Dear all, probably a lot of you have heard and maybe those working in the tech industry experienced the terrible wave of layoffs hitting IT companies globally. For those who lack context - due to inflation rates and too many hires during Covid, a bunch of huge tech and IT companies are massively laying off employees, old and new, over an email. For example 3700 (50%) were fired from Twitter, Oracle fired 1000+ employees, etc.
Now, I also work in a tech copany as a data engineer, my feedback so far has been more than excellent, all my stakeholders and managers are happy with my performance, I myself truly enjoy working in the company and thankfully I wasn't (yet) affected by the layoffs directly, however-
- I'm still in my probation period which makes me sort of an easy point to fire (no need to pay me 3 month severance, and no need to reason, as per my contract, during probation I can be fired any moment with only 2 weeks of notice).
- I'm on a work visa, which means losing a job won't just be a financial pain, but also will be a direct threat to my residence status in the country I am working in.
- A fews days back we got a talk from our CEO, essentially preparing the team for the upcoming layoffs, noone has been fired yet, but it was a speech-prelude, about how desperate times need desperate measures and chances are we may not stay untouched by the layoffs.
All of this is breaking my heart. As an empathetic person, I ache for every single person who was already affected by this. But I also can't stop worrying for myself. I'm alone in this country, a single female, spent my whole life studying and working hard to build a future for myself, to earn enough for a financially independant life. I'm still in my 20s for sure and so much is awating in the future, which I want to beleive is bright, but it will be a tragedy if I am forced by the circumstances to return back to my country (I don't want to mention names, but it's a war affected country and additionally not a sustainable place for liberal women to exist and thrive, basically as a woman your sole purpose is reproduction). I love my motherland, of course, but a lot os rules there are just not for me and for that very reason I have left the country and studied my way to earning a spot in a great company.
Does anyone have any advice of what to do to spot worrying? Should I maybe discuss the situation with anyone from senior management, or will that put me in a more vulnerable position? What should I maybe do to make sure they see my worth and not want to get rid of me? Or maybe anyone has similar experience you want to share to help me put my mind at ease. Any kind words I think might help as at the moment I'm too anxious and scared and it might even negatively affect my otherwise great performance.
Thanks a lot in advance for your empathy <3