My wife was laid off by her company yesterday. Luckily, she already had another job lined up. The writing has been on the wall for months, as the company has been noting repeatedly that they aren’t meeting their goals, and hired a “surplus” of employees. Despite this, and despite being lied to about both the role and benefits at the company during the interview process, my wife’s coworkers will never say a single negative thing about the company.
When she tried to tell them that they were being underpaid and taken advantage of, they told her “they’re not financially motivated”. What the fuck? You’re here out of the goodness of your heart? Certain coworkers did nothing but spew positivity all over the company slack for months, even in context of being threatened with PIPs and layoffs.
Yesterday, the whole company got an email saying “mandatory company meeting in 30 minutes”. Obviously, that means layoffs. But to her coworkers, speculation on the meeting was only positive. Some gems:
“Maybe we’re going public!”
“Maybe we hired some cool new exec!”
And the worst of all “Maybe it’s a busy season dance party!”.
Yes, I’m dead serious about the last one. Then, when the obvious happens and it is layoffs, not a fucking peep from any of these obnoxiously positive people. They literally spam Slack all day with toxic positive bullshit, and then went radio fucking silent, despite most of them not being laid off.
I find it absolutely incredible that people act this way in a workplace, where company culture asks for this kind of toxicity, but then when your coworkers are laid off, you can’t even bother to say good luck, or nice working with you.
All this to say:
-Do not ever work for a company that demands a toxic level of constant positivity, but then makes thinly veiled threats constantly.
-Treat your coworkers with respect, especially in times of need.
-LISTEN to your coworkers when they are trying to tell you that you’re being taken advantage of.
-Do not get suckered into a company culture that’s “so amazing” you’ll go as far as saying you’re not financially motivated. Do not allow them to gaslight you. Your company does not care about you, and you should do all you can to get what you deserve.
-Be selfish when you need to, and stand up for yourself. My wife got laid off because she missed her metrics goal by one “point”, one time, and was put on a PIP for it, despite giving up two “points” to her coworkers to be nice. If you ever notice your company chase metrics for the sake of it, or have largely luck based metrics, or be unwilling to make exceptions to rules (like giving points away, only for that to cause you to be laid off) take that as a HUGE red flag and start looking for another job immediately. That is a massive sign that to them, you are replaceable and not valued.
Stand up for yourself, and be willing to call out company culture when you need to. Toxic positivity doesn’t benefit you or your coworkers, no matter how hard your trying to show them you’re manager material. That shit only benefits the company. Stay loyal to your fellow PEOPLE.
/rant