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Comment by fbdab103 | Hacker News Reader

My CEO just announced this strategy. Layoffs are to begin...soonish? Maybe next week? Up to the end of 2024. Need to chop $$$X from the budget.

Which is to say, assuming you are not actively looking for the exit door, why even bother to do your job? At-will employment and all that, but it is an entirely different thing if the company has announced they have a fixed dollar expense target to hit.

Layoffs have always had a random component to them (I know brilliant people shown the door, yet worthless mouth-breathers who can dodge any bullet). Now we are told to potentially hang on for a year, knowing the axes could strike at anytime to make sure management hits their blood quota?

Needless to say, I expect productivity to be astounding for the foreseeable future.

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> Which is to say, assuming you are not actively looking for the exit door, why even bother to do your job

There’s one reason - from experience, it’s a lot easier to find a job if you are currently employed. So if you think you will likely be a target in round 2 or 3, the rational thing to do is to try to stay employed as long as possible and switch jobs quickly. Also, the severance tends to get worse with each round. I saw one job where round one got 3 months severance plus a week per year, with insurance, round 2 got a month, and round 3 got 2 weeks. I found new employment between rounds 2 and 3.

It seems like there are quite a few people here who have never experienced a tight labor market.

That seems to suggest coasting your job, not really doing it.

Have you never heard someone say something along the lines "I'll keep showing up as long as they keep paying me"?

Really? Seems like the people most likely to get cut in round 1 are those who are identified as coasters. If you can avoid that label, your odds of sticking around until round 2, 3, or beyond are much better.

>Which is to say, assuming you are not actively looking for the exit door, why even bother to do your job?

There's certainly no incentive to "go the extra mile" and be a high performer.

My company just came out the other side of this.

Only the high performers still have jobs.

How many high performers simply moved on to greener pastures?

Astoundingly high or astoundingly low?

Sorry, implied inflection on the internet. I expect productivity will be astoundingly low.

The entire company has been told they could lose their job anytime in the next 14 months. People with options will start looking to leave, those without alternatives will live in fear.

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