An aspect of work culture I didn’t expect to experience during my internship were the multiple layoffs. During my second week of work in June, a handful of employees were let go because the department was above budget and needed to make cuts. It immediately hit me that this does happen regularly everywhere and there’s no such thing as real job security. That was the beginning of a string of layoffs that were to come the following months.
Most recently, during the months of October and November, the department had been looking for redundancies in managerial roles and underperforming employees. These employees were let go and the explanation the rest of us were given was to “further tighten and focus the team on our mission.” Although this was very vague and offered as a way to relieve stress, I noticed that a lot of my close team members were anxious about whether or not they were next. I was told I shouldn’t worry because I’m an intern but it was tough seeing the people I’ve been working with for 6 months struggle about what their future at the company was. No one wants to lose their job and I certainly didn’t want anyone from my direct team to go.
This definitely opened my eyes to how companies operate and it’s something to keep in mind going forward. It encourages me to continue being a valuable team member because when I work full-time, I wouldn’t want to deal with the stress of impending unemployment.
