I was recently benched at Genpact in Hyderabad after being silently laid off with no severance. I worked in Content Moderation for a well-known social media client, which was already a challenging job. The situation worsened due to office politics; my manager had a crush on a girl in my team who preferred hanging out with me during breaks. This led to subtle targeting against me, making my work environment unbearable without any clear incidents to point to. Fast forward to my week off, I received a call from my Senior Manager asking me to take another day off, which felt suspicious. The next day, my actual manager instructed me to come in early and avoid accessing the production floor. When I arrived, I found around 30-35 of us gathered in an empty hall where two AVPs informed us we had been "benched" due to restructuring and AI taking over our workload. This meant we technically still had access to the company but not to our actual work. They took our access keys on the spot and escorted us out through a back service lift, making us feel like contraband. We tapped our IDs at the gate, only to find them denied and had to call security to let us out. It was a humiliating experience after dedicating a year of hard work. The worst part was that being benched meant no severance pay; we would only receive last month's salary after 30 days of being on the bench. After processing this for about a month, I returned to my hometown, feeling lost. I don't want to go back into customer support, BPO, or sales, as those roles have left me burnt out. I hold an MBA from a Tier 3 college, but it hasn't opened doors for me outside of operations and sales. I'm anxious about starting new skills because I worry that by the time I'm competent, AI will have taken over those jobs too. I'm reaching out for advice from others in a similar situation. What career paths are still viable for someone with an MBA and an operations background? Has anyone successfully transitioned to a new career after a layoff like this? I'm looking for genuine suggestions beyond the typical "learn to code."
Company: Genpact
Job title: Content Moderator
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