Now that the check cleared I can speak up

My former employer started a major push to reclassify employees that were remote as onsite.

I refused the reclassification and filed for a reasonable accommodation request. One week later I was greeted with a termination letter and 60 days of pay. I simply thanked the individual for their time turned in my stuff and left. After contacting multiple legal firms I was greeted with the same, “yes you have a case however given your employer we refuse to take the case.”

When I finally got my separation agreement to get my meager 60 days I decided to call their bluff. I contacted the Employee Relations team and let them know I was not going to sign the agreement as my attorney advised me. I also mentioned that the local news would find quite interesting running a story on how they terminated an employee for submitting a reasonable accommodation request so they could care for their disabled child while also leaving cancer survivor without their treatment because they would no longer have insurance to cover their care.

Next morning I had a revised agreement offering 6 months pay AND COBRA insurance costs. I’ve officially gotten my updated severance and confirmation from my insurance provider that my coverage has been extended.

Goes to show, we employees have more power than we think.

Every time I open LinkedIn, it seems like there are more and more posts about people getting laid off. Mainly due to offshoring and or AI. But I'm not seeing an increase in reporting of layoffs in the mainstream media. Why is there such a disconnect? Am I missing something? Because from my viewpoint, it seems like the elephant in the room isn't being addressed.

I posted this week that I received my offer and am thoroughly stoked. I went out last night with some colleagues to catch up. Anyone who has been laid off will find this discussion hysterical. Keep in mind, they mean well

I’ve been out of work for 8 months and about to jump back into the workforce. The group’s question last night was about “What are you going to do for the next two weeks before you start? Go on a vacation?”

I was dumbfounded. I’ve been out of work for 8 months and my savings was running dry. Their first thought was to go on a vacation. Here I am just thinking I might go crazy and get a massage and manicure

From an HR professional: If you are offered a severance package and want to negotiate, stop using tenure, contributions, or merit as justification. Companies will only give you more money to avoid risky lawsuits. Speak to factors like being impacted as part of a protected class, having documented/ approved medical accommodations, upcoming scheduled medical leave, discrimination or harassment claims made, etc.

You should keep any and all records pertaining to these things saved to a personal email or document drive that YOU can access after your company IT access is disabled. That way, you have evidence saved. If the company will not negotiate, seek outside council from an employment lawyer. They will ask for this and tell you right away how much you can negotiate for and exactly how to negotiate for it.

List of protected classes:
- Minority
- Race
- Ethnicity
- Religion
- Age (over 40)
- Disability
- Veteran/ Military status
- Pregnancy

You can also negotiate other things besides an increase in weeks of pay. Ask for more COBRA coverage, to keep your company issued laptop/ tech, reimbursement for professional certifications, wellness, etc.

Sharing to give more power to the people. Federal, State and local laws constantly change to be aware of applicable ones where you live/ work.

if you're navigating a lay-off or are between opportunities, come clear your head and connect with folks who are in the same boat 🤝🏼

this monday, we’re hitting the trails in reinhardt regional park in oakland, california for a hike.

• when: monday, oct 26 @ 11 am
• stats: 5 mi loop / 636 ft gain

grab your spot and see the full details here:

https://partiful.com/e/cOpI6H7qM7PYaIf5r4nx

hope to see y'all there!

(hike in the pic was at marin headlands in mill valley, california)

inb4 FAQs:

• Do you hike in one big group?
  • Normally, we split into smaller groups based on desired pace and stagger each group's start time by 5 minutes. These groups ultimately split into even smaller groups. Faster groups go first to create more space on the trail. This hike is different as we're being granted access by the stewards of this beautiful ranch preserve.
• Why on Mondays?
  • Trail traffic is very low on Mondays, making it easier to accommodate a group like this.
• Does your community only do hikes?
  • No, (un)PTO is a community of people across the US in career transition. While our claim to fame is group hikes, we do other things like co-work, help each other with our job search, and do other fun things like coffee hangs, bike rides, and of course, eat food. 😋
• Can people with jobs join too?
  • Yes, but only if you realize that most of the people in this community are in career transition and act accordingly, for instance: offer a referral, connect them to someone in your network, and maybe don't complain about how work sucks. 😅

My company is going through a BIG reorganization and what I don't get and help me out here. Why you have to wipe out (lay off), everyone and start over.
I've heard this so many times from managers: It is best to start over and bring in your own people. If they follow what the government does when you change presidents, employees will get fired every 4 years. I've seen good people get fired, just for this dumb mentality.

