Why do people think anyone at work is a friend? That’s almost never true. The CIO here definitely is not and absolutely 100% did know about the layoff in advance. I guarantee it.
That said, I’d be charging them like crazy for repairing this mess they left themselves in. A few years ago, a company I’d worked for a decade prior contacted me about fixing some complex scripts they had moved around and attempted to change and could not get to function any longer. I’d created those as something temporary a developer was supposed to consolidate into an actual fully-thought-out reporting application later on but never did (of course).
They’d brought in several consultants who could not duplicate what I’d done as it involved (among quite a few other things) complex manipulations of obscure Windows permissions in a very specific way to achieve what they wanted.
Anyway, they requested that I fix these scripts and add some related new features for free. I said no way and quoted $250 an hour, 10 hours minimum1, paid in advance. They wouldn’t agree to that so I told them good luck.
Fine. I heard it never got fixed.