The holidays are over, but the aftermath of layoffs, difficult discussions and economic challenges remain. The conversations that were on pause for a few days are now starting back up.
What happened in 2025? Was it different from the years before?
One of the questions people ask openly is “I’ve been released, why is this happening to me?”
They didn’t do anything wrong. They worked hard. They were loyal. What happened?
After many conversations, I decided to write about it. Companies do what companies do. This has nothing to do with individuals but has everything to do with cost and value.
Companies grow as much as possible. They cut as much as they can, and they maximize their investments. If we are to examine these aspects individually, they don’t look like they make sense. For example, if a company had strong year over year growth, more opportunities captured in the market and more cash than ever, why would they cut people?
You may not agree with what I am about to say, but it is important to look at things through a different lens.
All about the people, please don’t dehumanize it.
You were released as part of a block of layoffs, why do you care? Being connected to the company for 30 years, you feel something? You wore the company colors? You had their logo proudly on all your summer gear?
The internal narrative and dialogue go something like this:
Why did this happen to me? Why did I get cut? What did I do? Why do I deserve this? I worked hard. I gave them my life. I gave them weekends and nights. I made sacrifices for them, choosing work over family and now, look at this, they left me on the side of the road like a piece of garbage.
I certainly can’t say you are wrong. I am also not going to tell you how to feel. What I will share with you is the longer you remain a victim to yourself on this matter, the longer it will take you to move on and be successful in what you need to accomplish for yourself.
Why is this happening to me? It doesn’t matter, what matters is what you choose to do next. I’ll tell you; this is the hard stuff right here. So many people I speak with say “I don’t know what to do.” They say, “I don’t know what I want.” They say “I can’t”
“I can’t”
Is it that you can’t?
It is hard and you don’t like to do hard things. Generally speaking, this is true of many of us. I’d like you to please consider that the world is not against you.
The world is not against you. The world doesn’t know you. You have a tiny little pocket of a tiny little area of space that you consume. It is so small that almost all of the world can’t see you. At the same time, for you the world is seen through your eyes and your lens. The world is all about you, isn’t it?
What this means is that everything begins and ends with what you choose to do. This is independent and regardless of the company that you worked for that made a decision to release employee 10011. It has nothing to do with your value or what you’ve done for the company in the past. It now doesn’t matter what they need, what they want, what their reasoning is.
The only thing that matters is you.
The only thing you need to worry about is you.
The only thing you need to focus is on you.
What you may consider and I say “may.” Find some time for breathing and think about your life.
What is it that you need?
What is it that you want?
For some, if they are ready, they work on different forms of a “life plan.” While you don’t need to make every decision with immediacy, you do need to decide whether or not you want to maintain your status as a victim.
The worst thing a person could do to themselves is inflict their own perpetual punishment on themselves.
I did all the things, but you don’t understand, nothing works
You didn’t do “all the things” you may have done “many things” or “things you knew to do” but not “all the things.”
Despair, darkness, exasperation, all real. Also, “you don’t understand” is a place to go. How could someone aside from you understand? The reality is “darkness is leaky” and as the attitude, the feelings and the emotion continue to rise to the top, these become visible.
For the people who did everything they were supposed to do. They did everything they could do. They did everything they were told to do. Why isn’t it working out?
There are basically two conditions or places that I find people stop calling me as they are navigating the challenges of being released or looking for their next.
- They found something.
- They aren’t seeing the results they are looking for.
Before I go on, I’ll share that 100% of the people find work. 100% of the people who I have worked with or helped have landed. 100% of the time it was about the effort they put into it and their belief in themselves.
The grieving process is very complicated, and it takes time for people to process things differently. At the same time, many people didn’t work on their network while they were working. They didn’t think they needed the network or they were very busy and didn’t have the time.
Some people didn’t think they’d ever be at risk.
Some people didn’t want to do the work for themselves.
Now for the hard part.
If you don’t work on yourself, no one else will do it for you.
If you choose to work on yourself and people around you see the effort you put into it, you will make progress.
What does progress mean?
Progress means you are in a good place mentally and ready to take on whatever challenges and opportunities present themselves through your effort.
If you don’t know anything about yourself and you don’t make an effort for yourself, the path becomes longer and more difficult.
You are not ex-company, you are a person of value that knows how to do something that is needed somewhere. What it is that makes you of value is for you to express and how this relates to something that is needed is your responsibility to make a connection to.
Discover yourself, your passion and your purpose. Align and orient yourself to what it is that you want to accomplish. The journey starts with you. Don’t be a victim to company x for releasing you, company x isn’t a person, it is machine and machines don’t care about people, they do what they are programmed to do.
You never know what can happen unless you try.. this applies to you.
And, sometimes it’s a gift. Rejoice, the world is open to you.
You are right on. Very well said. Thanks.