Being Irreplaceable Won't Save You From a Layoff (I Watched It Happen)

I was scrolling through the r/cscareerquestions subreddit (which, in the age of AI, has changed drastically from even a couple of years ago). Now the talk has gone from which programming language is best to learn for career growth, how to get into a high paying FAANG job, and general love of computer science.

Now? Now it seems that every post is asking:

Will my job be safe long-term?

I am a new graduate and I can't get a job (cue talk of their ivy league degree, 4.0 GPA, and insanely competitive internship experience).

I don't even code anymore, AI just does everything, with a statement of how they either love or hate this. (My pet theory is that those who were not good programmers in the first place love it. Those who had actual problem-solving skills hate it.)

But there is one other line I see in these threads:

My job will never get rid of me, I am the only person who knows how everything works around here.

And I have got to tell you, my heart drops every time.

Is that person you? Stay with me here. I promise this post isn't about stirring in dread. It's about understanding and having a plan.

I can understand the sentiment, and I even largely agree with it. I have worked with engineers who were genuinely the glue holding the entire workplace together, it seemed. Sometimes they were the only person who understood the highly complicated machine learning that had been put into place for data cleanup, or they were the person who had built an in-house tool from the ground up and knew how to solve any and all issues with it in minutes (not days, like the rest of the developers).

You want to know what happened to all those engineers?

Laid off.

Every. Single. One.

I remember hearing that one of these coworkers was being laid off, and I immediately put “Open to Work” on my LinkedIn. Not because I was worried about the future of the company (I mean, I was, but who isn't at their tech job anymore?) or because I was making a move in solidarity.

I wanted to start looking for new jobs because I truly didn't think the company would survive a single outage or issue without this person. To the point that when I thought about what the future was going to hold without them, and what I would be tasked to deal with, I genuinely broke out into hives and couldn't eat for days over what my work life was about to become.

When I asked my manager how these decisions were made, he literally just said, “No one knows, we just got a list of who was affected from the VP.”

To be honest, I thought he wasn't being truthful with me when he told me that. I thought that right up until the day they announced they were going to lay off two-thirds of my team to move the work to India, and neither my boss (a Sr. Director) nor I had been asked for names. And we were both in shock about who was being kept, because we were in agreement that these were not the strong performers on the team.

The point I am trying to make is: you are never safe.

Were you the strongest performer on your team? Doesn't matter.

Are you the only person who understands how all the internal systems work? See you later.

Do clients love and adore you? Well, the higher-ups think they will love the next person just as well.

There is no job security in modern corporate America. Unless you are an executive who is going to be handed a golden parachute for when the mess you create blows up in your face, there is nothing you can do to make your job secure.

Well... maybe you could blackmail the company. But I really suggest not doing that, given the high rate of arbitration clauses in employment contracts today. (And because... it's, like... wrong... but I do get the sentiment.)

If you are someone who is living under the impression that you are not replaceable, this article is here to wake you up. The people who make these decisions, in many cases, don't know who you are or what you contribute (and don't value your work, because hey, if it was important you would be paid like them).

They see every single person as replaceable. Whether it be by someone cheaper with less work experience, someone in another country, or AI taking over your job tasks. They do not value your work, and they salivate at the thought of bringing down OpEx to make a board or shareholders happy.

I think this is a hard reality for many of us to swallow. The first time I watched one of those invaluable coworkers get the axe, I thought, “it could have been me.”

It was the first time I realized I wasn't avoiding layoffs because I was the best at what I did (even though I am). I was just getting lucky.

And sure, some companies will realize how catastrophically they screwed up. One of those engineers was brought back on contract because we couldn't make it through busy season with everything breaking (surprise, surprise). But that wasn't the case for everyone. Some of the people I know who were laid off are still out of the labor market even now, years later. Ageism in tech... another thing to be concerned about.

I don't want you to read this and go into an anxiety spiral. And I say this as someone who always immediately goes into an anxiety spiral when thinking about any of these things. What I do want you to do is be prepared for the new reality we find ourselves in, and realize that it could be you too on the job hunt.

In this new landscape of zero corporate loyalty, you need to be prepped always. Not in a doomsday-prepper, canned-beans kind of way, but in a “if the list of names comes out tomorrow and I am on it, I am not starting from zero” kind of way. Here is what I tell everyone who will listen, most of whom did not want to hear it until it was too late.

How to Prepare for a Layoff Before It Happens

1. Keep your “brag file” updated year-round, not just when you need it.

The worst time to try to remember what you accomplished is either when you are trying to write your self-review or the week you got walked out of your workplace. Keep a running doc of wins, metrics, projects, and the nice things people said about you in Slack or Teams. When you need a resume line or an interview story, it is already saved in your files. I promise you will not remember the Q2 number that saved everyone's bacon eighteen months from now.

2. Know your runway before you need it.

Sit down and figure out how many months you could cover if the paycheck stopped this Friday. Not a vague “I have some savings” feeling, an actual number. That number changes every decision you make during a search, from how picky in potentially turning down a lower paying or contract offer. If the number scares you, that is information, and it is better to have it now than in a panic.

3. Keep your resume and LinkedIn quietly current.

Not “Open to Work” green-banner current if you are still employed, just up to date. Refresh them every few months while things are calm and your accomplishments are fresh. Updating a resume out of curiosity is a completely different experience than updating one out of terror at 11pm the day it happens.

4. Build the network before you are asking it for something.

The most miserable networking is the kind you do the day after a layoff, when every message reeks of “please help me.” Grab coffee (virtual or otherwise) with old coworkers now, while you have nothing to ask for. Stay a real human to the people who might one day forward your resume. Relationships are a lot easier to lean on when you have not let them go cold.

5. Understand what you are actually owed.

Know your company's severance patterns if you can, understand how your PTO gets paid out, and read the fine print on your equity and any bonus you are counting on. Nobody hands you a helpful summary on your way out. Knowing this ahead of time keeps you from leaving money on the table in a moment when you are too shell-shocked to negotiate.

6. Separate the “known” expenses from the “surprise” ones.

A job search comes with costs you can actually predict (interview clothes, a certification, a gap in health coverage) and ones you cannot. Set a little aside for the predictable ones now, so they do not eat into the savings you need for the actual emergency.

None of this stops a layoff. I want to be very clear about that, because I am not selling you a magic force field. The VP with the spreadsheet does not care that your resume is updated. What this does do is turn a catastrophe into an inconvenience-with-a-plan. The difference between the people I watched crumble and the people who landed on their feet was almost never talent. It was preparation.

So yes, it could be you. It could be me. It has been me, sort of, in every anxiety spiral I have ever had about it. But “it could be you” and “you are ready for it” are allowed to be true at the same time. Go be the second one.

About the Author

Corporate Kate has spent nearly 15 years inside corporate tech, managing large teams and making the hiring decisions most job seekers never get to see. She holds a bachelor's degree in Finance and writes about layoffs, careers, and money.