101–110 of 622 posts
Are layoffs like a fashion statement, now? "Look, we're cool, too!" why is everyone doing this at the same time?
Are you serious? Maybe you all should take a basic economics course. We are in a recession. Businesses know this. It doe snot matter if the Fed says if we are in one or not. Layoffs do not happen if the future business outlook is positive.
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1. The federal interest rate is nearly at 5%. Any business operating depending on lines of credit are going to hurt (Source: https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h15/ ) 2. Consumer spending is down (Source: https://www.bea.gov/data/consumer-spending/main ). So you have the producers spending more to operate, and consumers spending less. This leads to an inevitable contraction in the economic output. Also known as…
This is the correct answer. The Fed rate is the main driver for these layoffs. The fed is trying to cause a slowdown in the economy (including layoffs) in order to temper inflation.
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No because some of the effect is to instill fear.
So, let me understand your argument. The CEO choose to lay people off in order to scare the remaining employees? To what end? Also, if the intention was to "instill fear". Why give good severance? Why not give nothing?
For the 7% you have to look like you care, since you will be hiring in the future and probably with lower salaries. Mass layoffs are a good way to lower wages throughout the industry.
Listened to a great podcast about layoffs yesterday ( https://hbr.org/podcast/2023/02/why-many-companies-get-layof... ) The takeaway is that layoffs are extremely trust destroying for employees NOT laid off, and in the end not clear they're a financial net positive. Both with direct and indirect costs (lack of engagement from employees, etc).
Good on them for offering proper severance. At my company, we got 2wks and nothing else. Not even a thoughtful letter from the CEO. Nothing. (And this was a sizable tech company in the middle of an IPO).
Any reason to protect them here vs. sharing their name?
There is always a time and place, of course. But generally speaking, you don't speak ill of your (former) employer or even talk about it publically lest there be ramifications beyond your imaginations.
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No because some of the effect is to instill fear.
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Yes, I'm paid well, and yes I have more of a cushion to land on if I got laid off, but I know folks who got laid off last year who haven't been able to get a new job for months. I don't have 6 months of all of my living expenses just laying around in a bank account, and even if I did, that pretty much wipes out my savings.
"Other people are doing worse than you" doesn't mean there aren't rational fears. Making an engineer's salary doesn't set you up for life within a few years.
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Attrition tends to happen with the most qualified individuals leaving for other companies. Attrition is not targeted or evenly distributed (depending on the goals). This can result in what would later be perceived as being lopsided compared to the layoff cut. For example (and purely made up), if part of the layoff was to cut back on marketing of the self hosted instances, then you would be looking to lay off marketin…
Why have a bulk "layoff" instead of just layoff the specific people whose work you don't need?
If you target specific people, even if they do garbage work, somebody somewhere will find something to sue you over. If you do a less targeted layoff, you'll hit some of that target group anyway, and some will leave over their own volition after. Yeah you'll lose some good people but the whole point of this charade is that in management's eyes the engineers and knowledge workers are cogs in a machine, so collateral damage is okay and it'll all come out in the wash over the next few years with new hires.
It's interesting the number of company layoffs recently that have listed "you can keep your laptop" as part of the severance package. Is it possible that shipping charges for layoffs of this size plus the overhead and personnel to deal with such numbers of returns is more expensive than just having employees keep them?
The laptops everyone has are COVID-era and about to expire for warranty, and would just be binned anyway. So there is no point taking them back.
Are they running job ads but not hiring?