COVID-19 has turned my life a bit upside down, as it has for many. My boyfriend and I both work in tech, for two different platforms in the hiring industry. When the Stay at Home regulations began across the country, my company was flooded with cancellations. We specialize in restaurants and hospitality, so it’s understandable that as a hiring tool we’d be one of the first services cut as these companies try to stay afloat. My company is a very small startup, so this hit us hard from the get-go. We immediately cut salaries across the board and cancelled bonus plans, with our C-level execs forgoing paychecks entirely to keep us afloat. Our next ‘phase’ is moving to rolling 1-2 week mandatory unpaid vacations, cycling through each employee as long as we can keep our finances in a place to avoid layoffs.My boyfriend works for one of the largest hiring platforms in the world, and they have a number of different revenue channels, so we figured his job would be safe even if mine was not. After 7 years of working there, he was very unceremoniously laid off—along with more than half of the company—in an effort to manage costs amidst their drastic decline in sales. As long as our losses continue to stay steady, my company may actually avoid layoffs and the unpaid vacations entirely. With the flexibility of a small team and the government assistance programs being implemented, we’re in a scary-but-decent position. I never thought my tiny tech startup would be the one to come out of this relatively ok! It’s been interesting to see how companies with similar clients and offerings are managing this time so differently. We definitely are in a crazy point in history but will all get through it together.