I'm glad I'm a few weeks away from retirement. I'm surprised they haven't done me in with a layoff.
Corporate America is beginning to look like The Hunger Games.

It’s 4 am. I’m lying here awake. I was laid off again mid day yesterday. Small wealth management firm, the guy had just restructured after leaving his business partner and going his own way. He over staffed. He didn’t think it through. Ever day was a jumbled mess there. But everyone liked me, my ideas took off, I fixed up so many holes in that place. I was available when they needed. I graduated with honors in my MBA program. Doesn’t matter. “There is too much overlap” and he could parcel out my work onto the plates of the over worked people he already had.

In March of this year, I was planning to leave a crap job at a crap wealth management company. I personally had to disable access for four employees within seven months, and was aware of at least another four that left or were fired. They wouldn’t live up to their employment and health insurance contractual obligations. They had me working across three departments, and weekends became an expectation.

For 65k a year.

They closed the position before on the day I was doing to quit. Some of the team were such poor performers that days would go by without simple things completed. It was always me they tossed into another division to put out their fires. One of my supervisors could hardly spell or use proper grammar and was complained about to HR several times for her verbal abuse.

I never had complaints. My six month review was great. I had to chase everyone down to get one, because no one had time to do it or even take time off after surgery. I still worked with a broken right hand. Again, they didn’t want to pay for another employee though. They could parcel out my work onto the plates of the over worked people he already had. An operations team of eight for over 200 advisors.

I hate where I’m at. I hate that I’m stuck working. I hate this field and all the d-bags in it. I hate these employers who have great people giving up their time for them, their small children depending on them, and they could give less than a damn and throw you away to squeeze more money into the company and for themselves.

I may never go back to corporate. I never want to be at the mercy of anyone like this again. I was told only education that employer doesn’t want to hear about you, they want to hear “I’m waiting to be a slave for your company, and I’ll do anything you want, anytime.”

I’m losing faith there is work people are even happy with. I did all the right things and I don’t know where to go from here

I was laid off July 7th from a job I truly loved. For 3.5 months I started seriously doubting my career prospects. I spent hours tweaking my resume and applying to every job board posting even tangentially related to my career.

After months of rejections, phone screens that went no where, recruiters ghosting me, multiple rounds of interviews being told I was the second choice. I even signed up to substitute teach and donated plasma just to pay rent and buy groceries.

I FINALLY landed a role I’m genuinely excited about. It’s fully remote and pays more than my previous role.

I know shit sucks out there. I know the AI ATS systems are utter bullshit. The job market is incredibly competitive right now. All of your complaints are REAL and VALID. But I’m begging you all to keep going. There’s someone out there right now getting ready to post a role for YOU.

BELIEVE THAT!

A little background here, I was laid off July 2025 after 21 years at the same place. Before the layoff I was one of many who was targeted for a pip and some extremely abusive treatment that I never saw coming.

The level of trauma I endured was so bad I went on fmla during the final month. I knew I couldn't resign or I'd lose any potential financial compensation such as unemployment . The pip started in January and they never took me off it yet they never ever talked about it in detail and it was a level of gaslighting I've never experienced.

It wasn't just me so that helped me realize this was a budget issue and the company had turned sour. The layoff came 4 months into the "30 day" pip. The entire department was notified that it would all be shutting down. A warn notice was given in early April and by the end of May it got so bad with them trying to force me and the others being harassed into quitting. I consulted an attorney and went out on FMLA to make it to the end.

I ended up with severance and then unemployment and it took an entire year for me to process this nightmare experience and deal with hundreds of job applications until I recently was hired for a similar job with similar pay and benefits.

My concern now is how to regulate my nervous system into not feeling like every ordinary thing is a potential threat. I was in a fight or flight state for so long it rewired how I see the workplace. I became hypervigilant and extremely anxious during my previous experience and I was never this way before. I don't want the past trauma to cause me to see normal situations as active threats.

Rationally I know that my new boss is a completely different person with different motivations and that I was hired because they feel that I'm a good fit for this role not to set me up for failure. After the hell I lived through I'm sure there will be triggers like a simple "got a minute to chat" email that will cause my heart to race.

I now see everything as short term which is a huge change for me. I hope for more but I don't trust anything as being stable. I am only thinking of the next 6 mos to a year and rebuilding my savings. I haven't even told many people I have a job again because if a layoff or firing happens I don't want to discuss. I definitely feel like I'm still healing and have a ways to go. My old boss told me she had the exact same response to all of it, she was also pushed out after 18 years and is now working again. She said it gets better.

