April 10, 2024 5:00 AM"Hey man, I'm getting retrenched." Halfway through my meeting, the Teams chat notification popped up on my phone with this message. It was from one of the few colleagues I genuinely considered a friend. It was so sudden and out of the blue, that I could barely process the information.
At that point only two thoughts crossed my mind. One, thank God I wasn't laid off and holy crap, I just survived a layoff exercise. It was a strange mixture of emotions. On one hand, I was massively relieved. On the other hand, I felt sick to my stomach and really sorry for my co-workers who were let go. I spoke to a number of them in the immediate aftermath.
It might make things worse as such negativity can creep into your attitude towards work moving forward. I spent a lot of time over the next few days talking to both my current and now ex-colleagues, whether it was offering my support or talking about our collective emotions. These are all valid questions and I immediately sought a meeting with my supervisor to clarify these points. It helped to give me further clarity and reframe my expectations about my current role. Thankfully, in my case, I didn't have to take on additional work. But I was able to understand why certain roles were phased out and what are the next steps I can take to chart a path in my career for the short and long term.