The layoff Bruno's

Anyone that works in or that knows someone in the tech industry has likely A) been laid off B) works for a company that had laid off or C) knows someone from A or B due to the market conditions over the past year or so.

Layoffs happened again just this week to a lot of my friends and in simple terms, whenever and where ever they happen, it sucks.

When these layoffs happen, I'd consider there to be 4 distinct personas and I'll use blunt terms to categorise them:

1. The people that are laid off - "casualties"
2. The people that still work there but saw their colleagues laid off - "survivors"
3. The people that made the decision to lay off - "judges"

And the least spoken about group:

4. The people that had to "do" the layoffs - "the Bruno's"

I call them the Bruno's because we don't really speak about them but you might also call them the "executioners" although that term is particularly brutal. Also, the song is particularly catchy so as soon as I thought "who don't we talk about", Bruno is the first thing in my head.

Now to be very clear on everything I've said and about to say, the "casualties" have it the worst and are the most written about and so they should be. They really are victims and it can be an extremely stressful thing to go through so they deserve all the support and attention we can give them.

The "judges" whilst responsible for the decision, often aren't making that decision solo. There are boards and investors and VCs on their shoulder, driving these decisions. The CEOs and Founders will have receive the anger and hatred and listen, sometimes it's fully deserved by sometimes, there should probably be a few other people sitting next to them or sharing the comments section with them is all I'm saying.

The "survivors" are also often overlooked and there's this guilty privilege that comes with not being laid off. It won't surprise anyone that companies that do go down the layoff route also experience higher attrition for 12-24 months following (and if they survive beyond that is another story).

The "Bruno's" also fall under the survivor category but have the unpleasant job of formalising the layoff process and while I haven't dug deep looking for articles or perspective from their point of view, I haven't seen anything from their side in my feeds.

And that's with a sadly high amount of layoffs over the past 12-18 months.

Now unless you're unhinged and/or particularly sadistic the idea of being the person to put together documents, schedule meetings, deliver the news, cut access, finalise their last pay or just having anything to do with the process, shouldn't be something to look forward to.

It's also the volume and repetition of having to deliver the news and carry out the process, often over a short time frame that the Bruno's have to go through. Again, while the casualties would very likely be happy to switch places and not have to worry about paying the rent and finding a new role, the Bruno's still have a shit job to do.

This is where the conversation goes a lot of the time, it's a competition for who has it worse or what position you'd rather be in. The "casualties" win that argument every time and so they should. Having a job and community pulled from underneath you is not a situation anyone wants to be in.

But the whole process sucks, it sucks for everyone and it sucks for different reasons and in different ways.

After we've done everything we can for the causalities we should still talk about the Bruno's and survivors and make sure they are ok.