Personal story of a big tech layoff

Last November, Jordan Gibbs walked into the office for what she thought would be just another routine day at work. For a while it was like this: there were meetings to attend, e-mails to answer and colleagues to make small talk with.

Then the world stopped. Gibbs received an email telling her she was being fired, effective immediately. She had four hours before she lost access to her work computer.

“I just sat in shock for the first hour,” says Gibbs, 31 wealth. “It was surreal.”

Gibbs worked in Lyft’s human resources department for almost four years. She was part of what she believes to be its first wave of layoffs last year, when Lyft cut 13% of its workforce.

Though it didn’t feel like it at the time, Gibbs now considers being fired in early November a blessing. It allowed her to start looking for a new job before the current “carnage” began, she says. Since the beginning of the year, more than 210 tech companies have laid off over 68,000 employees as of Friday, January 27, according to Layoffs.fyi, which tracks job cuts in the industry.

Not that the search process to find a new role was straight forward. The firing decimated Gibbs’ self-esteem and made her feel like a failure. She’s still working on those feelings.

“I’ve never felt more like a loser in my life,” she says. “It’s embarrassing, but I define myself a lot by what I can do for myself. If that tenant of your personality is gone, ask yourself: who am I without this job?”

Layoffs are traumatic. Those affected may experience anxiety and depression, and their confidence and self-esteem may plummet. Feelings of shame and worthlessness are common. And that before the financial stress comes. All in all, it can take years for someone to recover from a job loss.

By all accounts, Gibbs had surpassed her performance metrics at work. She couldn’t figure out why she was the only person on her team to be fired and that created resentment. At the same time, friends at other companies who were also laid off were given more generous severance packages — Gibbs received 10 weeks’ salary and the lock-up period on her equity was reduced — adding to their frustration.

Wallowing in pain and anger, she says, is a lot easier than staying positive, especially when there’s no specific reason why something is happening to you that you can control. She also observed job losses piling up across the tech industry, complicating her search process; She has lost weight from all the stress.

“You’re going down the dark, gross, rabbit hole of ‘why did that to me?'” she says. “The comparison is death by a thousand cuts. It got overwhelming. You really let the negativity creep in.”

But Gibbs says she’s a hands-on person who has bills to pay, which is why she first got into hiring at a tech company. Although she allowed herself to cry and get high Real housewives The day she lost her job, the next she started making calls and filling out applications.

In the days that followed, Gibbs applied for 173 positions. She’s had 42 interviews — some with multiple people — and received a few rejections from jobs she was looking forward to. She vlogged her job search process on TikTok and built a small community that cheered her on and held her accountable. Because she was filming her job hunt, she had to get up and do it every day some.

On Day 69, just before her 10-week severance package would technically expire, Gibbs received a job offer with a comparable salary (but less equity than her previous position), which she accepted. She will no longer work for a tech company, which is fine with her.

“I’m really grateful that this taught me humility and resilience,” she said of the search process in a TikTok video.

“Job hunting is a full-time job”

Gibbs declined to give exact numbers, but said that in her previous role she got well into six figures between her base salary and stock compensation. She knows it’s a blessing to be paid so well, but it also limited what kind of job she wanted to apply for. Given her expenses, she wanted to earn at least the same base salary.

“It’s very overwhelming to build your life around that salary and then lose that money,” she says.

Luckily, Gibbs had prioritized building her emergency reserves prior to being fired. She also received the severance pay as a one-time lump sum, so she knew how much to spend. The financial stress hasn’t been as acute for them as it is for many who are unemployed.

Still, she experienced many of the humiliations familiar to anyone who loses their job. Dealing with New York’s unemployment system and COBRA health insurance has made Gibbs a more empathetic person, she says.

“Finding a job is a full-time job. Making sure you have your health care, filing for unemployment, and doing it every week…the administrative costs of being unemployed are so mentally draining,” she says. “It’s a very scary thing. The government does not make it easy to understand or get these resources.”

She’s also eliminated virtually all non-essential expenses, including coffee, dinner, trips to the nail salon and gym membership, and has moved back in with her parents in California so she can sublet their New York apartment. She acknowledges the privileged position she was in.

Gibbs’ best advice for those currently struggling with a layoff is to enlist the help of family, friends, and even strangers when you can. Her parents let her live at home rent-free. Friends sent her $5 for coffee and a spa gift card; others took them out to dinner. A stranger on TikTok offered to send her work clothes for her job interviews.

But help comes in all kinds of forms, not just financial help. Gibbs credits part of her success in finding a new job so quickly to the words of encouragement she received from people who have been with her journey.

“You realize it feels like shit now, but it’s going to be okay,” she says through a support network. “Having that little bit of mental calm, even for a second, will help you get through the next four hours of hell.”

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