Lay offs are a reminder to NOT prioritize your work (The Fatal Mistake Devs make)
Disclaimer: I’m not representing Amazon in any way. My opinions are my own, yada yada.
With the recent explosion in layoffs in tech, many software engineers are left in a state of limbo, should they keep working this week, or are they getting fired this Friday?
I experienced this myself at Amazon. There were rumors of 10,000 layoffs or more across the company.
My team was luckily not a part of the layoffs, but many teams at Amazon were indeed.
I see a lot of new and even mid level developers fall into the trap of putting in 110% work and working into the night to make their company happy and think they need to prove themselves.
In your career, there are going to be events that hurt you and/or your team, these events are outside of your control. Your manager may leave and your team is dissolved, your company may face layoffs in times of recession, or worse.
The reality is this:
Your Job does not care about you or your situation (if you’re on visa or have a medical/mental situation). Higher management will sacrifice you just to save their annual bonuses.
The Zuck can say he takes responsibility for lay offs at Meta, but at the end of the day, nothing happens to CEOs.
You can work your ass off but companies will not hesitate to throw you under the bus to save their stock.
Prioritize learning about things you care about, do side-projects and stay curious so that you are always growing as a developer, and not just doing dirty work clawing for the next dangling promotion that may never come.
Be aggressive in setting boundaries between your work and personal life.
If your job does not respect these boundaries, move on.
Most importantly, Prioritize your health and quality time with family, friends, and people who actually care about you.
Life is too short for anything else.
