Layoffs and AI

Sefism.Layoffs and AI

Tauseef Fayyaz

Chapter 03

Be hard to cut at work

What makes some people harder to cut: work the business needs, visible impact, relationships beyond your manager and a clear view of your own rating.

Revenue-critical work

Also called work close to revenue, close to money

What: Work that earns money, keeps paying customers happy, or is required by law, such as billing, the core product, security and compliance.
Why: Companies protect this work in a cut and trim experiments and internal nice-to-haves first.
Example: Ask of each project: if it stopped tomorrow, who would notice and what would it cost?

Outcomes over tickets

Also called owning outcomes, ownership

What: Taking responsibility for the result the business wanted, such as fewer failed payments, not just closing the ticket that asked for a change.
Why: Ticket work is the part AI speeds up most and the easiest to swap. Outcome owners are the people managers fight to keep.

Visible impact

What: Impact that is written down where decision makers can find it: updates, write-ups, review notes and names on launches.
Why: Layoff lists are often drawn up fast by people who have not seen your work. In that moment, quiet good work and no work can look the same.

Brag document

Also called brag doc, work log

What: A running list of what you did, why it mattered and the evidence, updated every week.
Why: It feeds reviews, updates and your CV, and makes your impact easy to describe at short notice.

Watch out

Writing it once a year from memory, or listing tasks with no result.

Skip-level meeting

Also called skip-level, skip level

What: A one-on-one with your manager's manager, often once a quarter.
Why: Decisions in a cut are often made a level or two above your manager. A skip-level makes sure someone there knows your work.

Domain knowledge

What: Understanding the business your code serves: how money flows, what customers need and which rules apply.
Why: It takes years to build, is rarely written down and is something AI tools do not have about your company.

Performance signals

What: The signs of how your work is rated: the kind of work you are given, how specific feedback is, whether you are included in planning.
Why: Many companies combine layoffs with performance cuts, so knowing your rating early gives you time to improve or prepare.

Performance improvement plan

Also called PIP

What: A formal document listing what must improve, by when and how it will be measured.
Why: Some plans are a genuine chance to recover; some are a paper trail before an exit. Either way, it is a signal to act on both fronts.

Watch out

Treating it as a formality and not preparing a plan B.

Reputation

What: What colleagues say about you when you are not there, often one sentence such as "always delivers" or "hard to work with".
Why: In a layoff discussion that sentence carries weight. It is built from small habits like meeting dates and flagging slips early.

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