After being laid off from GM, Adam Bernard met the VP who authorised his layoff. In late 2024, General Motors laid off around 1,000 employees in a cost-cutting measure. Among those impacted by the layoffs was a GM veteran of 39 years, Adam Bernard, who made no attempts to hide his disappointment and surprise at being laid off.A former GM employee ran into the executive who laid him off. (Pexels)“I hadn't planned on starting a new chapter at this point,” he had written in a LinkedIn post shortly after being laid off.Bernard has since used the layoff as an opportunity to reinvent, and is today the founder of AutoPerspectives. Recently, he ran into the General Motors executive who authorized his layoff. He shared what happened next in a social media post.“They ended my 39-year career”In a LinkedIn post shared three days ago, the former General Motors employee again expressed his disappointment with the company that laid him off with an impersonal email.“They ended my 39-year career with an unsigned email timestamped 5:07am. This week I ran into the executive who authorized it,” he said.Bernard explained that last week at an industry event, he ran into a member of the GM leadership team with whom he had worked for two out of the nearly four decades he spent at the company.“At a two-day auto industry event this week (plenty of chances to learn, network, and reconnect) I spotted my former VP of Planning in the crowd. Yes, I panicked just a bit, wondering how to react--but there was no contact (not even a glance across the room), so no worries,” he said.A brutally honest reactionBernard’s face-to-face meeting with the VP came the following day at a smaller gathering. He said the VP walked up to him and attempted to engage in a conversation. What followed was awkwardness and a brutally honest reaction from Bernard.“They walked up, smiling as if we were old friends (and, yes, we had known each other for well over 20 years) and things were swell,” he said.“They said hello, and I simply responded with their name. They said they hadn't seen me yesterday and asked if I had been there,” said the former GM employee.Eventually, after some more awkward small talk, the VP asked Bernard whether he was okay. “After a bit more awkward small talk, they asked me if everything was ok. I paused,” said the GM veteran in his post.The laid-off employee then made it clear that he harboured no warm feelings for the VP who had laid him off.“Well, I really don't have any positive feelings towards anyone in Planning leadership at this point,” he said.The VP did not attempt to stretch the conversation any longer, simply saying “I understand” and walking away.A new chapter after GMDespite the disappointment, Bernard acknowledged that the layoff was ultimately a business decision. He said his team was told that “it wasn’t the person, it was the position”, but added that the way the company handled his exit left a lasting impact.(Also read: General Motors lays off employee of nearly 4 decades over email: ‘What should I do next?’)“Am I in a better place now than I would be if I was still working there? Absolutely,” he said, while making it clear that moving forward did not mean forgetting how the situation unfolded.“Moving on is important, but everything that has happened to us—good or bad—is a part of who we are today,” Bernard wrote. “Challenges shape us, but they don’t define us.”He is now the founder and principal of AutoPerspectives, where he shares his insights on the changing automotive industry. He described his current work as “doing the job I used to love doing without the corporate handcuffs”.Sanya Jain is an Assistant Editor with Hindustan Times Digital. She has nearly a decade of experience in covering offbeat stories that speak to the everyday experience - from viral videos to human interest copies that spark conversation. Her interests stretch across business, pop culture, social media trends, entertainment and global affairs.