| I lost my job at BlackBerry in spring 2014. I'm not sure how many rounds happened before that. At least a dozen. The company shed thousands and thousands of us as it entered decline. Thankfully I had no children, no mortgage and lived well below my means. As such, it was quite possibly one of the happiest moments of my life, instead of the worst. I could only imagine how I would have felt if I just bought a house, or had a child. I was so eager to sign the papers to move on. In retrospect, I was foolish to have stayed as long as I did. It was an amazing place to work in the early days, lots of talented colleagues I had learned much from, about work, about life, but by the end, it was a shambling zombie, decomposing before our very eyes. We were summoned into an office with a cheerful HR person, armed with a PowerPoint presentation. A box was passed around to toss our many years worth of phones into. I'll never forget being asked, "Does everyone know why we are here?" at the very start. We did. I wish good fortune to anyone who has lost their job in the recent layoff rounds. There is light at the end of the tunnel. Given some time and luck, you might even land in a better place (I feel blessed in that respect). |
1. Obviously it is painful for the person getting dumped/fired. But long term it's probably for the best as it gives all parties the freedom to choose other options and move on.
2. There are usually signs that should allow most people to prepare long before the breakup/layoff happens. You say "I was foolish to have stayed as long as I did" - can't comment on that, but I do hope that you knew it likely that a layoff was eventually coming and you took adequate preparations (saving more, keeping your resume up-to-date, etc.) for that likely event.