Recently, the news of a woman claiming to have worked at Alibaba for 22 years and being laid off at the age of 44 has surged to the top of Weibo’s hot search list, with over 900,000 reads on related topics. The dismissal of a senior employee at Alibaba has triggered a sense of insecurity among middle-aged workers in China.
In late June, a 44-year-old female employee posted a video on social media, narrating her recent layoff after 22 years of service at Alibaba. The video quickly gained popularity on social platforms.
After graduating from Zhejiang University in 2003, she joined Alibaba when the company had less than a thousand employees, with interviewers including founding members of Alibaba. She started her career from a phone sales position.
Over the course of her 22 years at the company, she witnessed the boom of the internet industry, leading her team to increase the auto-renewal rate of the 1688 business from 10% to 50%. However, she remained at the P7 level for an extended period.
Recently, when faced with a “restructuring (layoff)” notice, both parties did not have a disagreement on financial compensation. She accepted the “N+1” economic compensation offered by the company and chose to resign gracefully without engaging in intense negotiation. Following the layoff, she plans to start a business near the Alibaba campus and utilize her experience to shoot short videos on workplace insights for a media transformation.
As the event unfolds, there has been speculation in the public about the amount of her severance package and financial situation, but the exact figures have not been disclosed by the parties involved.
According to online speculation, long-serving employees with 22 years of experience often hold unallocated restricted stock or options, with severance packages ranging from hundreds of thousands to millions of yuan, allowing for accelerated vesting during layoffs.
The mentioned amounts are based on industry standard data and online analysis, not exact figures disclosed by Alibaba official or the parties involved.
After the exposure of this incident, the related topics have attracted over 900,000 views. More than the severance figures themselves, what has sparked discussions is the issue of job security for middle-aged workers. Many commenters expressed the sentiment of “workers really have no sense of security”.
Many in the workforce feel lamentful about this, believing that 22 years of dedication has only resulted in a piece of “graduation certificate”, and the so-called “family culture” in big companies is no match for cost reduction and efficiency enhancement. At the age of 44, re-employment in the internet industry poses a high barrier, and most ordinary people do not have substantial assets to rely on, leading to potential financial hardship upon job loss.
A netizen, “strawberry_artpop”, commented, “It’s so tragic, working for so many years, at middle age with elderly parents to support and children to raise, and then getting laid off. Big companies should have more humane management.”
Some netizens believe that the employee has already capitalized on the internet boom – owning property in core cities, making full social security contributions, along with a substantial severance package has already achieved financial freedom. The layoff for her is an opportunity to unlock early retirement life.
Some Weibo influencers expressed opinions that the resonance of this incident is not just about individual experiences but a microcosm of the business contraction cycle in major internet companies. Behind it are strategic contraction of enterprises, market competition failures, and the collapse of individual workplace security.
A Weibo member, “態度島”, stated that in the past 18 months, the five major internet companies in China have collectively laid off more than 130,000 employees. From 2025 to early 2026, the total number of employees at Alibaba decreased from about 194,000 to 128,000, Baidu reduced from 45,500 to 35,900, and JD.com planned to cut about 12,000 jobs. Layoffs are concentrated in positions such as customer service, testing, and basic operations that can be replaced by AI.
The article points out that the over 40% layoff rate is essentially an inevitable choice for companies in the context of stock competition – cutting inefficient projects and reducing labor costs, trying to preserve strength in a tough market. What’s more regrettable is the manner of the layoffs. The operation of “deciding to lay off in the morning meeting and notifying them to leave in the afternoon” exposes the cold side of internet companies’ “wolf culture.”
“To companies, this is just a normal organizational optimization, but for employees, it’s an unexpected turning point in life.” The expression of “workers really have no sense of security” echoes the sentiments of countless employees. When the industry no longer pursues scale expansion but prioritizes efficiency, the illusion of “stability in major corporations” has been completely shattered, even employees at leading companies can be at risk of optimization at any time.
The article also suggests that this turmoil should serve as a warning to the workforce. The gap year is no longer a “taboo” in the workplace but gradually becoming a normal practice. With AI substitution and industry contraction, more and more people are starting to rethink whether “stable job in a big company” still exists.