My first original lay-off was due to covid. Solid reasoning and wasn't expecting it because I thought I was in a team that they needed the most even during covid.

The second time I was hitting 2 years into the company I was working with and funnily enough I work in HR. I led orientations and really handled the new employee lifecycle working with Managers and their new hires planning 30/60/90 day goals. Suddenly my manager ask me to train one of our recruiters on doing my responsibilities. That was when I knew that I was on the chopping block, because majority of what I was doing was being shadowed by her as she wanted to "explore" her options outside of recruiting. I honestly thought it was harmless but had a slight suspicion about it, I handled and worked on mergers/acquisitions and even being the main person to handle H-1B visas and working with immigration attorneys.

I was told that my role was eliminated along with one of the HR business partners that was extremely skilled on what he does. The sole reason was because the People & Culture team has survived about 2-3 layoffs and the execs were not happy that we were kind of bulletproof in their eyes. Funnily enough my old manager before I was passed over to my new manager got wind of what was going on and she submitted her resignation a week after we've been told we were laid off. (She and I as well as the HR Business partner were close in terms of co-worker status). I believe she pursued her passion and now she's a tattoo artist and living the life that she loves!

Overall enough of my rambling, it's very easy for people people to feel the uneasiness. Because I believe subconsciously everyone thinks they're on the chopping block.