How to support yourself and your team through a layoff

With layoffs happening across the tech industry, no one is left unscathed. Being laid off comes with immense challenges and deserves the deepest sympathies. Being chosen to stay can also be difficult; this talk is aimed at the leaders who remain in a company after a layoff.

If you’re one of the people still in the organization, you likely have your own feelings about what happened. You also have a team of people who have their own feelings and opinions. On top of that, you still need to deliver work with this new and smaller team. It can be hard to know where to start.

To share advice and learnings, we’re fortunate to be hearing from Kendra Curtis (previously at Google and Cockroach Labs). Kendra has led engineering teams through both the 2000 and 2008 recessions and has written a great article on leading through a layoff. This talk will dive into topics including how to:

• Give yourself and your team space to grieve
• Rebuild morale in the new team structure
• Prioritize where to focus with a smaller group of people
• Plan for and communicate what’s ahead for the team

About the speaker
Kendra Curtis is an engineering leader with 20+ years of experience in all levels of the software stack, from early days writing firmware for wireless networking products to managing teams of developers building web applications. She spent close to a decade at Google. Then she was CEO and a co-founder of Scout It Out. Most recently, she was the Director of Engineering at Cockroach Labs, where she launched CockroachCloud. Kendra has been through the 2000's Tech Bubble and Economic Downturn in 2008.

Agenda for the session

• 30 min – Presentation
• 30 min – Q&A

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This event will be online, please check-in day-of for the most updated virtual link.