If you knew in advance about being laid off, how would you YOLO the exit interview?
I am fairly sure that I am being laid off with other Sr. Engineers tomorrow and need some ideas. Basically, I saw a calendar mistake by HR, so oops!
Meh. It's gonna suck for a bit, but whatevers. Life is more important than a shit job. :)
Get all your questions about unemployment ready, including the forms filled in today... File asap! File as soon as they let you go.
If you have stock/equity decide now if your going to exercise it. You may have to pay taxes in addition to the exercise price.
Bring all your work stuff from home. Hand it over and get a receipt, nobody wants to play phone tag with a ex to get their stuff back.
If you have access to sensitive systems or passwords, put it in writing what you know and tell them they need to change those passwords now.
Make sure you keep contact with anyone you care about now, before you lose access to the systems.
Be the adult, let them you know these transitions are hard, compliment them for doing a difficult thing so well, make it clear there are no hard feelings. I've had multiple long term highly lucrative consultation arrangements after a layoff.
While good advice, he did specify to YOLO the exit interview, this is too responsible to be a YOLO imho lmao
Honestly, the biggest yolo is to be professional, prepared, drama free. Don't even let it bother you.
I'm above this, I have my own plan, I have confidence... It will distinguish you.
I once had a new job lined up, but hadn't put my notice in, I got laid off before the Friday I was going to put my notice in. The firing officers complemented me on how well I was taking it.
Then 3 months later they hire me as a side contractor at 5x my salaried rate while I was still doing my new full time job.
So yeah... Yolo is about having your life together and being above other people's drama, a bit of luck helps too.
To be contrarian,
I'd count this as a YOLO. You only live once and choosing to live it with decorum and immaculate professionalism or playing the long game is also a valid response.
Maybe one day, they come crawling back to you? Take them for all they're worth or shove it back at them.
I had a lucrative job offer for a fairly senior role from a company that previously retrenched me. I got their senior management to wine and dine me. All in the guise of discussing the role, how I saw the future of the industry and my plan for taking the company to where they wanted to be in 2 years. Then after all was said and done, I told them I wasn't interested. It felt good and besides I make way more now than they could have offered me and it would have taken me away from my family and put me in a very stressful role.
Props for the prep advice.
If you have access to sensitive systems or passwords, put it in writing what you know and tell them they need to change those passwords now.
I am in security, so I know the logical reasons for that even though someone is sure to say that is bullshit.
However, I left a job once and encrypted all critical passwords I knew on a USB drive and gave it to my manager. For the password, I created a riddle that only he would know. I gave my old manager (he was cool) the USB drive and walked. After about a week, he was laid off for pure money reasons. So a month goes by and I get a frantic phone call one morning asking for all the passwords to some super important systems and I was kind enough to know they had pointlessly fired the only person who would of had access. (They had blindly destroyed his remaining equipment and paperwork, so they were gone.)
They literally don't care. Don't tell them "the truth", don't tell them "what's wrong with the company", nothing. Just say you've enjoyed working there and if things turn around you'd be open to coming back.
The best outcome for an exit interview is you leave on good terms so you can use them in the future if necessary. You never know when you'll need a reference.
Again, any criticism or negativity you bring to the exit interview will just be used against you. You'll be labeled as disgruntled, or whiny, or just didn't have what it takes. And that will cut you off from using them in the future if you need to.
My partner got laid off in a beeeeg round of layoffs, worked with me at the same company. I wanted to be laid off SO BADLY so I could take some time off work to spend with them—we had the means to take some time off.
A month passes, and one day my boss calls me into a room where our HR person was sitting. They’re both suuuuuper morose, my boss looks like she’s about to tell me my gramma died.
I’m BEAMING. They pull out papers and start explaining, ask if I have any questions, and I’m like
“excellent! I gotta ask about severance” (yes absolutely)
“so I can do the whole unemployment thing? (yes you can)
“DOPE! Do I have to work the day out? (…uhhhh no, you can’t)
“Stellar! Mind if I go say goodbye to some people?” (Absolutely, take your time)
As I left the room, HR person was like “I must say, Rai, this is the most unconventional one we’ve done so far…” and I thanked them and frolicked out. Gave some hugs, got my stuff, and dipped.
That was December 2019. The timing could not have worked out more perfectly.
Thank you, job that laid us off.
Agreed if you’re quitting. If you’re getting laid off then you’re not coming back anyway.
