RIF or the weirdest last day I've had
In this Economy? Right before closing on a House and going on Hajj??
Yesterday, May 31, 2022, Replicated did a Reduction in Force (RIF) aka a Mass Layoff. You can read more about that here: https://www.replicated.com/blog/a-message-from-replicateds-ceo/. Unfortunately, I was a part of that layoff. So to start this post I will say I am looking for opportunities in Customer Sucess Manager (CSM) or Sales Development Representative (SDR) or Account Executive (AE) roles. If you have any opportunities or can refer me to one please let me know! Now let’s dive into what just happened.
I have quit a job before. I have been fired from a job before. But this was my first time being part of a mass layoff. It was definitely the weirdest last day I have experienced. To be completely honest I missed the announcement. I started the day by dropping a friend off at the airport at 6 AM who had been visiting for Memorial day and picking up my wife from the same airport at the same time who had gone on a trip. I was exhausted by the time we got back home and planned to sleep a bit more and adjust my day to make up for it. Unfortunately, my alarm failed me and I was 5 minutes late to the company All Hands Meeting we have every week. But unlike every week it was an empty zoom. I thought I clicked the wrong zoom link so checked and checked again but no one in there. So I messaged in slack channel with my fellow SDRs asking if I had missed the All Hands since I was only 5 minutes late.
And that’s when the messages started. One person commented about how this was quite the all hands to miss. Another messaged that our Chief Revenue Officer had been let go and more layoffs were coming. Others started sharing their personal contact info and saying they loved working here and they were here to talk. At first, I thought it was a joke but I soon realized it wasn’t. I saw a meeting invite pop up on my calendar: RIF. I then knew it was over.
10 months into my first Tech Sales Role and I had just been laid off. I immediately went to LinkedIn and started working at my new full-time job: Job Hunting. As I prepped my resume and started messaging recruiters and opening one tab after another of job positions the slack was filled with more well wishes and a weird feeling. No one knew what to message but everyone wanted to message and connect and coordinate for after so we could help each other.
Then came the time for my meeting. It was with HR and my manager. I want to say that I think they did an amazing job for the position they were put in. My SDR Manager was amazing the entire time I was there. He helped me grow as an SDR, was an advocate for me in every aspect, and was pushing for me to move into a CSM role when they had an opening. In the RIF meeting, he didn’t BS me or anything. He talked with me and I appreciated his words and knew he didn’t want this either. Our HR rep was the same. She has been a joy to work with while I was at Replicated and was very helpful during the meeting to explain the next steps. I know it wasn’t easy for them to do these back to back and I appreciated the thoughtfulness in the way they did mine.
And that was it. The rest of the day was spent endlessly on Linkedin, booking meetings on Calendly with Recruiters, and figuring out my next steps. I am closing on a townhome soon and going for Hajj inshallah the first 2 weeks of July so this summer was already wild but this just made it crazy and I hope I can retain some sense of normalcy when it is all over. I can only trust in Allah (swt) that it all goes well since he is the Master Planner and the ultimate provider of our wealth and health.