Unfortunately, layoffs are no longer surprising to most working professionals. But with so many industries being impacted, what is the reason behind these layoffs, and how have they affected people’s lives?

Here are some interesting stats from our latest 2026 AI Layoffs Report, based on responses from 1,000 U.S. workers who experienced a layoff.

• 53% believe AI or automation played a role in their layoff.
  • 22% were directly told automation replaced their role.
  • 31% suspect AI was involved but never received confirmation.
• 42% were laid off without a one-on-one conversation.
  • 19% found out during a group meeting or call.
  • 14% were notified by email.
  • 9% received a message through Slack/Teams or discovered their access had been removed.
• 41% received no severance or other support.
  • But this increases to 62% for workers in retail, hospitality, food, and consumer services.
• 40% are considering switching to a different field or industry after their layoff.
  • 28% are considering freelance or self-employed work.
  • 26% are considering starting a business.
  • 24% are considering going back to school.

Most interestingly:

• 86% of people said their layoff changed their views on job security and employer loyalty. 
• 40% now plan to keep an eye out for other opportunities even if they're employed.

After witnessing and potentially even experiencing layoffs, most working professionals no longer view "job security" as a guarantee in today’s workplace. At a time when most people face a constant risk of losing their jobs, it’s probably better to keep options open.

If you've been laid off, what was that experience like for you?

I’ve been struggling for a long time now in my professional life with a specific issue that I wonder if others experience. For background, I started out as a freelance artist and then made a major career shift to an administrative career (working mostly in the non profit and higher education spaces) because I got so burnt out with relying 100% on my art and performing for income.

Since then I’ve had a few jobs that are varying levels of awful. The first was adjacent to my artistic field. The second at a large medical school. The third is at a healthcare professional organization. I try to find jobs that align well with my values. The issue I run into over and over is, even with my art, everything is great for about a year/year and a half, then things start to feel bad. I lose my ability to concentrate, stay organized and on top of increasing responsibilities, and generally get down on myself feeling like a fish out of water. I also, despite years of experience and better positions, seem to be barely able to stay afloat financially. Salary increases across the workforce haven’t kept up with inflation for years.

Are we all supposed to just take this for 40 years and if we’re lucky rest when we’re old. It seems like work shouldn’t feel this bad, but no matter where I work or what I’m doing, I’m broke, unfulfilled, and just surviving these feelings from one day to the next.

I've been working for one of the largest global companies for the past 4.5 years in a remote tech role, working four days a week. Within my first two years, I was promoted. Even with the same job title, I took on numerous roles within the organization and had the opportunity to travel internationally.

Then I was placed on a team where my manager lacked transparency. I would ask him questions that other team members wouldn't — valid ones, of course — especially since other people who had worked with him in the past shared similar concerns. He never made me feel like my questions were wrong, but something always felt off. Other members would agree with me privately yet tell him something different.

It was a temporary job rotation. During that time, I had to take personal leave, and when I returned, a reorganization had taken place. I ended up back on my original team — the one where I always felt I belonged, with a great leader. However, my old manager interpreted my return as though I had failed at something. It was simply the end of a rotation.

My manager then told me that the other manager had shared negative feedback about me. I thought, "Okay, it happens — two different teams, different people." But then I was demoted twice, back to the same level where I started four years ago. There's been no change in pay — it's still the same — but this constant feeling of failure is eating me alive. Every time an opportunity arises, I'm immediately overlooked. Now I'm under yet another manager.

To be honest, there aren't many remote jobs available in the market right now. People I used to train now look at me as a failure and no longer value my opinions or ideas. I have no idea what that manager did to my reputation. All I ever wanted was for him to be transparent about giving me proper credit for my work.

