I Got Laid Off. Now What?
What happened?
“Huh. That’s weird.” That was my first thought when I received a calendar invite from our CPO (Chief Product Officer)/head of engineering (which is also weird). It shouldn’t have been weird since there was only a single layer (my director) between him and myself, but I’d only met with him once since he started eight months ago, so yeah, it was weird.
Within moments of joining the meeting the CEO and head of HR also joined. I immediately knew what was happening and said, “Oh. I’m getting laid off.” And that’s what was happening. After the CPO read his script he bounced and the CEO and HR guy explained the “why” and “what for”, and told me I would be able to work for another month and then receive a decent severance package.
It’s better than most people get.
What now?
No one tells you this, but when you lose your job you immediately get a new job; it just takes a while to figure that out. My new job is finding a new job. It’s obvious from the outside, but when you’re blindsided by getting tossed aside it can take a while for reality to settle in; even when you know what you’re supposed to do from the very start.
My days now consist of doing everything I can to find the next opportunity: applying for jobs, writing articles to get noticed, researching and experimenting with new technology, and [shudder] network. There’s, of course, no way I can spend 40 hours a week doing all of that, so I intend to practice bass guitar, spend time woodworking, and help out more around the house.
What the hell?
As of this writing, it’s been a month and I think I’m at a good place now. I’m less anxious about the future in spite of only having one interview in that time, and in spite of hearing more and more stories about layoffs. I won’t bore you with my reasoning, but I think this happened at the right time and I think something better is around the corner. I’m hopeful for the future.
Lest anyone think I’ve risen above my baser emotions like anger and resentment, I haven’t. I still have moments—usually while working out—where those emotions rise to the surface. It’s just part of the process, which I’m trying to embrace. Do I have moments where I want to lash out and leave a scathing GlassDoor review or whine about it on social media? Of course, but I’m not going to.
2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
There’s also the matter of embarrassment. It’s embarrassing to lose your job. It’s embarrassing to have to tell your wife and kids you were laid off. It’s embarrassing to add that “green circle of shame” to your LinkedIn profile. But so what? I know what I accomplished while at ActiveProspect, I know I have the respect of my peers and the teams I managed while working there. Everything else is ego and emotional noise. The truth is, sometimes “bad” things happen to you regardless of the efforts you put in.
When we are guests at a dinner party, we content ourselves with the food on offer; if anyone were to tell the host to put out fish or cake, he would seem rude. In real life, however, we ask the gods for what they do not give, and this though they have provided us with plenty. – Epictetus, Fragments, 17
Or as Job put it:
Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?
I’m genuinely grateful for the six years I had at ActiveProspect. I started as a Senior Elixir Engineer and ended as a Senior Engineering Manager. I hired a lot of great talent (most of whom are still there), made some great friends, learned a lot about scaling, startups, and management, and I have no regrets about the work I did there. ActiveProspect was a blessing to me and my family for these past six years, and I’m grateful for every moment of it; even the layoff.
What’s next?
I have no idea where I’ll end up next. Ideally I’ll end up managing another software development team for a small to medium company and I’ve applied for a number of roles along those lines, but I’m open to doing something completely different too. I have some ideas of where I’d like to take my career, but that’s three to five years out. In the meantime I’ll be exploring AI quite a bit in conjunction with working on Makerplans.
What I do know is this is not a setback, and it’s only temporary.