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Comment by dalton | Hacker News Reader

That's a fair point, and there are a number of situation dependent factors. I wrote this letter to myself because I know what I would do differently 12 years ago and I have the benefit of hindsight now. Obviously the crisis is different today, we didn't have a pandemic in 2008, there is definitely no one-size-fits-all advice, and every company needs to be figuring out the right thing to do right now. But keep in mind what ended up happening 12 years ago is that everyone lost their jobs. The letter is my thoughts about what could have prevented that outcome back then, at least partly.

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Thanks for the explanation.

> I wrote this letter to myself because I know what I would do differently 12 years ago and I have the benefit of hindsight now.

> keep in mind what ended up happening 12 years ago is that everyone lost their jobs

That's my fear for this pandemic, too. It's a really awful situation.

Stay safe.

I have to say, it’s sad to me that your lesson to your past self was to act in a more ruthless and uncaring manner.

Laying people off is always a large burden. Laying off multiple flights of people with latency and inducing stress (e.g. "will I be next?") is probably worse.

Alternatively:

If the business goes under, all employees will suffer. If some are laid off and the business continues to survive, those that make it will be spared.

So from a harm reduction point of view, laying nobody off is probably worse than laying some people off.

Even if you reduce pay, people may not be able to afford housing even though they're still working for you (e.g. in the bay area). And health benefits still cost the same even if you reduce other employee associated costs.

Things are not as simple as (I'm interpreting) you're implying they are. It's not black and white, and the decision needs to be made on a case by case basis.

Certainly not thinking things are simple, or that any of your points are innacurate. I’m sure it is very tough, and maybe even the right call for the goals at that moment in 2008. My criticism was that through this lens and with the audience the OP has, the lessons of an economic downturn being basically “lay off more people” is incredibly sad from a humanistic point of view.

I don’t understand. How is preventing 30% of your workforce from losing their jobs ruthless and uncaring?

Is all going down together a better outcome?

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