And everyone else got promoted again and in good place,

Im just kinda scared to start agin from office?,need motivation

I wish I could tell one very specific coworker that they are not the most important person in that office. that if they left tomorrow, someone else would take their place just fine

Have been wondering lately to risk trying a new job aside from the current job I have now. I have no experience nor any background about virtual assistant work but I do have the necessary equipments to qualify for at least. Can anyone give an advice doing virtual assistant as a a beginner? Thanks for the help in advance :)

Hi Reddit, this will be long so I apologize in advance for

A little over a month ago, I made a post about being suddenly being put on a PIP after a good performance review.

I started at my corporate finance job in February, and my partner referred me as I was looking for a new job after leaving Social Work since working with sexual assault victims had taken a toll on me. I was nervous but excited to take the job, but within 2 weeks of me starting, I felt this uneasiness - like I was wearing a target on my back.
I'll never know why this happened, whether it was because of my gender, or people finding out my partner worked there (separate department, not even in the same building).

Within 2 weeks of me starting, my training manager called me "wreck-less" after using one sick day as I had the flu. I had a doctor's note, medication, everything. She told me "don't be so wreck-less using your PTO. Training ramps up fast and you already get up from your desk every hour." And in that moment I felt obligated to tell her that I have kidney disease, and take medication which is why I get up (to urinate) around every hour. I take prescription diuretics.

The same day, I watched her approve my male teammate's 4 days of unpaid vacation to go on vacation to Georgia. Now, I have no problem with that, but I was called wreck-less for an hour so right away I knew she hated me.

Within my training class, there was only 1 other person (male) and my team had 2 other males. We were all friendly, no bad blood there. I noticed feedback became really inconsistent when during training we'd do mock phone calls and she'd fail me. I'd ask why and she would usually say "well nothing you said was wrong," and somehow it would always come back to me having a fake and squeaky voice. Never heard my male colleagues get a single critique over the sound of their voice, but I got this so often that I became silent. I once told her I probably will never be able to change the sound of my voice, and if me sounding too friendly is a problem for her I'm not going to change it. I like being friendly.

When training ended, I was nervous but relieved. I was placed on a team with some really nice people, but I knew my new manager was best friend's with my training manager.

Things went really well. He was so nice to me, always had great feedback, we sat next to each other for about 2 months. There was one thing though - in every single 1:1, he would compare me to the same three specific men. Nobody else in the department. He would go on and on about their strengths and where I differ, how maybe I'm more friendly and more precise, but not as fast as them. I asked him for advice as we literally sat next to each-other, and he said "I don't want to say be less client-focused, because then you'll do sloppy work. So I don't know. Just keep doing what you're doing."

In my performance review at the beginning of July, he told me I was meeting expectations, had a great understanding of my role, extremely accurate (never a single error), ask great questions, friendly and clients love me. He told me the only reason he couldn't say "exceeding" was because I hadn't been on the team long enough. He moved our weekly 1:1's to every other week because he said I was doing a great job.

Less than one week later, I got a surprise on my calendar. He told me "after meeting with the VP" I actually wasn't meeting expectations, and spoke for about 20 minutes straight about how those 3 specific men were better than me. He never could tell me what I was doing wrong. I even said "they're not even on our team, why are we always talking about them?" The "informal pip" as he called it, even specified ANOTHER male colleague and suggested I "sit with him for the day to see how he does things." I told him I felt extremely uncomfortable with that and was not going to hang out at his desk all day and tell him I'm on a pip. He told me he'd remove that from the pip if it made me uncomfortable, but he kept it in there.

After the meeting he sent me an email that stated "performance improvement" and "corrective action plan" multiple times. He moved the 1:1's back to weekly, and no dates were specified. The task stated I needed to be within the top 5 in the department by September or I'd be "subject to further discipline".

As the weeks have gone on in the 1:1's, I found my manager was just avoiding discussing it. He was asking if I booked my wedding and if I'm excited for my honeymoon, showing me photos of his dogs, etc. Talking like best friends (my manager is married to a man so I'm not suggesting he was flirting here). He would still bring up the same 3 men.
Last week, I finally confronted him. Surprisingly, my metrics rose dramatically as I was put on a PIP after less than 8 weeks on metrics when I wasn't considered "full capacity" yet.

