I was laid off along with 25% of our department back in 2005 and I stopped all work and started looking for a new job as soon as I got the news. I was halfway

I was laid off along with 25% of our department back in 2005 and I stopped all work and started looking for a new job as soon as I got the news. I was halfway though a project, but My number one priority was keeping Myself employed. Thankfully the company was sympathetic to our needs, but there were some employees that had worked at the company for 18 years and now needed to find new jobs. I still came into the office for the following three weeks, unlike some of my other colleagues. Ironically, I was trying to get out of that company anyways so for me, the layoff was an amazing opportunity. One of the saddest scenarios was one of my colleges that had been out of school for merely 8 months. He had a 2 hour commute to work one way: car/bus -> light rail -> Metro -> office. He was chipper and gung ho about coming into work and working on his projects. The day he got laid off (which was about 1 hour before I got my news) he comes in super excited (as always) and runs up to have a meeting with his Project Manager. Then 15 minutes later, I see him leaving with his back pack and I ask where he's going. He looks dead in my eyes eerily and says "You'll find out soon enough." While he was only out of school 8 months, I think he's now realized that companies aren't all way they are cracked up to be, but now he works at Goldman Sachs so who knows.