I’ve spent the last few weeks reflecting on the layoffs at Simply Business and the complete lack of meaningful transitional support provided to employees navigating serious health conditions.
What continues to weigh on me most is healthcare. COBRA at over $1,000 a month is simply not affordable for many people who have suddenly lost their income. No one should have to choose between paying their mortgage and accessing the healthcare that literally keeps them alive.
What’s difficult to reconcile is how little it would have cost a large corporation to extend healthcare coverage for employees facing severe medical circumstances while they searched for new jobs. For roughly an additional $2,000, people dealing with life-threatening or chronic health conditions could have had two additional months more of healthcare, a little more stability, safety, and peace of mind during an already traumatic transition.
The severance provided was also below market value, which left me facing impossible choices between healthcare and keeping a roof over my head. During my time at SB, salaries were extremely low relative to the rising cost of living, which made it difficult to build meaningful financial security.
The experience also forced me to reflect on a broader issue within corporate culture: how easily people become numbers once restructuring begins. Leadership language often emphasizes “people first,” “culture,” and “values,” but moments like layoffs are where a company’s actual values become visible.
Despite having a few years of unimaginable trauma I showed up to the workplace with humor and authenticity and worked the hardest I could while navigating chronic illness, the loss of my mother, my cousin, and one of my closest friends — all while trying to survive in an increasingly difficult job market. I know I’m not the only one walking away from layoffs feeling exhausted, frightened, and deeply disillusioned by how disposable employees can become in systems designed primarily to protect corporations over human beings.
I also recognize now how significantly compensation differed from comparable U.S. roles in the market, likely due to being tied to a UK-based team structure where salary expectations are very different. One silver lining through all of this has been realizing that many of the roles I’m now applying for pay more than double what I earned at SB. That has given me some hope, even while navigating the terrifying reality of being without health insurance for the moment.
At the end of the day, I think the real measure of leadership is simple: when people were vulnerable, did you do everything reasonably possible to help them land safely? In my experience at SB, the answer was no. This is not a place that cares about its current or former employees.