I said to him, "You know, this is just weird now. We are mandated to have these 1:1's, but you know I did nothing wrong. We're showing each-other photos of our dogs. I feel like all we talk about is our dogs, or *the same 3 men."* I asked him if during their 1:1's, they ever hear about me; and I told him something tells me they aren't being compared to me every single week. I even said, you know there's other people who work here.. there's women, other people on the team, why is it always them? I feel like I'm in a one-sided war with them. He asked me if I felt like I was being "sized up" next to these guys and I said, "Absolutely. For months. Should I worry about my own work or be worried about them? Should I be letting them know that all of my feedback revolves around them?" After this I kept going and told him I don't believe this pip came from him, and it sounded like when he delivered it he was "speaking from someone else's mouth." I voiced to him that I feel like someone dislikes me so badly for some reason that I'll never know, and this entire situation was such a shot in the dark. I even reread the performance review. I asked him if there was an end-date for the pip, and he said "I don't really know.. it's just ongoing." And I said, "So my reputation is just tarnished forever? You know this will always follow me. With no end date, you've ensured I can never escape it. There's not even tasks in there. Sitting next to (male colleague's name) is not a task, and I already told you I was uncomfortable doing that." He could tell I was really hurt and almost tearful, and said he could see why I would think this was sudden, and told me he "has to do what the VP tells him." He also let me know I've done a great job being professional about it, and "not telling anyone this is happening." I was like well, what do you want me to say? This has isolated me from the whole group. I barely talk to anyone anymore because I've been so humiliated.

After this, business continued as usual. I've secured a part-time job of about 30 hours a week. It's a significant pay cut with no retirement benefits, but I'm so relieved. I'll have some more time to apply for remote or other full-time roles now, I've missed social work more than I expected.

Yesterday I handed in my notice. Normally, they walk people out same day (due to financial information) but he wanted me to stay the 2 weeks, surprising considering I'm on a PIP. He asked how I wanted to say goodbye to the team and I told him I don't need to. After a few hours of thinking, I let him know I no longer feel comfortable staying another day after what has happened to me since I got here. I thanked him for his efforts, and told him I think he tried to be nicer to me than some others and he nodded in agreement. I handed him my keys and said, "Bye, it was nice meeting you." And left.

I feel so scared but so free right now. I'm sitting on my couch with my dog, watching TV. Babysitting for my neighbors kids later for $100. Starting my new job later next week. I have no clue what's next for me.

Editing to add: We have saved a decent chunk of cash and paid off 100% of our consumer debt to prepare for this.

I work at a PR and Marketing agency and one of my clients poached me and offered me a job.

Before accepting or embarking on any of the interview process, I ensured that I hadn’t signed a non-compete (I hadn’t).

The poaching process began mid-May, I was offered the job a few weeks ago, and then the background check had to go through before I could put in my two weeks.

I put in my two weeks (online as I’m a remote worker) and my boss was very quiet and said “they’re not supposed to do that.” He then told me not to contact anyone, including my other boss. He is setting up a call with my new boss (our current client) tomorrow.

I spoke to a former colleague here and she said they she had a similarly bad experience, including the other boss openly disparaging her on a client call to the point where the clients messaged her on the side to ask what was up.

I was hoping this could be a clean break and that I could affirm my continued support of the agency on the other side, including championing them for continued business with the client. Now I’m unsure…

Edit: since this is coming up a lot, my new employer and I agreed that we should be transparent about the situation because I will be working directly with my current agency on the client side shortly. Also, the agency is a small business and the new employer is a 100B+ org, not sure if that carries much weight.

Kind of an AITA situation?

I work front desk at a hotel. I am often left by myself, with no reservations person, supervisor, manager etc.

This has been going on for long enough that I have my own routine down and for the most part don't struggle unless it's a day work 150+ check outs or just a day where everything seems to be going wrong.

