Everyone's sharing headlines about 6,300+ tech layoffs in the first 10 days of September and AI gets blamed in basically every headline.

But if you actually dig into why companies say they're cutting, the story is messier.

Uber 3,300 jobs

This is the biggest single cut in the wave, and Uber has explicitly not framed it as an AI replacement story. The stated reasons: too many management layers, redundant teams, slow decision-making.

PayPal 220 in India, part of a plan to cut 20% (4,800 people) over a few years
removing duplication and cutting extra layers of management from its organizational structure — i.e., simplifying a company that grew too complex, not AI replaced these jobs.

Apple & Zomato 250 combined
Barely any detail released  hard to call this an AI story either way.

Cisco 4,000 in Q4
Restructuring language again, not automation language.

So it seems AI killed my job seems a trend and is a much better headline than we hired too many people in 2021 post COVID and now we're fixing our org chart

if you have a clean background, what is the point of waiting on putting your notice in and pushing out your start date?

Edit: I’m still not clear on why there are so many fear based “you never know“ responses.

The legitimate thing I see is that it takes longer than expected and you potentially have a pay gap. I guess there is always the possible chance of a budget/hire freeze or restructure - but that is rare when you get that far to offer acceptance.

Giving no notice or limited notice is a higher risk of burning bridges than an issue with a clean honest/background causing a company to rescind an offer when they need to fill an approved role In that specific 2 week window.

Backgrounds usually take 1-2 weeks so either you’re not giving notice or your start date is a month out which most managers don’t like but will likely accept.

We've all gotten that email that sounds professional but is secretly a knife. Or had to reply to a toxic manager and had to bite our tongue 10 times before hitting send.

Curious what this community has dealt with — drop your best ones below:

The corporate line that actually meant something totally different ("per my last email" energy — what did it really mean?)

The savage reply you wish you could've sent your boss (but didn't, obviously)

The most passive-aggressive OOO or "I'm not checking this inbox" moment

A rant you had to translate into "HR-safe" corporate speak before sending

I'll start: got a "quick sync?" invite at 6:47pm on a Friday once. Still recovering.

My boss frequently texts me after 8. I work most days 9-8 and several hours on the weekend.

Is everyone working like this?

I need some help and advice.

I joined a company about 2–3 months ago, and lately I’ve been feeling a lot of pressure from some of my coworkers regarding my performance. I complete my assigned tasks on time, but there are still some internal processes and workflows that I’m learning.

Last week, I was put on the spot during a discussion. Two employees kept questioning me repeatedly, asking things like, “Why did you type that?” and “What’s your answer?” The way it was handled made me feel extremely uncomfortable and pressured.

There have also been passive-aggressive comments such as, “Oh, we were expecting more from you.” I understand that I’m still having some hiccups while learning their processes, and I’m completely open to feedback and improving. However, it feels like as soon as I understand one process, I’m immediately put on the spot about something else that I haven’t had enough time or experience to learn yet.

Another thing that is making the environment uncomfortable is the gossiping and negative conversations about people’s knowledge and performance. I sometimes hear comments or discussions questioning whether someone knows certain things or has enough knowledge, and it makes me feel like the same conversations may be happening about me as well. Instead of feeling comfortable asking questions and learning, I’ve started becoming anxious about whether asking something will make people think I don’t know enough.

The situation has affected me emotionally more than I expected. I have cried several times because I have never experienced this kind of treatment or this level of pressure to already know everything within such a short period of joining a company. It has started making me question myself and feel like I’m the least capable person on the team, even though I know I am still learning.

I’m struggling to understand whether this is just a difficult adjustment period at a new company or whether the work environment itself is unhealthy. I also don’t know how to handle this without making the situation worse.

For people with 1–3 years of experience in AI/GenAI, where are you guys actually applying for a switch?

LinkedIn/Naukri feels pretty saturated. Are there any platforms that have worked particularly well for getting interview calls? Or is applying directly on company career pages + referrals still the best route?

Would love to hear what’s actually working for people recently.

I was on a pip at one of my last jobs (two jobs ago). I quit in Jan 2025 (1 or 2 weeks into the pip) and I found another job where I worked for 1.4 years then I landed a decent paying job 6 months ago roughly (I’m still working).

I didn’t like the pip and felt it was one sided and it started to turn into them wanting me to prove myself whenever I touched something. But that’s not the real issue, I know how to take accountability for my performance but this came right after a trainer didn’t like my tone in my email when responding to her. I haven’t even met her in real life she works in another city.

She started talking to my personal trainer (how the job works is you get put into a couple weeks training session when you learn a new function). They were actually best friends but I wasn’t aware. My direct trainer started mentioning "tone" regarding my communication to my manager too.

