Having Trouble Focusing at Work… Tips?

[AAAgent]

Lack of focus probably means there's other more pressing concerns that are derailing you? Identifying those things and getting them under control might be helpful.

- financials
- fitness
- girls
- future

What has always helped me is to have a plan. A plan that can help guide me step by step to get closer to my objectives and goals. Understanding the timeline that my plan will require and the amount of work/accomplishments I need to put in to maintain that timeline. This helps me stay relatively on track, helps me remove some obstacles as I factor those into my plan, and if I slow down, I know it affects my timeline (which is sometimes okay for sanity's sake).

 

[nicksaiz65]

Lack of focus probably means there's other more pressing concerns that are derailing you? Identifying those things and getting them under control might be helpful.

- financials
- fitness
- girls
- future

What has always helped me is to have a plan. A plan that can help guide me step by step to get closer to my objectives and goals. Understanding the timeline that my plan will require and the amount of work/accomplishments I need to put in to maintain that timeline. This helps me stay relatively on track, helps me remove some obstacles as I factor those into my plan, and if I slow down, I know it affects my timeline (which is sometimes okay for sanity's sake).

For sure. I do have a solid list of goals that I’m working on for the next year:
1.) Obtain a car in cash, without a car note
2.) Generate an emergency fund of $10,000 minimum in the bank
3.) Pay off my Apple Card balance completely to move towards being debt free.
4.) Complete a move to a bigger city within one year
5.) Reduce my body weight to the 170-180 range
6.) Sleep with 10 new women through Cold Approach, OLD, whatever.

Pretty ambitious list of goals… after these are all met(in about a year) I’ll be taking a “working vacation” for the next year. After work is done, I’m not doing any extra work and I’ll do whatever tf I want for the rest of the day lol. Even if it’s just sleep. I think that alone will help out my tiredness. I’m looking forward to it so much tbh

 

[Reincarnated]

What has always helped me is to have a plan. A plan that can help guide me step by step to get closer to my objectives and goals. Understanding the timeline that my plan will require and the amount of work/accomplishments I need to put in to maintain that timeline.

I think this is also true on a micro-level, trying to focus on specific projects or tasks at work. I try to set up a quick sketch of an attack plan at the beginning of each workday. Obviously some of this is predefined by meetings and deadlines, but I've found that it helps me focus on a deeper level.

 

[Murk]

1. I write lists, the most important tasks to the least and work in that order. Try to get big things done before lunch/workout.

2. Work in sprints, literally time yourself just 30min on your phone alarm, solid work then take a break, once you get going you can usually do 1-2 hours without a break (or more). Just dedicate small portions of time to work, that helps get things going.

3. Music, you said you put your music on, I literally zone out to tech/house music in earphones and go into work mode. Not able to do it myself recently as I'm protecting my ears since tinnitus gate.

4. Take a proper break, I'm not talking about 2 weeks vacation mentioned above, but a dedicated amount of time you won't be working. It's one thing to procrastinate, but you have that dreaded looming feeling you should be working so you're not truly relaxed. Allowing yourself some "I'm not gonna work" time really lets you enjoy it and unplug, whether it's 1 hour, 1 day or 1 week, make sure you tell yourself it's guilt-free.

5. Sleep/diet - as mentioned by above posters - needs to be on point.

6. Exercise - sometimes I will just stop working and work out for 1-2 hours if I'm stressed, or go for a 30 minute walk, ALWAYS makes me feel better.

When working from home, self-motivation is the biggest struggle.

 

[TheEveningChronograph]

Go rub one out, buy a car and move out of trashy TN.

 

[BillyPilgrim]

Go rub one out, buy a car and move out of trashy TN.

He should move to TJ

 

[AAAgent]

For sure. I do have a solid list of goals that I’m working on for the next year:
1.) Obtain a car in cash, without a car note
2.) Generate an emergency fund of $10,000 minimum in the bank
3.) Pay off my Apple Card balance completely to move towards being debt free.
4.) Complete a move to a bigger city within one year
5.) Reduce my body weight to the 170-180 range
6.) Sleep with 10 new women through Cold Approach, OLD, whatever.

Pretty ambitious list of goals… after these are all met(in about a year) I’ll be taking a “working vacation” for the next year. After work is done, I’m not doing any extra work and I’ll do whatever tf I want for the rest of the day lol. Even if it’s just sleep. I think that alone will help out my tiredness. I’m looking forward to it so much tbh

1-3 all revolve around money. Either you need to make more, or if you're already making enough, you need to spend less.

