Employee gets laid off during a company "restructuring," only to find their exact job reposted online two weeks later: ‘Everything looked the same’

Cata Holmes • Writer

Jun 29, 2026 10:30 AM EDT

Is a "restructuring" really about cutting costs if the same jobs reappear weeks later?

An employee and his whole team got laid off during a restructuring phase of the company. Of course, he tried his best not to take it personally, and started job hunting immediately. While scrolling through different job offers, he came across a bunch of positions available from his former company. Next, he texted one of his coworkers that lucklily kept working there, and confirmed that they were essentially the same roles, but "strategically different" (whatever that means).

It's crazy to find out that the company you were working for a while decided to fire half the people, only to end up hiring the same types of roles. Instead of trying to reduce costs and limit the number of employees, they didn't think it through and decided to just replace the employees. The question that we're all asking ourselves is: was it really personal?

If only one of them got fired, it's obvious that it's maybe because of that person's performance. However, when a lot of people have to leave, I don't think it has to do only with performance. I'm very curious to see what the actual reason is behind this, and why they decided to replace everyone…

Companies have a strange way of working, and it's not odd to come across practices like this, which throws everything we know about corporate ethics out the window. Anyways… let me know what your opinion is and what you would have done in this situation.

via Unsplash+ (via Vitaly Gariev)

A representation of a frustrated employee covering his face while sitting in front of a laptop.
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As we can all imagine, the comment section was full of Redditors offering advice and suggestions on how to proceed in this scenario. While some of them were more defensive and insisted that the OP should apply for his former position, others were more chill and advised him to move on with his life and leave this company behind. Because what's the purpose of pursuing a position in a place where you're not welcome?
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via Unsplash+ (via Vitaly Gariev)

A representation of a man working on a laptop and taking notes in a notebook at home.
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via Unsplash+ (via Vitaly Gariev)

A representation of an employee talking on the phone while sitting at a desk with a laptop.
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Reading this story made me feel a bit better about the fact that sometimes the best approach when it comes to a company is to move on. In this case, regardless of the reason he got laid off, I believe he now has the chance to find a job at a better company that will appreciate him more.