We’ve seen no shortage of layoffs this year — with large tech employers continuing to provide severance notices to Wall Street. And while layoffs can be stressful, disappointing and depressing… in some cases, it can actually be a blessing in disguise. I’ll show you 3 reasons why, down below in this article.
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We’ve seen no shortage of tech layoffs this year — with large tech employers continuing to provide severance notices to Wall Street.
And while tech layoffs can be stressful, disappointing and depressing… in some cases, it can actually be a blessing in disguise.
I’ll show you 3 reasons why, down below in this article.
Your role/function was not valued enough in the organization
The first reason why a layoff might be a good thing for you, is that you were probably in a role or function that was not seen as crucial or vital in the organization.
Now, this might be a bit hard to hear, since we all work so hard in our positions — but sometimes, we find ourselves in companies or organizations where our particular function just isn’t valued as much as we think it should be.
For example, Branding and Marketing departments are immensely important at places like Nike or Apple — but they may not be as important at a large utility company that relies on city or local government contracts to bring in revenue.
For those types of companies, they would likely place more value on departments like Sales or Account Management, rather than Brand Management.
The key is, no matter what company you work for, you always want to be close to the core of what that company does, or in the new growth segment of that company — one that drives innovation.
And if you find yourself NOT in one of those areas, it likely means you could probably find a better company in which to grow and develop your functional role — one that would that would value your function more and provide greater scope, challenge and opportunity for you to learn and grow.
If you get separated from a company where your function isn’t prominent — this is probably a great push for you to seek out and find a more suitable organization to match your functional discipline — which would lead you to an environment that is more conducive to your career advancement and subsequent promotions.
The aftermath of layoffs is painful
Secondly, even if you were to survive a large round of layoffs from your organization — the aftermath of such an event is rarely smooth and seamless.
The separation of roles/colleagues and the work that is left behind undoubtedly creates a moment of disorganization within your company — one that usually takes some painful restructuring to correct.
Due to the fact that layoffs have to be organized and executed with a certain degree of confidentiality — even department leads may not be privy to some of the changes before they happen. As a result, from my experiences, I’ve seen countless scrambles from functional heads to business unit leaders — all trying to re-establish their team compositions to adapt to the wake these separations have created.
This often leads to those “survivors” taking on increased workloads for the time being, and stretching into adjacent functional responsibilities — until a more permanent solution can be implemented.
The other side effect of remaining through a big tech layoff, is that you’ll be subject to whatever organization changes are enacted by the leader of your division.
What’s really funny about large corporations, is that when they have a reduction in force, the work that the organization has, never really decreases in proportion to the amount of positions that were eliminated.
In other words, leaders will always ask you to do more with less — and expect you to step up and fill in the gaps.
And in certain cases, this means you might be reassigned into a different department, with a new manager, or even have the scope of your role drastically changed — in order to account for all of the work that is left to be done.
If you’re unlucky, you could find yourself in a situation where you’re at the mercy of a poor manager or flying into a career trajectory that’s no longer aligned with your future aspirations.
So now, you’re in the unfortunate position of either trying to fight to change your scope into something more in-line with your career path or finding a new role either internally or at an external company — all while dealing with the new changes in your work environment.
And if you decided you wanted to leave the company — in this circumstance, you’d likely not have the option to receive a severance.
Sometimes, being a layoff survivor may be more stressful than being released.
Layoff is a great start to something new
Lastly, if you were already unhappy in your current job and looking for an opportunity to pivot into something else, a tech layoff actually provides you the perfect avenue to take some time off to collect yourself, and the leeway to seek our new jobs — without the stress of maintaining your current job responsibilities.
In fact, when you get laid off, companies typically provide career transition services to help accelerate your chances of finding a new job.
These services normally include career consultations to rediscover your appropriate career path, resume writing services to accurately reflect your background and work accomplishments and placement services that help to provide warm introductions to hiring companies and hiring managers.
If you were looking for something new — this would be a good situation to give you a boost towards your new direction.
Remember — in all things that happen in your career, it’s a matter of perspective.
From my experience, every door that’s closed for me, has always opened up a new door of bigger and better opportunity.
I believe in that for myself, and I believe in that for all of you as well — so don’t get discouraged, and keep opening up those new doors until you find the right one for you.
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The content here is strictly the opinion of Daniel’s Brew and is for entertainment purposes only. It should not be considered professional financial, investment, or career advice. Investing and career decisions are personal choices that each individual must make for themselves in accordance with their situation and long term plans. Daniel’s Brew will not be held liable for any outcome as a result of anyone following the opinions provided in this content.