Main focus here should to save while improving you're experience so you can get a better job, raise, or bonus.

4 - May also be tied into 1-3 which means saving money or making more of it, or both.

5 - Gym/diet

6 - Will be difficult to do this if you're focusing on 1-4, but still possible. You can also focus on 1-5 first, while deprioritizing 6, putting it as something you do on the side.
--

I had something similar to what you were doing 10+ years ago on this forum. Just focused on paying off debt, improving my experience, learning/reading, found a job in NYC and moved there, then after debt was paid off, focused on saving and investing. All while I was doing this I was working out and cold approaching women. I focused extremely hard on improving my earning potential. Year 1-3 ($40k-60k), year 4-8 ($70k-90k), year 9-11 ($1m-$4m), year 12-present ($350k+ salary & investments).

4 - Took under 1 year to find a job in NYC and I moved there. Somewhere super cheap and lived in a living room.

1-3 (aka debt) - Took me 5 years to pay off my debt while living in the a less than ideal situation. Not too many girls during this time, no gf, and definitely never had any girls over to my place (the living room lol).

5 - I did this in 1 year and maintained the entire time and still maintaining today.

6 - reached this about 9 years in and then got married and had a kid.

It all comes down to planning, executing, not giving up and patience.

 

[nicksaiz65]

1-3 all revolve around money. Either you need to make more, or if you're already making enough, you need to spend less.

Main focus here should to save while improving you're experience so you can get a better job, raise, or bonus.

4 - May also be tied into 1-3 which means saving money or making more of it, or both.

5 - Gym/diet

6 - Will be difficult to do this if you're focusing on 1-4, but still possible. You can also focus on 1-5 first, while deprioritizing 6, putting it as something you do on the side.
--

I had something similar to what you were doing 10+ years ago on this forum. Just focused on paying off debt, improving my experience, learning/reading, found a job in NYC and moved there, then after debt was paid off, focused on saving and investing. All while I was doing this I was working out and cold approaching women. I focused extremely hard on improving my earning potential. Year 1-3 ($40k-60k), year 4-8 ($70k-90k), year 9-11 ($1m-$4m), year 12-present ($350k+ salary & investments).

4 - Took under 1 year to find a job in NYC and I moved there. Somewhere super cheap and lived in a living room.

1-3 (aka debt) - Took me 5 years to pay off my debt while living in the a less than ideal situation. Not too many girls during this time, no gf, and definitely never had any girls over to my place (the living room lol).

5 - I did this in 1 year and maintained the entire time and still maintaining today.

6 - reached this about 9 years in and then got married and had a kid.

It all comes down to planning, executing, not giving up and patience.

Hey man, thank you for detailing this out. Very insightful on the finances, and I can see a lot of similarities to my own situation. I’ll write a synopsis of the situation I’m in and how I plan to clean up this mess. I may have detailed all of this earlier in the thread, but I’ll re-type some of it so that I can keep my thoughts clear and concise. It’s also nice to write these thoughts out, tbh.

So, my current situation is not ideal lol. Live in a small town, I’m approximately $40K in debt between school loans and credit cards, savings got burned due to poor money management, and no car due to a wreck. Wow, when I put it like that it sounds really bad, I’m actually fvcking broke lol. To my advantage, I have a single bedroom studio apartment to myself and all of my accounts are current.

For my employment situation, I now work 60 hours a week. 40 of those hours come from being a software engineer at a fully remote position that compensates me 70K per year. I also work another 20 hours in a bar kitchen that is within walking distance of my house. That generates 12K a year, so my total income is around 80K at the moment. Not bad. My schedule is basically perfect, I do engineering from 6 AM - 2 PM/7 AM - 3 PM and bar kitchen 4 PM - 9 PM on weeknights. Weekends are completely free. It’s also a pretty enjoyable side hustle.

I think 60 hours is the sweet spot, that is realistic. If I tried to work any more than that consistently, it would impact my main software job, which is the real moneymaker. It would also impact my ability to game, and hitting my fitness goals. Not worth it to make a few extra bucks.

I have this second job mainly to shield against life fees that keep coming up that make it very difficult to save money. Think weddings, BnBs with my non game friends, etc. With this second paycheck, saving money has been no issue recently.