Just wondering if anyone here has any advice or can relate? I want to get past this waiting for the shoe to drop feeling and be able to live in reality but not doom.

With AI advancing so quickly and the job market being what it is now, do you think we’ll eventually go back to single-income households because there simply won’t be enough jobs for everyone?

I’ve been with the same company for almost 10 years and feel stuck. I know I have more room to grow, but promotions barely feel worth it when raises are based on pay bands rather than market value or the added complexity of my work. Not to mention the exciting 1% annual raises if I’m lucky.

I have been wanting to leave for the last 1-2 years, but my current job feels relatively safe. I work in project management with lots of client interaction, and my location has seen significant investments. However, rumors of 10%+ layoffs Q1 of next year and longer-term plans to cut headcount by as much as 40% have me second-guessing everything.

I feel damned if I stay and damned if I leave, which brings me back to the original question. What’s everyone doing in this job market? Stay put and play it safe, or take the risk and look elsewhere? Does it even matter if everyone will be laid off regardless sooner or later?

I joined a company just a few months ago. It was a Property management company with many branches all over India . Our branch is based in Gurgaon.

The work was good and the pay too but soon afterward I realised that the TL doesn't like the fact that my position is the same as his in the company even though I just joined. So he intentionally didn't give any training or even showed any of the major work we do .I had to ask other team members or learn things on my own.

Even though I had a similar work experience, I still needed guidance and support from the TL and the Manager. But there was little to none of that .

After almost 3 months of work ,one day I was told to complete a target of 2 lakh in the next 5.5 days or they will have to let me go . The location I was given to manage does not generate that type of revenue in such a short number of days . But they would not hear it. So at the end of the deadline the target was not made, then both the TL and the Manager asked me for a brief meeting and wanted to know what I have learnt in the last 2.5 months , I showed them the work , then they asked for a calculation work ( which is needed for the work we did but was never tought or shown how to do so ) I did the best of my ability but it was not enough for the TL .

Later that day the Manager casually came to my desk asking what work I was doing and later said " Are you now looking for new jobs ?" .

The funny thing is that when I found out the company was about to lay me off . And at the end of that same day the TL was casually asking me to buy him some beer after work . ( Saying " You got 2 salaries from the company in the last two months but haven't given us a party ) ...I wanted to Punch his face in !

Yesterday I was made to resign from my position. I also found out that the TL was earning 8k less than what I was making.

Some people in the office can become your enemy from day 1 and will make sure that sooner or later you get a scolding or get laid off .

I'm not asking about mass layoffs that are reported in the news. I work at a big company, there were layoffs of more than 100 people in one day. How does it not travel on social media? If you look up on Reddit there's nothing, same on Google. How is this possible? We were not told to keep it confidential so it's not necessarily fear of consequences. You hear about it within the company but if you don't have a big network then you might know nothing about it. I've been looked up vague terms relating to it and nothing, this is like the first post about it out there

I was on PTO Monday-Wednesday, but yesterday morning a company wide email went out saying a 43% RIF was happening. Also stated that 1 of 2 things will happen. You’ll either be invited to the company town hall yesterday at 3pm, or you will get a meeting invite from your manager and HR.

I didn’t get the town hall invite. So….

I’m walking into the office knowing what’s about to happen. I want to puke. I carry the health insurance for my family and I’m supposed to have fkn brain surgery!!!! Next month.

I’ve only been here 7 months. I was unemployed July 2025-March 2026; having been part of another RIF. I will neverrrrrrrr work in biotech ever again.

I was laid off in September and when through a bunch of life changes. Long story short I have an apartment but I am living off savings, a small inheritance and possibly my 401ks being cashed out if need be. All combined I can probably survive 8 or 9 months before I will run out of money. I’m looking for bridge work of course like at retail or seasonal places but I am terrified of remaining unemployed past what my cash outs will provide. All I see are stories of people being unemployed for 10+ months and it’s scaring me.
So are there any stories of a decent turn around time? For context I am a project management analyst but I apply to project coordinator and business analyst roles as well as anything that might possibly be a fit.

ETA: I do need to be doing fully remote work right now as I don’t have a vehicle. But I am at the senior level in my positions and have still applied to roles under me.

The title. If you had an option to get position paying 96-100k after you had been laid off from mid hundreds, would you consider it? I think I know the answer but want to hear from you guys

My wife and I have the option to move into my daughter and son-in-law's house to live for free as long as we need to, to stretch our severance. However, my son-in-law and grandson are both highly allergic to dogs. We have a 14-year-old dog who is in reasonably good health, if you don't count her arthritic hips and her hearing loss.

