laid
On an otherwise innocuous morning in January 2025, I lost my job. Loading audio narration… When the CEO asked me into his office, I already knew what was coming. Management had held an emergency meeting earlier that morning, warning us that mass layoffs were coming.Two of my colleagues had already…
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jason Zhang, a 25-year-old former Google employee based in Seattle. It’s been edited for length and clarity. Loading audio narration… When Google hired me as a software engineer at 22 years old, it felt like a huge accomplishment. It wasn’t just…
Getting laid off sucks, yet how it happens matters, too. Loading audio narration… On Tuesday, Meta told some employees to work from home the next day, ahead of the company’s latest round of layoffs. The move touches on an anxiety familiar to many: not only whether you’ll get cut, but…
One day, after my youngest daughter left home, I found myself walking around my favorite Seattle park feeling so lonely, invisible, and unmoored that I thought I might just disappear without anyone noticing.After COVID, a broken relationship, and decades of being everything everyone needed me to be, I’d been laid…
In February, I was laid off from The Washington Post when my entire team in Seoul was cut. More than 300 journalists lost their jobs in a single day. Loading audio narration… About two years ago, my family and I moved to South Korea from Colorado after I was offered…