So Here’s the Order I have to tackle this financial mess in:
1.) While working 60 hours a week, save half of my engineering paycheck to get that car of my own. This stops my money from going to the frigging rental car companies every 2 weeks. (I’m on this step right now, saved up about $2K)
2.) Save up 10K for emergency fund and have money to fund the move to a big city
3.) Pay off my Apple Card debt BEFORE moving to the big city so I don’t have to make payments on that dumb card once I move
4.) Once arrived in the big city, secure another 20 hour part time job. Use that plus some of my engineering money to pay off AMEX Card, bolster my savings up to 15K, and eliminate the majority of my remaining student debt. Do this for a minimum of 6 months up to one year. If this happens, my net worth would actually be positive

After that, I’m quitting the side job and taking a year off work. Well, more like a “working vacation.” I’ll still be working the same software job. But after 3 PM, the laptop will be closed and I won’t be thinking about software at all. I also won’t be working any more side hustles. I’ll be doing whatever tf I want to do, a year to focus on Game, Travel, and the Gym. This will really help avoid burnout. Like @BeExcellent said, that debt can wait. It’ll be the best year of my life lol.(That credit card debt has to go ASAP though because the interest is fvcking ridiculous lol.)

After that year off and I’m refreshed, l think it makes sense to just work 40 hours and then we can talk about my new side hustle becoming studying to get a higher paying software job, and job jumping to get a higher salary. Then I can eliminate the remainder of my debt and really start making money…

Some friends asked me why I opt to work the side hustles for now instead of just putting all of my focus on getting a higher paying Computer Science job. The answer to that is that if I don’t have extra money coming in right now, I’m going to get eaten alive by these wedding fees and credit card bills etc, while I’m studying to increase my income. To the point where my move will fail, or I won’t be able to sustain living in a big city. Programming interviews are hellish, so they take a long time to be prepared for. Trying to study for a new job WHILE working the side hustle also doesn’t work imo because there’s not enough time, it would negatively affect my other goals and affect my sleep.

In my opinion, it’s best to use the side hustle to generate money now, and then use that money to buy back my time so I can comfortably study for a higher paying job in the future.

I want to say that I got the multiple job idea from Brandon Carter?:

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

m.youtube.com

So essentially, the improvement to my skills over the next couple years will just be me doing what it takes to be a top performer at my current software job. I’m also interested in picking up a couple of certifications. That’s about all I’ll do on that for the time being lol. I’m aiming to get raises/promotions/bonuses at the job I already have, not really trying to jump jobs very soon yet at all due to the reasons listed above. So no interview prep for a while, or studying stuff unrelated to my job. I’ll be primarily working on becoming a JavaScript/React beast.

Another random thought, I hear stories of people ending up like, $300K in debt. Are they ok? I feel like I’ve had to put a ton of bandwidth into figuring out how to eliminate this 40K of debt while still living my life.

A lot of text, way more than I expected, my bad. Just getting these thoughts I have onto the page during the late night. Can’t sleep cause these thoughts are running through my head.

TL;DR:
An in depth financial plan I have to dig myself out of this hole

 

[nicksaiz65]

I think this is also true on a micro-level, trying to focus on specific projects or tasks at work. I try to set up a quick sketch of an attack plan at the beginning of each workday. Obviously some of this is predefined by meetings and deadlines, but I've found that it helps me focus on a deeper level.

I did this today and it made the work day infinitely easier. Trying to keep all of that in your head is super draining

 

[nicksaiz65]

1. I write lists, the most important tasks to the least and work in that order. Try to get big things done before lunch/workout.

2. Work in sprints, literally time yourself just 30min on your phone alarm, solid work then take a break, once you get going you can usually do 1-2 hours without a break (or more). Just dedicate small portions of time to work, that helps get things going.

3. Music, you said you put your music on, I literally zone out to tech/house music in earphones and go into work mode. Not able to do it myself recently as I'm protecting my ears since tinnitus gate.

4. Take a proper break, I'm not talking about 2 weeks vacation mentioned above, but a dedicated amount of time you won't be working. It's one thing to procrastinate, but you have that dreaded looming feeling you should be working so you're not truly relaxed. Allowing yourself some "I'm not gonna work" time really lets you enjoy it and unplug, whether it's 1 hour, 1 day or 1 week, make sure you tell yourself it's guilt-free.

5. Sleep/diet - as mentioned by above posters - needs to be on point.

6. Exercise - sometimes I will just stop working and work out for 1-2 hours if I'm stressed, or go for a 30 minute walk, ALWAYS makes me feel better.

When working from home, self-motivation is the biggest struggle.

Yeah, like I mentioned earlier, the lists help a ton. It helps break the software stuff into manageable tasks instead of just feeling like one giant nightmare.

