Layoffs - who do you blame?

Guys, i am in final year B.Tech, currently preparing for placements. My Parents advice is to prepare for Govt Jobs. They are fearing about the layoffs, but my aim is to get job in anyone of the MAANG. I just want to know why layoffs happening. Is it because of the over hiring or because of the poor performance of the employees. Please share your experience in your company too. PS: Please upvote to get more reach.

I am really curious why there are so many layoffs in the IT industry. Wherever you see, big companies like CISCO are laying off so many employees. Experts on Grapevine, please explain what is going on.

Employee after 18 years of service finally resigned

I have been through ups and downs in IT, but these layoffs seem crazy. There is just no pattern to it, more like everyone is firing let me fire. Honestly I feel its high time Tech companies, Startups take a hard look at their business and revenue model. Most just seem to be in a herd mentality. Every one is mass hiring, let me also mass hire. Every one is giving exorbitant salaries, let me also give. Its become more a cycle now, hire in large numbers, find there is no work to give, no revenue to sustain, and so mass fire again. This just cant be going on. Who makes mistakes that results in revenue loss or crunch? Top management Who gets fired ? Every one except the ones who are responsible. Dont fucking give me the reasoning that you are doing this for efficiency and streamlining. No you are just doing it to protect your own arse, while making scapegoats of others. So the Musks, Pichais, Zuckerbergs happily take fat bonuses, while drafting teary regret letters for firing. And they are supposed to be our role models to look up to? Enough is enough IT industry can't forever be running in this same mode. These hire and fire cycles are getting weary nowadays.

I noticed a trend on LinkedIn that people use the layoffs as an excuse to preach others that if you constantly upskill and learn then you will be safe from layoffs. To any freshers who believe in this crap listen this - The folks who got laid off from companies are not in any way underskilled. I've seen my colleagues get laid off at my previous company who were extremely talented and responsible for building products from scratch. These companies layoff people randomly and not skill based. They choose the people who are drawing more salary (often the most skilled) and fire them in the name of cost cutting. So, how does upskilling will help this situation? Note that, the current tech market is unstable and will continue to be for next few years. Upskilling may get you up the corporate ladder but it won't in anyway save you from impending layoffs. The so-called influencers preaching this should STOP. NOTICE this post, how this guy conveniently skipped mentioning Google layoffs in the list, since he currently works ar Google 😆

It's infuriating how everyone's advice to deal with layoffs is side hustles, wasting your life away to constantly upskill and reducing spending. Basically everyone here is saying "live life like shit to appease your corporate overlords" as if layoffs are OUR fault? Instead, why aren't we seeing any advice on the lines of: Build expertise in something while you're an employee and later start your own company/business/consultation on the basis of it. This will increase competition within businesses and will force them to treat their employees like humans. This was kind of the reason why things were generally good for employees from 2021-22 because all the startups popping up increased competition for labour. Or if your employer lays a bunch of people off and starts giving the rest of you their workload, simply refuse! Don't work extra long or extra hard. Get the employees together collectively and make everyone, or at least the majority refuse to entertain these outlandish demands from your employers. What are they gonna do? Fire you all and lose their business? And if that's not going to work, just do everything very poorly and if you're asked about it, just cite that there is a lack of manpower needed to get quality results. Basically, why have we collectively decided to take the short end of the stick and make our lives miserable when we should instead force employers to face consequences of THEIR OWN poor strategic planning? Why aren't we even discussing ideas for, let alone working on protecting our own best interests rather than interests of those who are screwing us over?

Having recently been laid off, these last 2 months was a life changing experience and it taught me a lot of things than any degree or organisation ever did. Some pointers: 1. The people who make the decisions never get punished or are held responsible, its the folks like us who are the first to be pushed out of the door. 2. Its shocking to see the layoffs like firesale, affecting almost each and every company in the IT sector. But it makes you think, did some companies really need to layoff people or did they just do it to inflate their share price and Mcap. The upper management and LT are paid in crores to make the decisions and how could they unanimously fail in such a critical part of business planning. 3. Its all about profits. There's no humanity in any of these companies or rather the folks making the decisions and it doesn't matter if you have been with them for 2 years or 20. If I was responsible for 100 people under me and some of them lost jobs because of the decision I made, I would have stepped down myself and wouldn't be able to sleep at night knowing I uprooted the dreams and hopes of not just employees but their families as well, many of whom are sole bread earners of the family. 4. Treat your employer just as you would treat any brand outside when you go out to shop - treat it like a transaction and nothing else. This layoff also taught me to never compromise about your career and position within an organisation. If the organisation can layoff so many people without a second thought, there's nothing holding you back from joining the next organisation who is offering a better role/compensation. 5. Be a risk taker. Thankfully I have always been this and this helped me rise quickly in my 6 year career but it's my suggestion to everyone and not just folks affected by layoffs - Never get comfortable in any organisation or any role. Would love to hear what others think or went through during this difficult period.

Quoting from The Ken (which btw I would highly recommend). How many of you think this is true for Bangalore and problems that we are facing now with this generation. +++++++++++++ Between 2020 and 2022, investors pumped billions of dollars into startups whose founders and leaders offered up the mythical “hypergrowth” narrative. Those startups, in turn, pumped money to hire and grow a layer of mid-level and senior-level executives whose job was to deliver on that hypergrowth narrative. And salaries went through the roof. Hikes of 50% and above were par for the course. Cut to the present. If overvalued startups are widely recognised as a problem, can overvalued employees escape the same fate? A CEO of a prominent company estimates that “in product and tech, 20-30% are in this category”. - Extract taken from Ken

Hiring for a bunch of roles for an early stage startup. Salaries of people who have been laid off is through the roof 2-3 years experience asking for 30-40l and while we chose not to judge the experience and spoke to a few of them, most of them are not even worth half of the pay. Many are jobless since last 2-3 months and none of them are willing to take a paycut of even 5-6L and are willing to stay jobless ( probably have a ton of savings ) Market correction is necessary. Roles : PM, software engineers, generalists