Many years ago when I heard some of my friends had landed jobs at Cisco I thought "wow Cisco is smart to hire them". I even considered buying the stock.
All of them got laid off.
So when Cisco bought the company I worked for I already knew what was coming. The day the deal was announced I should have updated my resume and left. But I stayed anyway. I lasted longer than I expected but those years were mostly wasted.
I watched good friends and talented people get cut. After about a year I made a decision. I was done working extra hours or giving my soul to the company. If someone asked where I worked I would say Cisco but I always added that it was not the company it used to be back in the 90s. These days I even wonder if it was ever really that great.
In the end I gave them way less than my best effort. Sometimes I felt guilty about it. Then I would see someone busting their a** working weekends and late nights only to get laid off anyway. That made the message pretty clear.
Now it is my turn to be let go and I am still not sure which path was better. Should you work hard on principle even when the system does not care? Or do you push back against a machine that punishes loyalty?
I used every bit of that unlimited PTO. I never worked extra hours. Part of me is glad I fought the system in my own small way.
The other part wonders if it would have been better to go down still believing in the mission like Old Major in Animal Farm.