Last year, there were a number of high-profile lay-offs in the tech industry. Companies used those not only to get to "lean" staffing levels but also to get ri

Last year, there were a number of high-profile lay-offs in the tech industry. Companies used those not only to get to "lean" staffing levels but also to get rid of underperformers en masse. If you happen to have survived those, but aspire to just coast for a while, this is a great time for you. Budgets remain fairly constrained, which means that if a manager needs to let someone go because of lackluster performance, they're probably not guaranteed a back-fill. Thus, unless the employee's performance is so poor that it would be better to fire them and let their seat go unfilled, coasters are in a pretty safe position ... at least until the next round of layoffs.