4 ms·

After a layoff, a lot of the best people among the remaining staff end up leaving as well. In addition to the extra work, the workplace acquires a bunch of ment

by dzink 4y ago

After a layoff, a lot of the best people among the remaining staff end up leaving as well. In addition to the extra work, the workplace acquires a bunch of mental tombstones of a time that would never repeat itself. If you are any good, that lowers the threshold of reasons not to quit, and the upside of quitting remains untouched (higher salary, new experiences, better title elsewhere, more learning). The reasons to stay have to increase to compensate - equity, vesting, higher title, etc. The people who stay have to be the ones you actually want to work with as well.

SanjayMehta 4y ago
The best people leave first, triggering the death spiral.
- wil421 4y ago
  Just to add a bit, the better ones will know the layoffs or downturn is happening and jump ship well before it happens.
  - icedchai 4y ago
    The writing is almost always on the wall: change of tone in all-hands meetings, lack of hiring / no new faces. Then it gets worse.
300bps 4y ago
After a layoff, a lot of the best people among the remaining staff end up leaving as well Agreed. But I was always the one that stayed. I remember in 1999 when our company got acquired by another company and started doing layoffs - I had a very good friend that chose to leave the company at that point because things were going to be very difficult for a while. The company they went to turned out to be so much worse though while I made out very well by staying. This pattern has repeated several times in my career.