(NewsNation) — Layoffs are sweeping across the tech industry and for some workers, the experience is lonelier than it might have been in years past.
They’re being called lonely layoffs, and they’re the result of remote work and a changing employment landscape. Job doctor Tessa White joined NewsNation to talk about the phenomenon, which she said has to do with the effects of the pandemic.
“Our communities haven’t returned to normal. So if someone remote gets laid off, their normal community isn’t there for them. And the only thing that felt stable, the work life, which we’ve mostly adjusted to is ripped out from under them,” White said.
Remote workers may not even have the courtesy of being laid off in person, instead receiving the news over Zoom or even email.
“There’s this impersonal Zoom layoffs, which are the common standard right now, if you’re doing a mass layoff, and so they naturally feel more impersonal,” White said.
Removed from the office, laid off workers may feel adrift.
“There really aren’t the same places that we would go for the support that we need,” White explained.
White said the issue is also compounded by a more adversarial relationship between employers and employees, with trends like quiet quitting and workers leaving without giving two weeks notice.
“They want to treat the employer the way that they feel like they have been treated in the past,” White said. “This generation is saying, ‘Oh, you can’t treat me like that. I’m going to treat you like that in return.'”