Netflix Layoffs: Why a Profitable Company Can Still Cut Your Job

When I started my career at Honda, monthly sales numbers were a pretty big deal. When sales were up compared to the previous year, people generally felt good about where things were headed. Business was strong, customers were buying cars, and there wasn't much reason to worry about losing your job.

At least, that's how it felt.

I think a lot of people still look at their employers the same way. If the company is making money, growing, and reporting strong results, their jobs should be relatively safe.

Unfortunately, that's not always how corporate America works, and Netflix just gave us another reminder.

Netflix is cutting 1,000 jobs. The company is still profitable.

On October 14, 2026, Netflix announced that it was eliminating roughly 1,000 jobs, about 6% of its workforce. The cuts primarily affect employees in product, technology, legal, and human resources.

Here's what caught my attention. In the announcement, Netflix leadership described its business as strong and growing, and said the company was still on track to meet its full-year financial forecast.

Now, that doesn't mean Netflix has nothing to worry about. Competition is fierce, engagement growth has slowed, and investors have questions about its future.

But the company isn't shutting its doors, either. It's deciding where it wants to put its money and people going forward.

And there's a pretty important lesson in that for anyone who works for a large organization.

Your employer can be doing well financially and still decide it no longer needs your position.

Your performance and your job security aren't the same thing

I spent part of my career recruiting at Honda and later working at Bank of America. I've seen how organizations make decisions about hiring, staffing, budgets, and talent.

One thing I've learned is that being a great employee doesn't necessarily protect you when the company decides to change direction.

Think about it this way. You could be an excellent HR professional, but if your employer decides to centralize HR services or reduce the number of people supporting the business, your performance might have very little influence on that decision.

The same goes for marketing, legal, technology, operations, and just about every other function.

Sometimes a company cuts positions because it's losing money. Other times, it cuts positions because leadership believes those resources could produce a better return somewhere else.

Neither situation necessarily says anything about the quality of the people losing their jobs.

I remember how little warning employees could have when I worked at Bank of America. We weren't sitting in meetings reviewing executive budgets or hearing detailed conversations about which departments might be affected.

I remember a manila envelope arriving with names inside. That was how real those decisions suddenly became.

I suspect many people who have experienced corporate layoffs have their own version of that envelope.

So how do you know if your job might be at risk?

That's probably the question most people want answered, and unfortunately, there's no perfect way to predict a layoff.

But there are changes worth paying attention to, especially when several are happening at once.

Look at where your company is spending money. Is your department hiring, or are open positions being left unfilled? Are projects getting approved, or does everything suddenly require another layer of approval? Is leadership talking more about efficiency than growth?

Pay attention to changes in your team's responsibilities. Are projects being consolidated? Are outside vendors taking over work your team used to do? Is another department suddenly handling responsibilities that belonged to yours?

Listen to how leadership talks about the future. When executives start discussing restructuring, changing priorities, automation, or doing more with less, those words are worth understanding. They don't automatically mean layoffs are coming, but they can tell you where the organization is heading.

And here's something else I'd encourage you to consider.

Does your position support where the company is going, or where it has been?

That's an important distinction.

Companies make investment decisions based on what they believe they'll need next. Sometimes the work that made someone valuable over the past five years isn't the same work leadership plans to invest in over the next five.

That doesn't make the employee less talented. It means the business has changed.

Don't wait until you're laid off to start preparing

I'm working with a client in the legal field who recently learned that layoffs were coming to her department.

She survived the first round. Several of her colleagues didn't.

Now, she could have gone back to business as usual and hoped for the best. Instead, she decided to start preparing while she still had a job.

We're updating her résumé and LinkedIn profile, looking at the types of roles she'd pursue, and making sure her experience translates to employers outside her current organization.

She hasn't decided she needs to leave tomorrow. She just doesn't want to be caught off guard.

And I think that's a smart approach.

You don't need to assume you're getting laid off every time your company reorganizes. But you also don't need to wait for someone to tell you your position has been eliminated before paying attention to your career.

Here's what I'd suggest doing now.

