4 ms·
You may be right, I hadn't considered the human element. But to clarify, the point of letting go small groups at a time isn't to eventually fire 900 people. It'
by smabie 6y ago
You may be right, I hadn't considered the human element. But to clarify, the point of letting go small groups at a time isn't to eventually fire 900 people. It's that you're taking a Bayesian approach and constantly charting a new course for your business.
The risk with firing 900 people all at once is what if, in a month, everything is good and they need them all back? By only letting go of small groups of people at a time, you both hedge yourself to future risk while also staying open to future up swings.
It's like rebalancing a portfolio: you adjust your allocations gradually as new information comes in. This is better than one day deciding its time to sell everything or buy everything.
- irjustin 6y agoAgreed on the parent comment, the human element is very real. Morale especially during a time of global pandemic is a knife edge to manage. > The risk with firing 900 people all at once is what if, in a month, everything is good and they need them all back? By only letting go of small groups of people at a time, you both hedge yourself to future risk while also staying open to future up swings. Again you're looking at it too closely to a machine. Machines don't care and pure efficiency says this statement is correct/better. If you treat your staff like a portfolio, you are not carrying the tenants of being a good leader. That's not to say that people don't do that. It happens all the time - treating employees sub-human, merely pawns to be sacrificed. A portfolio is a portfolio and the analogy does-not/should-not carry well to staff lest we all be slaves where literal ownership of other humans is acceptable again.