Pomodoros + background music of your choice == AMAZING

I will definitely save up my leave to take a really nice vacation. Even if it’s just me chilling at the house, I’m fine with that lol. With my current schedule, I can usually take a hour a day to myself. That does not include gym time.

Sleep has been better as of late. If I’m super on top of my time management I can get 7 hours a night usually which is amazing. It seriously starts to affect my mental state when I’m sleep deprived.

 

[AAAgent]

Recommend getting a beater and not focus on savings until debt is paid off. Get a room mate to lower rent costs. Interest will kill you and only prolong the situation. Once you are debt free, life gets alot better. If you are planning on moving to the city, you likely will use the car sparsely anyway and it removes the car from the equation if you go for a beater.

When I hit 25, I became debt free and I went from living in a crappy place to having my own place and disposable income. In order to get to this process, I was living paycheck to paycheck for the first 4 or so years paying about $1,000 on rent, food, and transportation (subway). I spent about $1,300 paying off debt paying as much as a could. I had about $80 in savings left a month. Because I had no money to go out, I literally stayed at home reading, researching, and working on side projects. Majority of which made no money but yielded a lot of knowledge. The knowledge didn't pay off until many years later.

Once the debt was paid off, I had $1,300 more in disposable income, also at that point I had more experience and got a better paying job. I went from spending $1k on food, rent, and transportation to $2k and still had $1k+ in money in the bank. Getting my own place and eating proper really helped me focus much better. Still chose cheaper places.

What are these wedding fees btw (you're obviously single)?

Can't say what's right for you, but I always invested in the future. Definitely didn't take a year off ever. I've never been laid off and never had more than 1 week inbetween jobs until I made money. I only started to travel and aligned my leisure trips with work trips to kill two birds with one stone.

 

[nicksaiz65]

Recommend getting a beater and not focus on savings until debt is paid off. Get a room mate to lower rent costs. Interest will kill you and only prolong the situation. Once you are debt free, life gets alot better. If you are planning on moving to the city, you likely will use the car sparsely anyway and it removes the car from the equation if you go for a beater.

When I hit 25, I became debt free and I went from living in a crappy place to having my own place and disposable income. In order to get to this process, I was living paycheck to paycheck for the first 4 or so years paying about $1,000 on rent, food, and transportation (subway). I spent about $1,300 paying off debt paying as much as a could. I had about $80 in savings left a month. Because I had no money to go out, I literally stayed at home reading, researching, and working on side projects. Majority of which made no money but yielded a lot of knowledge. The knowledge didn't pay off until many years later.

Once the debt was paid off, I had $1,300 more in disposable income, also at that point I had more experience and got a better paying job. I went from spending $1k on food, rent, and transportation to $2k and still had $1k+ in money in the bank. Getting my own place and eating proper really helped me focus much better. Still chose cheaper places.

What are these wedding fees btw (you're obviously single)?

Can't say what's right for you, but I always invested in the future. Definitely didn't take a year off ever. I've never been laid off and never had more than 1 week inbetween jobs until I made money. I only started to travel and aligned my leisure trips with work trips to kill two birds with one stone.

I do really like the idea of being debt free ASAP so that my paycheck isn’t slashed by those debts every single time I get paid, and the interest on those credit cards is nightmarish. The Dave Ramsey plan recommends you save up $1,000 to catch small emergencies and then go all in on eliminating debts iirc.

I’m a bit conflicted, because on one hand, paying down that debt very quickly sounds amazing. That interest wouldn’t have the chance to get you.
On the other hand, that feels very scary and exposed. All life has to do is get one good shot in(layoff, accident, car blows up) and you’re screwed, then you’d be living with your parents again. On the other hand, attacking that debt immediately would be so freeing and I could probably get rid of it pretty quickly.

Did you ever feel exposed like that when you were paying off your debts without savings? Having that income freed up would be incredible, but it’s very scary.

I’m chatting with a friend who is interested in rooming with me, so that is great.

The wedding fees refer to several of my friends getting married this year, it’ll take a decent chunk of change to attend these. For example, one is for a family member in Jamaica. That will be several thousand dollars I’ll need to have ready, for example.

If it makes sense to keep working, I’m definitely open to it! I thought it might be lit to have a year away from programming to avoid burnout, but if it’s for my future then that is more important. In that case, I would say it makes sense to stop the side jobs after the debts are paid down, then I can stop for a second and go all in on increasing my Computer Science skills.

No matter which way you slice it, it seems that I need to work multiple jobs a couple of years to keep my income as high as possible. Regardless of where I am, I need to be working…

 

[AAAgent]

What kind of emergencies are you going to have?

