As awful as it is that good people were let go, the people on their teams who are still there in many cases will be expected to do their current work plus the work of the people that were let go. The work doesnt go away. Especially awful if you are then expected to take on roles the laid off person did that you have never been trained on or have any experience doing.
Looks like theres going to be pain for everyone
Several years ago when times were a little better, I took an early retirement offer I could not pass up at age 52. I was a seasoned software developer. I thought it would be no problem to find full-time work but what I found was no one wanted to hire a 52 year old guy and give him or his family health benefits. I ended up contracting and to my surprise, it was very lucrative $$$$$. Enjoyed several good years, lot's of interesting challenges and I learned a bunch of new things. I look back on those days as some of my best.
I've seen this happen before...layoff staff and load up those that are left. At some point you reach a level where you just can't layoff anymore people but still they do it. And sometimes they layoff people only to realize that they need that particular persons skills. Saw this at one company I worked for years ago - laid off literally the only guy who knew anything about a particular product that was still at one site under contract. Boss realized the error and when the employee came in to collect his belongings the boss explained the mistake and asked (pleaded) with the guy to consider coming back to work - guy flat out told the boss to go take a flying f... and didn't care if he offered to pay him double.
I'm over 50, had decades in, high impact level work. Consistent top reviews, awards and all that shot. When WFR hit my group earlier in the year, the work left behind was smeared to the remaining staff incl. me. I saw massive overload building so said no to couple of things. I think that got me sacked as of yesterday. - age, salary level and "this guy said no so is not a team player". Collect and move on. in TX, likely no way to show ageism at play.
People thought I’d be livid to be WFR when reaching out to me. I feel like I just got paroled and can’t stop smiling. Like the other person said - get laid off and collect.
When my name was announced in a Staff Mtg, the person who knew it would probably to said “Oh shat.” That person was challenged with their own work and now will take mine on. I hid a lot of my pain so they don’t have any idea what they are up against. I think some people who are left are going to lose sleep, lose weight, and have their hair fall out from stress.
Sad, but true statement and have already seen it happening. Remember: the ability to say no is a great skill.
Already happening.
There is some truth to this but you can also choose to take control. Follow what makes you happy and not give your entire life to this. You can say no, be proactive and be solution focused. And if that doesn’t help, get laid off and collect. It’s really up to you. Job market is opening up - it’s not that bad if you have technical skills.