I was laid off/fired/whatever from my first job back in 2002 when the tech bubble burst. I worked for a small company, 20ish folks, with a president/owner. We worked in a small office building, in which we were the only tenants. There was a big group of folks that he decided to fire that day, like maybe 7 or 8. He made the 2 project managers fire everybody.
The guy that fired me was a friend that I had worked closely with for several years. We both knew what was up, so I didn't blame him, I knew he had nothing to do with it. A couple years later the owner fired all but 1 employee. Now it's just him and 1 other guy. I couldn't be happier for him
Fortunately for me, I saw the writing on the wall and had already interviewed at a couple other places. I got an offer the Monday after I got fired, making about 20% more. I started 2 weeks later, while still collecting on my month's severance pay from the previous job.