Apr '24 (edited) • 📈 Growth & Development
How I Survived 3 Layoffs in 3 Years, and How You Can Too
Charlie Munger famously said, "The first rule of compounding: Never interrupt it unnecessarily."
If investing your time into growing within an organization is like accruing compound interest across your knowledge, skills, network and reputation, then being laid off is like being forced to sell some of those intangible assets. Oof, there go your long-term returns.
What can we do to avoid this growth hindering outcome?
At Wayfair, we've gone through 3 company-wide layoffs in the past 3 years, but I've been fortunate to survive all of them. After each reduction in force (RIF), I reflected on the tragedy of losing beloved coworkers, the fear that another one might be around the corner, and the feeling of being an utterly replaceable cog in the machine.
If you're part of this community, you've no doubt seen or experienced a layoff at your company in recent years. For that, you have my empathy. And if you're anything like me, you want to know exactly what you should do to avoid such calamities in the future.
Here's what I've learned so far from each of the 3 layoffs I've witnessed:
- Become an indispensable linchpin.
In the first RIF, Wayfair targeted the bottom 10-15% of employees based on their recent performance. But rather than aiming to "not be bad" at your job, you're much better off aiming to be indispensable – to be what Seth Godin calls a "linchpin."
Linchpins are the engineers that entire teams get built around, because they are able to deliver business impact in ways others can't. Their specific knowledge and unique skill stack enable them to perform work that only THEY can do.
No one is completely irreplaceable in a big tech company, but if you develop a reputation for being a linchpin, the cost of firing you is obvious. Without even crunching the numbers, everyone can agree that you're worth more than your salary. Your name never enters the conversation for termination, because it's always at the top of the list for promotion.
I believe this is one reason why I survived 3 layoffs in a row – I was often excelling in my job and working with my manager toward the next promotion. I was never essential enough to be considered a linchpin, but I showed great potential for growth while being relatively affordable to keep.
Remember that ultimately, layoffs are a cost-saving mechanism for any company. The more you earn, the more important it is to earn your keep (and then some).
2. Align yourself with the company's priorities.
In the second round of layoffs, cuts went beyond bottom performing employees. Anyone working on a project deemed "non-essential" to the company's success was at high risk for termination. I saw entire teams of brilliant engineers get scrapped, simply because they didn't fit into the company's leaner set of priorities for the future.
Fortunately, I landed on a platforms team that's seen tremendous growth and success. We went from being the scrappy startup constantly pivoting its charter, to building an established and essential component of Wayfair's tech stack. Now we own and operate the company's in-house CMS, delivering content to hundreds of the highest priority pages across our site.
The key insight here is to be forward-looking. Think beyond the scope of your immediate team and listen carefully to the company's leadership when they describe their vision for the coming years.
Will your team play an important role in that future?
Make no mistake, I got very lucky in this regard. But don't let my good fortune dissuade you from creating your own. If at any point you see an opportunity to join a higher-impact team that would never be scrapped in the next RIF, that opportunity may just be your saving grace.
3. Strengthen your relationships with influential coworkers.
On the morning of the third RIF, I frantically jumped out of bed to check my email, sweat percolating from my armpits before I'd even put a shirt on. I could already envision the bone-chilling words in my mind: "Your role has been impacted."
Over the prior months, I hadn't always been a top performer. My work ethic had slipped, and my energy had been diverted toward starting a company of my own. I'd been lackadaisical at best in adhering to the latest RTO policies, and I'd just received slack messages from 6 of my teammates saying their goodbyes.
It took weeks before I'd learn about the decision making process that informed these cuts, and even then I found it hard to explain why I hadn't lost my job.
As luck would have it, I'd spent the past 2 years developing strong connections to many leaders sitting above me in the organization. Through monthly one-on-ones, I endeared myself to my skip manager and became one of his closest mentees. By continually proposing impactful projects for our team to pursue, I cemented my reputation as an ambitious innovator. And by winning an org-wide hackathon, I gained credibility in the minds of influential people I had yet to meet. All of these things contributed to me keeping my job, though none of them can ever account for the full story.
The bottom line is this: relationships matter. A lot.
Humans are biased, and humans will decide who gets to keep their job on your team. Use this to your advantage. You never know who is going to have the final say on whether it's you or your teammate getting let go. So you should always be laying the foundation for relationships that will increase your odds of survival.
P.S. A couple of weeks after the third layoff, many of my recently-terminated coworkers received offers to rejoin Wayfair. Why?
a. They had worked on high priority projects that suffered in their absence.
b. They had strong relationships within the company, and people were eager to vouch for their return.
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How I Survived 3 Layoffs in 3 Years, and How You Can Too
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