I Got Laid Off Twice in One Day

Photo by charlesdeluvio on Unsplash

It’s not every day you get laid off twice in one day. 

I’ve just had that experience.

Because my employer can’t even lay me off right.

I’ll tell you the story.

The Layoff

I’ve covered this in a couple of previous blog posts. I got called into a meeting with other colleagues to tell us our roles were being moved to India through Tata.

They also told me much about how they were going to make the company better than ever and increase profits. They said we would be expected to train our replacements to perform our roles before we would be laid off.

They also said I would get documentation by the end of the day.

This article is about that emailed documentation.

The First Email

Subject: Your Role is at Risk

The first email was polite. It didn’t outright say, “You’re gone,” but it might as well have. Instead, I was informed that my role was “at risk” due to a restructuring process and the third-party vendor coming and taking over parts of our work process. 

The email had some choice phrases within it. 

“We are reimagining our operation to set us up for future success.”

Translation: We’re cutting jobs to save money.

We need to make this change while we are still a small and agile enough organisation to be dynamic.”

Translation: We’re doing this now because we can get away with it.

“Some of the activities currently carried out by the Impacted Teams will be outsourced to Tata”

Translation: Your job is moving offshore.

But there was some relief in the email. My role was at risk so it wasn’t a done deal. Perhaps I could use this as an opportunity to apply for new positions and get a new job. Perhaps I could talk to my boss and see if it is worth trying to stay and protect my current job.

Then, just when I thought I had time to process the news, another email arrived.

The Second Email

Subject: Oops, sorry. Wrong email.

Unfortunately, the wrong email was sent. You will receive the correct email shortly.

The Third Email

Subject: We Meant Your Role is Destined India

This email removed all doubt. Most of the content was the same as the initial one, but it said my role was definitely moving to India.

I had a choice. I could take a termination agreement and get a severance payout. Or I could wait and (probably) get fired.

Of course, if I took the agreement, I wouldn’t be able to say anything disparaging about the company. I would also sign away my rights to sue the company in the future for any reason at all.

The email let me know that there was no opportunity to stay in my post, it was going to be moved to India.

I did notice one comment:

“Thank you for your continued hard work during this period.”

Hard work? What hard work? You just fired me.

So, What Now?

Well, now I get to job hunt. It’s a bit worrying because I have been casually looking for a job for the last year or so. Each and every time I’ve looked at a position it hasn’t quite made sense for me. Perhaps it’s not 100% remote. Perhaps the technology wasn’t quite right. I had doubts about each one, but in truth, I’d get rejected at varying stages from each job but never felt too sad about losing the opportunity.

Now I have all the time in the world to reflect on job security in an industry that increasingly sees employees as temporary, disposable, and replaceable. I always felt that job security was your ability to find a new job in good time. I guess now I’ve got the motivation.

My current position has given me more than just a paycheck too. I’ll have some very interesting answers for my next interviewer when they ask, “Why did you leave your last job?”.

Conclusion

I think there is one conclusion from this article. You should always be *interview-ready* and ready to give your best shot at getting a new job.

We’ll see in subsequent articles if I was indeed *interview-ready*.