The past few months have been stressful for those who work in technology, whether you work for a Big Tech, Scale-up, or Startup. Whether due to legitimate economic reasons or simply pressure from Venture Capitals, we have been seeing almost monthly mass layoffs.

Employees with years of service are writing on social media how shocked and sad they are about their dismissals, while CEOs post announcements saying they feel sad despite receiving their full bonuses and having been the ones who approved the mass hiring in the first place. Amid all of this, those who were laid off feel lost and unsure of what to do next.

Without getting into the merits of how much a dismissal can significantly impact a person’s life, I wanted to evaluate a little-discussed aspect of this process…

“Who was laid off wasn’t you, you were just another employee.”

For those who have gone through a dismissal, whether during a mass layoff or just as part of the end of their journey with that company, they tend to feel unjustly and primarily guilty. Many people I’ve talked to in recent months spent the first few weeks and sometimes months feeling guilty, as if being laid off during a mass layoff was irrefutable proof that they are a bad professional and therefore a mediocre person.

This happens because many of us have a tendency to make our work or position in that company (Yes, I’m looking at you Ex-Google and Ex-Meta who use it as a description on Tinder) a part of our personality. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with being motivated and passionate about your area of expertise in the job market, but your personality isn’t just that!

In the end, the company made a cold analysis of the numbers, without taking into account who you are or how much you contributed to the growth of your team, meaning the company cut your job, not you.

“You shouldn’t reduce the complexity of a human being to just what they do to pay the bills.”