Company excludes senior software engineer from meetings instead of telling him he's being let go, leaving him to piece it together himself: 'I knew the moment people stopped answering me'

Author image for Cata Holmes
Cata Holmes • Writer
Aug 1, 2026 2:30 PM EDT

How would you react if your company let you figure out you were being fired on your own?

After surviving one mass layoff, this senior software engineer thought they had found some stability at a new company. Instead, they slowly realized they were being pushed out after disappearing from meetings, team lists, and important conversations. While coworkers were instructed to stay quiet, the writing was already on the wall. Despite the frustrating experience, they chose not to blame themselves, recognizing that cost-cutting decisions often have little to do with performance.

Reading this story, I honestly think the company handled the entire situation terribly. Layoffs happen, and most people understand that businesses sometimes have to make difficult financial decisions. What is much harder to accept is leaving someone in the dark while everyone else already knows what's happening. Being excluded from meetings without any explanation and having to piece together your own termination from small clues is an incredibly disrespectful way to treat an employee.

The coworkers were put in an uncomfortable position too. They were told to stay silent, which forced them to ignore someone they spoke with every day. That kind of environment damages trust across the entire team, even among people who had nothing to do with the decision.

Looking at the bigger picture, being let go may have been the best outcome for the original poster. A workplace that avoids honest conversations and leaves employees guessing about their future isn't somewhere most people would want to build a long-term career. The company revealed exactly how it treats people when times get difficult, and that's valuable information to have, even if it came at a painful moment.

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  • After realizing what was happening, the software engineer begins looking toward new opportunities instead of dwelling on the company's decision.
    via Unsplash+ (via Tim Gouw)

    After realizing what was happening, the software engineer begins looking toward new opportunities instead of dwelling on the company's decision.

    Represented by models.

  • It's a 2 month old story. I'm a Senior SWE with 10 YOE.
    via Sup4sc
  • After being laid off from my previous company (worked there for 6 years) that had a 70% workforce cut, joined a outsourcing company where I was fired a few days before my probation period would have ended.
    via Sup4sc
  • The client (US Healthcare company) announced they want to provide their own PO's and PM's instead of ours, so they did. After that, they announced again that they want less people working on their account.
    via Sup4sc
  • After some alignments our company published a list of the lucky ones who can stay on the project, and I was fortunate enough to sit on that list.
    via Sup4sc
  • Few weeks passed by, we were about to come up with a new team structure, when on a Monday I wasn't invited to one of these meetings, my own teammates sent me the meeting link because they didn't understand why I'm not there. It was a meeting
    via Sup4sc
  • about introducing what will happen in the following days and what's still unknown. Had a bad feeling about this, but tried to reason in myself that everyone has a lot of work to do, and this extra restructuring doesn't help much.
    via Sup4sc
  • The next day I wasn't invited to the meeting again where they announced the final team structures, my teammates invited me. The remaining people were split further to 3 teams, but I couldn't really find my name in any of them. At the end of the
    via Sup4sc
  • meeting I've asked the organizer - after raising my hand if there is any reason for me not being invited to these meetings, and I'm not on any of the currently shown lists. The organizer told me she'll contact me after this meeting to sort this one out. (Narrator: She didn't.)
    via Sup4sc
  • Few minutes later, my local boss texted me that unfortunately I will be removed from the project. From this point, none of my peers I had daily conversations with (and kinda became "friends" too) answered my slack messages about being curious what
    via Sup4sc
  • An employee leaves the office carrying their belongings after learning their position has been eliminated during company restructuring.
    via Unsplash+ (via Getty Images)

    An employee leaves the office carrying their belongings after learning their position has been eliminated during company restructuring.

    This is a staged stock image featuring models and is not a real photo of the individuals described in the Reddit post.

  • will happen to me. Just had a meeting with the local branch CEO about how there's no space in other projects and that's why they sending away so many, so I knew what's waiting for me.
    via Sup4sc
  • A week later, along with those who were noticed like a month before that they - we got fired.
    via Sup4sc
  • I wasn't surprised, I knew this will happen the moment when people started ignoring my questions about what will happen to me. HR wasn't legally required to reason about why they send me away, but they assured me it wasn't due to any performance issues I would have had.
    via Sup4sc
  • Based on my team, and lead dev feedback I was someone on the project already who brought matters forward, and kept up with other teams as well due to the chaos we experienced from project
    via Sup4sc
  • management & client side. Managed to deliver and demo some features even though I barely had any time to be onboarded by anyone.
    via Sup4sc
  • My peers who didn't answer me requested HR to at least have a call with me before I get signed off from every account I had. Basically, each of them told me the same stuff - they were instructed to not say a word if I ask the obvious, but they also didn't know for 100% if this decision is final or not. It all went down in a few days.
    via Sup4sc
  • Moral of the story. Sometimes it doesn't matter if you give 100% or more, if cost cutting comes and you're in an unfortunate situation (eg. having probation period), there's nothing you can do. Just don't beat yourself up over it. There's not always something that you could've done better to prevent it.
    via Sup4sc
  • The worse was that I genuinely liked the people I worked with, even though the project and the client was ah_l to manage, and there were serious communication issues from both our, and their side as well. I was
    via Sup4sc
  • a little angry at them for not answering me, but I also understood their position as well, because I had to go through a similar situation at the previous company I worked for.
    via Sup4sc
  • The engineer notices they're missing from an important team meeting as coworkers begin discussing changes without them.
    via Unsplash+ (via Getty Images)

    The engineer notices they're missing from an important team meeting as coworkers begin discussing changes without them.

    This image is a representative illustration using models and does not depict the actual people involved in the story.

  • Instant karma; the client was... either hacked, or they messed up something very badly days before I was fired. Their whole network went down for weeks which caused a lot of pain to people in the US as this company is a
    via Sup4sc
  • health insurance middleman. As for my ex colleagues, one of them just texted me today that further layoffs are coming, and most likely they won't survive it either.
    via Sup4sc
  • What I did after being jobless again? Not too much. Left myself some weeks to rest and started answering some recruiters on LinkedIn. Got to a final round at a company where they rejected me because I supposedly don't do enough Al assisted development - which is kinda true. An other ball is
    via Sup4sc
  • still bouncing at the company where I started my career and worked for 4 years. It's not the best place, but would be better than nothing in the current situation. My ex lead who I had an amazing relationship with is working there, and he would be my peer again.
    via Sup4sc
  • I also try work on my old project ideas. Brainstorming with jobless friends from the industry about what project we should start together. Although it s ks having no income, it's somehow exciting to live through this now.
    via Sup4sc

  • In the end, stories like this are a reminder that a paycheck isn't the only thing people lose during a layoff. Respect, transparency, and basic communication matter just as much. No one expects a company to keep every employee forever, but they should expect to be treated with honesty. If an employer can't even have a straightforward conversation when delivering bad news, it says far more about the company than it ever does about the person leaving.

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team meetings engineering layoffs being let go
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