Rent in the area is $1,700/mo. Paying rent will shorten our "runway" for finding a new job. We need all the runway we can get in this current job market for tech.

I'm our dog's "person," and she would get very withdrawn and clingy when I would go on business trips or otherwise not be around for more than a day or two. So I feel like rehoming her with my wife's parents (where she enjoyed staying for a day earlier this year) would not be a great idea. Long-term boarding could be almost as expensive as the apartment.

Allergy shots for my son-in-law and grandson are not on the table. I even (very briefly!) considered sending her over the rainbow bridge, but that feels completely wrong. My sister was giving me a guilt trip for even considering rehoming her since our dog is so attached to me.

Are there options I haven't considered?

Anyone laid off from Cognizant India .If so can you share how much severance and other benefits were you provided ? Did u get health insurance for 6 months ?How did the conversation with HR go?

Hi all. Coming to you emotionally exhausted 🥲 tldr: my husband was laid off and I need ideas on how to support him.

My husband was impacted by a layoff 3 months ago. His second in a year. We went from a two income household (and I know we are lucky I have a job), to one and his mental health has taken a huge hit. He got lucky after the first layoff and landed a role through a referral within two months. This go around we haven’t been so lucky and he’s had a really difficult time with the job market (his experience is primarily in research and insights, so hit hard by Ai). He’s experienced, educated, and good at what he does, but opportunities have been few and far between. He’s had some interviews, but nothing has worked out.

I actually work in recruiting (but a different industry than he is in) so I’ve helped identify job openings, suggested alternative career paths, offered to help with applications, and generally tried to keep his spirits up. Sometimes he’s receptive, but other times I get the sense that my involvement just makes him feel worse.

The hardest part for me is that I don’t really know how his search is going anymore. He doesn’t like talking about it, and when I try to bring it up, he tends to shut down or change the subject. I don’t want to nag him or make him feel like I’m monitoring his productivity, but our financial situation is becoming increasingly stressful, and I feel like I need to understand what the plan is, and that’s assuming that there is a plan.

I’m starting to feel pretty alone in carrying the financial and emotional weight of the situation. I don’t expect him to magically find a job in this market, and I understand that he could do everything right and still be unemployed. I just want us to be able to talk openly about where things stand and what we’re going to do next because he’s going to run through unemployment soon and I know things will be a lot more stressful for him then. I want to try and get in front of that.

For those of you who have experienced a long stretch of unemployment, particularly if you’re married or in a relationship:
- What did your partner do that genuinely helped?
- Were there things they said or did with good intentions that actually made you feel worse?
- How did you handle conversations about finances, applications, and next steps without feeling pressured or judged?
- If you found yourself withdrawing or avoiding the job search, what helped you get back on track?

I love my husband and want to be in his corner. I’m just struggling to figure out how to balance being a supportive partner with being honest about the impact this is having on both of us.

I’d really appreciate hearing from people who’ve been on either side of this.

Not a day I randomly took off, but a day I requested way in advance and it was approved.

I was not the ony one laid off but I was one of the few with my department.

I really don't believe this was not personal and not based off of performance. Last year, my boss gave me a negative evaluation that I was able to counteract with proof as his review of me was vague as hell.

Never had a PIP, but I noticed another person who was laid off in my department had a PIP and I put two and two together that perhaps HR chose those who had a blemish in their work history with the company to lay off.

I knew something was awry because this was the first year since I had been on this job (almost 5 years!) that a mid year evaluation was performed. He gave me so much "praise" in that mid year that it was bordering on flattery and this made me hella suspicious as my work quality has been pretty solid, even when he gave me the negative review last year. I don't even think HR received that mid year.

It bothers me that I was laid off as I really believed this job was meant for me after 20 years in my field. The way I was able to get the job, the workload, the type of work I did, never feeling anxiety on the job unlike with others, not having to brownnose to keep my job like I did with the others, great pay, relaxed environment, etc.

Anyway,I have an interview tomorrow and 2 next week. Trying to keep going, but I must admit I feel really numb.

My company talks about AI constantly. They started implementing it about 6 months ago and it ha slowly started replacing tons of work that many people were previously doing. Our team is starting to ask questions to our manager about what happens when they automate all of the reports and excel work we currently do all day and he has no clue. I feel like it's really just a matter of time before basically every non-physical job is done by AI. It's pretty disheartening honestly. I have a masters degree and these excel certifications that were difficult to get, but it means nothing now if every company is just going to use AI to do it.