 employees laid off by the firm in July last year.
“It was my dream job and my dream company,” she says of her role as a growth lead. “Getting that job had felt like the next big step in my career.”
In the days leading up to the cuts, she and her team had been busy working to deadlines and pursuing leads. So, when the email arrived in her inbox on a Tuesday morning, just after she’d rolled out of bed and was sipping coffee at her desk, she was shocked that her time there was abruptly over.
“It’s like, what do I do with myself now?” she says. “We’d started to hear about other tech layoffs, but you just don’t think you’ll be affected until you are. It wasn’t expected in any way.”
Having never experienced redundancy before, her head was initially full of questions about why she’d been chosen. “You start thinking, did something happen? I didn’t think I’d done anything that meant it could be based on my performance. And that was confirmed later. My whole team was part of the layoff. But you can’t help to initially question whether it was performance-based, and that does shake up your confidence.”
Being laid off can also be a financial blow, of course – and often even more so for those laid off for the first time, who may not have significant savings or experience of how to navigate a sudden loss of income; or for highly skilled workers, for whom being laid off was completely unexpected.
Coleman had been contributing to multiple savings accounts since 2020, as part of a personal goal to become more financially savvy, and felt “financially OK” when the her layoff hit in December. Still, the loss of income was still a source of anxiety. “There’s a general sense of worry of, will I have a new role before this money runs out? As of right now, though, I’m doing OK.”
In some cases, generous severance packages might also mitigate anxiety around a loss of income, says Dion McKenzie, co-founder of non-profit talent network Colorintech, headquartered in London. “But there’s definitely a financial impact. Let’s face it – younger people coming in at entry level, or with perhaps three-to-five years’ experience, don’t necessarily have a windfall,” says McKenzie. “That, in addition to the cost-of-living crisis definitely carries a financial burden, especially as a lot of these salaries are composed of [stock] options, which are now underwater and undervalued.”
‘Put yourself first’
Once the initial shock has subsided and people start to consider their next move, the impact of being laid off can manifest differently.
For some, there’s a lingering uncertainty around putting themselves back out there in the jobs market. “For some people, this loss – of control, of income, of their expectations in terms of work identity – is extraordinarily traumatic,” says Allen. “It changes them. It changes how they approach work.” They may become obsessive over-achievers working 100-hour weeks, or develop significant anxiety in their next role, Allen adds.
Coleman felt nervous about finding her next job in the tech sector. “It affected my confidence. The current tech market is fiercer than any other market I’ve worked in, and I’m not only competing with a small group of people now, but with those that were at Meta and Twitter and were also laid off. It’s a fight between that feeling of insecurity and realising that I’m qualified and capable, too.”
It’s also changed the way Coleman looks at potential opportunities. While it hasn’t explicitly deterred her from looking for a job in tech, despite its volatility, she says, “it’s taught me to always do what’s best for you, and put yourself first, because these companies will always put themselves and their bottom line first”.
The experience will leave many reprioritising and rethinking their careers, adds McKenzie. They may question the job security at tech giants, and also consider early-stage start-ups with recent funding injections a safer bet.
“You might also be looking more closely for companies with better foundations – i.e. profitability and growth rates that are increasing,” he says. “Or considering safer industry bets, such as financial services and consulting. Those companies will pay a huge package to convince a Google engineer to join their business.”
Silver linings
Despite the negative effects of being cut for the first time, many of these workers say losing their jobs has not been all bad news.
Like Coleman, Alexandrova, too, says the layoff has changed her perspective on careers. Initially, she felt unsure about her next step. “I took a couple of days to process and figure out what was next for me. Ultimately, I knew there wasn’t anything I could do to change the situation. The only thing I could do was control my reaction.”
For some people, this loss – of control, of income, of their expectations in terms of work identity – is extraordinarily traumatic – Paula Allen
So, she switched her focus to the potential opportunities, buoyed by a five-month severance package. Now, instead of looking for a new employer, she’s taken the decision to use her severance pay to start her own tech company: travel-app Mave, which she and a team of 11 developers, product designers and engineers are scaling, just six months after her layoff.
“I do think tech will stabilise again, but this way, my fate would be more within my control,” she says. “Anything that happens will be my decision versus someone else’s business decision.” And despite how it ended, Alexandrova also credits her time at Shopify for setting her up for her next step. “They had prepped me to be able to enter this new stage of my life,” she says.
Additionally, with layoffs increasingly losing their taboo, there may never have been a better environment to be laid off for the first time. For her part, Coleman was among the workers who felt trepidation about even disclosing she’d been let go. “At first, I contemplated if I even should tell my network and close friends. Or should I hunker down and start interviewing, and then once I get a new job tell everyone what happened,” she says.
However, she quickly found support once she shared the newsin a post on LinkedIn. She was met with an outpouring of messages from both her close circle and wider professional network. Sharing her experience publicly has even helped her to overcome a lot of her own negative feelings about being laid off.
“I was embarrassed, ashamed and most of all, hurt. [But] I realised there’s nothing to be ashamed of when asking for help, and since making it known that I’m actively looking for work, my network has shown up in myriad ways.” This has included soliciting recommendations on her LinkedIn profile, and reaching out with possible job opportunities and referrals – all of which has given Coleman the confidence to start updating and sending out her CV. She’s optimistic about finding her next role soon.
And there may be reason for these laid-off workers to feel positive. McKenzie says despite all the headlines around job layoffs, there are still plenty of opportunities in tech for those workers who’ve been cut, whether it’s for the first time or not.
“Although in tech we’re seeing layoffs across the board, it seems to be the larger, more established companies who are downsizing and striving to be leaner orgs. Start-ups who are in growth-mode still need talent and are aggressively hiring to get to their next funding round,” says McKenzie. Ultimately, he says, “the power is with talent”.