Arbeiter sees all the signs that she could be fired

With the wave of tech layoffs in 2023 at big companies like Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Meta, numerous people are posting about the red flags alerting them to the fact that they have been laid off.

Some telltale signals include spontaneous meeting requests, withdrawal of laptop or internet access, or unannounced gifts or treats to ease the pain of being fired.

TikTok user Jaymo (@jaymofiasco) experienced all three of these things on the same day, leading her to believe she was fired from her new job. Jaymo posted a video about the signs on March 14th. In the first five hours on the app, the video went viral with nearly 34,000 views.

The video seems to capture the panic many people feel when they fear losing their job and the subsequent way we often interpret things when we believe our jobs are on the line.

@jaymofiasco um…what’s up? 😅 I just got this job so let’s hope this isn’t serious lololol #worktok #corporatelife ♬ Original sound – Steven Johnson

Jaymo guided viewers through their thought process with a series of text overlays. “Am I going to be fired?” she wrote to launch the video.

The clip then cuts to footage of her zooming in on the no network connection icon on her computer: “Did the internet just go down?” she asked. She followed with a shot of a half-eaten donut with vanilla frosting and sprinkles: “Are we just donuts?”

In the last clip of the video, Jaymo showed a Microsoft Teams notification from her email inbox saying there would be a meeting in 29 minutes. “Or because they’re putting that random last-minute team meeting on our calendar?” she asked, again wondering why she’d been given a donut.

Viewers who saw her clip expressed that they too are concerned when they receive “signals” like those Jaymo listed on her TikTok.

“Why am I too?!?!?” wrote one commenter.

“Wait that was me 2 weeks ago when I couldn’t sign into teams or Outlook turned out to be an outage but immediately thought I was fired lmaooo,” noted another.

Jaymo posted an update in the comments section, pointing out that all was well with her job and the triad of harbingers of termination weren’t the omens of doom she thought they were:

“Update: Meeting Prob may have been an email to keep us from freaking out on Lololol,” she wrote.

One commenter said her manager must have expected workers to freak out over a random call to a meeting. Therefore, they immediately dispelled all fears related to the invitation.

“I had a meeting like this once and my boss put GOOD NEWS in the title and subject and body lmaoo,” they wrote.

The approach is one that Jaymo appreciates: “Honestly since they should get the tensions too high for surprise meetings,” she replied.

The Daily Dot reached out to Jaymo via TikTok comment for more information.

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