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The reduction of staff and efficiency has become the consensus of the whole industry, and the Internet manufacturers are no longer warm.

Editor’s note: This article comes from the WeChat public account “deep ring” (ID :deep-echo), author Chen Yongwei.

The days when the Internet industry will be able to blossom will end.

Since the second half of last year, Internet companies that were only linked to the words of growth and high salaries have begun to report layoffs. The chill has continued since then. The primary market has difficulties in fundraising, and the valuation of the primary and secondary markets has generally been “upside down”. As the nerve endings of the industry, small and medium-sized companies first perceived changes, and companies with poor management chose to close. Since then, all the way to the first half of this year, the giants have begun to take action, no longer warm and tender.

A wide spread of words reflects people’s anxiety and fear: “This year may be the worst year of the past decade, but the best year in the next decade.”

Therefore, companies have to slow down the pace of expansion, in order to ensure ample cash flow, reduce staff and increase efficiency becomes a necessary choice. The most obvious feeling about this cold atmosphere is the practitioners in the Internet industry.

35-year-old is a sensitive word in this change. In many public information, employees over the age of 35 are at high risk of layoffs. For this statement, some people are scornful, but more people are caught in anxiety. No one can stop the progress of time. The 35-year-old is the time node that every working person will inevitably experience.

For this reason, it is more necessary to explore the dangers posed by this number.

What makes 35 years old into the minefield? How can people avoid sudden changes? With the fog open, what secrets are hidden behind the 35-year-old legend?

Safety zone failure

Before answering why 35-year-olds will become high-risk people in the workplace, it is necessary for us to understand the logic of corporate layoffs – or to change the more warm word “optimization”.

Talking to a departing employee is one of the duties of HR. As an Internet giant’s business line of HR BP, in the first half of this year, Dong Jing’s work in this area has increased significantly.

The employees sitting in front of Dong Jing are mostly puzzled and even angry, because unlike the usual cognition, the employees who are included in the layoffs are not all those with poor performance. On the contrary, Some people’s past performance can be said to be very good, which became the biggest test of Dong Jing’s conversation with employees.

However, there is no safe area in the workplace.

Essential contributions to performanceDoes not mean safety. Employees who have received the company-level business award and obtained the highest performance evaluation will be included in the “optimization” scope if they do not meet the business needs.

Senior employees who have won a certain honor award for a certain giant have been puzzled by the HR’s resignation. However, in Dong Jing’s view, honors and performance are the glory of the past. “Now you can’t keep up with the company’s development, you need to be eliminated.”

It’s not safe to climb to the management level. Partially known as the giants of employee care and management style, the management of the survival of the fittest began to be issued with hard indicators to implement – the optimization management team is one of the evaluation criteria of higher-level managers, if for various purposes If the subordinates are unable to complete the elimination index, their own performance will also be affected. The pressure is thus transmitted in layers.

There are many ways to break up with employees. A middle-level manager who once worked for a giant said that “the deep response” was cut as a precise plan: first the rank fell from the director to the leader, then the performance was hit the lowest, and finally the contract was terminated. Before the worst happened, he had already started looking for a new job, but he did not find a suitable position for a year until he was laid off.

As a mid-level management of a large factory, Li Che is the executor of layoffs, but he also has the same heart: “The retrenched employees have middle-aged unmarried women who apply for the company’s interest-free loans to buy a house; they are also very recognized. Company culture and values, old employees who are very loyal and passionate about the company, But loyalty has no value. To put it bluntly, this is the door sale.”

In fact, 35 years old is not a one-size-fits-all red line in the actual implementation of layoffs.

The management of a unicorn company explained this to the “deep response”: layoffs are mainly for employees with low cost performance. The so-called cost-effective is that the responsible business is not so important, but The salary is very high. In short, high-paying employees on non-core posts.

In the business expansion period, this does not mean danger. On the contrary, sufficient experience and accumulation will make them the core backbone of some businesses, but when the business enters a contraction period, considering the cost, the non-core business should reduce the investment even When directly cut off, this part of the staff became a high-risk group.

The fact that cannot be avoided is that older employees are hard to dominate by price/performance. On the one hand, wages have risen to a certain level with time, and on the other hand, people are middle-aged and have complicated affairs.

Therefore, age is only a general indicator. The “35-year-old crisis” essentially exposes the problem that knowledge structure, work efficiency and physical strength do not match the company’s existing development needs.