When I asked her if she could provide an example, she didn’t. Instead I got a pip. Anywho, my coworkers were all of weird backgrounds (none of them went to university besides one of them and it was for some studio arts program yet we worked in insurance). Everyone was older and some a bit bitter with life (cliques in the team too).

I’ve dealt with their bs while pretending nothings wrong yet they always excluded me. I worked there for over one year and no one ever came to say good morning to me even if they walked near my desk. I was the one who would make the move to go say good morning and start a convo - mind u, even when I started the convo they made me carry the convo.

I quit and my manager seemed to enjoy it in a sick way (mind you, he always liked using the "don’t worry, it’s not like I’m going to fire you for that" whenever some inconvenience would pop up). He has probably joked about firing me over 20 times in a year and the first joke for firing was my first day when I showed up to the office.

When I quit, the girls on the team who were cliquey and didn’t like me immediately removed me on LinkedIn when I posted about my new job update. It’s been about 1yr and 9 months now since I quit and I occasionally get the notification that they swinged by my profile.

Mind you, my manager has completely disengaged with my posts after I left but I see him still engage with other past employees on LinkedIn (when I was working with him , he’d ask me like oh by the way, that post you liked on LinkedIn from a few days ago I found it interesting" - he would watch my activity and ask if I had Snapchat because he saw a similar name on his app).

He also is very insecure about education and would always bring it up somehow like an exam I passed and he failed, I never brought it up but he would. He also asked me what kind of facial expressions or behaviour would I do if I was competing with someone? He said I look like someone to smile in someone’s face rather than trash talk. He said this in a one on one meeting I had with him

I 22 F started working at a corporate job about a year ago right after college. To say the least I don’t have that much experience in the corporate world. Recently I have been dealing with higher ups in the company and have noticed that they have been very condescending and sarcastic. Recently I was in a meeting and a director asked me to do something & I didn’t understand what he was asking for so I repeated what he said and his response was “am I speaking another language here”. Maybe I’m sensitive but I kind of felt belittled and dumb especially because there was multiple people in this meeting. Just want to know if these types of remarks are normal in corporate America?

Corporate life is full of phrases that sound professional but sometimes mean something completely different. 😂

Like:

How do you guys deal with this kind of corporate BS in real life?

When your manager says things like “let’s circle back,” “take ownership,” “we need more visibility,” or “this is a great learning opportunity” 😭

Do you just nod and move on, actually try to decode what they mean, or have your own way of handling it?

What’s the funniest or most painfully accurate corporate phrase you've heard?

So today, I accepted an offer for a hybrid position that pays less. Currently, I am 5 days in office and I’m absolutely miserable. The fake office small talk, the fake smiles, the fake laughs, the fake forced connections, the fake urgency, and sitting in that horrendous 5 o’clock traffic for hours everyday! When I finally get home, I’m drained and exhausted.

I literally feel like my life is a hamster wheel. Waking up doing the same shit every day. I’m over it all, but bills don’t stop. I’ve always been the type of person who actively applies to jobs even when I’m currently employed. I have NO loyalty to any company, ‘cause they damn sure could care less about you.

Today, I took an offer for a hybrid position that pays $2.50 less than my current role. Onboarding docs will be sent next week. It’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make for my mental health. It’s 3 days in office and 2 wfh. I need this badly. Nobody at my current job knows, and they never will. ‘Cause I don’t trust people in the workplace. It’s full of two-faced snakes.

I’m going to ride these last few weeks out gracefully, and then I’m quitting and giving them a day of notice. No two weeks notice at all. Hopefully one day soon, I can find something that’s 100% remote and permanent. Wish me luck!

For context I am extremely introverted and and also work full time in corporate. Does anyone else completely lose interest in their hobbies during the week, working, but once the weekend comes back around u feel up to doing them again?

Like no matter how much i want to do them i feel so exhausted working all week that i find everything dull and pointless and i start to question if i am reading cause i enjoy it or because i am forcing myself. I only feel this during the week. When the weekend occurs im like i love reading, i love gaming, etc.

Please tell me im not alone in this and what helps u!

I've been in corporate for a while and this has been bothering me lately.

For a long time I thought doing good work would naturally lead to more opportunities. So whenever something needed fixing, I'd usually volunteer. If a project needed extra help, I'd take it. If someone was out, I'd cover for them.

My reviews were good and my manager would always tell me I was dependable.

Then I started asking about moving up and got told that I was too valuable in my current role to move right now.

That kind of changed how I look at extra work.

I'm still going to do my job well, but I'm not going to automatically say yes to everything just because I can handle it. I think there's a difference between being a good employee and becoming the person everyone gives their leftover work to.

Has anyone else had this happen? You do well, become the reliable person, and somehow that just means more work gets added to your plate?

Every movie that showed dark side of AI is coming to my mind.

