I was about one month into my my new role. During the initial interview process I genuinely enjoyed speaking with everyone, including my manager. He is down to earth and very grounded and hands off when it comes to “managing” me and my team.
A week ago (last Wednesday) my manager asked me to jump on a quick zoom call with him(my team is remote) and drops the shittest news ever: I'm being let go. I was angry because they just hired me only to fire me 1 month later. What gives? My manager just got the news in a meeting prior to this and said it wasn't his decision, he had no control on the situation, and that he actually wasn't even supposed to tell me this. Here's what he mentioned to me: upper management was planning to lay off about 20% of the company. They were planning to inform the affected employees a week from this day(which is now today) via a quick 15 minute meeting from hr. The termination would be effective immediately.
Here's the even shitter thing: I'm in the middle of closing a deal on my first home purchase and my manager knew this too so being let go is the last thing I wanted to hear. But this was one of the reasons he told me ahead of time and I truly respect him for it. He said to not quit right away, but to instead just stay until they lay us off since they would be providing severance. He also said to not even bother working as he wasn't expecting anything out of me anymore. He wanted me to just “stay employed” for the next week so I can at least get paid for the time too but also take time to prepare, whether it's finding a new job or whatever.
Now it's today, I see the meeting invitation from hr in my inbox scheduled for 930am. It's unfortunate that a bunch of people are going to get let go with no warning EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY.
This is just a grim reminder that work isn't a family, it's purely business. But I am forever grateful to my manager for giving me as much notice as he could give.