I am fairly sure that I am being laid off with other Sr. Engineers tomorrow and need some ideas. Basically, I saw a calendar mistake by HR, so oops!
Meh. It’s gonna suck for a bit, but whatevers. Life is more important than a shit job. :)
Advice I have heard is decline an exit interview, because those are for the company’s benefit and not yours.
If you’re being laid off I don’t know if that works.
It is my understanding that they’re going to try to get you to say something on the record or worse sign something they can deny your legal rights over.
It is my understanding that they’re going to try to get you to say something on the record or worse sign something they can deny your legal rights over.
It depends on where you live. Where I live, if they get you to sign it on the spot it’s very likely unenforceable as you need time to have legal documents reviewed so you aren’t just blindly signing your rights away.
Sign something, yes. The severance package. Don’t sign it, you don’t get the money.
Just sign it and do it anyway. Teledyne for example wouldn’t pay me a package unless I agreed to never bash them on social media. Never for example call them a crooked tax dodge or worthless parasites that liquidate smaller firms. Or so incompetent I am almost convinced they might be a front of some foreign government to weaken the technology of the US as a whole.
I heard the rumored date of layoff and booked a surgery I needed for that morning 8am. I got 2 more weeks / another paycheck because they can’t lay you off when you’re on medical leave. Everyone else was let go that morning. I also did it because I was going to lose my insurance (shit American healthcare system)
Added bonus was at my group’s reunion happy hour my colleagues said things like ‘Damn, well played. You win’
Go there in dirty, wet fishing gear and holding a large fresh fish. Slap the fish on the table, pull out a sharp knife, and go to town skinning and filleting it, all while giving a very earnest assessment of where the company is going wrong. But keep a big grin on your face the whole time.
Bonus points if you call everyone in the interview ‘Ron’ the whole time.
Bonus points if you call everyone in the interview ‘Ron’ the whole time.
Well, it will be two ladies at this meeting so that will be interesting. I am only 10mins from the nearest river as well…
If either of them has ever watched Office Space they will probably laugh about it.
Get all your questions about unemployment ready, including the forms filled in today… File asap! File as soon as they let you go.
If you have stock/equity decide now if your going to exercise it. You may have to pay taxes in addition to the exercise price.
Bring all your work stuff from home. Hand it over and get a receipt, nobody wants to play phone tag with a ex to get their stuff back.
If you have access to sensitive systems or passwords, put it in writing what you know and tell them they need to change those passwords now.
Make sure you keep contact with anyone you care about now, before you lose access to the systems.
Be the adult, let them you know these transitions are hard, compliment them for doing a difficult thing so well, make it clear there are no hard feelings. I’ve had multiple long term highly lucrative consultation arrangements after a layoff.
While good advice, he did specify to YOLO the exit interview, this is too responsible to be a YOLO imho lmao
To be contrarian,
I’d count this as a YOLO. You only live once and choosing to live it with decorum and immaculate professionalism or playing the long game is also a valid response.
Maybe one day, they come crawling back to you? Take them for all they’re worth or shove it back at them.
I had a lucrative job offer for a fairly senior role from a company that previously retrenched me. I got their senior management to wine and dine me. All in the guise of discussing the role, how I saw the future of the industry and my plan for taking the company to where they wanted to be in 2 years. Then after all was said and done, I told them I wasn’t interested. It felt good and besides I make way more now than they could have offered me and it would have taken me away from my family and put me in a very stressful role.
Honestly, the biggest yolo is to be professional, prepared, drama free. Don’t even let it bother you.
I’m above this, I have my own plan, I have confidence… It will distinguish you.
I once had a new job lined up, but hadn’t put my notice in, I got laid off before the Friday I was going to put my notice in. The firing officers complemented me on how well I was taking it.
Then 3 months later they hire me as a side contractor at 5x my salaried rate while I was still doing my new full time job.
So yeah… Yolo is about having your life together and being above other people’s drama, a bit of luck helps too.
I know a few people who have been hired back on as contractors when the company realised they went too far or laid off people with unique experience.
Yolo is for teenagers leaving Burger King naked.
Props for the prep advice.
If you have access to sensitive systems or passwords, put it in writing what you know and tell them they need to change those passwords now.
I am in security, so I know the logical reasons for that even though someone is sure to say that is bullshit.
However, I left a job once and encrypted all critical passwords I knew on a USB drive and gave it to my manager. For the password, I created a riddle that only he would know. I gave my old manager (he was cool) the USB drive and walked. After about a week, he was laid off for pure money reasons. So a month goes by and I get a frantic phone call one morning asking for all the passwords to some super important systems and I was kind enough to know they had pointlessly fired the only person who would of had access. (They had blindly destroyed his remaining equipment and paperwork, so they were gone.)
Damn. You left all the launch codes on a usb stick. Rookie mistake.
It was intentional, encrypted and before enterprise password managers were common place. The key was a riddle and actual key was never actually written down anywhere. I sure as fuck didn’t trust our network, so I couldn’t store them somewhere accessible.
I am fairly sure the drive got put in our evidence safe which was then shredded with the other drives that were in there. (The company I was working for got bought by a venture capital group and nothing original was sacred.)
