Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: How to deal with morale after layoffs?

news.ycombinator.com

1–10 of 14 posts

Ask HN: How to deal with morale after layoffs?

#1
Pretty much the title. I joined a startup and recently and we had a round of layoffs. Now, people who I used to meet daily, during standups and lunch are not around anymore. We've been "promised" that there won't be layoffs for the rest of the year, but I'm not banking it.

I'm already an anxious person by nature, but this is making me pretty nervous and very distracted at work.

What do I do? I understand this is a tradeoff of being in a startup, but the anxiety definitely isn't helping.

Thanks HN.

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with morale after layoffs?

#3
Find a new job as soon as possible. Even if the promise of no more layoffs is true, when the atmosphere affects your ability to perform, you gain nothing by staying there. Your mental health should be top priority.

Also, if anxiety causes you to underperform, if/when there'll be a new round of layoffs, you might be on the line anyway.

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with morale after layoffs?

#4

Find a new job as soon as possible. Even if the promise of no more layoffs is true, when the atmosphere affects your ability to perform, you gain nothing by staying there. Your mental health should be top priority. Also, if anxiety causes you to underperform, if/when there'll be a new round of layoffs, you might be on the line anyway.

Good advice I got from my VC: "whenever you find yourself spending 20 minutes in the shower in the morning, it's time to circulate your CV".

PS. that's not a normal tradeoff of being in a startup. BigCos have layoffs. Things being FUBAR because the startup grows too quickly are the normal tradeoffs.

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with morale after layoffs?

#8

Find a new job as soon as possible. Even if the promise of no more layoffs is true, when the atmosphere affects your ability to perform, you gain nothing by staying there. Your mental health should be top priority. Also, if anxiety causes you to underperform, if/when there'll be a new round of layoffs, you might be on the line anyway.

Good advice I got from my VC: "whenever you find yourself spending 20 minutes in the shower in the morning, it's time to circulate your CV". PS. that's not a normal tradeoff of being in a startup. BigCos have layoffs. Things being FUBAR because the startup grows too quickly are the normal tradeoffs.

...but a twenty minute shower can be very nice and pleasant. I don't do them all the time but sometimes I choose to stay in just because I'm enjoying it. I think I did one earlier this week, and I have no issues and almost zero stress with my job right now.

I get the sentiment though. I remember a previous job I hated that I got in trouble if I arrived late, so I'd get there pretty early to make sure I wasn't late, and would sit in the car in the parking lot waiting (and dreading) the clock getting to 8:00am, when I was expected to be there. I never left the car early to go in and say hi to people, I wanted to be inside that building as little as possible.

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with morale after layoffs?

#9
At least in my experience a round of layoffs is almost always a sign of worse to come. If not more layoffs than more ways to tighten the belt, like reducing benefits (had my contracted annual bonus removed, reduced severance policies, worse health insurance options, and my 401k match taken away before, at one company), freezing raises and promotions, letting people leave by attrition (which always happens after a layoff) without backfilling those people (and thus their responsibilities get added to your plate), etc.

It doesn't always happen, I'm at a company that had layoffs 8 months ago and was mostly isolated to just that so far. Helped a few months later they clearly won some major business that helped boost things for them again. They're back to hiring again, even.

But that's one exception to my experience with five other companies that did layoffs. Of those five, three basically shut down entirely (two startups and one small business), and one I just heard closed down the department I worked in and laid everyone off on January 1st this year (I left over two years ago, saw a coworker post about it on LinkedIn). The last one I'm not sure, but recent Glassdoor reviews suggest they tightened the belt again recently and did a lot of what I mentioned above in the past few months.

Re: Ask HN: How to deal with morale after layoffs?

#10
Companies can "promise" anything they want, but unless you get it in writing in a legally binding form, like a contract, it's not worth anything. If conditions deteriorate, they will have to lay off again. At best you'll get a "I'm sorry this had to happen. I know I said it wouldn't last week/last month/last year...". To be fair, sometimes the managers themselves get laid off too, despite (or sometimes because of) their best intentions. We're all just numbers on a spreadsheet.

Nobody expects morale to be great after layoffs. Do what you can, if you can, and try to compartmentalize and focus on what you're good at. Start looking for other work in the meantime, but don't count on being able to find another job, because many companies are folding in this economy and there's still a glut of programmers.

This isn't your fault. Companies exist to make money, and you're just another disposable cog in the wheel. Management exists to serve the owners/shareholders, not you, so your choices are really either to become more flexible (look for other jobs and careers, knowing that some will do better than others) or to become indispensable (either be exceptionally good at your job, or set up systems that only you can maintain).

Anxiety won't do you much good here because very little of it is actually under your control anyway. Just breathe; it's not up to you. Ultimately it doesn't really matter how hard you work and how great your code (or whatever) is; if your team isn't a good fit or your managers didn't put in the right reports or you didn't impress the right high-level person... you're disposable. And frankly, mostly invisible. It's unlikely anybody spends too much time thinking about your contributions to the company anyway, so don't spend too much time thinking about the company either. Most of us aren't special. That's okay though.

Don't let work define you! Develop other hobbies, enforce a strict 9-5 schedule for yourself and don't work late. Say "no" to things that break your work-life balance and find other ways to accrue happiness.

Especially in a startup atmosphere, it's basically gambling. You win some, you lose some. Just don't bet your whole life on it.

Post reply on HN