If you get laid off "ethically" (as in the company really does have budgeting issues and they really are trying to weather the storm and they really are cutting back your role which isn't critical to continued business operations) then there might be potential options to come back in the future if the business can course correct.
If you're getting laid off because they're too cowardly to fire you, yeah. There's no position to come back to.
There's no point in doing anything but being polite and "professional"1 and doing so gives you the most leverage. If nothing else you can try to negotiate a higher severance. But it also potentially enables the best kind of "revenge".
Like the time I was laid off and instructed to revoke my and my team's access to systems. Yes sir... right away sir. Only the bean counters never verified that there was somebody left in the hand-off plan who could access everything.
Github admin? Not anymore. AWS root account? Who knows?
Honestly the fallout from that, including frantic begging emails for passwords about a month later, was far more entertaining than anything I could have said at the time. Best of all, the head bean counter got fired over it.
And because I was completely "professional" my boss there was super supportive and helped me get my next gig. Still checks in on me once in a while.
1 People often confuse playing the game to believing in it. Use it to your advantage.
I heard the rumored date of layoff and booked a surgery I needed for that morning 8am. I got 2 more weeks / another paycheck because they can’t lay you off when you’re on medical leave. Everyone else was let go that morning. I also did it because I was going to lose my insurance (shit American healthcare system)
That's beautiful. Well played.
Added bonus was at my group’s reunion happy hour my colleagues said things like ‘Damn, well played. You win’
Do what the others already said and be mature and professional. Just wear a full clown costume to the zoom meeting. No comments on it.
It depends. If there is any money on the line or don't want to burn bridges then I'd do the smart thing, whatever that is. Otherwise I'd just skip it.
Yeah as much as I've fantasized about going nuclear on past employers (or more recently, when firing a client), it just doesn't bring any good besides a fleeting moment of feeling superior. It's not worth it, be the bigger person and keep it professional.
I was in such situation recently and I dealt with it like an adult rather than petty teenager. Don't burn your bridges.
My last time getting laid off, I had people loyal to me tell me well in advance so I was prepared.
You don't end up the kind of person who has people loyal to them if you do wacky, zany hijinks and make everything about yourself, even when it objectively is about you. Don't make scenes, don't be dramatic, just have some questions ready about severance and what benefits are available to you.
This will pay off a lot when you go to apply for a new job and they want to talk to the people who you worked for.
Depends on whether there are bridges to burn in the first place.
Come in sharply dressed with a top hat, cane, and unbreakable smirk
It's going to be over Zoom, so it would be missing the full effect. Still, I might be able to slap an outfit together and even 3D print a monocle...
So I did the tuxedo thing when I left a job. Security wanted photos.
I told security that there are only two ways to leave if you know it's going to be your last day: Head held high and dressed to the nines, or carried out by as many security guards as possible.
They thanked me for choosing the former.
Always skip the exit interview if you can. It doesn't help you or your former coworkers. It's just an HR box-checking exercise.
Exit interviews aren't box checking exercises, they exist to give the company a heads up if the employee seems like they're disgruntled and might try to sue. Always skip them, it only benefits the company that laid you off, nobody else.
Exit inerviews can be valuable and beneficial if the exit is on good terms all around.
I left my last job for a better-paying position elsewhere, but I still loved my old job and coworkers. It's still the best job I ever had.
I couldn't pass up a 50% raise and they couldn't match it. No hard feelings or bruised egos. It's just how things work out.
Having an honest conversation with HR about what worked and didn't from an employee perspective with zero stakes for either of us was productive and informative.
Fair enough, but I think it really just depends on how you look at it. From my POV it's just a box-checking exercise in the vast majority of cases, and a waste of your time (if you're the one quitting). But you're right, employers are super paranoid about this kind of thing (even though they have most of the power). If it is one of those disgruntled-gonna-sue people then you are right, it's something they need to try to get out in front of.
Does it help your co workers?
If you got fired, no, probably not.
But if you quit then you can leave them a few clues as to why you're leaving and how they might avoid losing more staff. That can help the people you left behind.
But if you quit then you can leave them a few clues as to why you’re leaving and how they might avoid losing more staff.
The reason I'm quitting is because they didn't pick up the clues that I was looking to leave, and I don't want to help them avoid losing more staff because of it. The people I left behind should take the hint if they were smart.
Well sure, because they don't do exit interviews for people who got fired.