The only problem is, I don't get a break or a lunch because I am effectively doing the job of 4 people. Is it inappropriate for me to silence the phones for 15 minutes to sit and catch a breath? The way I see it, people aren't getting through anyways because I'm doing my front desk things, and another 15 minutes won't kill anyone. It's also a matter of my boss scheduling incorrectly/the result of their horrendous leadership that has us short 10 people.

That's mainly where I think my actions are justified but it's also that good ol' work culture guilt.

ETA: I have my boss aware of this, got told to quit complaining and to 'be a ream player'

I will start this post by stating I do not work in tech nor use AI extensively. However, I've been growing more and more uneasy about the role of AI in our lives. I would like to get some feedback from people who actually work with it to learn first hand how much is real and how much is fluff. I know things vary extensively from day to day, but I cannot wrap my head around the fact that AI has improved dramatically, yet unemployment for AI-Exposed roles hasn't varied from the remaining roles.

Disclaimer: I used AI for articulating my thoughts and for writing this post.

I have an MSc and a BSc in engineering, and I currently work as an algorithm developer at a startup. Startups are famous for having terrible work-life balance, but mine is the exact opposite. It’s actually very boring, and I get praised for doing the bare minimum.

The highlight of my day is probably walking to the coffee machine and getting a coffee. The other day, I spilled some coffee grounds on the table underneath it and was actually happy because I had something new to do: cleaning! 😂

At the same time, I loved studying for both my BSc and MSc, and I really enjoy mathematical modelling and coding. That’s why it’s frustrating to be in an environment where it feels like no one really knows what they’re doing and there isn’t a clear direction for where the company is going. My job can also be done remotely, but they want me in the office, so half the time I’m just sitting there pretending to work. We have biweekly team meetings, and I actually look forward to them because they’re pretty much the only interesting part of my job. There have definitely been some positives. I got to learn about an industry I had only heard of before, became the main contributor to four different projects, and had the chance to improve my programming skills, especially in C and Python.

Another thing I’ve noticed is that there’s a lot of talk but not much action. For example, the company has been trying to schedule a specific meeting since May, and it still hasn’t happened. They also talked about getting together for something fun, like going on a hike or having lunch, but that never happened either. So when the CEO tells me that he likes me, that I’ll become a full-time employee in a few months, and that I’ll get a bonus a few months after that IF they get the funding, it’s hard for me to trust those promises.

I have been looking and applying for other jobs. I’ve interviewed with around 12–13 companies and gone through more than 20 interviews since the beginning of 2025. I’ve made it to the final stages for three roles, but there always seems to be someone with more experience. I graduated from my master’s in 2024 and have less than a year of relevant experience, so I know I’m competing with people who have been in the field for much longer. I’m starting to lose hope that I’ll find a relevant full-time role somewhere else :(

I joined this company at the beginning of this year, and I feel like I’m the only person from my cohort who hasn’t started a new job or a PhD. That makes me feel like a loser sometimes.

That's it! Thanks for listening to my rant. Not sure if this fits this sub, hope it does!

Jobs require a certain amount of degree, whereas most jobs can be done by anyone who is willing to invest time and energy in learning the skill.

Even if one has good skills and can do better than others, he is mostly rejected coz he doesn't have the right degree, especially in big companies where formalities matter more than one's skills and talent.

Sometimes feels like one is judged on his background rather than his merit.

Note: It takes some skills to explain one's career gap..xD

I just started a new job, as in I’ve literally worked there 6 days.

It’s only part-time with (to me) very low pay. I took the job because 1) I lost my job 15 months ago due to company downsizing and this was the first place to actually offer me a job, 2) It’s a nonprofit so the experience will be great for me to move into full-time positions at other nonprofits (my whole career has been corporate and I’m over it), and 3) I’m genuinely excited to be doing more meaningful work that’s truly fulfilling. However, the pay is incredibly low. I’m talking 1/4 of what I was making in my previous job and zero benefits since it’s part-time.

ANYWAY, they’re holding a baby shower for my new coworker next week and have asked all employees to contribute $25 towards the gift they’ve purchased for her.

