11am Yesterday, my husband passed a test and got a certificate he needed for work. Riding that high, we planned to celebrate.
12pm: "It's been real, guys," one of his coworkers posted in the work chat. A few moments later he left the chat. My husband went to track him down, but his account had been terminated.
"He was just let go" someone else in the chat clarified.
Confusion settled over the group. "What, why?"
1pm: My husband's friend called him, "they are having me terminate accounts today. I am told I will terminate 10% of the company. They are giving me one name at a time. So, I dont know who is on the list."
"Thanks for the heads up," my husband said and went to report the news to me.
"Shit...L just sent me a message 'can you talk?'"He said and pulled out his phone referencing a coworker with whom we have a friendship. "I hope she wasn't let go."
I sat anxiously awaiting what L could possibly be saying....knowing it wasn't good news.
We knew the company hadn't been doing well. "Not to get political," his boss had said a couple months ago, "but [redacted] and [redacted] are pretty spooked by the current administration's behavior. The tariffs especially. They are pulling out of contracts." Both companies are large, top 5 companies in their industry 1 an automobile manufacturer and the other a petroleum distributor. An exec stepped down, several managers and an owner were demoted. All of their services were discounted, but continued complaints about companies pulling out of contracts, refusing to commit to projects they had begun ... There were signs.
My husband got off the phone with L. "There's a meeting with HR at 4pm titled '[Company Name] Confidential'" my husband shared. "Most of my team was invited, but I was not."
1:30pm. He's in a client meeting until 2. If this HR meeting was where they announced the layoffs to the rest of the company, his exclusion was a bad sign...there really wasn't a good way to spin him being left off the meeting invite.
2pm comes. I go to ask him if he has any new meeting invites from his boss. None.
2:30.... more "goodbyes" in the chats followed by more deactivated accounts. My husband notices 2 members of his team, both very knowledgeable, high performers, with 20 years of tenure each are no longer active. He goes to check.
3pm. "They wouldn't lay me off after that sale I made last week. It covers my whole salary in 4 months. I passed the exam. And who would lay off someone who is going to have a newborn in 2 weeks" he tries to justify his denial.
"With this stress, I may go into labor now." I sort of joke, but it isn't really a joke. I begin researching how to get on a new healthcare as quickly as possible to avoid getting hit with 40k of hospital bills should he get laid off with no severance.
3:30pm... another "see you in the next life" from a terminated account. "He was a really good one." My husband said confused. "They arent taking the bottom performers" i know they don't have much time to inform my husband if he is going to be told before this confidential meeting. But there are still no meeting invites.
3:45pm. He sends a message to his boss "give it to me straight. Do I still have a job"
"No easy way to say it." His boss starts. "It's been a shit day, but you are in the clear."
4pm: The meeting my husband wasn't invited to was with "the future of [company]" according to the ceo. They expected to lay off 2 extra people who made it through the day. No one knows who those 2 are.
Today 12:30pm: my husband's boss tells him in a roundabout way that he is not safe. The company is struggling with sales/cash flow and the layoffs were a bandaid to get them through June.
Boss tries to explain his decision for the people on my husband's team that were let go "set in their ways." "Not likely to learn new skills to help out as needed." But they were not given any warning or opportunity to address these concerns after 2 decades with the company. Maybe my husband didn't get let go because he passed the exam, secured the sale, and has a newborn on the way.... but what about next time? How does he even know what he needs to be doing?
I guess it doesn't matter, does it. Many of my husband's connections across the industry are getting laid off for the same reason... we just got to hope that [company] can ride out this storm and bring him with them.