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9 Signs Your Company Is Planning A Layoff And Hasn't Told You

A Life After Layoff

31,800 views

Layoff warning signs have changed in 2026. AI pilot programs, return to office mandates, private equity — here's what to watch for before your company says a word. A recruiter with 20+ years explains the signals most people miss until it's too late.

00:00 - Start
01:03 - AI initiatives
03:35 - Your company has laid off before
05:15 - 3. No layoffs
06:50 - Day-to-day work
07:51 - Private Equity
09:15 - Leadership Changes
10:45 - RTO
12:06 - Skills database
13:22 - Spending freezes

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I spent 20 years as a corporate recruiter hiring thousands of people into companies like Amazon, FedEx, Korn Ferry, and ABB. I teach what actually happens inside the hiring process — not what sounds good on LinkedIn.
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20 Comments

@JR-gh8lp 3 months ago

This is the new work culture - expecting any day to be your last day, constantly be looking at job postings and purposely not getting attached to the work, the coworkers or the comfort of having a stable financial status. It's like the worst anxiety and paralyzing way to live.

@ai_Robert-x5j 3 months ago

Every time I got laid off, it was because a new manager, CEO, or VP was hired. New leadership = Organizational change.

@Bateluer 3 months ago

Saw a previous employer do a mandatory 'Return to Office'. Everyone knew it was to reduce headcount. And it worked. On the IT side, they lost 90% of their analysts, 2/3rds of their engineers, several managers, etc. Entire teams had to be consolidated and combined. They've had job postings for the same roles they lost consistently. RTO to reduce headcount is one of the dumbest possible things a company can do . . . because its going to be the best, highest performing employees that leave first. Not the bottom of the ladder.

@Jupiterxice 3 months ago

Yup and also you notice your Performance Reviews start looking jaded from a bias view. Always treat these jobs like a business never stay loyal to them.

@fouresterofthetrees287 3 months ago

If you so much as hear a rumor that private equity has even a hint of interest in your company, get your resume warmed up, call on your network, and start applying to jobs. PE's only goal is to extract value from whatever they buy. They care not a whit about the employees or the customers. Even if you don't get fired, working conditions will quickly degrade.

@terawhitaker 3 months ago

I got laid off from Home Depot with a 1000 other people and this is exactly what happened to us the year before we they did it.

@krebstar1 3 months ago

They just made us all do a self assessment. I gave myself high scores for everything. Life hacks.

@petew1 3 months ago

Train Ai up to the "last mile." Keep that last mile knowledge to yourself at all costs.

@LegIIAVGCA 3 months ago

So it used to be train your replacement and get 2 more months pay… now “train A.I. to do your job”

Personal, I would train my replacement badly so it takes a long time !!

@ec7568 3 months ago (edited)

LOL this is happening at my company and the worse the employee the more they're embracing AI....it's a bit comical. I work in a highly regulated industry and the regulators have already thrown up warnings but the company is loving AI (and for this company it's a HUGE surprise). My company is 100 years old and has never had a layoff and they're very proud of that.

@Ceiling_Gato 3 months ago

They will also go out of their way to reassure everyone that no layoffs are planned for months just to schedule a mandatory all hands meeting out of the blue

@CL-em1tk 3 months ago

My boss asked me to have a meeting next week. All of sudden. I knew it is my time but today he canceled the meeting saying thing changed. They are deciding who is let go and I survived. I'm back from the dead but still feeling pooped

@ohiodavegful 3 months ago

Instead of training your counterparts in foreign countries to replace you, we are training the machines. I'm in mortgage underwriting and can see the writing on the wall. But, I'm using all the AI tools. I might be the last man standing. Within 10 years of retirement....

@PhillipKerman 3 months ago

“If you found this useful share it during a company all hands"

@ManyPaintbrushes 3 months ago (edited)

At my old company, I saw almost all of these… but they “don’t do layoffs”. So you can imagine how people left.

One thing I absolutely cannot stand: when you’ve just lost your job and are worried about how you’re going to pay your bills, keep a roof over your head and food in the fridge and people roll out the tired, old “You are not your job”. Shows NO empathy.

Can we normalize not minimizing people’s traumatic experience?

@SpicyLakeEffect 3 months ago

Private equity = grim reaper. They buy it, break it, cash out. Might not happen quickly but they too are just in it for the cash.

@MrBrewman95 3 months ago

Funny how AI just can’t not ever be a truly replace us because there are so many factors and human traits that affect how things are done like fear, greed, temptation and scarcity yet they keep pushing hard for it. Haven’t movies like Terminator, 2001: A Space Odyssey, I-Robot, Wall-E and Jurassic Park teach us any lessons? 😂😂😂

@krob1n 3 months ago

He is spot on for both sides of this coin.

@PukeyMcDork 3 months ago

I think that eventually, like in the next year or so maybe, one big company is gonna come out and say we’re not doing AI. We’re not doing AI because it doesn’t work yet and we’re not spending money on it, and we’re OK with that. Then the dam will break. Because honestly, AI is just not ready for primetime in a business environment.

@egresham02 3 months ago

I work as a government contractor and we were called back last March. After that we were informed that layoffs were happening. We started documenting our work because we didn't know if/when we would be layoff. So far, I'm still working but I have also been networking and applying to a few jobs here and there. I actually came across your channel around the time, they were doing the first rounds of layoffs. Thank you for this video along with the many other ones you have! ❤