📉 The Reality: Smart People, Uncertain Times

The AI boom was supposed to be exciting.
Instead, it’s unsettling.

• Tools like ChatGPT, Copilot, and automation frameworks are rewriting job descriptions.

• Companies are “rightsizing” teams—often overnight.

• Many mid-level engineers, testers, project managers, and even new graduates are facing sudden layoffs—with silence, guilt, or confusion.

It’s not just a financial setback. It’s an identity crisis.

💬 What People Say in Therapy

“I worked hard, didn’t take breaks—and I was still let go.”
“Everyone says reskill—but I don’t even know where to begin.”
“My self-worth is destroyed. I feel disposable.”
“I can’t tell my family. They’ll panic.”

These are not irrational thoughts. They are emotional side effects of professional trauma.

🧠 Why Layoffs Hurt So Deeply

1. Work = Identity in Indian Tech Culture

For many, your job is your name, worth, and social standing.
To lose it is to lose structure, status, and self.

2. Sudden Loss of Control

Layoffs are often impersonal, algorithmic, and opaque.
This unpredictability triggers anxiety, insomnia, and self-blame.

3. Shame and Isolation

Especially among high performers, being laid off feels like a personal failure—even when it’s not.

4. Comparison and Panic

LinkedIn announcements. Up-skilling posts. Remote offers from abroad.
Everyone else seems to be “moving on” while you’re just trying to breathe.

🛠️ Mental Health Strategies to Cope

✅ 1. Name the Grief

Layoffs are a form of loss.
Let yourself feel anger, confusion, sadness—even numbness.
Use journaling, voice notes, or therapy to process these emotions.

✅ 2. Separate Self from Job

You were more than your job before it, and you still are.
Try affirmations like:

“My skills didn’t vanish—only the position did.”
“AI changed the playing field, not my value.”

✅ 3. Create Structure in the Chaos

• Fixed wake/sleep times

• Job search hours (not 24×7 scrolling)

• Skill-building time

• Downtime without guilt

This helps reduce free-floating anxiety.

✅ 4. Rebuild Emotional Bandwidth

• Exercise, even simple walking

• Reduce doomscrolling

• Speak to mentors

• Avoid overconsumption of AI panic content

✅ 5. Talk to a Professional

You don’t need to “wait until crisis.”
Short-term therapy can help you:

• Reframe failure

• Set goals

• Rebuild identity

• Tackle anxiety or depression

💼 Practical Tips for Reorientation

• Make a list of transferable skills (communication, documentation, logic, systems thinking)

• Explore roles adjacent to your core skill (e.g., developer → tech writer, QA → prompt engineer)

• Consider short certifications in AI ethics, LLM tools, MLOps, or UX with a human-centered angle

• Be kind to yourself during interviews—you are not behind, you are in transition

💬 Real-Life Example

Vikram, a 35-year-old backend engineer, was laid off after 11 years. In therapy, he said, “I built the backbone of systems, and now I feel spineless.”
Through therapy and career mentoring, he reframed his identity, built an AI-enhanced product demo portfolio, and now works as a freelance solution architect—on his own terms.

📍 Dr. Srinivas Rajkumar T
Consultant Psychiatrist – Career Stress, Burnout & Transition Care
Apollo Clinics Velachery & Tambaram | Mind & Memory Lab
🌐 www.srinivasaiims.com
📞 Consultation: +91 85951 55808
Helping professionals navigate layoff trauma, rebuild mental clarity, and create meaningful next steps.