My manager told me on two separate occasions that I shouldn't worry about layoffs because he's got my back and he considers me indispensable. I'd love to believe him, but I was under the impression that decisions regarding layoffs were made higher up on the chain of command. Now I'm not sure what to think.
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If you leave the company on your own for another one, you get a two week notice for transition.
If you stay loyal to the company and they lay you off, they tell you today will be your last day and you lose access in a couple of hours
Every time someone above me have made a point to say this it was a lie to keep me from leaving before they where ready..
250 Million in cuts - trust no one.
I was laid off last week! I even had conversations with my manager and she told me that if anything happened she didn't make that decision (I was her only direct report), I knew I was going to be let go because a week before i got a call from the IT department telling me that they couldn't have access to my laptop remotely and it was required to be solved by the first week of september, they asked me to send back my current laptop and sent me a new one! The decisions were made all the way up!!
How far can you throw him/her/them?
Every senior executive will be protecting his/her allies - corruption in this company is so deep. In Europe we hear stories of conflict of interests , president promoting unqualified losers just because they cover his tracks - it’s a circus
Managers up to VP levels have stated they were not aware of or involved in who was in the pool of people RIFD. If that’s true your manager cannot make a claim anyone is safe.
If the manager was told it is either between you or one of your direct reports, they will always pick one of their workers to be laid off.
I would not believe him. These layoffs are higher than the manager level. He may 100% consider you indispensable but that does not mean he can win the fight with HR and the higher ups. If it was just laying off a few people across the company then more likely he could have some swing protect individuals but this is mass layoffs where managers/directors are also getting let go and they are looking at every group to downsize, if profitable or not.
I do not know how Avaya did layoffs this last round to identify people but I know at other companies they will lay people off not just based off performance but off salary. Even if you are better then than your peers, you maybe you make a lot more money than him, they choose you. Usually those types of layoffs HR or high up management does it and they are just told save X amount of dollars in this group and they are picking names based of salary, age, years of experience.
My manager said the same thing to our group as well and we still lost 2 people to layoffs last week but what else is he supposed to say, "I will be honest with you all, you or I might get laid off." If management said that, no one will be working to drive quota and everyone will just be spending time looking for a job and interviewing.
I started on the data side at Bay Networks, transitioned to Nortel, and then Avaya. In 2017, I was on a team that provided remote phone support for data and voice products. I started receiving "Welcome to Extreme Networks" emails and transition meeting invitations after Avaya announced they were selling the data portfolio to them. I then asked my manager if I was moving to Extreme and was told that I was too valuable to lose and would not be going. I was laid off from Avaya four months later and my boss was not made aware of the fact that I was on the chopping block until about 2 minutes before he called to inform me. Your boss might have your back, but that does not mean he has the power to save you when the company has to cut costs in a hurry.