2020, covid really starting to affect the company I worked for. And there was a townhall meeting where it was announced that there would be layoffs. (This was long after management had taken a pretty big pay cut to reduce cost. To be fair, they did right by us for as long as they could).

I was among the last to join the company, being hired despite there technically being a hiring freeze in effect (it helps to know people), so I assumed I'd be among the first ones to go.

Shortly after the townhall I got a phone from my manager. "Shit, here comes the call" I thought to myself. He was offering me a promotion instead.

Turned out that the guy whos position I'd been offered had been open about wanting to leave for a while, and he had chosen to do so now to save one headcount for the layoffs. But his position still needed to be filled, so they picked someone from the department that was most likely to see the most layoffs. And that was my department.