This is why I advise people to steal as much from their employers as possible. Last time I got laid off I stole 3 laptops, two company phones, and leaked some very embarrassing e-mails.
You're right, what they should say is, "Mea culpa! You just lost your house, your family will have to uproot its life, your credit rating is about to be ruined and we booted your ass out in the worst tech job market in a decade.
The good news is I can still afford two buy a new private G40 this year! Wahoo!"
> You just lost your house, your family will have to uproot its life, your credit rating is about to be ruined
Except nothing of this happened to me when I was laid off in 2020. And I was not making 500k/y, not even close. I have full sympathy to those who are getting laid off now, but I assume googlers will be fine.
My point is that a person who earns 500k/y and have Google in their resume will most likely suffer much less than many many others. Too much drama about it honestly.
"Up in the morning and out to school
Mother says there be no work next year
Qualifications once the Golden Rule
Are now just pieces of paper
Well the factories are closing
and the army's full
I don't know what I'm going to do
I've come to see in the land of the free
There's only room for a chosen few. " -- Lars Frederiksen
I feel bad for everybody who spent the past 4 years going $200k into debt for a now worthless compsci degree. New grads, juniors and general employees who are not rock-stars, are in a miserable ride. As everybody casually writes it off to "over-hiring" you are forgetting the fact that there are 150k newly unemployed, a significant portion of whom will take many months, possibly a couple of years to find something. Meanwhile, all of those fresh graduates are now saying "Oh shit, I have to start making $2k/month student loan payments now, and don't have any income.
As an oldster observing what I believe my 4th tech downturn, I am currently advising people to go into the trades instead of becoming a software "engineer". The money can often be far better than tech, and there are actually more opportunities to advance than in tech.
If you consider inflation, offshoring, record profits for many companies who are still laying off, crypto crashing and rapid advances in AI-generated code, then you should be able to read the writing on the wall.
Remember a significant portion of these layoffs are coming from companies whose revenues and profits are increasing .. because they just don't need as many people to keep the investors and c-levels rich.
If you don't have at minimum 18 months worth of living expenses saved up when you get laid off, you could be in a world of hurt.