I know it can feel good to speak your mind, and in an ideal world it would make some impact. It should make some impact. They should listen to people who leave. But they don't. Because it's not the purpose of the exercise. They don't really care about your feedback. They care about the optics only. Remember HR is there to protect the company, not advocate for workers.
By all means if you want to waste your time go ahead and do an exit interview. There's not much risk or harm in doing one (unless you make a complete ass out of yourself). But it's really just there to prop up the thin veneer that HR and the corporate lawyers want businesses to hide behind.
I was very happy to do the exit interview at one particular job. I wanted to make it clear to HR that I wasn't leaving because of the manager or the work or my co-workers but because they paid about 2/3 of the market rate in our area.
This was important to me because my manager and co-workers were great and it had gotten around to me that HR was eyeing our manager over having had a few people quit over the last year or two, when it was very clearly all about pay and nothing to do with him.
You did your manager a solid, because of the meme people quit managers not jobs.
No, pick up a bunch of issues and half complete them. Lol.
Calm down, satan
Advice I have heard is decline an exit interview, because those are for the company's benefit and not yours.
I know this isn't the "fun" answer, but I wouldn't. I'm a manager, and I've been on the other side of that situation too many times. I've never met a manager who wants to do it - we'd all rather have enough work for everyone. It sucks but far the most for the person being laid off, but it's a shitty time for everyone.
Plus I've also hired back good employees when work picked back up down the road, so there's the bridge burning aspect to consider.
It might be just a little bit more shitty to be laid off and have finances jeopardized than to fire someone. I don't know the market you're in but I'd never stoop so low to come back to a place that laid me off earlier, I'd really have to be desperate.
Bring an emotional support clown
Bring a lawyer to the meeting, just for fun. Let the hr person stew a bit. Ideally you will be offered a severance package, might as well have the lawyer check it out.
Don’t go? I mean, you’re being fired, what’s the worst that can happen so just don’t go. Go for a walk in the woods or mountains while the company is paying you…
The worst that can happen is that your severance package is dependent on attending the exit interview.
Is that legally allowed. Reminds me of that NFL video of get saying “I’m only here so I get fined” https://youtu.be/rmABbHSOTqQ?si=7GseAxob1CPn2d5P
Option 1: Be professional and polite.
Option 2: Scream Leeroy Jenkins and run through the door in the middle of it.
1/2 depends on how probable it is for you to need them in the future.
I'd just play my steam deck for the entire shift up to and including the exit interview
The last time I got laid off, that morning I had sent a PTO request to my boss for a family trip the following month.
I got called into said boss' office for the afternoon meeting letting me know I was being laid off, which I had not been expecting at all. I was given the paperwork to sign, etc. and mostly silently acknowledged everything that was going on. When the boss finally asked if I had any further questions at the end of the meeting, I deadpanned "so, you've approved my request to not come in on _____ days next month?"
"That's okay, I went on a job interview last week when I called out sick. I'll be making more than you are when I start there.
If you live in Canada, absolutely do not do this. It can affect how much severance you're entitled to.
Good advice for Canadians.
No show
I've seen that happen, woman that had been rehired due to having a contact high up the ladder and the second time they fired her she left them hanging for two or three weeks before showing up to get fired, so the bosses were waiting for her at the employee entrance every time she was supposed to come in for work, they were there five or six times before they actually managed to get a hold of her 😂
Hire an emotional support clown. A man in new Zealand hired one because he thinks he was about to get fired.
https://nypost.com/2019/09/13/man-being-fired-brings-emotional-support-clown-to-meeting/
I'm impressed that so many people know ahead of time they are getting laid off. When I was laid off, and my friends were laid off, it was either a meeting with my manager and HR sneaking in at the last second, or a meeting with the CEO and HR, etc. Blindsighted, credentials inactive right away, can't say goodbye to your coworkers.
Management is trying to make it a total surprise.
But for many people they can feel it coming. Projects are slowing down, money's harder to find, initiatives are canceled, executives are moved around, the calendar is clear in to the future, no projects are being added to the ticketing system. There's lots of little indicators to tell you what people are planning
After all these little signs that add up, giving you a bit of a red flag, then suddenly there is a meeting thrown on your calendar the next morning at 8:00 a.m. after you left for work the previous day. You put two and two together and you've got a strong confidence something's going to happen
Sometimes you can tell. When Teledyne bought where I worked they would lay off some people the last work day of each business quarter.
