James GleickJan 21, 2023

I’m having trouble understanding the reason for these massive tech layoffs. Twitter—sure. Meta? OK, bad bet on “metaverse” and social network in decline. But what has suddenly changed for Google and Amazon?

One possible explanation here: https://news.stanford.edu/2022/12/05/explains-recent-tech-layoffs-worried/

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 threadThomas Vander Wal

@JamesGleick Looking at Microsoft they had 220k people, which is up 40k over two years ago and nearly 60k over three years ago.

Groups that took hits seem to be related to the Nokia group, which has sold off much of that that group did and products from that group are now just support mostly. The other groups hit seem to be related to contracts (government(s) and commercial) that they no longer have.

Jan 21, 2023 at 4:09pmMetatext