A layoff fundamentally changed how I perceive work

It has been 1.5 years since I was laid off for 6 months. Here is what I learned about this in my 19 year career in software (mostly in JavaScript):

* If you can do the job but nobody else can and it’s a critical role you are probably immune from layoffs even with a horrible annual evaluation. It’s not you that’s critical, it’s the job you fill that’s critical.

* if you take deliberate actions to make yourself critical, such as the only person who knows the code base, it’s only a matter of time before the mega corp dumps you. Self-appointed critical people are too expensive and viewed as toxic by management, but you can probably get away with this at a mom and pops shop.

* once incompetence becomes the universally accepted norm it doesn’t matter that you can do what others cannot. Everybody is a replaceable beginner irrespective of their titles and years of experience and treated exactly as such. The survivors are the people that don’t rock the boat.

* if you have years of experience operating, managing, and authoring both people and technology in side projects you are probably far further along into your career than you are getting paid for. If your career is stagnant trying doing something wildly different and see what happens. I achieved rapid promotion after changing careers.

* don’t ever work more than you have to unless it’s something you want to do knowing you won’t get paid for it. I liked writing personal software outside of work because at work it could do my job for me or it frees me from the restrictions of shitty commercial software.

* the best way to impress management is to 1. do less work and 2. solve tough problems and share your solutions. Don’t be special. Demonstrate value.

> I liked writing personal software outside of work because at work it could do my job for me or it frees me from the restrictions of shitty commercial software.

You have to be careful on this one.

Often (it varies by jurisdiction), blanket rules by companies that all software you write in your spare time are their property can be safely ignored as invalid. But if it is heavily related to your current job then (again depends on jurisdiction) then they probably do own the copyright, possibly even if they don't have an explicit contractual provision for it.

If you're using your own spare-time software at work and benefiting from it there, it would be hard to argue it's not related.

Yeah, I got stung by that early in my career. So now all my personal software is licensed either CC0 or AGPL3.0. That is first thing I do. Secondly, I don't talk about it at work.

The key here is don't be stupid. Don't write the software on company time or on company equipment. My experience has further taught me:

1. Most employers don't want the software. They want the person writing the software.

2. Once your peers discover that its you writing the software they use there is a good chance they will immediately move on to something else. In JavaScript world "Invented Here" syndrome is extreme and developers do not trust quality software could ever come from people they know.

3. If the software was in use before you got to the organization then you are in the clear.

4. Have multiple lines of alignment, such as a part time job and/or contractual obligations elsewhere. Employers will not fight other employers to gain ownership of your pet project. In my case I have a part time job in the military and the military has the most liberal IP rules on the planet. Now I am a defense contractor on a project with multiple contract vendors, so who would really own my pet project: the contractor that pays my bills, the client that pays the contract, or the other contractor who manages the contract.

5. If its your personal project you are free to abandon it at any time and use your time to play video games. You are also free to abandon that job and go do something else.

If the company owns your software than you don't have the right to set licensing terms. If the company fights things and wins (a big if), your license terms mean nothing. If you contribute to upstream projects they could have big problems backing out your changes.

Which is an argument for better laws around what you do in your personal time.

Of course as you say, most companies don't really care about such work so long as you are not competing with them.