I was the CTO of a tech company where we needed to do layoffs or go out of business in a month. Layoffs extended our runway by 2 years if all else remained the

I was the CTO of a tech company where we needed to do layoffs or go out of business in a month. Layoffs extended our runway by 2 years if all else remained the same. It didn't last that long though. We got acquired a few months later and once debt was paid and the VCs got their cut there was just enough left to provide 3 months of severance to employees (my co-founder and I used our payouts to cover that - I walked away with less than $1k when all was said and done). When I had to do layoffs, who got picked to be laid off was almost entirely random. I say "almost" because before picking who would go, we first selected teams with redundant roles. For example, if a team had two mid-level backend engineers, they had redundant roles, and one of those two roles would be eliminated at random. That was literally the only "thought" put into who got cut or not. Where we didn't have redundant roles, it was random. Directors got laid off, QA testers, facilities people. It was one of the worst experiences of my life. Today I'm convinced that the only people safe when it comes to layoffs is the board of directors. It doesn't go a long way to help people feel better, but if you're laid off, it's nearly 100% likely that it had nothing to do with your performance, whether or not you were "liked", tenure/seniority, or how much you got paid.