Layoffs do cause damage to people's lives, but so does not having a job in the first place. The question is whether it would have been better to never have had

Layoffs do cause damage to people's lives, but so does not having a job in the first place. The question is whether it would have been better to never have had these additional pandemic jobs at all. To be clear, I'm not saying there is a single correct answer. Layoffs really do cause damage, and in many cases people left more stable jobs. Still, though, so often I see on HN and elsewhere that layoffs are just the worst thing imaginable and an indication that "management has failed", and I don't agree with that at all. If people are treated with respect (and I'm not really talking about any messaging, I'm talking about if they receive a decent severance), I don't really see a problem. E.g. if someone is hired, say works for a solid 2 years, but then is laid off with say 6 months of severance, I think that person was treated fairly. But I'd probably have a very different answer if someone was hired on for 3 months, made significant changes in their family situation to accommodate that job, and then the company realized they f'd up and panicked, and that person was laid off with 2 weeks severance.