John, thank you SO much for your response.

Regarding your quirky thought:  "Is surviving layoffs with adversary or absent management in place a victory … or a defeat?" I want to say "it depends." It depends on the meaning we assign to the situation.

For me, being in the position you describe, blossomed into an empowering attitude and determination to try to make things different. For others it creates an overwhelming bitterness, and the opportunity to learn how to work through that, resulting in the ability to be more compassionate.

Your question also reminds me of the good thing/bad thing story of the farmer and his son. http://www.yogalifestylecoach.com/presentmoment.html

Or the Rahm Emanuel quotation: "You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before."

Now, to your point about, "... those in charge had no active role in helping those they should be serving to demonstrate their competence and worth." Survivor syndrome material suggests to organizations to shift from providing job security (if that is no longer realistic) to supporting "employability" for their employees.

When my employee assistance counselor friend and I tried to get this going with management, it was not well accepted. They thought they would develop and train people, and then they would leave. Well, that does not come from a stance of confidence and abundance, does it? It made me feel really bad that their scarcity mentality was affecting so many people so significantly.

But apparently this is what we are having to go through now, as the world of work shifts to a new paradigm. I am heartened by the Conscious Capitalism concept, and companies who DO want to do right by people.

Thanks for commenting, John, and making me think this through further.