So Your Job Was Made Redundant

So Your Job Was Made Redundant A few choice words for the state of the industry lately Posted on 26 Apr 2026 in RSS Club It’s a secret to everyone! Read more about RSS Club. Ugh, that friggin’ sucks. I’m so sorry that this happened to you. It’s not fair. It’s a bunch of bull honky. It’s complete crap. (Feel free to insert your own choice curses if that helps.) It’s not your fault. I want you to know that. You didn’t cause this. There was nothing you could have done to stop it. Unless you were caught embezzling or being a real jerk. In which case, well, maybe this isn’t the post for you.Lots of companies are pulling this garbage right now. Restructuring. Reorganizing. “Reducing inefficiency.” Reprioritizing. A bunch of them are using “AI efficiency” as their excuse. We all know that’s not true. Whatever they want to call it, it’s not a great time to be in the tech industry. Whatever lame reason they gave you (if they even gave one), the real point is that someone (or more likely many someones) higher up made some poor calls in judgment. You might even know what those decisions were. Maybe you even argued against them. But the executives had to make numbers go up, and the best way to do that quickly is to make other numbers go down. Nevermind that those other numbers represent people, with families, and responsibilities, and hopes and fears.Those decision makers are probably still employed. Heck, they may have even gotten a raise or bonus for being so ruthless in “fixing” their mistakes. It sucks, but this is the stupid world we live in. This post isn’t for them either. I wrote this for you. For me, too. Because I’ve been there. More than once, unfortunately. We’ll get through this.What should you do first?Your first temptation might be to jump right into applying to new jobs. To work on your resume. To build or update that portfolio, if that’s relevant for your role. And sure, it’s okay to do a little of that. But also, take time for yourself. Grieve. Losing a job isn’t the same as losing a loved one. But it’s still a loss. You lost coworkers you might have enjoyed. You lost work that you dedicated your time and energy to. You lost a purpose. It sucks. And it’s okay to grieve that. (You can grieve that loss and still be pissed about it, too. That’s actually normal.)Do things to take care of yourself. Get outside. Take breaks. Rest. Give yourself grace and space to recover. Find something fun to embrace. Spend more time with your family and friends. Try that hobby you never had time for before. Exercise. Learn something new. Embrace life outside of work.It’s easy to fall into the trap of filling all of that previous work time with the work of applying to jobs. Don’t. There’s no FOMO worse than the fear of missing out on the “right” job. But here’s the secret. There is no right job. There’s just the next job. And that may be very different than what you expect, at first. It all depends on you.What should you do next?I can’t necessarily answer this for you. I know. I wish I could. I can’t even answer it for myself some days. A lot of people are leaving the tech industry altogether. I don’t blame them. A lot of companies these days don’t even care about the real possibilities of tech. They’re just blindly chasing the money that technology represents. It’s still seen as a market where money is growing fast. (Pst, that’s the real reason AI is booming right now. Lots of companies really really hope that AI keeps the tech industry on a growing…

This excerpt is published under fair use for community discussion. Read the full article at Stegrainer.