An irony of the current moment: Layoffs aren't "efficient" for businesses! They don't improve margins, boost valuations, or lead companies to outperform their peers. They're expensive!! Bad for morale!! Hinder the performance of retained workers!! A sign of mismanagement, not leadership! - ThreadSky

annielowrey.bsky.social • 15 days ago

An irony of the current moment: Layoffs aren't "efficient" for businesses! They don't improve margins, boost valuations, or lead companies to outperform their peers. They're expensive!! Bad for morale!! Hinder the performance of retained workers!! A sign of mismanagement, not leadership!

Comments

hmallick.bsky.social•15 days ago

Is it accurate for me to say that the American love of layoffs began fully flowering with Reagan firing air traffic controllers in the 1980 strike? I know the roots are deeper but was that the cliff?

annielowrey.bsky.social•15 days ago

Many parents, I think? Reagan v. air traffic controllers, deindustrialization and plant closures in the 1970s, offshoring in the 1980s, the rise of lean management, growth of McKinsey-type consultancies?

hmallick.bsky.social•15 days ago

Yes indeed.

hmallick.bsky.social•15 days ago

There is an expansiveness to the American nature that has me wondering. In Canada, we would tend more to shave people off in layoffs, more than Americans who go big and lay off huge Texas-style swathes. Is that accurate in a general way? I'm trying to assess cruelty levels.

annielowrey.bsky.social•14 days ago

lower union coverage, so I imagine that's true but not sure? BLS used to keep data on mass layoffs, program ended in 2013: https://www.bls.gov/mls/

annielowrey.bsky.social•14 days ago

There's also data from private payroll providers and WARN notices: https://layoffdata.com/

wncsurvivor.bsky.social•14 days ago

These are not layoffs. These people are being fired with no hope of being recalled.

walkinginaustin.bsky.social•14 days ago

Companies that *regularly* lay off staff the way tech companies do as part of their business model are not examples of healthy organizational practices.

annielowrey.bsky.social•15 days ago

More on that here, as I stress that the government is not a business, doesn't perform the same tasks as a business, and should not be managed like a business in the first place!! https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/02/why-are-layoffs-contagious/673021/?gift=nNf5nRCVTjALeroPmlRFKet1eECzf6cyW7SdCwKVk2A&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

noahdahl.bsky.social•15 days ago

Correct. But this is not an argument the Democratic Party is willing to make, while Republicans have attacked it since Reagan.

Teddy Roosevelt instituted the civil service. FDR made the case for an active federal government.

Dems today do little to defend either.

stephnorton516.bsky.social•14 days ago

Many business leaders don't read academic research. They use heuristics learned from their mentors and predecessors, often the very people who got them into their current role, to make very short-sighted decisions. Regarding the contagious quality of layoffs, "Never let a good crisis go to waste."

drkimm.bsky.social•14 days ago

Layoffs are a tactic used by business elites who do not know how to grow their company.

Comments

Posting Rules

Reply