In the same period of time, many many people haven't thought that their jobs were vulnerable. The first time this happens, it's perspective-changing. My expectations were set early on when I was laid off from my first job. There are things I certainly didn't do as they were expecting, but that's not necessarily your problem nor was it mine. They gave me the reason that they didn't need me as a full-time employee and could basically outsource it. That's fine. Since then, I've been fired or laid off for various reasons at least 6 times and might be looking at another coming up soon. What it's taught me is that I always need to bet against having stability, simply because there's no evidence to suggest I'll ever have it. It's also taught me to never put my employer before my well-being, and to bet much more heavily on normal friends rather than anyone I met at the company—because when you go, so do they. After every job loss, it took me at least many many months to find new work and much introspection about how much I care about software engineering or whatever. Just because you were laid off doesn't mean you need to learn to be a better person. It just means you'll be on a break for a while.