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Comment by oxfordmale | Hacker News Reader

The cost picture is as follows:

money saved on staff reduction - money spent on layoff packages - (temporary reduction in productivity, because of lower staff morale)

Research shows there is no long-term benefit of layoffs other than the short-term gain in cash flow. Layoffs are only beneficial if they are needed for survival of the company

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Lower productivity is highly questionable.

I’ve really only seen layoffs boost productivity. Suddenly there is less overhead and fewer cooks-in-the-kitchen.

Morale hits are real, but tend to fade if people feel confident that they’ve survived another day.

Research shows layoffs result in a lowering of productivity:

https://www.boardoptions.com/Learning%20from%20the%20past%20...

https://pavestep.com/post/the-effects-of-downsizing-on-remai...

https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/how-layoffs-cost...

https://garfinkleexecutivecoaching.com/articles/career-advic...

https://www.forbes.com/sites/radhikaphilip/2020/07/23/the-pa...

You arrived at this conclusion anecdotally. You can't do your best work with a constant cloud hanging over you, doesn't matter who you are.

Morale hits are real, but tend to fade if people feel confident that they’ve survived another day.

Layoffs result in a 30% increase in staff turnover. As markets tend to be more challenging, it can take some months before people actually leave. This can have a knock on effect, especially if senior and respected staff leave.

Where will the senior and respected staff go? To other companies where they won’t be senior and respected

Other companies tend to know that poaching season is at it's finest after a round of layoffs.

People who weren't pushed will be considering jumping.

I don't work for titles, I work for money.

No they don't, because you never know if you're next. I have a bunch of friends at Google (you know, one of the richest companies on the planet and 94% 'survived' another day). Many are scared. You don't know if there'll be another round and if you're in it. People aren't now magically more productive because they survived and their peers didn't.

The layoffs were literally two business days ago..

and?

They're calling for the next one already.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/01/23/google-staff...

Almost every round of layoffs I've seen has resulted in people doing pointless bullshit to "look busy" while not actually doing anything.

Can you link that research?

It is in the thread below.

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