They pay me to get out of the company. What's next?

It was like an over-night exit after my 12-Years of service from Concur to the SAP due to the restructuring program that they have exercised for some of us.

What a way to leave a company after giving it two years in a row, after a decade straight. Twelve years of devotion, and with that, a typical one-on-one meeting ended my employment overnight. No doubt it was a shocking reality check after so many years of loyalty. I did not want to leave, but God did. I have been praying to get to a regular day shift and there were no available one after so many attempts applying for internal post. 

It all started when I was working at Concur, the world’s leading ERP company for travel and expense management back in September 13, 2013 when I was first hired as spanish consultant. Back then I was emersed to LATIN american cleints. I loved being embedded in that work, days and often nights. Back in those early days the team chemistry was chill and stable. We were a close-knit, down-to-earth, firm of software developers, project managers and enterprise integration consultants.

As we built our reputation, the platform became recognised not just in the US but across the EMEA and APAC regions as well. Growth was noticed by SAP, the multi-billion dollar tech giant that eventually bought us.

The acquisition was a huge upgrade in perks for us. The new corporate owners made our benefits even better, turning the workplace into a much happier place for us and our families. They also added amazing perks like an annual PHP36,000 education benefit for continued learning and a generous PHP40,000 allowance for medical reimbursements. The company even took care of the small, deeply personal moments: a fresh fruit basket to celebrate a new baby on the way, and beautiful flowers to express condolences when a family member passed away. These touchpoints were a huge help, especially in times of personal emergencies outside our standard HMO coverage.

These great benefits gave our team a huge sense of encouragement to work hard every night. The pandemic's unexpected arrival and the shift it brought to the world made the transition to remote employment seamless. The company rapidly ensured we all had the high-quality laptops and headsets we needed to keep the global business going from the comfort of our own homes.

That history meant I never thought I’d be pushed out of the company so abruptly. I honestly thought I was doing everything I could to protect my job. I always delivered on my performance indicators, exceeded the expectations of our clients, kept our satisfaction scores high, and stayed nimble through every organisational change within our team.

But as consultants, we’ve experienced the real-world impacts of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in our bones over the past few years. Tech layoffs and AI-driven restructuring are happening everywhere right now, so we’re not the only ones affected by this global wave of tech layoffs.

Thirty days later, the pain in my heart still feels fresh. The hardest part of going through this redundancy was not just losing a job, but realising how cold corporate dynamics can be. When the dust settles, you realise the larger corporate machine doesn’t care about the years of dedication – the only thing that matters to them is the immediate bottom line and business results. Unfortunately that is the reality of the corporate world. But as initial shock gives way to a new normal, the focus shifts from looking back at what was lost, to leveraging a decade of deep ERP expertise for what’s next ahead.

Now, what's next? I still want to express my gratitude and appreciation to the organization because, a few years before to this incident, the SVP had already encouraged us to add some qualifications and courses to our portfolio in case something similar occurred to us. While searching for alternative options during the 30-day hiatus, I trained myself using the free learning platform and became certified in new skills like SAP Certified Agile Methodology, SAP Certified s/4 HANA, and SAP Certified Solutions Architect. These enhance my profile and increase my chances of landing a larger position in the sector.