Today’s news (layoffs)
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Hey again, this is Sahar, breaking a rule of thumb about mass emails — two in two days? Quelle horreur! I’m doing it because today was a special day. I sent this letter out to our entire membership just now, and I figured you might find it valuable as well.
So here it is — the verbatim text of what we’re circulating internally:
Today was another bad day for the industry. There have a been more than a few bad days recently, huh? Layoffs and fear and uncertainty. All within companies that (with a few exceptions) remain profitable, well-resourced, and with a highly compensated executive suite.
To everyone who lost their job recently, fears for their continued employment, or is just plain sad or angry — this sucks, and I’m with you. It’s not fair that a boss can quickly sever your ties with your work friends, or put your livelihood in doubt, or just plain cause so much anxiety over a thing that wasn’t your fault. It’s not fair to move from arguing “let integrity workers like me do our jobs” to “let integrity workers like me be still employed”
If you’re an ex-Googler, ex-something-else or just generally want to talk; let me know. I imagine all of us on staff would be open to talking things out; I’ll just speak for myself and let them chime in in the comments.
If you’re still at a company, feeling perhaps shellshocked, overcommitted, survivor’s guilt, or anything else; we see you and we’re here for you too. This is a bad situation for everyone. Let us know how we can help.
Lastly, you might need time to process and aren’t ready to talk right now and that’s ok too. We’re here when you are ready -- whether that’s next week, next month or anytime.
Knowing precisely what to say in moments like this is hard. We’re all scattered in different places, with different reactions to all this. But I hope this helps:
We are a community for the long haul. A community is a thing that you stay part of, even when your job changes. (If you leave a thing when you change jobs, it’s not a community, it’s an industry). Once a member, always a member.
We’re still encouraging people to swap job leads in #classifieds and are actively soliciting opportunities from partners, trying to set up paid fellowships for y’all in partnership with other organizations, and generally seeing what we can do. Thanks to the members who already have been proactively sharing leads.
A small thing that came across my desk today: Travis, the guy who runs Tech Congress, specifically wants to recruit you. They have fellowships for tech professionals (like us!) to embed as congressional staffers for a year. Different levels of fellowship for different amounts of experience. If you want to affect policy and understand how legislation works, this is a good option. (It’s paid, not amazingly) [link to more info in Slack']
If you want a personal introduction to him, or are in any way interested, let me know.
Thanks for all that you do. And remember — we’re in this together.
Okay, that’s the letter to members. If there’s someone in your life that you think should hear this, or even who should just be a member, please feel free to forward it to them. We’re here to be champions for all integrity professionals — members or not.
And, as always, please feel free to reach out. I always want to hear what you think.
Thanks, Sahar (on behalf of the whole team)