Layoffs.

Twin stories: From the perspectives of those laid off and those left behind.

Have you been impacted by a product marketing layoff? Join the conversation; submit your questions and thoughts to be discussed in our monthly advice column.

Surviving Layoffs

By Ben Marullo

The dreaded "All-Hands Meeting" notification pops up, and you know what's coming. Having been laid off multiple times in my career, I understand the gut-wrenching feeling all too well. Each time, the announcement feels like a personal failure, stripping away any sense of value or purpose I thought I held within the company.

Being laid off feels intensely personal. Despite understanding on a logical level that you're a small cog in a vast apparatus, the emotional toll is undeniable. The immediate aftermath is a cocktail of fear and worry—how will I pay my rent? How long until I find a new role? The stress is a vicious beast, knocking you off your feet, exacerbated in today's era of remote work, where the impersonal nature of video call layoffs adds a cold touch to the ordeal.

The thought of being laid off never crossed my mind when I graduated college in 2019. I always thought that once you got a job, you would continue to work that job until deciding to move on to your next opportunity. But soon after starting my first role at a B2B SaaS company in Austin, Texas, the COVID-19 pandemic struck. The company I worked at cut my team, and quickly, I learned that no job was ever a guarantee. It was difficult for me to wrap my head around the reality that there is no certainty in careers, or life in general, for that matter. But as I’ve developed in my career over the past 5 years, I have surprisingly grown to enjoy this uncomfortable reality.

The truth is, no matter how certain you may be about a future outcome, the concept of the future is wholly made up. While we can often predict what might happen, we never have an accurate way of knowing this. Back in 2019, this terrified me. Now, I cherish that the present moment is our only real thing. I love this for several reasons…

You are not responsible for the future. You can only control some things in the present moment. This means you can do the best work you can now, but you can’t be responsible for the potential of losing your job in the future due to circumstances out of your control.

You have made it through every hard thing you’ve ever experienced. Our problems often seem much more impactful than they are. The fact is, if you are laid off, you will get another job. Yes, it may be difficult, you may be financially hurt, and you may struggle. Ultimately, you will move on like every other problem you’ve encountered.

Prosperity is produced by your capacity to endure difficulty, not enjoy achievement. Rarely is experiencing an unexpected job loss enjoyable; sometimes, it doesn’t teach us meaningful lessons - it’s just a problem to solve. The more you lean into problem-solving, the more probability you will be successful in the long term. In this way, layoffs can often be a source of redirection to a better future career.

Learning these concepts has removed worry from my life and has proven to be incredibly liberating for me. When big problems, like losing your job, arise, I deal with them then, not before (worry) and not after (regret).

If you are facing a layoff and want advice for dealing with the problem, I have a solution I developed. I've distilled a three-step approach to navigating layoffs: Rethink, Reset, and Reach Out.

Rethink: The initial blow can shatter your self-esteem, leading you down a spiral of negative self-reflection. It's crucial to allow yourself to feel these emotions and challenge them. Remember, layoffs reflect the company's circumstances, not your worth or capabilities.

Reset: Post-layoff stress can leave your body and mind in a state of heightened anxiety. Before making any significant decisions, take time to reset. Enjoy self-care practices like meditation, exercise, or simply spending time with loved ones. It's about healing from the stress and preparing for the next steps.

Reach Out: Once you've given yourself time to rethink and reset, contact your network. Inform your colleagues, friends, and family about your situation and seek their support. You'll be surprised at the opportunities and help that can arise from your network.

Layoffs are unfortunate but do not define your professional journey. There is no point in worrying about an upcoming layoff or regretting being laid off. If you are facing the problem of navigating a layoff, begin by rethinking the situation, resetting your emotional and physical state, and reaching out to your network. You will navigate this challenging time and emerge stronger on the other side.

Survivor’s Guilt

By Maggie Bean

Subject line: “All-Hands Meeting Update - 10:30a ET Please Attend”. The office the next morning was eerily quiet. Stormy skies cast a gray hue over everything.

When the meeting started, faces popped up in their respective Zoom windows. The silence was broken with a flurry of words: “saddened”, “headwinds”, until: “20% redundancy”.

My heart dropped, and in a total reflex, I reached out to grab my friend’s hand. Like some twisted Miss America pageant, we gripped each other. When the meeting ended, I sat in silence for a moment.

That’s when it started. One by one my teammates stood up from their desks and gathered their things. It was as if we were surrounded by landmines, unsure where the next would hit. Then came the Slack goodbye messages. With shaking fingers, I raced to type replies.

At the end of it, less than half of us were left.

The rest of the day we huddled together, talking in hushed voices. Something that kept coming up was survivor’s guilt. “You’ll likely feel survivor’s guilt”. It was true—suddenly, everything felt guilty. Wrong to be eating company-provided 'consolation' pizza in a conference room that wouldn't have held our team yesterday.

Calling it survivor’s guilt says the quiet part out loud: that layoffs are traumatic. For those who are laid off, for their loved ones, and for the ones left behind.

This experience has deeply impacted me. It’s left me feeling unsteady and, at times, debilitatingly anxious in a career I once wholeheartedly loved. Like the work I’m doing, the people I’m doing it with, or my own livelihood could get stripped away at any moment.

Yet I haven’t felt like this is my story to tell. But PMA’s 2023 Salary Report says 21.3% of product marketers have been personally impacted by layoffs and another 44.8% have had layoffs on their team. My story is that of the 44.8%. Those left on the ghosts that teams that once were; picking up the pieces and trying to make things work.

If I were to go back in time and talk to “trying to make things work Maggie”, I would say:

Help and stay connected to your impacted co-workers. If you aren’t already, connect with them on LinkedIn, but also give them space to process this news in their own time. When you do reach out, be concrete and specific in how you can support them.

Simplify what you’re working on. You will likely be asked to take on in-motion projects or new responsibilities. The key is to simplify. In our case, we pivoted from overhauling our 20+ personas to focusing on only the 4 most important ones.

Release yourself from all personal responsibility. I struggled with the feeling that I could have done more to prevent this. But the truth is that we were not one marketing campaign away from different business results. It's not fair to yourself to feel guilty for things beyond your control.

If you or your team has recently gone through a layoff, we see you and are here for you. Thank you for being a part of this little community.

---

Let us know what you think of this edition of Product Marketing Therapy by leaving a comment. Get involved in the project by authoring an essay or submitting a question to be answered in our advice column.