A bike ride and an unexpected message from a former colleague
When I was getting ready to go for a bike ride, I received a message from my former colleague. He asked me about the current job market situation. But I couldn't really tell him anything about it, as I hadn't even tried searching for a job or updated my resume yet. So I sent him a short message describing my current situation and let him know that I won't be involved in the job search process until closer to winter. However, another former colleague who was laid off on the same day as me told me that everything was really bad because he hadn't been able to find anything during the past month.
Also, I tried to find out how many employees are still working there. But I couldn't get a clear answer from him, as he said they hide all the available statistics everywhere. Even though the main work Telegram channels were available to employees, and the employee count should have been visible! Honestly, I didn't understand it, and I don't know whether it's even possible to hide the participant count in Telegram channels. In my opinion, it was just bullshit to avoid answering my question. But I still don't see any reason why he didn't respond to me about the number of employees.
Overall, it was an interesting conversation with my colleague after a few months, and I also asked him to say hi to the other colleagues for me. But from this situation, I understood one thing: he has some doubts about the stability of his current job, and the unstable period still seems to be continuing. So, in my opinion, he has started checking the job market too, so he won't be unemployed if the next wave of layoffs happens.