7 Lies Your Conscience or Others Told You About Being Laid Off or Fired to Ignore

Interestingly, people who cheer for the disparaging narratives make separated employees the villains or “bad employees.”

I go through Twitter or LinkedIn and put the words “layoff poor performers” in the search box, and as sure as snowstorms in Buffalo cheering on a company to lay off those who “don’t put in the work.”

For example:

So @Google wants the world to know that those 10K folks are poor performers? At least that’s what I understand after reading @livemint and @toi

Calling it #layoffs without specific reasons was at least fair and neutral towards those affected.

What happened to Don’t be evil?

— Pranjal Yadav (@Pranjal_Yadav) November 22, 2022

Managers give competitive ratings to employees and are told (in many companies) only can be considered high performers. Some managers make layoff decisions unnecessarily complicated, and the bottom line is good employees can be “poor” performers.

When you’re laid off under the guise of poor performance, this could stain your work record if you let it. Any separation from a company categorized as “poor” is subjective and is not a death sentence these days.

I explain in the video below you can’t allow companies under any circumstances to dictate your career’s narrative. I also wrote a Payscale article to help you define and disregard the self-effacing thoughts about what people or your past projected you about an unwanted separation from a company.

Hint: It’s not the end. Not even close.

I should mention most companies don’t offer a performance rating when a potential employer of an ex-employee calls for a reference. You should ask and agree nothing should be said about performance.

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