Another addition of my apparent series entitled “tales of Meg’s wacky career in tech“. This is the story of the first Reduction in Force (RIF) I got to see up close and personal. The whole process of this RIF really changed me.
For my first job I worked for a small start-up ERP software company that was growing rapidly on the initial client/server wave. This company was all the good things about a start-up, friendly people, shared vision, enthusiastic workforce, an excellent place to start a career. We were always having trouble hiring enough people to meet the demand of our sales, I had seen nothing but growth in the three years I had been there. And then one day things changed. We hit a technology wall that slowed sales. As an entry level employee, I had no idea that trouble was coming.
I found out about the RIF about a week before anyone else, as my [now] husband was responsible for helping to compile “the list”. This was beyond awkward for me, since I knew some names but not all and most were my friends. I also knew that the list was being made with very scarce information as to who knew what. I was outraged. I was horrified. I was terrified. I felt personally guilty wondering if I should just quit myself.
On the big day, as I found out the extent of the list, I considered the whole thing terribly unjust. Living in a relatively small town I knew this was going to have huge impacts as people would have to move away to find comparable work.
I am actually grateful to have had this RIF early in my career, as I learned so much as a result. It took away my innocence, but it also caused me to wake up and realize how things work. At the end of the day, I was employed to serve a function for the business, as long as the service I provided was seen as a value, I would continue to have a job. If business conditions were to change such that they had to re-evaluate my value, they would not think twice to do that. No one, no matter how great, is going to be worth sacrificing the company to keep.
I learned that it was my responsibility to understand the business. It is never enough to focus only on my own tasks, I needed to make sure that I was seen as someone adding value overall. I had to take seriously where I fit in the organization and how my company was impacted by the larger economic factors at play. Never again did I trust my entire career blindly on the business judgement of a senior leader. I learned to chose my participation (and length of service) in companies, based upon the results of the business.
In the end, I also found out something I would have never guessed at the time. Every person who was let go landed on their feet. They moved on, they got different jobs, the RIF became a story in their professional career but it did not define them.
Over the course of the next year, my professional network grew from a single company to hundreds of companies as all my former colleagues found new jobs. I am not suggesting that a RIF doesn’t suck, it does. But good things can result from them as well, especially if you use the experience as an opportunity for your own growth.
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