‘I felt anything but normal at Deloitte’ – Ex-employee calls layoff one of the best things that could have happened to her

A 25 year old Miami born analyst with Deloitte in Chicago was informed by Human Resources that she was being laid off. Cierra Desmaratti cried herself to sleep. It was not her dream job but it was paying her a whooping $90,000 per year that converts to 76 lakh INR and losing it meant losing her means of survival. 

Ex Employee’s Family Background and reasons for not fitting in

A year forward to the incident taking place, Desmaratti stated the layoff was one of the best things that could have happened to her. In an interview she said, “I felt anything but special. I felt like I had to dim my personality to fit in with my peers and struggled to hit my stride in the consulting firm’s fast faced hustle career. Then I got laid off. It was a dark time but it ultimately made me realise what I deserve from my career.”

Hailing from a low income family had joined Deloitte in Sep 2022 along with 80-90 other fresh hires but looking around she found her peers dressed in pressed suit jackets and designer pieces and felt immediately out of place. Then came the burnout. Desmaratti said she started to work for 11 hours and started to fall ill mentally and physically. “My back ached from being glued to my seat all day and I relied on snacks to power through stressful assignments. I gained 9 kgs in just a few months and felt the most physically unhealthy I have ever been”, she said.

Performance Review and Layoff

Moreover, in the performance overview, her coach said she did not fare well during the busy months. It took her by surprise as no one raised any concerns about her performance at the time. “I felt frustrated knowing I could have made changes sooner if given that feedback.” When she began improving her work performance, she was laid off. 

“When the call ended, my mind immediately went to the financial blow that this would be. I didn’t love my job, but my $90,000 salary was my means of survival. I had two weeks of severance and a bit of money in savings, but I had no other job prospects. I cried myself to sleep that night and spent the next day frantically trying to log out of all the programs on my work computer.”, she said.

After being on the job hunt for two months, Desmaratti finally bagged a remote job as an analyst for Transamerica. It gave her the best work life balance she had been craving since all the time.