How to survive the PIPs and layoffs era

Hint: It's not by working harder

Last week, my company’s CEO sent out an email that mirrored what he announced in our earnings call. Sometime before the end of 2024, we’ll be reducing the number of employees to less than 12,000 (from around 13,100). Since attrition is low, we’ll be relying on performance management and layoffs to get us to whatever number below 12k that leadership lands on. For now, exactly how and when we’ll do that is a mystery.

Photo by The Jopwell Collection on Unsplash

I wish this approach was an outlier, but it seems like a combo of PIPs and rolling layoffs has become the new normal in tech. We’ve long had stringent performance expectations but now it feels like we’re harkening back to a Steve Ballmer-era style of stack ranking and firing the bottom 10%. (Even when the “bottom” is just the least outstanding person in a group of outstanding people.)

Of course, PIPs make a lot of sense for employers. They can reduce or eliminate the cost of a layoff. PIP packages are generally less than severance, and many people try to work their way out of them and don’t take the package at all. And I suppose rolling layoffs make more sense for them, too.

But what about employees who are expected to churn out ever more impact while waiting to find out if they still have a job? Happy holidays to us.

The reality is that we’re never guaranteed a job. We can be let go at any time and layoffs are always a possibility. However, there’s something very different about being told that layoffs are imminent and being expected to just… wait and see.

I used to feel a lot of loyalty to my employer. I worked 100 hour weeks for two years to try to prevent Microsoft from being fined by the EU as part of the antitrust lawsuits in the early 2000s. I lived and breathed my work and felt like my work truly mattered to the company — until I developed a disability that left me temporarily unable to work. After 7 years of high performance ratings and unpaid overtime, I was on disability leave for about 7 months when I was informed that my role had been filled. It turns out, I was the only one in that relationship who was loyal.

Since then, I’ve worked at a number of companies (including Microsoft again) and I’ve worked hard but I’ve never lost sight of what that experience taught me: I’m fully, 100% replaceable.

In many ways, I find that knowledge freeing. I used to think I was the only person who could do my job (hell, I took work calls in Paris on vacation!). Now I leave my laptop at home when I’m out of the office. I used to hesitate to take vacation time and now I take every last day available to me. My employer gets what they pay me for — the rest of my life belongs to me.

In other ways, it’s been detrimental. I’ve left companies too soon and hindered my own career growth simply because someone else made me a better offer. I’ve been so sure every company sucks, deep down, that I’ve overlooked some real red flags in the hiring process and landed places I was desperate to leave.

Unfortunately, the current climate of PIPs and layoffs is only going to teach more people the same painful lesson I learned. Employers think they hold all the cards now and we should be grateful to RTO and have a paycheck. But are they really prepared for what they’re unleashing?

Maybe in the past, PIPs and layoffs encouraged people to work harder but I don’t think people are going to buy that bullshit anymore. If a CEO (or 12) hires recklessly, we’re not going to work ourselves to the bone just to keep our jobs. Anyone who can leave for greener pastures will — especially when we’re expected to sit with layoff anxiety indefinitely.

So if you find yourself in this situation, here’s some advice:

1. Take the PIP package. I can’t stress this enough. In different times, arguments can be made for and against but these aren’t normal times. Companies are making it clear they’re using PIPs to drive attrition. Take the money and run.

2. Do a good job — but no more. If you think killing yourself to impress people will save your job, think again. Remember that Twitter employee who literally slept in the office just to get shitcanned a few months later? Don’t be that person.

3. Apply elsewhere. If your company doesn’t appreciate its employees, find a better one. There are still companies out there that are treating people with respect and empathy. You might not get the big tech compensation, but it might be worth it for stability in this market.

4. Consider this aspect of culture when you’re job hunting. Pay attention to whether and how companies handled layoffs when you’re looking for a new gig. Did they do it compassionately with strong packages? Or did they lean on PIPs and lengthy, rolling layoffs? Pick your poison.

5. Prepare financially. At this point, there’s no real reason to think you won’t be laid off sometime soon and the market is garbage. Do whatever you can to protect yourself financially. When I was laid off from Pinterest, it took 30 days to get a dime of my severance — so even that severance package may not arrive when you expect it to. Make sure you can survive without a paycheck at any time.