Most emergencies involve car, family, or health. Your job should provide health insurance if you're in the US and working corporate.

Car wise, ideally you shouldn't have anything come up within the first 6months to 12 months. Given you're current situation of debt, and how much interest you're accruing, you likely won't be debt free, assuming you take on little to no debt moving forward, until you're in your early 30's if things don't change.

When you're in your early years, there aren't many emergencies that can break you. The ones that can, like cancer or something, will break you with or without savings so a few thousand dollars won't really make a difference. If you have minimal saved, if you do have some type of emergency you need to spend on like, you just use your credit card again and the progress you made is negated. You'd be in a similar situation as what you were originally planning but atleast you had potential for upside (paying off debt faster).

I skipped travel weddings lol. I am not putting myself in $2k in debt when I can't afford it. I'd rather pay $200-$300 as a nice gift and apologize or take them to a nice dinner with a smaller gift.

If you want to be like everyone else, then act as everyone else would (this is current path). If you want to have a different, better life, be different. That is what I chose.

--

Did I ever feel exposed? Yes. While everyone went to cancun, partied on weekends, slept around, ordered starbucks daily, etc. I was sleeping in the living room, reading books, learning, working overtime (for no extra pay due to salary), paying down my debt and investing in my future.

after a few years, I started to be able to hang out and have fun with them and caught up to their lifestyle but with no baggage. I continued to invest in myself as well. Now I make double to triple their salaries. Have net worths worth more than many of them combined. Have freedom, traveled the world, and much more.

The normal path most people take is accepting that they are a slave to the system and just try to survive it. My goal was to break out of the system as I believe most should strive to do. When you break out, you get relative freedom to do what you want. When you are stuck inside the system as most are, your options/decisions are limited. For most, you will never see greatness from anyone stuck inside the system.

 

[nicksaiz65]

What kind of emergencies are you going to have?

Most emergencies involve car, family, or health. Your job should provide health insurance if you're in the US and working corporate.

Car wise, ideally you shouldn't have anything come up within the first 6months to 12 months. Given you're current situation of debt, and how much interest you're accruing, you likely won't be debt free, assuming you take on little to no debt moving forward, until you're in your early 30's if things don't change.

When you're in your early years, there aren't many emergencies that can break you. The ones that can, like cancer or something, will break you with or without savings so a few thousand dollars won't really make a difference. If you have minimal saved, if you do have some type of emergency you need to spend on like, you just use your credit card again and the progress you made is negated. You'd be in a similar situation as what you were originally planning but atleast you had potential for upside (paying off debt faster).

I skipped travel weddings lol. I am not putting myself in $2k in debt when I can't afford it. I'd rather pay $200-$300 as a nice gift and apologize or take them to a nice dinner with a smaller gift.

If you want to be like everyone else, then act as everyone else would (this is current path). If you want to have a different, better life, be different. That is what I chose.

--

Did I ever feel exposed? Yes. While everyone went to cancun, partied on weekends, slept around, ordered starbucks daily, etc. I was sleeping in the living room, reading books, learning, working overtime (for no extra pay due to salary), paying down my debt and investing in my future.

after a few years, I started to be able to hang out and have fun with them and caught up to their lifestyle but with no baggage. I continued to invest in myself as well. Now I make double to triple their salaries. Have net worths worth more than many of them combined. Have freedom, traveled the world, and much more.

The normal path most people take is accepting that they are a slave to the system and just try to survive it. My goal was to break out of the system as I believe most should strive to do. When you break out, you get relative freedom to do what you want. When you are stuck inside the system as most are, your options/decisions are limited. For most, you will never see greatness from anyone stuck inside the system.

Okay, I like this plan wayyyy better lol.

I actually didn’t realize that if life starts lifing, that you could just put one of those crazy ass expenses on a card and erase a bit of your progress. I’m okay with that.

Right now, I truly believe that the biggest obstacle between me and my freedom is the credit cards. I actually calculated the amount of interest they would get if I took a year to pay them off, and it’s gross lol. I can’t mentally handle giving American Express and Goldman Sachs that much money.

A good step towards my freedom that isn’t too unreasonable is to continue to work 60 hours a week, completely pay off those credit cards and have a beater car of my own in one year. That is already a nice step towards my freedom and I won’t feel like I’m suffocating lol.

After that, student loans are going next.

Once we get closer to that date, I think I can make an assessment on if it makes more sense to stop and study to get a higher paying job, or keep grinding it out at 60 hours. It depends on how much I’m making and how many payments I need to make, tbh.

