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I got a job at a place that did that immediately after graduation. (A multi billion euro company.) The bean counters decided that the engineering department could be scaled down from 17 to 3 engineers. I signed up not knowing about that; two months later the engineer that mentored me had a major stress breakdown. Despite decades of missing experience, my knowledge left me as the most qualified person to fill his position. Corp dumped money on me then gave me his role. My doctor told me I was going to have a breakdown.
You end up working your ass off to hold things together but either you or the systems come apart.
After I left the the main server died and there was nobody that knew how to fix it. Now people are looking for jobs and it seems like a very profitable and successful place shut down from what looks like incompetence. Not easy to get hired out of the wreckage.
From first hand experience the best thing you can do after a mass layoff is to quit. -
as always in such situations i like to link this article from ancient pasts. Your situation sounds a bit like bean counter invasion
https://steveblank.com/2009/12/... -
when your code is a mess but everything work out in the end
When you keep getting +1s on a rant you posted a month ago.
Go big or go home.
So, with couple of new people in senior managerial roles, pink slips started flying left and right before the holiday season. That didn't happen before in the company. It's still relatively small and when people left that was for better paid or more interesting work.
While I can understand that from the business perspective and especially for a few who might have been considered dead weight (devs and other roles), I have a serious problem with the way it was handled. It's one of those 5 minute notices. If we weren't remote, I guess escorting out by security would follow.
Most recent person to go is actually one of the most senior devs at the position that became redundant over time, as it clashed in the "pyramid" with another dev. He was involved in many aspects of the product and greatly contributed to the overall success during years of hard work, i'd say maybe more than any of us.
He didn't fuck up anything major as far as I know, his services were just not needed anymore, compared to the other guy. Saving money. I get that.
At T-1 day he prepared a demo of his project. Meetings, Slack, everything as usual. Next thing we got was a "we wish him well in future endeavours" e-mail.
What I find most disturbing is the fact his account was removed immediately, and then we were asked to get any files and anything else we might need, all over personal communication channels (private e-mail, Skype etc.) because he was locked out of all company accounts.
I seem to have have survived this year. One thing they have definitely achieved, based on some off the record chat and some public updates, tweets etc I can see, is for many of us to start networking, polishing CVs and generally stop giving many fucks about the company and the outcome.
I've myself started brushing up on some new skills (stacks) and some old ones (algorithms, etc.) I may need any day now, as it seems.
If they can basically tell "thank you and fuck off" to one person maybe most involved with the company growth, with zero dignity and respect for the person, then fuck them.
rant