So-- a round of layoffs came to my long-time workplace and I lost my job. Only... I'm in a pretty specialty field doing work that no one else knows how to do. (IMHO, not a great decision on their part, but-- not my decision.)
I have come to find out that my long-term work friend has been worse-than-fired. They gave him my job. A job that he isn't qualified for, and won't be able to figure out on his own.
It seems that they are deliberately putting him in a position to unilaterally fail. Possibly to force him into quitting, or enable them to fire him, so that they won't have to pay out benefits.
OR that they are banking on his friendship with me, and my sympathy for him and his kids as he works paycheck to paycheck, to volunteer as a free mentor until he learns how to do something that is not his field, and is abundantly not in his paygrade.
Has anyone else been in this position?
Do I refuse to help the company under these circumstances? Do I help him long enough for him to try to find a new job? Are there other options I'm not seeing?