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Layoffs are not about saving money. It's all theatre to appease the powers that be. "What explains why so many companies are laying large numbers of their work

Layoffs are not about saving money. It's all theatre to appease the powers that be. "What explains why so many companies are laying large numbers of their workforce off? The answer is simple: copycat behavior."[1] [1] https://news.stanford.edu/2022/12/05/explains-recent-tech-layoffs-worried/ https://news.stanford.edu/2022/12/05/explains-recent-tech-la...

ClumsyPilot 4y ago
Thank you, this is a great link. > "The tech industry layoffs are basically an instance of social contagion, in which companies imitate what others are doing. If you look for reasons for why companies do layoffs, the reason is that everybody else is doing it. Layoffs are the result of imitative behavior and are not particularly evidence-based. I’ve had people say to me that they know layoffs are harmful to company well-being, let alone the well-being of employees, and don’t accomplish much, but everybody is doing layoffs and their board is asking why they aren’t doing layoffs also." For most business people I come across, 80% of decisions of behaviour is imitating what other business people do. There is no rigourous fundamentals behind most of it
kris_wayton 4y ago
I think there's also some amount of "Other companies are laying off, and we secretly kind of like the idea of ranking and yanking, even if we don't need layoffs. So we'll use that already socialized economically driven layoff thing as cover."
- ibejoeb 4y ago
  Yes, exactly. I don't buy this "contagious" notion. It's simply a change in acceptable behavior. Everyone else is doing this objectionable thing, so suddenly it isn't as objectionable, relatively. It's like looting. If you take any one looter out of the environment, it's unlikely that he would act. But when the crowd of a thousand gets going, well, he doesn't want to be left with nothing while everyone else is gaining. Gotta strike while the iron's hot.

ClumsyPilot 4y ago

Thank you, this is a great link. > "The tech industry layoffs are basically an instance of social contagion, in which companies imitate what others are doing. If you look for reasons for why companies do layoffs, the reason is that everybody else is doing it. Layoffs are the result of imitative behavior and are not particularly evidence-based. I’ve had people say to me that they know layoffs are harmful to company well-being, let alone the well-being of employees, and don’t accomplish much, but everybody is doing layoffs and their board is asking why they aren’t doing layoffs also." For most business people I come across, 80% of decisions of behaviour is imitating what other business people do. There is no rigourous fundamentals behind most of it

kris_wayton 4y ago

I think there's also some amount of "Other companies are laying off, and we secretly kind of like the idea of ranking and yanking, even if we don't need layoffs. So we'll use that already socialized economically driven layoff thing as cover."

ibejoeb 4y ago
Yes, exactly. I don't buy this "contagious" notion. It's simply a change in acceptable behavior. Everyone else is doing this objectionable thing, so suddenly it isn't as objectionable, relatively. It's like looting. If you take any one looter out of the environment, it's unlikely that he would act. But when the crowd of a thousand gets going, well, he doesn't want to be left with nothing while everyone else is gaining. Gotta strike while the iron's hot.