J. Nathan Matias 🦣Jan 20, 2023

Layoffs:
- don't save money
- don't improve company performance
- don't increase stock pricess
- destroy trust
- have huge impacts on health, well-being, and income of employees

So why do layoffs? It's a network effect: execs lay people off because other companies are doing it

Stanford Biz School article: https://news.stanford.edu/2022/12/05/explains-recent-tech-layoffs-worried/

Harvard Biz Review:
https://hbr.org/2022/12/what-companies-still-get-wrong-about-layoffs

What explains recent tech layoffs, and why should we be worried? | Stanford News

As layoffs in the tech sector mount, Stanford Graduate School of Business Professor Jeffrey Pfeffer is worried. Research – by him, and others – has shown that the stress layoffs create takes a devastating toll on behavioral and physical health and increases mortality and morbidity substantially. Layoffs literally kill people, he said.

Stanford News
Show threadJ. Nathan Matias 🦣Jan 20, 2023

What can companies do instead of layoffs? Stanford prof Jeffrey Pfeffer lists the options:

- execs take pay cuts, and ask employees to do the same: "instead of giving 100% of the pain to 10% of people, give 100% of the people 10% of the pain"
- use economic stringency as an opportunity, picking up new talent amidst layoffs

Show threadrm

@natematias Interestingly, there's one Big Tech company that did kind of just that:

* Hasn't announced any mass layoff
* Got their CEO to take a 40% pay cut
* Still hiring (albeit toned down) in strategic areas

Jan 21, 2023 at 11:53amWeb
Show threadRalf SüssJan 21, 2023
@rija @natematias which one?
Show thread𝕄𝕒𝕣𝕤Jan 21, 2023
@ralfSuess @rija @natematias Apple https://thehill.com/policy/finance/3812588-tim-cook-to-take-40-percent-apple-pay-cut-in-2023/
Tim Cook to take 40 percent Apple pay cut in 2023

Apple CEO Tim Cook plans to take a 40 percent pay cut in 2023 compared to his total compensation from last year.  The company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Thursday that Cook’s total target compensation for this year will be $49 million, down from the $84 million total…

The Hill