“Don’t put all your eggs in one basket”.

This proverb comes to mind when I see LinkedIn and other social-media platforms full of posts on layoffs.

Companies doing layoffs may not be at any fault as it could just be a needed measure to keep the company floating. Neither does it mean those being laid off were unproductive. It is just unwise of us to only put all our possible efforts in a single company. No company is worth putting all of our efforts into(unless it is our own).

Just like we avoid failures in computing systems by adding redundancy, we need to find ways to avoid single point of failures in our careers. By putting all of our efforts into just one point(corporate job), we are risking our life and career with dangers of bad things/decisions that can happen in that company(which is not in our control at all). The hard truth is that people serve as just tools for running the businesses. Companies can add and remove employees as easily as how computing resources are added/removed in cloud for scaling.

The power that companies have over us/our career must reduce over the years. If more people put time and efforts into their own side-hustle, the lesser power that companies would have over their employees career/life. Side-hustles could serve as a back up plan when events like layoffs happen, and can effectively reduce single point of failure in our careers.

Not that I am any wiser, I am unfortunately in the same boat. It is easier said than done. But these kind of events gives us a wake up call every now and then (whether we really wake up to it is another matter).