In the past two years, there have been many news reports about layoffs, indicating a poor economic environment.
I have also experienced layoffs myself, specifically two times. The first layoff felt terrible to me, making me feel inadequate, leading to self-doubt, and even causing anxiety for a period. At that time, I was still very young, having just entered the workforce, and I took some things very seriously while being quite naive about others—I placed great importance on being laid off but didn’t fully understand why layoffs happen.
The second layoff was much more composed, or rather, I had matured by then and understood that layoffs are just part of the process. I understood why layoffs were necessary and was quite calm about being laid off; I had discussed it back and forth with my supervisor, and ultimately, I chose to leave. There was part of it that was due to layoffs and part that was my own choice—compared to others in the group with children, I didn’t have as much pressure.
In fact, layoffs in many cases are not significantly related to an individual's performance; they are more about poor company management or a challenging economic environment where the business no longer needs as many employees. In such cases, it doesn’t make much difference who gets laid off, so there’s no need to overly blame oneself or deny one’s worth.
In the words of Stoics, layoffs are caused by external circumstances beyond my control; what I can control is my attitude towards this situation.