I'm trying to prepare myself the best I can. If you've been laid off, what did you notice in the weeks or months before? Did your manager seem distant? Were you left out of meetings? Did your responsibilities shrink without explanation? I'd love to hear any patterns so the rest of us aren't completely blindsided when that meeting invite shows up.
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I say this with kindness as someone who was laid off. Unless you are a front line revenue producer, if you work here, you should be prepared. Either paying off debt, saving money or looking for a new job. With as long and consistently as this has been going on, no one should be surprised if they get the call.
I am friendly with my former manager, my displacement call lasted 45 minutes and he got a bit choked up. We had just let two senior people go two weeks prior and he had re-assigned me some of their work. He told me that he found out about my displacement via email at 8:30pm the night before. Riding that severance out to finish up a college degree, then looking at other industries for the next job. I was told that they would happily hire me back if I wanted to move myself to a core location and apply for another position. At least I have a he-l frozen over option.
My layoff call was scheduled for 11:30 AM on a Tuesday by my Manager’s Manager (MM). MM had been put over our team a year earlier. My Manager had his layoff call directly before mine. My Manager was shocked he was laid off and likely knew nothing about my related layoff.
No idea why people are down voting the post above, it's true.
My manager was told who was being cut at Noon the day prior. I commented to a couple of coworkers that something was up. His change in interactions with me was glaring. And, yes, later confirmed he was told who to cut. It was not his choice.
Likely your direct manager won’t know weeks in advance. At a previous employer my manager did not know until the day before. And he was not supposed to tell me but he did - told me he’d be scheduling “the meeting” the next day.
I had a manager tell me they were notified that one of their direct reports was being laid off half an hour before it happened. So your manager may or may not know in advance. Some of these decisions are being made up in the stratosphere.
@b4 exactly. I've had so many Tuesday 9am meetings after payday with my manager and it's always the same actual check in/pipeline discussioon.
You work in an office based in the US. That is your hint that it’s coming.
increased scrutiny, im
The criteria for selecting layoffs whether or not employee in the United States.
If the answer is yes, those employees will be getting laid off eventually.
Only exception is Chainsaw’s henchmen and India. Everybody else is toast eventually
For us, we knew a couple of years but was never given a date. The workload started to become less. Depending on how many people are on your team(s), they layoff managers and leads first, leaving just a few or so, and consolidate the teams. They may do a second round of manager/ lead layoffs as people decide to move on leaving less people and again consolodating teams. Quarterly meetings, you'll notice your being left out or ignored. They may cut the budget for things like pizza parties. But mostly you'll be able to feel it in the air. You sense that managers may know something you don't. If they do, they may not be cracking the whip as much or seemingly not to care as much about the work.
@av I struggled for a long time and still do to some degree. That the relationship between my manager and I became distant. It hurt my feelings and I really shouldn't have let it but it did.
Warned … a few years before… then 3 months before, workload didn’t change.
For me it’s started 2 years ago since news of consolidation of news - manager stopped having 1:1 since then.
The 9am Tuesday meeting after payday isn’t always the death sentence we see here. At least not on its own. There will be other telling signs like you being left out of meetings, dwindling workload, minimal correspondence with your manager leading up to the event.
Look out for org changes where they don't quickly share information about changes in priority/tasks. Meaning like:
- Your group is reorganized under a new manager
-"Keep working as BAU for now, we'll share more information about about new priorities soon" - Month or two passes
- large part of the group gets laid off
- shifts in priority and task assignment finally get shared with the people who are left behind
I've been through this cycle twice now.
As others have said, it is the distance that starts to speak loudly. Work starting to shift, everyone's starting to wonder what's going on. Once the signs are there, do not ignore them. Your gut instincts are usually right. Just don't quit, make them do whatever they're going to do without you helping them.
An off-cycle 1:1 scheduled early in the day on the Tuesday after payday is a pretty telling sign. That was my story for 4/28/26.
My boss has become distant, but honestly was never a great leader in the first place. I know it’s usually Tuesday after payday (tomorrow, 5/12) but last week my 1:1 was moved to Wednesday of this week (5/13), and added my boss’ boss. Still waiting on that 9am meeting but team members under my boss’ boss have been brought in to help… but it seems more like they’ll be taking over based on their questions and how in depth they are about the status of items. Been here ten years.
My manager became distant and frankly didn't really want my input in meetings. Then my 1-1 was rescheduled to the Tuesday after payday. At 9:00am no less. it was The Meeting.