1. Start keeping track of your accomplishments

Most people have a surprisingly hard time explaining what they've accomplished at work, especially when they're suddenly asked to put together a résumé.

You know what you do every day, but can you explain what has improved because of your work?

Did you save money? Improve a process? Reduce turnover? Build something? Help grow revenue? Support a major project?

Start writing those things down while they're fresh. Include numbers, dates, and the scope of your responsibilities wherever possible.

Keep a personal record of your accomplishments, but don't take confidential company documents, customer information, or proprietary reports with you.

2. Look at job postings before you need a job

This is something I wish more employed people would do.

Spend a little time looking at positions similar to yours. Not because you're necessarily planning to apply, but because you need to understand what employers are asking for today.

You might discover that the requirements have changed since you last looked for work.

Maybe the systems are different. Maybe employers want a broader mix of skills. Maybe the job title you've held for ten years means something different in another organization.

Would your current experience qualify you for the jobs you'd want next?

If the answer is no, that's useful information to have while you're still employed and have time to do something about it.

3. Make sure people outside your company know what you do

I see this all the time with people who have been with the same employer for years.

They've developed strong relationships internally, but almost nobody outside the organization knows what they do or how good they are at it.

Then a layoff happens, and suddenly they're trying to rebuild a professional network they haven't maintained in years.

You don't need to become a LinkedIn influencer or start posting every day.

Reconnect with former colleagues. Stay in touch with people you've worked with. Make sure your LinkedIn profile reflects the work you're actually doing today.

The time to build those relationships is before you need to ask someone for help.

4. Understand how your work contributes to the business

You don't have to work in sales to contribute to revenue.

If you're in HR, maybe you've reduced turnover or improved hiring efficiency. If you're in legal, perhaps you've helped reduce risk or outside counsel expenses. If you're in operations, you might have improved service delivery or lowered costs.

Whatever your role, you should be able to explain why your work matters to the business.

That won't guarantee your position is protected during a restructuring. But it can help you communicate your value internally and, just as importantly, explain it to a future employer.

5. Have a plan, even if you never use it

If your job disappeared next month, what would you do first?

Would you know which positions to target? Is your résumé reasonably current? Do you have people you could contact? Have you thought about your financial runway or reviewed what happens to your benefits if you're laid off?

You don't need to spend every weekend worrying about these things.

But having some answers makes a difficult situation a little easier to manage.

A successful company isn't the same thing as a secure job

There's one more thing I want to mention, especially for people who are considering an offer from a large, profitable company.

It's easy to assume that joining a well-known organization with strong earnings means you've found a stable place to build your career.

Sometimes that's true. But I'd encourage you to look beyond the company name and its financial results.

Ask why the position is open. Find out whether the team is growing or replacing someone. Ask about the department's priorities over the next year and how those priorities are funded.

You can also ask how recent organizational changes have affected the team.

You probably won't get a detailed breakdown of the company's financial plans, but the conversation may tell you quite a bit about where the department is headed.

And remember, a company's reputation doesn't make your individual position immune to change.

The best time to prepare for a job search is when you don't need one

I've been on the recruiting side of the table, and now I work with professionals who are trying to figure out their next career move.

Some come to me after being laid off. Others reach out because they're starting to see things change at work and want to be ready.

The second group usually has something the first group doesn't: time.

Time to think about what they actually want, identify the right opportunities, strengthen their professional story, and approach the job market without the pressure of needing an offer immediately.

That's really what I want people to take away from the Netflix announcement.

You can be great at your job. You can work for a profitable company. You can have a manager who loves you and a strong record of performance.

And your position can still be eliminated.

That doesn't mean you should spend your career looking over your shoulder. It just means your career deserves some attention even when everything at work seems to be going well.

If you're starting to see changes at your company, or you've already been affected by a layoff, this is the work I help people with every day. We look at your experience, figure out how to position it for the market you're entering, and build a résumé and LinkedIn profile that tell the right story.

You don't have to wait until you're unemployed to get started.

Schedule a consultation with area|Talent