Tech Layoffs: The End of an Era for More Than Just Jobs
Photo by Pascal Meier on Unsplash

Tech Layoffs: The End of an Era for More Than Just Jobs

“You're nothing to me now.?You're not a brother, you're not a friend.?I don't want to know you or what you do.”

That was both an infamous quote from Michael Corleone in the Godfather and the sentiment behind the many badly handled approaches to redundancies in big Tech. “The family” as a misappropriated cultural expression, overplayed by some HR and Employer branding fanatics during the long growth cycle, should now be confined to the history books forever.

Worse still, I have heard that some Tech companies have been utilising the 2008 banking playbook for “sure-fire redundancy strategies to diminish trust and credibility” in one fell swoop. Our old banking office access shoe shuffle, where a non-working fob was your ticket to the fast lane for immediate exit, has now been updated for the Tech-savvy, digital world. The sudden failure to access work devices, the automated e-mail templates or the sudden Teams meeting from HR.?Shrugging shoulders, joining the job loss bandwagon as a mundane fiscal exercise, just won’t cut it in the long run and many human-centric PR puff pieces should now be subject to the trades description act as a result.

My old people tribe, having picked up more bouquets than an Olympic figure-skating champion during the pandemic, are now sadly back down to the relegation zone as a result, battling it out with facilities or outsourced IT support for the least likes.?

Look, dismissals are tough things to handle at the best of times and despite the big numbers, these rates are still low in relative market terms. The out workings of how we got here are well publicised – inflation,?rising interest rates, limited investment capital, cost of living, changing consumer habits, projected revenue downturn and course correcting the over hiring splurge for Tech firm’s post-pandemic, encouraged by the same investors who now plead for restraint. All the facets of the modern capitalist economy being played out in accelerated fashion.

However, cloaked inside these major headlines are also companies going through job losses because of a normal cycle of slowing business growth. Nonetheless, we’ve been through this rodeo enough times to understand that in the longer-term layoffs often do not cut costs; do not increase stock prices; do not increase productivity, nor solve the underlying business problem, which is often an ineffective strategy, a loss of market share, or too little revenue.

So, if taken positively as a learning exercise, we should chalk up the end of an era for the following things as well :

- The ‘so what’ attitude to the impact on your people?: Replace with a truly honest, empathetic approach to the trauma affected by layoffs. Your reputation is based on deeds and not PR puff pieces sitting in talent collateral.

-?The short-termism, lack of investment & talent hoarding?: Those winning over a long-term basis have redoubled efforts on being proactive on keeping relevant the skills and experiences of the internal workforce to retain talent, manage risk and avoid redundancy. Dial it up in 2023.

-?The ‘cult of the CEO’ obsession?: A recognition that innovation is a team game and that the obsession of the leadership development industry (currently a market worth €366m and rising) is based on a false, and outdated assumption that all-knowing individuals sitting at the top of our organisation chart drive value creation by themselves in these complex times. More team, less egos.

-?The 20th?century fixation on efficiency :?A time when we overlayered our organisations with more complex?internal structures as hiring went unchecked and spiralled out of control. The best HR leaders are?challenging their board with constant critical thinking about skills, pace of hire and shape in the face of constant market forces. Liquid workforces, platforms, and data-inspired scenarios.

-?The lazy, biased tropes that always ‘blame’ people?: Nadia Rawlinson, former chief people officer at Slack, is the new poster child for those sticking lipstick on the pig that is mass redundancies. Her claim that years of management indulgence has now left us with a generation of entitled workers will worryingly see ill-conceived attacks on the kind of benefits, working patterns and assistance that have brought equity to life inside the better organisations. Be more human, not less, in the future.

And the final word goes to those being laid off.

Find a job in a company where they say people are their most important asset, and then actually check to be sure that the company behaves consistently with that espoused value, especially when the times are tough.

Need help creating successful people strategies by don’t have the expertise in-house? Hire me as a seasoned HR practitioner on a part-time or ad hoc basis, to help you do just that.

