I recently worked with two of my favorite co-authors on an article about recent Big Tech layoffs which could easily get to 100,000 by mid year.
There are many lessons to be learned in how they got laid off. From the creative and horrifying Musk method to other devastating approaches. Though these are largely privileged workers, and they are likely to be employed quickly, they fuel the fire of worker’s rights and the anger in the workforce about irresponsible management.
Senior leaders of Big Tech wantonly expanded their workforce for a future they knew wasn’t coming. They didn’t give people enough warning to ethically slim down their workforce. They used people up and threw them out just like the mining, consulting, finance industries to name a few.
So when people cry out for unions, for more protections, for more job security and for an understanding that employment relationships end but they should be fair form beginning to end, this kind of behaviour is why.