As you know the second leader of the user, “I used to think that this question is very, very low, not worth talking about, and I always think that 35 is just a timeline, it doesn’t mean anything, until I am myself. The project manager suddenly realized that the line was not out of thin air. When he was young, he was attentive and devoted himself to researching technology. He often used a small technical detail all night long, but after a certain period of time, his attention and energy could not work. So that I can’t concentrate as much as I did when I was young, and I can’t concentrate on my work like a young man.”

The danger does exist and is getting closer.

Most of the employees did not know that Dong Jing’s business line has quietly optimized more than 100 people in the first half of this year. When layoffs do not affect themselves, changes are difficult to perceive, but anxiety spreads silently.

Whether it is the HR that needs to talk to employees, or the managers responsible for listing the layoffs, the middle-aged crisis revealed by layoffs and layoffs is like a heavy stone in their hearts. At the same time, they are still wondering and leave the factory. How do 35-year-old middle-aged people start the next stop.

This question is also hovering in the heart of Li Ching: “There are no news after the clerk’s colleague left the company. I am really curious. Where did they go?”

Next stop after leaving the big factory

Get used to the rhythm, work atmosphere, and welfare of the big platform. Suddenly leaving, it is a test for anyone. Be able to pass the test safely, not only the ability, but also the mentality.

Yang Chao used to be a middle-level manager of a small Internet giant. He is 44 years old and belongs to the standard high-risk group. In June of this year, after a long period of thinking and weighing, he chose to leave.

Since the first half of this year, the Internet giant that Yang Chao chose to leave has also tightened his wallet.

In the new environment, companies have developed a more detailed development strategy: “The company is now more about people, money, and is used to targeting. For example, last year’s monthly activity was 50 million, this month The goal of living is 100 million, double the performanceThe team will double, and this logic is true. However, if the target is not completed by the end of the year, it means that someone has not worked, or if they have not done well, they need to be laid off. Using this standard to sort out the company’s overall team, one-third must be retained, one-third can assist the core team, and the rest can be cut.

“Employees may not be able to see what the leader is doing every day, but the above is actually clear. If you feel the pressure, then your leadership feels three times more stress than you.

Yang Chao revealed that the company “will not recruit again after the director has gone this year. He is willing to slash things and is not willing to recruit more people. One business person is gone, and the company directly merges his team with other teams.”

But Yang Chao’s initiative to leave is not to find a better career opportunity. Before leaving his job, his life was seriously worked. He was severely lost and had a huge bag on his neck.

Before the decision, Yang Chao consulted relatives and friends, and everyone was divided into two groups: stability or transformation. The Anshun School believes that Yang Chao’s age is small and small, and the security is the first. The transformation group has the same concerns as Yang Chao. If it does not turn now, when the age is greater, there will be no crisis. The space and opportunity to move.

After finishing the resignation in June, Yang Chao was lying at home for a few days. He said, “The feeling of exhaustion is leaking from the bones.” After leaving the company, Yang Chao completed the change in living habits in a short period of time, losing 20 kilograms in two months.

Recalling the previous work status, when you enter the company, you are facing the computer at the station, and lunch and dinner are called take-out. At least three cups of coffee a day, or the brain can not support, will also consume a lot of sugary drinks, the body will quickly gain weight, more importantly, “garbage” will accumulate in the body.

The office building is usually full of take-away cars

When work is late, it is constantly repeated. Internal communication involves a lot of energy, and the screw feels particularly strong. After an internal incident, Yang Chao stopped to look at his work: “ Every day is turning Busy, there will be suspicion, because in the end it seems that there is nothing. The strength of the work in the first-tier cities makes people have to ‘996’, so it is more suitable for the homeless graduates to fully devote themselves.”

After leaving the job, there are also headhunters recommending some work to Yang Chao, but Yang Chao believes that if you go to these places to live 996, there is noWhat is the meaning.

According to Yang Chao’s observation, there are only a few 35-year-old middle-aged people who are open to the Internet platform: open Taobao, do micro-business, sell insurance, or simply switch, such as opening a store, which one does not look completely There is no chance, but it is also very “chicken”. The next career in the workplace, Yang Chao’s plan is to do a thing for himself, but also to see opportunities, if there is a particularly suitable, do not rule out the possibility of returning to the big platform.

But all the choices are based on a more balanced work and family. In the second half of last year, Yang Chao had his own children. In the life sequence, the importance of the family has been greatly enhanced.

