"Your position has been eliminated, effective immediately."
By the time your manager tells you this, the decision has already been made. Your job search starts on the company's timeline instead of yours.
There may have been signs in the work itself. Here are five worth paying attention to.
1. You are less busy at work than usual
Your workload has dropped. You finish your tasks and wait for something else. Projects are paused, new assignments aren't coming, and there is little clarity about what you'll work on next.
If this continues, ask yourself whether the company still has enough work to justify your role. Don't assume a shrinking workload is simply a welcome break.
2. A lot of people are working on roughly the same thing
Several people produce similar reports, maintain overlapping pipelines, or build tools that serve the same purpose.
When the company starts looking for savings, it may decide that fewer people can handle that work. Being busy doesn't necessarily protect you if leadership sees your role as duplicated elsewhere.
3. Your work isn't quantitatively measurable and doesn't drive revenue
You can describe what you've been doing, but struggle to show what the business gained from it. There is no clear revenue contribution, measurable saving, or improvement you can point to.
That makes your role harder to justify when spending is reviewed. Ask what would change for the business if your work stopped. If the answer is unclear, take that seriously.
4. Your work doesn't reach production, or nobody uses it
The models remain in notebooks. The applications stay as prototypes. The dashboard was delivered, but nobody opens it.
You may have put substantial effort into the work. If it never becomes something people use, the company may question why it should keep funding it. Look at what has actually reached users, not just what your team has built.
5. The applications you support are in monitoring and maintenance
Development has slowed. The systems are stable, and your team mainly monitors them, handles minor issues, and keeps them running.
Those responsibilities still matter. But the company may decide it needs fewer people to support an established application than it needed to build it. If there is little new work ahead, consider what that means for your position.
If this is you, start searching elsewhere
Don't wait until your role is eliminated to start preparing for the next one.
Update your resume, contact people in your network, look for suitable openings, and prepare for interviews while you still have a job.
You don't need to know for certain that a layoff is coming before giving yourself options. If these signs describe your situation, start searching for a new position elsewhere.
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