Firings all around me, yet I’m trying to stay calm and be supportive
Published on HivePostify by @behiver · Sun Sep 06 2026
As you probably know if you have read my latest post, on Friday I commuted to the office. That alone was a hard thing to do as I had to fly there, but in the end I made it even if I was kind of dead beat. But that's nothing compared to what happened while I was there and how the day got to be called "Black Friday". And it wasn't any discount on that day, but rather firings all around me. Or better say a lot of people which will not get a new contract as most of us are freelancers. The Business Analysts got hit first, followed by the Developers and ending up the Testing team. It was like a fire that once started it couldn't be stop. One by one people would be asked to come for a short chat by the Project Lead and the bad news was given to those that heard their name. Luckily for me I wasn't one of them, but it gave me also a bad energy and state of mind.
In the same time I was expecting this to happen, even if I tried to have an optimistic view on it. Or at least I was hoping that the incoming period (1 year), we wouldn't be hit with such firings. I think I was the only one saying that I am concerned even on the short period and unfortunately that happened. I remember during the summer, some of my IT friends saying that they believe that AI and other factors will eat from the job market in about 2 years and one of them even said 5 years. Probably that was wishful thinking and I was the only one saying that if we keep our job even for next year is a gain. And by the looks of it that's how it played out and many of us left without a job.
While at the office and as my work laptop got broken, I went to the IT department to get it fixed. Actually as it had some sort of hardware problem (flash screen, kernel and memory errors), they ended up replacing it. I think I stayed less than an hour to get a new laptop and have everything that I needed for work configured. After that I went back to the side of the office where all my colleagues were and the news broke to me as well. I think somewhere in between 25% - 33% got laid off, no future contract. That was a big shock and I asked a colleague from my team several times what he was saying as I wasn't believing that. A shock wave for many and just an atmosphere from which everyone wanted to get out.
I believe this is the new reality and only if you are not on the technical layer of the workforce (those that really work) you wouldn't understand these times and what's coming out of them. While being a freelancer and working based on time limited contract(s) has its own risks, I tried thinking and prepare for a dark period since earlier years.
I think since about 3 years, I've started to invest in stocks and crypto mainly, but also some real estate on the side for such cases when the traditional IT world would shrink. And with all that's happening around me (even if in the current firing wave I got spared), I get some soft cushion having these investments work for me. It will not be good when I will not have a contract anymore, but at least I will have some reserve funds to plan my next move. Now if that will be to get hired somewhere else, or be finally pushed to start a project on my own it remains to be seen, but I think our days in IT are numbered. That if you are not exceptionally good (which my colleagues always say that about me)... but when such things happen, it is not only based on meritocracy and sometimes other subjective factors can lead to a different result. It is what it is, we just need to be aware in order not to fall from too high and get a passive reserve/working fund for such dark days.
Tags: #work#job#it#ai#firings#keepcalm#strategy#stocks#crypto#reserve