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"As is the fact that around the same time others also warned that one common consequence of mass layoffs is they tend to turn internal systems into black boxes

"As is the fact that around the same time others also warned that one common consequence of mass layoffs is they tend to turn internal systems into black boxes because everybody with a deep understanding of them has left." Direct loss of knowledgeable people is real but it is not the main reason for these systems becoming black boxes. For every knowledgeable person laid off there's twenty who stay and adjust to the new reality where their future at the company is much less certain. These adjustments vary person to person but literally nobody goes to say "Whoa, I better improve the documentation and share my knowledge so that I'm easier to fire!"

jopsen 2y ago
I've seen the opposite effect. Where people in a large organisations work to make an open source project more resistant to organizational changes (and priorities). But yes, layoffs certainly has negative side effects.
firefoxd 2y ago
When I was leaving a job, I decided to start documenting things. I had a solid documentation before I gave my two weeks notice. Then I used the remaining time to refine it, it was a pretty good documentation. A month after I left, they contacted me and offered contract work, which i declined. For the following year, employees reached out to me directly for help. It didn't matter that everything I helped with was already documented. My take is there isn't a solution for proper knowledge transfer in companies. That's why I find it fascinating when people get fired on a whim. You lose so much more than an employee.
iepathos 2y ago
> Whoa, I better improve the documentation and share my knowledge so that I'm easier to fire I don't disagree that people react as you say and create knowledge silos with the misguided idea that it protects their job, but I do want to point out the consequences of it for any here who may be considering doing so on purpose. Knowledge silos do not secure your job. They in fact limit your ability to advance, limit your ability to collaborate across an organization, limit your ability to adapt, limit your ability to take up other tasks, limit your ability to delegate, and reduce collaboration and project success thereby reducing your perceived performance within an org. There are a bunch more reasons why knowledge silos are bad not just for an organization but for individual engineers living in the silos, but you don't need to take my word for it, there are multiple studies published on this you can find.
- praptak 2y ago
  It's not only misguided job security. Silos is what you get by default. You need additional effort to prevent silos rather than some nefarious additional effort to lock information up. People who are uncertain that they're still around in a year are much less willing to put this additional effort which pays off in the long term.

jopsen 2y ago

I've seen the opposite effect. Where people in a large organisations work to make an open source project more resistant to organizational changes (and priorities). But yes, layoffs certainly has negative side effects.

firefoxd 2y ago

When I was leaving a job, I decided to start documenting things. I had a solid documentation before I gave my two weeks notice. Then I used the remaining time to refine it, it was a pretty good documentation. A month after I left, they contacted me and offered contract work, which i declined. For the following year, employees reached out to me directly for help. It didn't matter that everything I helped with was already documented. My take is there isn't a solution for proper knowledge transfer in companies. That's why I find it fascinating when people get fired on a whim. You lose so much more than an employee.

iepathos 2y ago

> Whoa, I better improve the documentation and share my knowledge so that I'm easier to fire I don't disagree that people react as you say and create knowledge silos with the misguided idea that it protects their job, but I do want to point out the consequences of it for any here who may be considering doing so on purpose. Knowledge silos do not secure your job. They in fact limit your ability to advance, limit your ability to collaborate across an organization, limit your ability to adapt, limit your ability to take up other tasks, limit your ability to delegate, and reduce collaboration and project success thereby reducing your perceived performance within an org. There are a bunch more reasons why knowledge silos are bad not just for an organization but for individual engineers living in the silos, but you don't need to take my word for it, there are multiple studies published on this you can find.

praptak 2y ago
It's not only misguided job security. Silos is what you get by default. You need additional effort to prevent silos rather than some nefarious additional effort to lock information up. People who are uncertain that they're still around in a year are much less willing to put this additional effort which pays off in the long term.