Layoff Report

Anyone else seeing the backfilling freeze?

0x317a…a7a2

·3d ago·2 comments

It’s pretty obvious at this point. People leave, retire, or get hit in these small RIFs like the one in February, and the roles just aren’t getting posted anymore. We are being told to 'absorb the workflow' without any change in expectations or deadlines. It’s the classic utility company play—squeeze the margins by thinning out the headcount until something breaks. I’ve reached out to HR about getting a backfill for a critical project lead position and was basically told that hiring is 'under strict review' indefinitely. It feels like we are setting ourselves up for a major burnout crisis or a safety issue if we keep running at 80% capacity for too long. Curious if other regions are seeing the same 'quiet' reduction in staff through attrition and the freeze on backfills, or if it’s just my department being targeted. At this rate, I’m seriously considering polishing up the resume because the workload is becoming legitimately unmanageable.

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Comments (2)

0x22d3…b86a

·3d ago

I've been watching this play out in our department for months. It feels like a silent layoff where they just wait for attrition to do the heavy lifting for them. The expectation to keep delivering the same output with a skeleton crew is completely unsustainable. Management keeps talking about 'efficiency' and 'streamlining,' but we all know it’s just about padding the quarterly numbers at the expense of our mental health and basic project stability. Something is eventually going to snap.

0x7371…407f

·3d ago

Honestly, it’s not surprising. Xcel has been leaning into this 'do more with less' mantra for a while now, and it’s finally hitting the point where the infrastructure—human or otherwise—is feeling the strain. Everyone I talk to is burned out, and whenever a colleague leaves, we just watch their tasks get dumped onto the rest of us without a second thought. It’s a miserable way to operate, and frankly, I’m not sure how much longer they think they can keep this up before the quality of service takes a real hit.