💡 Is a Layoff Coming? (Issue 626)
How to get ahead of it
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Few things are worse than a security guard watching you box up the personal items in your cubicle and escorting you out of the building like you’re a trespassing thief.
I still remember the day that happened to me at my first startup job. We had been acquired just a couple of months before that unpleasant event. The parent company took our IP and then laid off the entire startup team. Whee!
After experiencing—and mostly surviving—many layoffs at IBM, Apple, Yahoo, and various startups, I learned to recognize the warning signs that a layoff was coming. I wrote about it in more detail here:
How to Tell When a Layoff is Coming
The Great Recession ended about ten years ago, for most countries. Now, there are rumors that we may enter another recession in 2020.
Why bother with this?
So, why bother with anticipating a layoff? It’s not in your control, right?
Well, that’s not entirely true.
It depends on how early you can detect that one might be coming. You might be able to keep your name off the list (or have it removed from the list) if you can educate your manager about how much value you deliver for the company.
I wish more managers were good managers, but they just are not. You’d be surprised by how often a mediocre manager is clueless about everything you are working on and all the things you do for your organization and employer. I recall when one of my managers was only aware of a fraction of the projects and initiatives I was working on, so I had to create a document to educate them.
When you’re capturing how much value you deliver, don’t just include your projects. There are so many more things a great employee does. For example:
Reviewing colleagues’ work to provide helpful feedback
Sharing research, interesting articles, and new tools
Creating and running employee organizations
Improving and maintaining internal systems
Doing little things to improve morale
Presenting at brown bag sessions
Giving talks outside the company
Training new hires and interns
Planning team activities
The other reason to recognize when a layoff is coming is so you can be prepared. At one point, I removed all my personal belongings from my cubicle and took them home. I was done playing games.
I was never laid off again, but I did quit a job. On my last day, I walked out with a smile on my face. Someone asked if I needed to box up my cubicle. I laughed and said, “No. I have nothing there that I need to keep. You can toss it all.”
That felt so good. So free!
Even if you work 100% remotely, you do have a digital work life you will want to clean up to be prepared for an impending layoff. For example, there are probably great people you work with that you’d like to stay in touch with after you leave, connect with on LinkedIn, or ask for a reference.
It’s much harder to get everyone’s contact information after IT cuts off your access. Do it before the layoff happens!
If you want to talk more about this and other career topics, don’t forget to join us for our free AMAs.
I’m Larry Cornett, a Freedom Coach who works with ambitious professionals to help them reclaim their power, become invincible, and create new opportunities for their work and lives. Do more of what you love and less of what you hate!
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It’s definitely layoff season. Many of us in big tech wake up each morning at this time of the year wondering—is today the day? It’s such a trauma-inducing experience, one which many leaders make worse by how they manage it.
It’s quite the statement of our times (and not a good one) that we have to write about how to keep yourself off the layoff list and how to lead your team through layoffs (my recent post on the topic).