On my last day of a job I brought in chocolate for the office and did artwork on the whiteboard. Kind of just had banter and didn't do too much work that day because... Why would I.
I've been 90% sure I was getting laid off a few times. I contracted to one of the big 3 auto companies in engineering/IT and head count reductions were pretty common. Three times it was our department getting cut. I was not overly expensive, did a lot of stuff to fill in gaps, and found ways to improve our teams so I always thought even if something happened to this team I could always land on another team. Once when we were at a site loading engineering sw on the servers my boss asked if I would mind training the sw to the plant the next day. I ended up switching from installs to training and did that for almost 20 years. I was originally hired as a systems analyst. I ended my career working in a manufacturing plant supporting the sw I trained and installed. One of the advantages of working for a large company is they have so many roles to fill and once you learn all the processes/systems you have value at a base level that can be used in many positions
This really doesn't even touch on the question asked.
The answer is in there, maybe if you squint a bit you can see it. I was also fairly sure I was getting laid off a few times and continued to do my stuff and kept staying around.
I would steal the printer and go out to a field and stomp it to death.
PC LOAD LETTER my ass..
You’re either burning or getting paid out on your PTO, right? Around my parts it’s common to burn 2 weeks of PTO before your last day.
"Unlimited PTO". It sounds great until people realize how it actually works. There isn't anything to pay out or take, unfortunately.
Is a scam.
I found out at my previous job that MN doesn't actually require employers to pay out unused PTO.
I wouldn’t.
Don’t burn bridges unnecessarily. You never know when a person involved will be somewhere in your future and leaving a good impression on them may have positive benefits.
YOLOing an exit interview and doing it Half Baked style means everyone’s last impression of you is very negative. And the only benefit you get it a bit of catharsis.
Instead, be polite and positive. Then go to Reddit and unleash hell.
I had a client do a back charge on me about 7 years ago. Found out that my current employer was going to hire them for a project. Sent a little email to the sales person and project manager
"I have worked with these guys. They are scammers. If you proceed with them get everything in writing".
Guess who didn't get the project.
Honestly, I’ve given every exit interview honestly. Don’t be bitter but tell them the truth if you’re a relatively normal person.
I’ve never really been laid off but when you leave companies, be honest and figure out who can give you a reference. It’s not always the HR person or your boss. Having hired people, at the reference call moment, you’re thinking, “This person seems right. Let’s make sure they’re not a sex pervert.” or whatever.
I'm with the sensible people. Sure, you could forward "No More Fucks To Give" to the whole company, but simply being a boss about it is the much better option, and more satisfying in the long run.
Get ready for the prefabricated script from HR. Have your questions about benefits, 401k, unemployment, etc ready. Concerning yolo, at the end light a cigar?
When my promotion to assistant-to-the-VP at my old job was ripped from me AFTER my replacement was trained I was given the news in a semi exit interview:
Went in to see current boss. She informs me what happened. I tell her that I already know as the VP told me about it already (and cried, he needed the help and was now not getting it and knew I deserved the job). She says she figured as much and offers me 2 weeks of further "work" where I can come in and job hunt instead. I say no thanks, stand up, and walk out.
Called the President and scheduled a 1-to-1 meeting with him over this as I knew it was his brother whining to him about me that caused this all to happen and wanted to give him a chance to unfuck his decision. Fucker spent 20 minutes bullshitting me and was clearly squirming when I didnt budge.
I should've punched him, being the bigger man ain't always worth it.
Depending on your contact but you might get severance pay.
That would be nice. It is just a regular FTE position in an at-will employment state, so it's anyone's guess.
Go there in dirty, wet fishing gear and holding a large fresh fish. Slap the fish on the table, pull out a sharp knife, and go to town skinning and filleting it, all while giving a very earnest assessment of where the company is going wrong. But keep a big grin on your face the whole time.
Bonus points if you call everyone in the interview 'Ron' the whole time.
Bonus points if you call everyone in the interview 'Ron' the whole time.
Well, it will be two ladies at this meeting so that will be interesting. I am only 10mins from the nearest river as well....
If either of them has ever watched Office Space they will probably laugh about it.
Never have been laid off but in theory you could call in sick and they can’t fire you (in my country at least)
Leave a fish sandwich in your office drawer.
My office is in my basement. My cats love the idea though!
