IIRC my manager basically responded with a “Wait, what’s going on? I’m just barely getting online. Are you talking about so-and-so’s ‘goodbye’ email to the listserv?”
I responded with something like “I saw that earlier, but <me listing a few people> are suddenly gone on Slack. Even <me listing the 2-3 people from our team whose accounts were marked as deactivated> are gone. And some others have mentioned they’re getting an unexpected 15 minute meeting added to their calendars”
My manager knows I’m a bit of a worry-wart type of person, so they tried to provide some kindness and reassurance.
“Alright, stay calm. I’ve got my routine 1:1 with my own manager shortly, so I’ll try to find out what is going on. Plus, you’re not even supposed to be online right now, go enjoy your vacation and not think about work stuff” was pretty much the reply.
Now, for some background context, my manager was in a different timezone than me (Pacific Time versus my Eastern Time). So, my manager wasn’t even awake or online yet when I was seeing all of these things.
If I remember correctly, I think I started the message out with something like “Hey, I don’t know what’s going on since I’m on PTO right now, but in case I get disappeared here is my personal contact info”
IIRC my manager basically responded with a “Wait, what’s going on? I’m just barely getting online. Are you talking about so-and-so’s ‘goodbye’ email to the listserv?”
I responded with something like “I saw that earlier, but <me listing a few people> are suddenly gone on Slack. Even <me listing the 2-3 people from our team whose accounts were marked as deactivated> are gone. And some others have mentioned they’re getting an unexpected 15 minute meeting added to their calendars”
(Really need to finish this story about the 2024 “avalanche of weird 💩
” that happened in my life and why I’m still stuck in a weird “outta control” ADHD/depressive funk even into 2025)
Anyways, I started pinging other people to try find out WTF was going on, including some folks who were on my team. That’s when I noticed some other folks on my team were deactivated as well.
My brain that moment: Oh shit oh shit oh shit
So, then I decided to ping my manager
Now, for some background context, my manager was in a different timezone than me (Pacific Time versus my Eastern Time). So, my manager wasn’t even awake or online yet when I was seeing all of these things.
If I remember correctly, I think I started the message out with something like “Hey, I don’t know what’s going on since I’m on PTO right now, but in case I get disappeared here is my personal contact info”
So, I went to go ping another coworker on Slack, hoping to check in with them since they had been working with this coworker on a project.
And behold—this other coworker’s Slack account was also deactivated!
“Alright… something is up!” I thought to myself…
(Really need to finish this story about the 2024 “avalanche of weird 💩” that happened in my life and why I’m still stuck in a weird “outta control” ADHD/depressive funk even into 2025)
Anyways, I started pinging other people to try find out WTF was going on, including some folks who were on my team. That’s when I noticed some other folks on my team were deactivated as well.
My brain that moment: Oh shit oh shit oh shit
So, then I decided to ping my manager
During the Great Wave of Layoffs in the cursèd year of our Lord two thousand and twenty four, I was ranting & shooting the shit with my good martech bud who once upon a time used to be a CMO. One of the things he said to me:
“Greed. Greed + hate + fear = late stage capitalism. Doing good is harder than ever so many don’t try.”
I’ve been deeply reflecting upon that a lot lately.
Anybody reading this: please continue to try to do good in this fucked up world. Don’t stop. 🙏
💫
#GoodDistractions
But, their Slack account was deactivated!
It was strange. I thought to myself, “maybe they resigned and today was their last day?”
Still, something seemed a bit off.
So, I went to go ping another coworker on Slack, hoping to check in with them since they had been working with this coworker on a project.
And behold—this other coworker’s Slack account was also deactivated!
“Alright… something is up!” I thought to myself…
Right when the LinkedIn app loaded up, the very first post at the top of my feed was from a coworker. It was an “I’m looking for a new role, I’m open to work” type of post.
Admittedly, something felt odd though. I was intrigued because I thought maybe this coworker had spontaneously rage-quitted or something (which, honestly, I wouldn’t have blamed them one bit).
So, off to Slack I went to go ping them to say “hello!” and catch up
But, their Slack account was deactivated!
It was strange. I thought to myself, “maybe they resigned and today was their last day?”
Still, something seemed a bit off.
After all, that strategy had worked well for me in the past: I get stressed out about something and it won’t leave my brain, so I hop over to LinkedIn, see an interesting post that someone made, I read it, then go down a rabbit hole learn more about the thing they made, and then—boom!—the thing that my brain was stressed about is practically nowhere to be found.
So, I thought, why wouldn’t that strategy work again this time eh?
Right when the LinkedIn app loaded up, the very first post at the top of my feed was from a coworker. It was an “I’m looking for a new role, I’m open to work” type of post.
Admittedly, something felt odd though. I was intrigued because I thought maybe this coworker had spontaneously rage-quitted or something (which, honestly, I wouldn’t have blamed them one bit).
So, off to Slack I went to go ping them to say “hello!” and catch up
It was a Tuesday morning. Given all the impromptu family-related stress of the previous day, I intentionally broke my self-imposed LinkedIn ban just to check what interesting Drupal, webtech, edtech, etc. posts my feed might serve up to me. My hope was to find an interesting distraction that I could then let my brain hyperfocus on in the background.
After all, that strategy had worked well for me in the past: I get stressed out about something and it won’t leave my brain, so I hop over to LinkedIn, see an interesting post that someone made, I read it, then go down a rabbit hole learn more about the thing they made, and then—boom!—the thing that my brain was stressed about is practically nowhere to be found.
So, I thought, why wouldn’t that strategy work again this time eh?
I could talk for days about that ordeal alone, but I won’t do that anymore here. Instead, let me move onto the 💩 that happened the third day of vacation in March 2024!
It was a Tuesday morning. Given all the impromptu family-related stress of the previous day, I intentionally broke my self-imposed LinkedIn ban just to check what interesting Drupal, webtech, edtech, etc. posts my feed might serve up to me. My hope was to find an interesting distraction that I could then let my brain hyperfocus on in the background.
Natalie