This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Hemant Virmani, a 47-year-old tech professional based in Washington. It's been edited for length and clarity. Amazon was part of my daily life for 11.5 years, and suddenly it was gone. There's no right way or easy way to do layoffs. I watched my team members get laid off in 2023, and I know how difficult it is. Still, when I received an email in the middle of the night in October of 2025 saying I'd been laid off from my senior software