I remember the 90s, when it seemed like every time a CEO announced a big layoff, their company's stock price would jump. It struck me at the time as being feti

I remember the 90s, when it seemed like every time a CEO announced a big layoff, their company's stock price would jump. It struck me at the time as being fetishistic - it didn't seem based in the reality of the company's situation, it was just a way to demonstrate a machismo that everyone had decided was a sign of good leadership. It was when the term "right-sizing" was coined, and Al "Chainsaw" Dunlap was the model CEO. It felt like it was a breaking of a social contract: that a company would use their coffers rather than payroll cuts to ride out bad times, and you stuck around for at least 5 to 10 years, maybe your whole career. Then it became clear that they were more than happy to lay you off if it gained the company even a small temporary advantage. Fast forward to now, when it's understood that if you stay somewhere more than 2 years, you're harming your earning potential. And at the same time companies complain that by the time they train someone up, they're out the door. Well, you reap what you sow. I clearly remember that employers were the first ones to drop their side of the deal.