Layoffs were a total failure at changing anything

I could be wrong but I think layoffs were a knee jerk move by most companies without much thought pur into it.

Let’s admit it, most CEOs are first timers and are learning as they go. For most of them this was the first recession.

They saw their peers take certain decisions. They read about what happened in the previous recession.
They asked investors what was the best move.

Everything scared them. So they sacrificed the most easily replaceable resource - humans.

what??? it was certainly important to discipline my gen z friends. We were acting like we are entitled to high paying job. I have seen this people feeling smug about there salaries. Some of my friends were making fun of gov. jobs, other professionals. That was absolutely necessary. Not only this made us understand humility but also showed the realistic picture of corporates. The way students are in rushing into 5 sub branches of CS, that was laughable. This thing has made them aware at least .
p.s. : i want this world to earn good money for good life, not for FOMO or what society cares.

I’ve some pov on it:

1. Most of the high quality talent which got laid off in india got absorbed pretty quickly ex. sharechat folks
2. Many companies did layoffs badly, w/o strategy, did multiple rounds to see at which round investors got pissed vs happy
3. Namesake: Did layoffs because they could (no real runway gains), sack bottom 10%, bonus good pr as investors think company is becoming more efficient

I don’t think so. I feel they’ve been extremely important to realign expectations for an entire new generation of workers in the tech industry.

I feel there’s more humility amongst employees and they know it’s not always up, things can really turn around.

Hopefully this helps people stay more balance as we figure out the rest of our working careers

Well it reduced attrition and acted like a hammer to make people return to the office.

It was a power clawback.

On the flip side, I don’t treat my org special anymore. My time for your money.I no longer want to bond with anyone from work, go to tree planting, team lunches. No more of that Vin Diesel shit “We are a family…”

Stocks did go up. Meta is up 76% YTD

It's called "taking precaution". When you are a company that big, you cannot "wait" for recession to happen to take steps later. No one was sure what's gonna happen within the next 6 months...either recovery or worse recession(like a really bad one). Now what's the best strategy they have......fire people with 6 months pay, so if it is recovered they can take back employees immediately if they have requirements (whoever is still not placed) OR if it becomes worse, at least they won't lose more money and those people would have been fired anyway.

According to me , it was never meant be game changing. It was primarily to please the investors portraying it as a measure to curb losses on paper and improve cash liquidity in this cash-crunch market

Disagree. They helped some companies cut costs and also correct for overhiring. There definitely was overhiring and in a Growth environment there isn’t incentive to fire low performers. Problem is the companies are overcorrecting sometimes to survive and that means even good performers get caught in this.

Because it was a "Layoff Contagion"
Read this:
https://www.businessinsider.com/stanford-professor-mass-layoffs-caused-by-social-contagion-companies-imitating-2023-2