Every layoff creates three distinct experiences — and almost no one talks about all three. The person who got the call. The person who delivered it. And the ones still showing up every day, present in body and already calculating the runway.

Ann shares her own layoff story — raw and unfiltered — and together with Preethi, they hold all three voices in the same conversation. No toxic positivity. No five-step framework. Just the truth about what this moment asks of everyone in the room.

Disclaimer: This episode reflects Ann Samuel's personal experience and observations. Nothing shared is intended to accuse, implicate, or reflect negatively on any specific individual, company, or organization.

THREE VOICES. THREE TAKEAWAYS.

VOICE 1 — If you're the one who got the call:

• The "which one was I" question will come. You are allowed to ask it. You may never get the answer. That is not a reflection of your worth. • Your network is everything. Go further back than you think you need to. 25 years of relationships is not a small thing — use it unapologetically. • Reach out to communities like SheTO and WITAlign — not just for event invites, but for activation. People who have been through this want to help. • Ask for recommendations. Not for your LinkedIn profile. For your soul. • Your story will not look like anyone else's. The timeline, the landing, the silver lining — none of it arrives on schedule. That is not a failure of resilience.

VOICE 2 — If you're the one who delivered it:

• Prepare honestly. Know this person's full context before you walk in. Don't read from a script. • Offer something real and specific: a reference call, a warm introduction, a specific name. A gesture and actual help are not the same thing. • Check in after. One week later. A real message — not a template. The shock doesn't resolve in the meeting where it was delivered. • Go back to your team and acknowledge what just happened before you ask them to move forward. • Accountability is not a value you state. It shows up in whether you prepared honestly, spoke directly, offered something real, and followed through. • Never systemize this. Every one of these conversations matters. You have changed someone's life from that moment forward.

VOICE 3 — If you're the one still at your desk:

• Your grief is real. Your fear is real. You don't have to perform gratitude you don't feel. • Name the fear. Naming it is the first step to not being governed by it. • Check in on the person who left. A message. A coffee. Twenty years later, they will still remember you asked. • Build your agency now — not from panic, but from clarity. The best time to build a runway is before you need one urgently. • Watch out for "work harder to prove my worth" mode. Your worth was not the issue. The spreadsheet was. • Give it time. The disorientation lifts. The team recalibrates. Be patient with yourself and the people around you.

LINKS & RESOURCES: Manju Abraham — "Leading Through AI Transformation With Your Humanity Intact" https://manjuab.substack.com/p/leading-through-ai-transformation

Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033rKJL62EbletTPyoI0y6 Watch on Riverside: https://sistercode.riverside.com

Two sisters. Twenty years in tech. Completely different paths — and one shared question: what if the view from here is exactly right?

In Episode 1, Ann Samuel (Senior Director of Global Technical Support) and Preethi (Director of Engineering) tell the origin story of Sister Code — from growing up together in India, to starting their careers at the same company, to diverging into support and engineering leadership in the US. They get honest about what middle leadership actually looks like, why neither of them is chasing the VP title, and why they finally decided to have this conversation out loud.

Takeaways:

• Why mid-career is not a stopping point — it's a vantage point
• What "middle leadership" actually means day-to-day
• How two sisters took the same starting line and built completely different careers
• Why South Asian women in tech need more of this conversation publicly
• The question that started it all: what does success look like when you define it yourself?

Chapters:

• 00:00 Chapter 1 — Two Sisters, One Mission and How We Ended Up in Tech
• 08:26 Chapter 2 — The Divergence: Support vs. Engineering
• 18:46 Chapter 3 — Where We Are Today?
• 31:19Chapter 4 — Why We Started Sister Code and Who It's For