Similar story here but possibly a bit more fun. New VP came in and less than 6 months later demanded the org switch to some proprietary (expensive) agile methodology that had some theory that orgs with more than like 150 people are too big to be efficient. Nevermind the fact that we were an org with multiple large car OEM customers with 6-12 projects going on constantly, creating new features, quoting for new projects, QA and integration, first line support, etc. We were a big operation, but for pretty good reasons. No magic was going to happen for the business by just going to 150 head count.

VP first tries to do this re-org. In the middle of it, announces they are closing our office as part of the reorg. Our office was a remote one in the suburbs, and probably looked pretty good on paper that we should be the first to get cut. The kicker was we were a power house of the org. ~25 engineers with the majority being senior/principal engineers, each responsible for huge parts of the software stack, and also responsible for actually making sure projects were shipped. Everyone had some experience over the years having long nights working with OEMs in Germany, Japan, etc. for final deliveries.

They made the announcement with an end date in 2 months and everyone got some severance package on top of that. That's not a bad deal at all. Everyone was laid off, including my manager, except me. I had a few meetings with the VP and others to figure out what they were going to do with me. I asked for California salary while working remote. They said no, but they can offer me a ~60k bonus with a fork-back clause if I leave (or get fired) within 2 years. I said that's a joke, I'd rather take a severance package and we part ways. VP was not happy about it and he was quite heated about it. IDK maybe be was used to getting what he wanted. Negotiations stopped there. No severance was offered and I was demanded to work in the office even if it was empty (they still had a lease). I started applying like crazy and landed a FAANG job, but with a start date a few months out.

The 2 months were honestly just excellent. Everyone had a great time shooting the shit around the office. Helping each other interview, playing ping pong, long lunches, etc. Most landed at good jobs within the 2 months so they banked the severance. Nobody did any work. As I mentioned, our manager was let go too and he gave 0 shits. Projects got fucked. The company sent ~3 people from India in the last week to do a "brain dump" with the seniors. Calling it a disaster was an understatement. They all flew home and the office was emptied... except for me!

My start date was still in a few weeks, so I decided to just pester my VP's bosses about his terrible decisions, asking about a severance package, etc. Leaving messages for c-suite a few times a week. Sure enough, I got an email back from c-suite! They said the severance offer will be coming soon.

VP waits another week before sending me the package. The offer was beyond ridiculous. I needed to stick around for another ~4 months and had a ton of AIs that they would determine if I satisfied or not. It included: (1) ship a bunch of shit, (2) go to India to train several hundred engineers, (3) continue shipping a new SDK I had spearheaded up until the layoffs. The icing was they gave me a lower offer than the standard severance. I forwarded it to everyone and said this is ridiculous, there's no way I am accepting this. Please give me a workable severance package. HR and VP set up a call with me the next day. I took the call, got berated by HR for being a bad employee and will be put on a performance plan, yada yada. I just hung up in the middle and walked out of the office for good and enjoyed the vacation.

The worst part: VP moved to a different FAANG the following year. Definitely an overpaid POS.

The best part: I worked with a lot of really great people and those last 2 months were definitely a highlight, even if it came from a shitty situation.