Find out more at?www.barryflack.co.uk?or get in touch directly via?[email protected]?for an initial conversation.

#Tech #culture #layoffs #HR

Stephen O'Donnell ?

Chief Growth Officer @ TAtech | Founder & Chairman of the NORAs

2 å¹´

Very well said. I often wonder if it's true that the best innovations come from a culture of hyper-efficiency, or those organisations which deliberately alow for a layer of slack, and then enable staff to be inventive with less pressure. The lemon can only be squeezed so hard, and the bi-product of layoffs is the damage to the retention of your most valuable employees.

Felix Wetzel

Improving candidate experience

2 å¹´

Very relevant and well-written. + an interesting article from Hung Lee's newsletter: https://whoisnnamdi.com/layoffs/ "Layoffs don't tell the whole story"

Vee Bharkhada CIArb MCMI

Founder, Navigate Business Recovery Limited Helping Directors & Business Owners Navigate Insolvency & Financial Distress | 36+ Years of Expertise | Founder, Navigate Business Recovery | CIArb MCMI

2 å¹´

great post, thanks for sharing

Dorothy Dalton

Talent Management Strategist (CIPD) | Founder 3Plus | Inclusive Recruitment | HR Project Management | Anti-Bullying, DEI Champion | Career & Trauma Informed Coach | Trainer | Psychosocial Safety ISO 45003 |

2 å¹´

Barry time to put aside all the media sound bites and dismantle the myths that underscore them.

Jacob Sten Madsen

??Recruitment/talent/people/workforce acquisition evolutionary/strategist/manager ??Workforce/talent acquisition strategy to execution development/improvement, innovation, enthusiast ??

2 å¹´

BRAVO

要查看或添加评论,请登录

Barry Flack的更多文章

  • Latest from SME People Insights - Issue Three

    Latest from SME People Insights - Issue Three

    Shared with 10,535 followers | 896 subscribers (and growing). For the forward-thinking SME C-Suite | For enlightened HR…

    3 条评论
  • Latest from SME People Insights - Issue Two

    Latest from SME People Insights - Issue Two

    Shared with 10,495 followers | 815 subscribers (and growing). For the forward-thinking SME C-Suite | For enlightened HR…

    5 条评论
  • Adapting to Change in 2025

    Adapting to Change in 2025

    Welcome to issue 1 of SME People Insights. A newsletter where the content is filtered through the lens of real-life SME…

    2 条评论
  • That WSJ Article on 8am meetings : Why some CEOs are Missing the Point.

    That WSJ Article on 8am meetings : Why some CEOs are Missing the Point.

    If you haven’t seen that WSJ article yet, entitled “Is it ever ok to have an 8am meeting? I’ve attached it here. Worth…

    1 条评论
  • Fractional working and the changing world of work

    Fractional working and the changing world of work

    The more I experience the fractional way of working, the more I'm convinced this is part of a fundamental shift in the…

  • Fractional HR is coming!

    Fractional HR is coming!

    Like competitive eating competitions or UFOs, we know that all the best things make their way across the Atlantic in…

    1 条评论
  • 6 Reasons CEOs Should Consider Fractional HR: Unlocking Value and Efficiency.

    6 Reasons CEOs Should Consider Fractional HR: Unlocking Value and Efficiency.

    Hey CEO, I know you’re busy and I know you have a lot on your plate. You’ve got investors prioritising growth, a…

    3 条评论
  • The Fallacy of Loving Your Job

    The Fallacy of Loving Your Job

    LinkedIn folklore says that you are only ever 2 clicks away from this overused quote at any time, so no doubt we’ve all…

  • What is Fractional HR ?

    What is Fractional HR ?

    I have been asked if I can do an explainer article to help clarify what this fractional HR thing is, why I think it has…

    16 条评论
  • In a time of new thinking, beware old leadership development lessons

    In a time of new thinking, beware old leadership development lessons

    You can be pretty sure that every time you clap your hands another leadership training ‘thought leader’ has posted a…

    1 条评论

社区洞察

其他会员也浏览了