A similar approach to Yang Chao’s active adjustment of mentality and state is particularly important for dealing with the 35-year-old middle-aged crisis.

Because of his work relationship, Dong Jing has access to a variety of departing employees. In his opinion, there are still many opportunities to leave the big factory. For example, many traditional enterprises are actually eager to recruit talents with Internet background, but their corporate culture and welfare treatments are definitely different from those of Internet companies. At this time, they should choose personal choices. Yang Chao, who once led the team, also opened an employee. According to his observations, most of the employees who left the big platform chose to go to the Internet company with a smaller size.

There are some 35-year-old middle-aged people who are old and young. If they suffer from bottlenecks or even frustrations due to their professional development, they may not be able to keep up with the trend of the times. But some people will adjust very quickly. Some employees will urge HR to complete the exit process, so that they can get a new career.

In the face of change, how to open the next stop, the adjustment of personal mentality is the most critical.

Welcome back to the real world

With a little care, it is not difficult to notice that this year, Internet companies have become more and more intensive in layoffs, both at home and abroad:

• In February, Divided CEO Cheng Wei announced that the non-main business was “closed and transferred”, and the staff with overlapping positions and performances that were not reconciled by the business restructuring were downsized, and the overall layoffs accounted for all employees. 15% of them involve about 2,000 people.

• In May, Oracle China announced a restructuring of its business, with thousands of employees in three R&D centers in Beijing, Shenzhen and Suzhou being abolished.

• In August, the internal mail issued by Weilai founder Li Bin said that it will reduce 1,200 jobs, and the company will lay off about 7500 people as a whole;

• In August, the same city founder Yao Jinbo stated in his internal letter that he would more rigorously identify people who are mixed in the organization and who are shaking their minds. They will be downgraded or 10% before the end of the year. Vice president, itsHis level is similar.

• In October, after the listing was blocked, WeWork announced that it would lay off 500 technicians, which is just the beginning of the 2000 layoffs.

Drips hit the first bombing of Internet giants in 2019

In the midst of the wind and rain, the sense of crisis has hit the middle-aged people of the big manufacturers with low price/performance ratios.

One reality that must be faced is that when the dividends in the early stages of industrial development disappear, the Internet is returning to the normal development curve. The story of a rich overnight or wealth-rich value-added, as well as a job-changing salary increase, is difficult to repeat. Internet people need to get used to the ordinary days and even the hard days, to join the ranks of the real world.

Changes are currently being made, and the company itself is making adjustments. For example, Tencent has undergone a 930 transformation last year and began to transform to the industrial Internet. This is also not easy. Compared with the fast-paced, fast-paced consumer Internet, it is difficult for the industrial Internet to replicate the winner-take situation in a short period of time, and the new business has higher requirements for service awareness and process standards, but at the historical demarcation point, A similar decision has to be done.

Compared with other industries, the Internet is very young. It has been in its early 20s, and now the 35-year-old Internet employee is the first person in the Internet industry to face the middle-age crisis. As time goes by, the middle-aged crisis will become the norm in the Internet industry.

The increase and decrease of employees started last year has amplified the anxiety of the first batch of Internet middle-aged people. This is the inevitable result of the development of the industry to a certain stage, and it is also a compulsory course that Internet people must experience.

In this regard, Yang Chao, who has experienced cyclical changes in other industries, believes that the Internet industry has actually reached a period of dynamic adjustment, which is an inevitable phenomenon in the big economic cycle, so it does not need to create too much anxiety. .

He also said “deeply loud”, The country’s Internet companies are heavily operational, not technology-driven, which in part has caused middle-aged people to fail to establish career thresholds. But a technician working in Silicon Valley said to the “deep response” that the 35-year-old crisis also exists in the US Internet industry. At present, the startup company where it is located is still developing rapidly. If one day it reaches the bottleneck period, he plans to quit to the big platform to support the elderly. “The treatment can be lowered.“

In an answer to the hot question, a ruined manager said the team member who was laid off the day before leaving the job, “I will consider career development and continuity in the future work, and strengthen my ability to do it. Work with a higher gold content, so the substitutability is low, the possibility of being laid off is small, or even if it is cut later, because it is strong, it is not difficult to find it again.”

In the face of this ubiquitous and unavoidable crisis, no one seems to have a particularly clear solution.

Everything is just back to the origin.

Note: At the request of the respondent, in order to protect the personal information of the respondents, Dong Zhong, Li Che and Yang Chao are the pseudonyms.