I don’t want to overwhelm myself though, so for the time being I think just focusing on the one year goal makes sense first.

Also, I’ve learned my lesson on these credit cards. Never again, I have to get these golden handcuffs off

 

[AAAgent]

My cards are paid off in full every cycle and have been for years. The only time I don't pay it off is if I have a 0% apr card. You can also look into transferring your debt over into a 0% apr card. They usually have promotions for 0% for 12 months or something like that.

 

[nicksaiz65]

My cards are paid off in full every cycle and have been for years. The only time I don't pay it off is if I have a 0% apr card. You can also look into transferring your debt over into a 0% apr card. They usually have promotions for 0% for 12 months or something like that.

A balance transfer makes a lot of sense too because the interest on this American Express Card is killing me rn lol.

Now that I think about it more, it does make sense for me to work the 60 hours for a year to get momentum/leverage, pay off these credit cards and give me some room to breathe… but after that I should go back down to 40 hours and put a year into hardcore increasing my skills like you did to get a job that pays me more. Once that happens I should be able to knock out debt relatively quickly and then I’m free from the system!

 

[nicksaiz65]

I can’t believe I didn’t mention one of the most important life altering events that can throw you off the path to eliminating debt and doing what you want with money: losing your job. I really like Dave Ramsey’s plan as I’m following it, but what if you got laid off while you only had 1K in the bank and were in the process of paying off your debts? Especially in an area like software engineering that is prone to layoffs.

I’d be scared if I, knock on wood, lost my job and only had 1K in the bank. You wouldn’t even be able to pay rent next month, your only option would be to live on the credit cards

EDIT: I suppose that unemployment and severance packages(sometimes) are a thing. But, who knows how long those could take to come in.

 

[SW15]

I can’t believe I didn’t mention one of the most important life altering events that can throw you off the path to eliminating debt and doing what you want with money: losing your job. I really like Dave Ramsey’s plan as I’m following it, but what if you got laid off while you only had 1K in the bank and were in the process of paying off your debts? Especially in an area like software engineering that is prone to layoffs.

I’d be scared if I, knock on wood, lost my job and only had 1K in the bank. You wouldn’t even be able to pay rent next month, your only option would be to live on the credit cards

Losing your job is a big deal. Since finishing my MBA 15 years ago, I have been laid off twice. Both times I was financial prepared for it. It's good that both times I was a childless guy with an emergency fund.

I didn't realize that software engineering is layoff prone. Among white collar professional roles, sales and marketing roles are even more layoff prone, so feel good that you aren't in a sales or marketing role. Sales reps are constantly worried about missing sales quotas (some organizations set unrealistic quotas that set up sales reps for failure). Quota misses often lead to firings. It takes almost nothing for a marketer to get fired. Marketing covers a wide range of roles since the 4 P's of Marketing (Product, Price, Place, Promotion) cover a lot within business. Most marketers, regardless of their job duties and how well they perform, are fairly close to getting fired at any time.

Layoffs in general are picking up across industries.

 

[nicksaiz65]

Losing your job is a big deal. Since finishing my MBA 15 years ago, I have been laid off twice. Both times I was financial prepared for it. It's good that both times I was a childless guy with an emergency fund.

I didn't realize that software engineering is layoff prone. Among white collar professional roles, sales and marketing roles are even more layoff prone, so feel good that you aren't in a sales or marketing role. Sales reps are constantly worried about missing sales quotas (some organizations set unrealistic quotas that set up sales reps for failure). Quota misses often lead to firings. It takes almost nothing for a marketer to get fired. Marketing covers a wide range of roles since the 4 P's of Marketing (Product, Price, Place, Promotion) cover a lot within business. Most marketers, regardless of their job duties and how well they perform, are fairly close to getting fired at any time.

Layoffs in general are picking up across industries.

Yeah man, if you get some time, do some reading about these tech layoffs. It’s especially bad at FAANG companies, the market is horrible right now.

One of the reasons I’d never work at Amazon is, if you’re in the bottom 10% you’re instantly cut/put on a PIP, no matter how good your work is. Amazing pay, horribly toxic work culture.

That’s great that you were prepared with some savings both times. You never want to be in the position of “one layoff away from moving back in with your parents” imo. Having that emergency fund gives you mental peace because you know that it’s no biggie if you get laid off, that money gives you plenty of time to find a new gig.

 

[nicksaiz65]

This is a great video on the topic of layoffs and what to do about it: