A note about surviving rounds of layoffs.
The layoff cycle produces its own dark humor. You see someone in the hall:
“YOU’RE still here? They let [someone] go — but they kept you?”
Shake head sadly.
This joke works on multiple levels. It implies you’re surprised the person survived. It implies the people who were let go were more valuable. It implies the randomness of the process. The person you say it to has to decide in real time whether you’re being a jerk or commiserating.
The answer is: both, but mostly commiserating. Everyone who’s survived a round of layoffs knows the feeling is complicated. Relief mixed with guilt mixed with the awareness that the arbitrariness cuts both ways — you’re still here not necessarily because you were more essential, but because of some combination of factors that are only partially under your control.
The joke is a way of acknowledging the absurdity without saying “isn’t this absurd” directly, which would be ungrateful. You’re still there. You keep your head down. You say the joke to the person next to you, who has also survived, and you both know what it means.