I know this isn’t the “fun” answer, but I wouldn’t. I’m a manager, and I’ve been on the other side of that situation too many times. I’ve never met a manager who wants to do it - we’d all rather have enough work for everyone. It sucks but far the most for the person being laid off, but it’s a shitty time for everyone.
Plus I’ve also hired back good employees when work picked back up down the road, so there’s the bridge burning aspect to consider.
It might be just a little bit more shitty to be laid off and have finances jeopardized than to fire someone. I don’t know the market you’re in but I’d never stoop so low to come back to a place that laid me off earlier, I’d really have to be desperate.
I also don’t accept counter offers after I turn in my resignation.
Once you said you’re going to leave, even if they counter to keep you, they’re never going to trust you. And they might cut you.
However, I would still entertain a counter offer, as long as a kill fee was included in that. Counter higher salary, and if you choose to end the engagement within 3 to 5 years, you pay me this kill fee.
That way they’re committing to retaining you, and not just keeping you long enough to find a replacement
Don’t go? I mean, you’re being fired, what’s the worst that can happen so just don’t go. Go for a walk in the woods or mountains while the company is paying you…
The worst that can happen is that your severance package is dependent on attending the exit interview.
Is that legally allowed. Reminds me of that NFL video of get saying “I’m only here so I get fined” https://youtu.be/rmABbHSOTqQ?si=7GseAxob1CPn2d5P
There is no requirement to provide severance at all in the US.
Bit of you have severence in your contract can they restrict it to going to exit interview?
Unless it’s in the contract in which case it depends on the contract
And how many people have actual contracts? And no, your offer letter is not a contract.
Pretty sure all of my jobs that I specifically remember the paperwork for involved contacts. Incredibly one-sided contacts that I had no control over, but
Get ready for the prefabricated script from HR. Have your questions about benefits, 401k, unemployment, etc ready. Concerning yolo, at the end light a cigar?
It depends. If there is any money on the line or don’t want to burn bridges then I’d do the smart thing, whatever that is. Otherwise I’d just skip it.
Yeah as much as I’ve fantasized about going nuclear on past employers (or more recently, when firing a client), it just doesn’t bring any good besides a fleeting moment of feeling superior. It’s not worth it, be the bigger person and keep it professional.
Honestly, I’ve given every exit interview honestly. Don’t be bitter but tell them the truth if you’re a relatively normal person.
I’ve never really been laid off but when you leave companies, be honest and figure out who can give you a reference. It’s not always the HR person or your boss. Having hired people, at the reference call moment, you’re thinking, “This person seems right. Let’s make sure they’re not a sex pervert.” or whatever.
Depending on your contact but you might get severance pay.
That would be nice. It is just a regular FTE position in an at-will employment state, so it’s anyone’s guess.
I’d just play my steam deck for the entire shift up to and including the exit interview
You’re either burning or getting paid out on your PTO, right? Around my parts it’s common to burn 2 weeks of PTO before your last day.
“Unlimited PTO”. It sounds great until people realize how it actually works. There isn’t anything to pay out or take, unfortunately.
Is a scam.
I found out at my previous job that MN doesn’t actually require employers to pay out unused PTO.
Just decide to take some now, as far as they know you don’t know that meeting is an exit interview, tell them something came up and you need to use some of your unlimited PTO, take a couple of weeks while looking for something else then come back
I like this idea
Bring an emotional support clown
They literally don’t care. Don’t tell them “the truth”, don’t tell them “what’s wrong with the company”, nothing. Just say you’ve enjoyed working there and if things turn around you’d be open to coming back.
The best outcome for an exit interview is you leave on good terms so you can use them in the future if necessary. You never know when you’ll need a reference.
Again, any criticism or negativity you bring to the exit interview will just be used against you. You’ll be labeled as disgruntled, or whiny, or just didn’t have what it takes. And that will cut you off from using them in the future if you need to.
My partner got laid off in a beeeeg round of layoffs, worked with me at the same company. I wanted to be laid off SO BADLY so I could take some time off work to spend with them—we had the means to take some time off.
A month passes, and one day my boss calls me into a room where our HR person was sitting. They’re both suuuuuper morose, my boss looks like she’s about to tell me my gramma died.
I’m BEAMING. They pull out papers and start explaining, ask if I have any questions, and I’m like
“excellent! I gotta ask about severance” (yes absolutely)
“so I can do the whole unemployment thing? (yes you can)
“DOPE! Do I have to work the day out? (…uhhhh no, you can’t)
“Stellar! Mind if I go say goodbye to some people?” (Absolutely, take your time)
As I left the room, HR person was like “I must say, Rai, this is the most unconventional one we’ve done so far…” and I thanked them and frolicked out. Gave some hugs, got my stuff, and dipped.
That was December 2019. The timing could not have worked out more perfectly.
Thank you, job that laid us off.
Agreed if you’re quitting. If you’re getting laid off then you’re not coming back anyway.
If you get laid off “ethically” (as in the company really does have budgeting issues and they really are trying to weather the storm and they really are cutting back your role which isn’t critical to continued business operations) then there might be potential options to come back in the future if the business can course correct.
If you’re getting laid off because they’re too cowardly to fire you, yeah. There’s no position to come back to.
Yup, I got hired back a month after being laid off. My job search didn’t pan out well so I was glad.
