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If the economy and an industry is generally doing well, frequent lay-offs can be a good thing. It would be better financially for the employees, as they will be

If the economy and an industry is generally doing well, frequent lay-offs can be a good thing. It would be better financially for the employees, as they will be able to find a different employer quickly and/or will receive severance payments. It is better for employers (those who know what they're doing, at least) as they can reduce their costs quickly if they need to. Those who are unhappy with a job can find a new one more easily with an elevated level of staff turnover in their industry. The psychological effects for employees can be greatly harmful, though. Additionally, there is a cost to society when projects are cancelled that would be beneficial to the world, even if not profitable, and such flitty business practice could become exaggerated if lay-offs did not carry such stigma.

JohnFen 3y ago
> It would be better financially for the employees, as they will be able to find a different employer quickly and/or will receive severance payments. This is making a lot of assumptions that I think make the hypothesis very shaky. The only people who can decide if they'll be better off when this happens are the individuals being laid off, because they're the only ones who have enough information to know.
- seabass-labrax 3y ago
  My reasoning is that, from a purely financial perspective, individuals would probably prefer to be made redundant in a good economic situation than a poor one. However, many companies continue projects that are unprofitable while the economy and their business is doing well, only to make massive lay-offs when times are more difficult or even collapse entirely, flooding the job market. Thus, my intuition is that smaller but more frequent lay-offs would smooth-out the troughs and peaks of an industry's job market to make it more closely resemble the value of that industry as a whole. I would be very curious to know what I'm missing in this picture; would you have the time to elaborate?
  - JohnFen 3y ago
    > from a purely financial perspective, individuals would probably prefer to be made redundant in a good economic situation than a poor one. Oh, OK. I agree with that. I thought that you were saying that being laid off is a good thing when economic times are good. I think that it's never a good thing. However, if it has to happen, it's certainly better when times are good than when they aren't. > Thus, my intuition is that smaller but more frequent lay-offs would smooth-out the troughs and peaks I suppose, but I would not want to work for a company that engages in regular layoffs, even small ones. It means that you can never really settle in to the job. I've turned down several job offers from companies solely because they engage in regularly-scheduled layoffs.

JohnFen 3y ago

> It would be better financially for the employees, as they will be able to find a different employer quickly and/or will receive severance payments. This is making a lot of assumptions that I think make the hypothesis very shaky. The only people who can decide if they'll be better off when this happens are the individuals being laid off, because they're the only ones who have enough information to know.

seabass-labrax 3y ago
My reasoning is that, from a purely financial perspective, individuals would probably prefer to be made redundant in a good economic situation than a poor one. However, many companies continue projects that are unprofitable while the economy and their business is doing well, only to make massive lay-offs when times are more difficult or even collapse entirely, flooding the job market. Thus, my intuition is that smaller but more frequent lay-offs would smooth-out the troughs and peaks of an industry's job market to make it more closely resemble the value of that industry as a whole. I would be very curious to know what I'm missing in this picture; would you have the time to elaborate?
- JohnFen 3y ago
  > from a purely financial perspective, individuals would probably prefer to be made redundant in a good economic situation than a poor one. Oh, OK. I agree with that. I thought that you were saying that being laid off is a good thing when economic times are good. I think that it's never a good thing. However, if it has to happen, it's certainly better when times are good than when they aren't. > Thus, my intuition is that smaller but more frequent lay-offs would smooth-out the troughs and peaks I suppose, but I would not want to work for a company that engages in regular layoffs, even small ones. It means that you can never really settle in to the job. I've turned down several job offers from companies solely because they engage in regularly-scheduled layoffs.