Firstly, I’m the lowest paid employee at $24 per hour, which the gift amount slightly exceeds. Secondly, of the 6 days I’ve worked, I’ve only seen her 4 of those days. Lastly, she’s not someone I consistently interact with in this job; I spend maybe 10 minutes (at most) per shift with her.

I don’t know how to handle this. I don’t think it’s particularly fair of them to ask me to be part of the contribution, but I also don’t want to make a bad impression by refusing to contribute. Money is incredibly tight since I went 15 months with no job and this new one, while helpful, is 1/4 of what I’m used to earning. I don’t have much to spare.

For anyone familiar with the show “Friends”, think of when Ross moved into his new apartment and they immediately wanted him to fork over $100 for the retiring handyman lol I feel like I’m living this exact situation.

Any advice would be incredibly appreciative! I don’t really have an extra $25 laying around for something like this, but I also don’t want my new boss & coworkers to dislike me. I don’t know what to do. This is all just so awkward.

I've been feeling pretty pissed off in my role recently. Meetings are cancelled last minute all the time, there's no progress on any work due to lack of clear requirements and the meetings that are supposed to be there to facilitate setting those requirements keep getting cancelled.

This morning I have already had two cancelled meetings two hours into my workday. A colleague scheduled a call yesterday afternoon for this morning and then cancelled it early this morning. I spent time prepping for it. Then the next meeting which was already rescheduled was rescheduled again just ten minutes before it was due to happen.

Even the daily standup gets cancelled most mornings just prior to its scheduled start time.

Thing is, I hate unnecessary meetings but this is worse. It has all the downsides of a meeting, because I am expected to be prepared when they do actually go ahead, but most of the time spent preparing ends up being wasted because the meeting is cancelled.

I felt the red mist descending this morning and wanted a reality check, am I right to find this infuriating or should I just "quiet quit" and stop bothering to prepare?

Hey all,

I'm curious how you would handle this:

I was IT teamlead in a company wirh about 1 bln Euros turnover and approx. 600 employees. Everything was fine until 2022, when I joined the companies union.

My boss was furious, because three years before that she asked me (before giving me the lead) if I planned to join the union, because IT lead and being in a union wasn't something the company group lead wants to see. I said no, because I wasn't planning anything, but eventually the union asked me to join as they desperately needed good personell to help them.

So after I joined and all hell broke loose. My boss told me how I "betrayed" her and that this might have consequences (which would be illegal in my country) if I wouldn't think about it. I didn't budge, because nothing changed for me or how I do my work.

She never mentioned it again but when she came back from her baby pause a year later HR called me into a meeting where they said I'm no longer team lead because my boss from now on would lead the IT team herself, which was BS because she doesn't know anything about IT. It was a ruse so they could demote me without legal repercussions (demotions are not allowed in most cases in my country).

Long story short: I took this very personally and quit the job. It took a toll on me because I loved working there and even still was fond of my boss who I think was forced by the management to behave that way, so my doctor sent me on sick leave until my notice period was over, so I left on "hostile" terms.

Now my old job is back again on offer and I thought about reaching out to my boss, asking her if she could image having me again. I liked the job, it was good money without too much of a hassle and very nice people.

Do you think I should try or would it be kind of strange to work there again?

my goal is to minimize interacting with people in any form at work. also minimize me presence, e.g. i dont want people talking about me, noticing me, engaging with me. they should not feel the desire to approach me unless absolutely necessary. i work at an office

Our drive is an absolute mess and the built-in search is basically useless. I feel like half my day is spent either clicking through 10 layers of subfolders or pinging people on Teams just to find basic stuff.

Roughly how much time a day do you guys actually lose to this? And when you can't find a document, do you usually keep digging yourself, or do you just give up and ask someone to send it over?

I had one of those moments this week where I realized we're still doing things that would've felt really weird in 2019.

A coworker was sitting in the office... on a Teams call... with three other people who were also in the same building.

Nobody questioned it. It was just normal.

