[DDickson]

This article doesn't mention it, but being laid off will change you at a psychological level. It can be a deeply traumatic event.

I was laid off over 5 years ago, and, as these things usually go, it was a complete shock to me. The company had been acquired, and my services were no longer needed. It ended up being a very positive change for my career, but to this day, if I ever get a moment of déjà vu, my immediate thought is to check my phone and see if I've been fired.

[ipsento606]

> being laid off will change you at a psychological level

it certainly can do, but it's also fine if it doesn't

when I was laid off, some family members simply refused to believe that it hadn't had a profound negative effect on how I viewed myself. Dealing with that disbelief was by far the most difficult part of the process

I felt absolutely fine, because at the time I had no emotional investment in my job or career

[Trasmatta]

> being laid off will change you at a psychological level. It can be a deeply traumatic event.

I didn't get laid off, but I project I put years of my life into was shut down (in a "row on a spreadsheet" type of way), and it effected me surprisingly deeply. I'm still dealing with the after effects, and reading this thread is making me realize it was cognitively really similar to a layoff.

I wish it didn't bother me as much as it did, but that doesn't change the impact.

[dave78]

I'm 24 years into my career now. I think you just get used to this after a while.

I've worked on several big (at the time) software products that our company built and shipped to customers for a while, that we have since abandoned. And in those cases, the entire organization within the company that owned the code was disbanded, so there was no one left to know about it or care about it. I'm not 100% certain but I strongly suspect that there is not a single copy left anywhere in the company of the code for those products - code that I worked on for years.

It's strange thinking that there is basically no trace left of something that I put years of professional work into, but I think it happens more than most people realize. I suppose it's no different than startups that fail and everything disappears.

I also think this is why so many software people end up enjoying hobbies that revolve around physical things, like woodworking or restoring old cars. Having some physical object that you can point to and say "I built that" is kind of nice compared to everything else you've done living on a flash chip somewhere.

[seb1204]

Wow, I would not expect this kind of news to come via txt or email. This should be manager/supervisor face to face.

[DDickson]

I was laid off in a face to face meeting with the VP. Checking my phone might be irrational, but irrational thoughts can be a symptom of trauma. Then again, I do work fully remote, so I'm checking for tell tale signs. Mysterious meetings on my calendar, DMs from the CTO, etc.

[shaftway]

I was laid off twice, about a year apart. Both affected me deeply, and clearly in a traumatic way. The last one was about a year ago.

My spidey-sense has been tingling for the last couple weeks, and there's a vesting cliff coming up, so I've been looking at my manager's calendar for suspicious upcoming meetings. I figure there are 8 potential firing days left (Mondays, Fridays, and regular 1:1 meetings) until that cliff, and then I can relax.

One of the things that has helped me cope is to constantly be interviewing at smaller companies. It's a lot less stressful to be laid off when you already have another offer on the table.