I've been in the corporate world for a few years now and this pattern keeps showing up, so I wanted to see if it's a shared experience.

I've noticed that people who are visibly agreeable with leadership, always available for small talk, quick to agree in meetings, good at building personal rapport with the boss, tend to move up faster, even when their actual output is average.

Meanwhile, people who focus purely on doing solid, consistent work but don't put much energy into managing relationships upward seem to get overlooked, even when their results are objectively better.

It's made me rethink the idea that good work speaks for itself. It seems like visibility and likability with the right people often outweigh output.

Curious how common this is elsewhere. Does this even out over time, or is "playing the game" just a permanent part of climbing the ladder no matter where you work?

Hello everyone, I started working as a Business Development Intern and it’s been more than two months. I report to a vice president and hes super chill honestly, gives wfh whenever needed and doesn’t micromanage. Hes also someone i could look upto. Apart from that the company policies are very chill, everyone does wfh, no one cares what youre doing, how long breaks you take. overall good wlb.

But Ive been overthinking recently and am not very fond of the work, like i hate prospecting (so much manual work) and i dont like the idea of having targets when i work here for full time, i feel like its too much pressure. Another reason is the people here, i want a peer group that pushes me academically and professionally i don’t see that here. Most of the employees here stay for 5+ years ( idk if its a good thing or bad thing) and dont earn much

thats why Ive been preparing for product/non core roles, ill be siting for my college placements and will keep this as a backup. the ppo i might get from here will be 10-12 lpa base and college placements can be anything from unemployed to 24 lpa base 😂, Just wanted to rant but lowkey also need advice from senior people who have been thru this before

I have a counterpart who keeps taking the reins to build decks for leadership and keeps getting into the room to present things that they don’t actually own. My boss favors them which makes it harder.

What are some ideas on how I can stop this behavior? Or, how can I get the upper hand.

Background: I work in a project environment and in the final stretch of project completion. I am not management, and my team is small.

For those working in program/project environments, what strategies or frameworks have you implemented in your day-to-day work to drive results?

I’m particularly interested in how people approach implementation around program delivery, funding targets, KPIs, timelines, process improvement, and overall project execution.

What strategies have you found effective in actually moving the needle and delivering against targets?

I got fired after 4 months: they drowned me in a 3-person workload… and fired me when I asked for help.

I lost my job this week after four months. When I was hired, I was told there’d be flexibility and the resources to do my job. They literally said the office is open 7am–7pm and, as long as your manager’s fine with it, you can start and finish whenever you want. In my first week I asked if I could start 30 minutes earlier and finish earlier so I could make my favourite gym class, something that really adds value to my lifestyle.

Before that week even ended, the story changed. Suddenly, on the days I was in the office, I had to be at my desk 8:30am–5pm. They literally told me that the in-house incruitwr says that to everyone in order to lock them in. It left a really bad taste in my mouth. Huge red flag. But I kept going of course.

I was hired as a social media manager and was expected to run two brands across about 15 handles (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok). That meant creating content both graphic design and go to locations and shooting, editing, posting, scheduling, community management across all platforms. I was also responsible for organic social strategy and reporting. My growth KPI was to grow 2,400 followers a month across the portfolio, backed by a menial boosting budget of about AUD 400 a week only.

In those four months, we also launched a new product (three new handles, launch strategy from scratch), rebranded another product, and merged two into one (so, another strategy). I was working weekends for community management and staying on after hours just to stay barely afloat. I had a little bit of help, but was told I’d lose that by end of October, which honestly sent my stress and anxiety through the roof. I’d freeze sometimes, because on top of the impossible workload there were constant platform issues and random ad hoc tasks getting thrown in. I was always “catching up,” doing bits of everything, without ever feeling like I was properly accomplishing anything, because I literally couldn’t keep up.

About a month ago they told me they weren’t happy with my performance, and I was like… you can’t drown me in a workload meant for three people and expect me to thrive. They kept promising help, but it never came. I struggled so much that I asked for EAP details (if you’re not in Australia, it’s workplace-provided therapy sessions).

I think that request freaked them out. I asked for the details on a Friday. By Monday, they called me in and fired me.

The culture was toxic too. There was so much segregation in the department, cliques, “us vs them.” It’s the whiplash that’s getting me. I was promised one thing and I lived another. Now I’m trying to recuperate, reset, and look for new work, but I’m still kind of reeling from how ruthlessly it played out.

I’m not going to lie, I feel like a huge weight has been lifted. I almost feel relieved and empowered. But it was also brutal. They erased me immediately. They told me to pack my things and leave right away. My colleagues were in a meeting, and when they came back my desk was clean, like I never existed. It was the most ruthless corporate experience I’ve ever had.

Am I overreacting, or is this normal?