We live in an era of uncertainty in many different aspects. Think about the wars and other emerging conflicts, the increasingly polarized society, and well, those are not really the topics of this blog, at least not at the moment. But there is also uncertainty at many workplaces.
Companies making record profits are laying off people to make even more profits or at least making their profit margins higher. Or just for… I don’t know. And while I don’t necessarily agree with what they do, they are not charities, they are for profit organizations. They owe nothing to the employees. Apart from our paychecks. Something to keep in mind as an employee. It doesn’t mean that they should be inhuman, that will hurt their brand, but after all, that’s their call; their role is to make money.
Then there are the companies losing money wanting to become profitable. That’s even more understandable and good for the majority of the employees. After all, it’s better to lay off a third of the employees and keep operating than not letting go of anyone and then in a while, shut down the whole business. At the same time, this can be stressful for everyone and bad for those who are let go. Though with some nice buyout offers, the negative effects can be seriously limited.
I’m sure it’s stressful if you are laid off. Luckily, I haven’t been there. But waking up, preparing for the days and then learning about the layoffs and then getting an invitation for an HR meeting and getting the details must be horrible.
In my view, what is even more stressful is a prolonged process.
And just to make it clear in advance, what I’m going to explain is probably better for the employees than the previous scenario. But it’s still more stressful in my opinion.
If you’re working for a company with employees all over the world and you are located in France, the following scenario is quite likely. You learn about the layoffs. Maybe in a few minutes, maybe only once the HR said that all affected people should know about their fate, you receive a message that people in France are yet to be dealt with.
What can be done to the employees in certain countries on the spot or in a relatively short timeframe, that would take months in France? The company and a workers’ council must go through a few rounds of negotiations. You can be almost sure that a layoff process will take at least 2-3 months, even more if you have for example Christmas in the middle of it.
In certain ways, this is better than firing people on the spot and offering them buyout offers very early.
- you get paychecks for an extended period of time. If you have a good salary and/or low chances to find another job, that’s a great thing.
- you have more time to prepare for your upcoming interviews. Even if you’re not sure that you’ll have to interview…
Because that’s the stressful thing. If you’re quickly fired, you know it. That’s it. You can move on to the stress of a job hunt. With this process, you’ll have to leave in the uncertainity of a layoff before you’d potentially move on to the same job hunt process.
To stay sane, it’s key to somehow keep your stress level down and take advantage of the time.
To use your time well in such situations, here are a couple of thoughts to consider.
- First of all, mass layoffs are not personal. As a developer, you can be sure that the CTO, CFO, VP of Engineers is not targeting you personally. So don’t take it as such.
- Consider your options. One option is to lay back and work close to nothing. What would be the consequences?
- If there were no decisions made yet, probably you’d hurt yourself and decrease your chances to survive
- You’re still a member of the team, you have at least a moral obligation to perform work
- Your capacity is accounted to the team. If you lag behind, you make the life of your teammates worse. How do you want them to remember you? And do you want them to work more because you’re there? Once you’re out the commitments will be probably modified, but not before.
- In any case, what would you do? Watch cat videos? That’s not worth it.
Okay, so you should probably keep doing an honest job. It doesn’t mean though that you shouldn’t spend your time a bit differently. You should definitely spend a bit of time rethinking what you exactly do…
You still want to work on something that is valuable to the team. But you probably also want to work on things that will help your employability.
If you haven’t set aside some daily learning time, it’s time to set aside an hour. Spend it on reading, learning about new features, etc. Try out things. By the way, you should do this anyway, but if you haven’t done so, it’s finally the right time.
Do you still remember the last time you looked for a job? Probably you didn’t ace all your interviews and you hopefully got some feedback on your shortcomings. Well, even if you didn’t get any, you probably knew what went wrong. Try to focus on those, and combine what you should have known better with your daily job so that you prepare for your next potential job hunt.
Never say that you don’t do something because you might leave. That leaves a bad impression and it will be even worse if you eventually stay. In any case, sane people, a sane team won’t give you the worse tasks just because you might leave. They are probably quite compassionate with you if they are already through the process, not to mention if they are in the same shoes working from the same country.
Instead of leaving a bad impression, do the opposite. Leave a good one. I’m not saying that you should work more and do - probably unpaid - overtime. Not at all. If you know me, you probably know that I’m against that even if your job is not in danger. So just do an honest person’s work. And maybe, just maybe, try to talk a little bit more with others. It might help release a bit of stress, and get to know each other better. For many of us, this is hard. But if it’s hard, we probably didn’t do enough of it. And we might need those connections sooner rather than later.
Working while waiting for a decision on whether you have to look for another job is stressful. Don’t even expect to feel the opposite way. But this is also a chance to do and learn things you always wanted to, but never did. Also, connect with your colleagues as human beings, everyone needs that up to a certain level. Take such difficult times as an opportunity and hope that it ends soon.
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