TLDR - Best layoff ever. During the .com boom I was with a start-up with a good idea but the realities of the internet at the time where just not there, and th

TLDR - Best layoff ever. During the .com boom I was with a start-up with a good idea but the realities of the internet at the time where just not there, and they whole concept relied on the start-up getting enough capital to burn and build until broadband had saturated the market. At one point they are trying to sell another round to investors, and it's not looking good, so the CEO walks in with another gentlemen that none of us know, he was from another company who needed development talent and the CEO basically told us, that as of today we need to reduce our burn by 20%. That leadership had went over, and over who they could cut but really could not put together a plan, so he invited other tech leaders from the area to pitch their companies and what they where doing to recruit from his. So this guys pitches his company and says I know what you guys are doing here, and I know you are all good developers, you can walk out the door with me today and into a new job. Some of you have to go, so I am offering you a path out. A handful took the deal, I stuck around and got to see first hand a company die for the first time. When we where about to shutter the doors the CEO did the same thing, brought in another exec to recruit us, I left and took that deal that time. Each time the CEO said to us, that he did not want to loose us but he also wanted to be remember as the CEO that you would quit your job and come work for him again, if he ever called. That us landing on our feet was important to him and therefor he wants what is best for us and him. He said companies come and go, but honor and integrity are very hard to get back once you loose them. It may have helped that he was former special forces Delta Force. To this day I would work for that gentlemen in a heart beat if the phone rang.