I got laid off along with 30% of the company and 1 month later was contacted by my manager to let me know that he had put me on a “single point of failure, do not fire” list, and someone in HR managed to get some spreadsheets mixed up and I instead made it onto the list of people to be laid off. At this point I already had accepted another offer for more money, and obviously had less than stellar feelings towards the company, so I told them I wasn’t coming back.

Everyone wants to believe that the people and organizations holding their careers in their hands are competent, rational, and trustworthy. Unfortunately that is often not the case.