Laid Off at Zillow: 500 Cuts, One Email

CharlesA meeting invite, no title, just fifteen minutes with your VP.

Thomas DoanAnd her badge stops working before that call even ends.

CharlesThe VP reads from a script, two words in it, AI-driven restructuring.

Thomas DoanThat's how our guest walked out of Zillow, and Charles, she's far from the only one.

CharlesSkillsyncers tracker already puts this year's tech layoffs past two hundred thousand workers.

Thomas DoanTough numbers. We talked to her about her severance ask, what she left unsaid, and the answer she rewrote eleven times before it finally worked.

CharlesPlus the one line she'd hand someone standing exactly where she stood two years ago.

Thomas DoanSo let's start with that morning.

CharlesBefore we go further, a quick reminder, we love hearing from you. If you have questions or topics you'd like to cover, head to the link in the description and submit your question. We read every single one. The invite just said Team Sync nine fifteen, no agenda. Her badge stopped scanning before the call even ended.

Thomas DoanAnd the VP read from a script word for word. She told us it didn't even sound like his voice anymore.

CharlesThe phrase that stuck was AI-driven restructuring. Not your role, not performance, just that.

Thomas DoanNine people on her team that morning, four by lunch.

CharlesZillow's August round cut just over five hundred roles company-wide. IBTimes reported it alongside similar cuts at TikTok, Etsy, and Google that same week.

Thomas DoanHer team wasn't singled out. That's almost worse, isn't it? You can't take it personally, but you also can't fix it.

CharlesSkillsyncers tracker had three hundred and twenty-two layoff events and two hundred and five thousand, eight hundred and thirty-two people impacted as of yesterday. That already edges past all of twenty twenty-five. Two hundred and five thousand, seven hundred and seventy-three people across three hundred and thirty-eight events.

Thomas DoanRoughly eight hundred and ninety-one people a day by that count.

CharlesWhat I keep circling back to, two weeks before that invite, what did she actually know?

Thomas DoanShe knew her manager stopped looping her into planning docs. The AI roadmap meetings moved to a channel she wasn't in.

CharlesSo why not update the resume that week?

Thomas DoanBecause nine years in, you convince yourself it's a reorg.

CharlesTwo weeks of signals, and she still walked into a blank invite unprepared.

Thomas DoanShe told me she reread her calendar that morning, hunting for a title that wasn't there. That night, she didn't lead with the number to her husband. She led with the sentence, "AI-driven restructuring." Took her three tries to say it without apologizing.

CharlesWhy would a phrase like that change what she thinks she owes anyone an apology for? That phrase followed her home.

Thomas DoanIt also changed the math. When your packet blames AI investment instead of performance, you're not negotiating from an apology.

CharlesSo she stopped saying sorry on the call.

Thomas DoanTechJournal cited Challenger, Gray & Christmas data showing AI named in around forty percent of May's layoffs. In January, that figure sat near seven percent.

CharlesSeven to forty in four months. The label moved faster than the actual technology did.

Thomas DoanWhat does that shift mean for someone sitting across from HR?

CharlesA company cutting from strength while funding AI spend has a story to protect. That's a different negotiating position than a company that's actually broke.

Thomas DoanSo what did she land on?

CharlesThree extra weeks of pay. COBRA covered through year-end, and her equity vesting date pushed.

Thomas DoanWhat'd she leave on the table?

CharlesShe never asked about outplacement support or a negotiated reference. Says she regrets that now.

Thomas DoanDid she even know how much time she had to decide?

CharlesSeverance guidance for workers over forty generally points to twenty-one days minimum to consider an agreement. Forty-five in a group layoff, plus a week to revoke after signing.

Thomas DoanShe used maybe half that window.

CharlesCommon move. People sign fast because they want the whole thing over.

Thomas DoanThat same urge to just make it stop is what turned her first interview answer into an apology.

CharlesThe line she landed on wasn't the first draft. Eleven drafts, actually. The first explained herself for four sentences and lost two screens.

Thomas DoanWhat worked instead?

CharlesTwo sentences. She named the restructuring, No adjectives, Nothing asking for sympathy.

Thomas DoanAnd then what happened six weeks out?

CharlesSixty-eight applications. Four first round conversations came out of that pool.

Thomas DoanFour out of Sixty-eight. That's a rough ratio to carry into every interview.

CharlesThe offer didn't come from those Four, though. It came through a former colleague who forwarded her resume before the posting even went up.

Thomas DoanSo the polished answer opened doors, but the door that mattered opened because someone already trusted her.

CharlesRight. Write the Twenty-second layoff answer in week One before the shame sets in.

Thomas DoanAnd say it out loud to Three people who will tell you when it sounds bitter.

CharlesPeople who will flag it before it lands wrong in a room.

Thomas DoanA rule she set for herself. Nothing flowery about it.

CharlesIf there's one tactic from this episode, it's hers. Write the twenty-second layoff answer in week One, not draft Eleven.

Thomas DoanAnd test it on Three people who will tell you the truth, Not just nod along.

CharlesSolid advice for anyone bracing for that call.

Thomas DoanShare this with whoever's texting you at midnight about their own move. Subscribe and find us on LinkedIn. Thanks for being here.