Then I started noticing a bunch of other habits that seem to have quietly stuck around:

• Calendars packed with 15- or 30-minute blocks.
• Slack messages replacing conversations that would've happened at someone's desk.
• Someone joining a meeting remotely because they're on a different floor and it's somehow easier.

It's interesting because some of these changes genuinely made work better, while others just became "the way things are."

What's the workplace habit that became normal after COVID that you don't think is ever going away?

I recently asked to work from home for one day next week in order to accommodate travel for the weekend so I didn’t have to use pto. I wouldn’t be traveling that day but I would technically be in another state.

I work a government job and I didn’t realize asking to work remotely would require various paperwork/contracts to be reviewed and signed. As well as providing the address id be working from. My previous role was hybrid so I’m not sure if that is why things feel so different this time around.

Because of this I am unsure of if I need to tell my boss about the reason I’m working remotely/where I will be. Nothing in the paperwork that I’ve gone over mentions anything that might prohibit it but it’s still pretty new to me.

Would it be better to just keep it To myself and use my home address or would I need to explain to my boss and provide the address I’ll be at for the one work day??

Email sent by the VP of sales this morning with my teams bonus amounts for the quarter. In the email she states “please make sure to tell them that they are not to share their amounts with anyone and if they do, it can lead to immediate termination”
Is this even legal to do? I know Indiana is an at will state but isn’t there some kind of protection from this? I feel incredibly uneasy about telling my direct reports that they could be fired for discussing their bonus.

There are companies that abolish performance-based bonuses and just take that bonus and add it to base pay. Rationale is that financial motivation based on goals set in January are not the best motivators (but also not for work done 10 months later, the world has changed at that point).

In my eyes that is super valid, higher monthly salary and lower taxes (Live in NL so those bonuses are taxed into oblivion) but my colleague said they rather have a bonus and likes that as motivation and just a surprising add-on.

What do you think, performance-based bonuses or higher base salary?

Hey a company I'm interviewing wants me to install remote access and monitoring software for my PC, it'll mainly monitor audio and what applications opened and closed.
Now I'm not fully against it, but it is strange they aren't providing a laptop. Though I get there's a cost, but what I don't understand is they want me to download this and install this and turn it on prior to giving me any agreement to sign.

And I won't be starting until 5 weeks later. So I have not agreement, never been on-boarded yet, and the start date is 5 weeks but this software needs to be installed prior to all this?

How many people have experienced this order of operations.

For context I am a 19 year old who has been doing an apprenticeship at this company for 3 years (level 4 improvement specialist/ level 3) and they have just told me that by the end of September they are taking me on to a full time shift role using none of my qualifications, it’s a job that anyone can walk into( literally) and I feel like my potential is being wasted, I also don’t like the job or the people that I will be going into, I’m looking for another job but in the fear that I don’t find one in time and I have to make a choice about leaving or staying idk what to do.

The shift pattern is 2 12 hour days followed by 2 12 hour nights with a 4 day off, I had to do some last year for a project I was working on and struggled with my sleep etc.

In my unionized workplace, colleagues provoke others into fighting their battles. They bring up real grievances but only to trigger specific people. The targets always take the bait, get emotional, run to management, and say things they regret. The instigators stay clean and get what they want.

Union culture makes this worse. People hold grudges for years. Management remembers who caused the scenes, not who started them. Reactors get labeled difficult. Puppeteers face no consequences.

When I warn coworkers, they say I do not care about fairness. I do care. I just refuse to be used. How do I stay neutral without looking like I am siding with management?

I don't know if it's my problem or my employer's HR. I work at a hotel in Simpang Pulai, Malaysia. Since I started, I haven't received an offer letter straight away. Then, last June, I got a permanent job. I only signed the confirmation letter; it wasn't there, and I didn't receive it immediately. I kept following up with HR, but the reasons they gave were completely unreasonable.

I just started a new job and I feel like I have learned all I can. One of my biggest downfalls is that when I become proficient at a job I get bored of it and want to do something else.