When everything changes...

Layoffs, restructuring, shelved projects - ohhh myyy!

“This is what has been decided, and here’s what you need to know.”

These ominous words are being uttered with seemingly increased frequency over the past year, in some form or another at various companies — publicly traded giants or growing startups. I myself am no stranger to hearing them just recently, as well. Having worked in the tech industry for 20+ years, I’ve certainly experienced firsthand my fair share of anxiety-inducing moments — indeed, I joined in the midst of the original “dot-com crash” of 2001, just narrowly sliding under a hiring freeze at Oracle, right after grad school. Such sudden changes can be brutally swift with profound effects, happening in myriad ways:

• Walking into the office only to learn of a surprise takeover of your arch-rival, which then completely overhauls your teams and departments (Adobe buying Macromedia — I was there, in 2005. That was a day! 😆)

• Receiving an extended email at midnight announcing a major change in your design team’s leadership structure, thus being re-assigned a new manager with a new set of projects.

• Learning that the projects that were your number one priority the last several months (fully staffed with design, research, content, and a project manager) has been canceled, with most product/eng team members laid off. (and they are each Slacking you in real-time, as news spreads in just a few minutes)

I have experienced all these and more — not fun at all! 😬 When such dramatic change occurs, I find myself sucked into a disorienting vortex of questions and emotions and thoughts, which is perhaps natural. It’s all reactive, but also trying to make sense of what the hell just happened?! 😮 🤷🏽‍♂️ It’s truly sensemaking and arriving at some place of rationalized understanding, to maintain one’s own stability (and resilience?) amid strongly swirling currents — which lie beyond your control. 🌊

A specific series of questions & approaches come to my mind when these dramatic events happen, whether as an employee or a manager —

• How’s my team doing? Abrupt surprise changes can affect everyone in various ways, per their prior personal experiences and situational conditions. Some might take things in stride, while others might be fully devastated. It’s important to me to check on everyone’s wellbeing and honor their emotional and psychological needs, accordingly.

• What’s this new product/domain? In moments where I’m assigned a new functional area, I try to get a sense of the fundamentals — what’s the strategic priority, customer-driven roadmap and expectations, customer needs and profiles, vision statement or principles, UX process thus far, access to builds or prototypes, and of course…what’s the culture in this area — the interpersonal dynamics and cross-functional relationships? Which leads to…

• Who are these new teammates? Being thrown into a new space with a team of new people can be jarring and anxious — we’re basically strangers to each other, but here we are, gotta deliver against XYZ targets by quarter end! 😅 It’s always about people, and building goodwill + trust in order to achieve team success. Connecting personally with new colleagues is essential, even discussing hobbies and histories, with a dose of humor. Everyone is likely rather stressed and anxious, so it’s good to try to ease folks in, and assume positive intent first.

• Wait, how am I doing? It’s very important to take a pulse on your own self, especially with endless meetings and Slack threads going into overdrive. Over the last few weeks, since handling our recent team changes, I still mostly kept to a daily walk in afternoons and my early morning workouts (HIITS / weights). Persisting those personal routines is vital, while various work routine are being disrupted. OK yeah, I probably have had a few more drinks than I should — I confess! 🙏🏽 😇 🥃

And yet, it’s very difficult to grapple with all those questions while experiencing a natural sense of grief/loss/mourning, as well as a sense of survivor’s guilt. It’s so taxing cognitively with all that information processing at multiple levels, as well as emotionally draining. In a word, it’s too damn tiring. The exhaustion levels can be nearly incapacitating, fomenting a sense of self-defeat and fatalism. 🥺 It’s important to take a breath, or just walk away for a moment. 😮‍💨

I wonder if that exhaustion partly comes from the continuous complications of feeling conflicted. For those who remain, gratitude & relief for being valued, but anger & disappointment this even happened in a stable, reliable work context. A shaky ambivalence, while being asked to commit. Mourning the loss of the presence of trusted known colleagues, while adjusting to something unknown and scary. Studying volumes of new information, while suspecting what’s coming next. Such tensions will differ for everyone; it takes time with sensitivity to navigate these feelings that pull in conflicting directions…

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” - Theodore Roosevelt

Soon, you’ll emerge through it all — hopefully with a renewed outlook! All you can really do is approach moments of sudden, profound change with a sense of forgiveness, curiosity, and a humble optimism that something better may come out of all this. The changes were not in your control, but how you respond and move forward is completely in your hands — with a sense of your self, knowing yourself best. 🙌🏽 🌟