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Hiring from the bottom of the barrel is not a winning strategy. There’s a reason most of those people were laid off. There’s some exceptions for sure (50-100% b

Hiring from the bottom of the barrel is not a winning strategy. There’s a reason most of those people were laid off. There’s some exceptions for sure (50-100% blanket layoffs) but when a company gets rid of 5-20% they make selective decisions. If you want to hire talent, you poach the people who weren’t laid-off but are now more willing to listen to opportunities today.

notfromhere 4y ago
Yeah that's not remotely true. Being a star performer doesn't protect you from layoffs. You can hit your KPIs and over perform and it won't prevent you from being on the chopping block.
- noptd 4y ago
  >Being a star performer doesn't protect you from layoffs. Generally speaking, they absolutely do. Even in scenarios where an entire org is being cut, star performers will be reassigned to other areas of the company beforehand. It may sound brash but it'd take either a major failure in management or a failure in reputation-building and visibility for a star performer to be cut during these types of layoffs. That's not to say that good or even great engineers aren't at risk, but you're not going to find "10x-ers" being let go.
  - Erem 4y ago
    Counterpoint: I have only worked 3 months since receiving an Exceeds Expectations from my employer. I got laid off last week along with 1 more of my 5 teammates.
  - andirk 4y ago
    I agree that a few people can be held on to, but when orgs get dropped, there will be a lot of talent let go. Let this be a reminder to all of us that we must, to some extent, always work toward making those 1-3 bullet points on our resume at our current position more and more attractive. Never just hang out. Hacky sack is only for lunch breaks, after work, and on the can.
version_five 4y ago
Layoffs help cool off the overall job market as labor supply increases, so from the perspective of companies hiring, they can be favorable. As for snapping up a freshly laid off Twitter or Facebook employee, there are surely some good individuals in there but I agree that as a group they are probably not the rockstars, nor the quiet competent folks that are a good fit with "boring" businesses. It reminds me (forgive the harshness) of the real estate downturn, when you might be able to buy a foreclosure cheap, but most of the time it's still not a place you can do anything with.
fragmede 4y ago
depends on how the layoffs were made. In the case where someone blisters in and decides who to hire and fire using some fairly arbitrary guidelines, and does so within a week, and choosing entire departments to let go, that's not "bottom of the barrel" talent that's been let go

notfromhere 4y ago

Yeah that's not remotely true. Being a star performer doesn't protect you from layoffs. You can hit your KPIs and over perform and it won't prevent you from being on the chopping block.

noptd 4y ago
>Being a star performer doesn't protect you from layoffs. Generally speaking, they absolutely do. Even in scenarios where an entire org is being cut, star performers will be reassigned to other areas of the company beforehand. It may sound brash but it'd take either a major failure in management or a failure in reputation-building and visibility for a star performer to be cut during these types of layoffs. That's not to say that good or even great engineers aren't at risk, but you're not going to find "10x-ers" being let go.
- Erem 4y ago
  Counterpoint: I have only worked 3 months since receiving an Exceeds Expectations from my employer. I got laid off last week along with 1 more of my 5 teammates.
- andirk 4y ago
  I agree that a few people can be held on to, but when orgs get dropped, there will be a lot of talent let go. Let this be a reminder to all of us that we must, to some extent, always work toward making those 1-3 bullet points on our resume at our current position more and more attractive. Never just hang out. Hacky sack is only for lunch breaks, after work, and on the can.

version_five 4y ago

Layoffs help cool off the overall job market as labor supply increases, so from the perspective of companies hiring, they can be favorable. As for snapping up a freshly laid off Twitter or Facebook employee, there are surely some good individuals in there but I agree that as a group they are probably not the rockstars, nor the quiet competent folks that are a good fit with "boring" businesses. It reminds me (forgive the harshness) of the real estate downturn, when you might be able to buy a foreclosure cheap, but most of the time it's still not a place you can do anything with.

fragmede 4y ago

depends on how the layoffs were made. In the case where someone blisters in and decides who to hire and fire using some fairly arbitrary guidelines, and does so within a week, and choosing entire departments to let go, that's not "bottom of the barrel" talent that's been let go