This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Fatema Ali, a job seeker in her 30s who lives in Texas. She previously worked for IBM as a project manager before being laid off in 2024. The following has been edited for length and clarity. In early 2024, I began to worry that my time at IBM could be coming to an end. I was a delivery project manager based in the Dallas area and had been working remotely since joining IBM in 2018. That January, IBM announced that all US managers would be