I’ve long believed layoffs are a lagging indicator of poor leadership engaged in misguided management practices. The headlines at the time of this writing are filled with announcements of mass layoffs—mostly from Big Tech—backed with apologies from CEOs.

From META CEO Mark Zuckerberg: “I want to take responsibility for these decisions and how we got here. I know this is tough for everyone, and I’m especially sorry to those impacted,” Zuckerberg said.

From Twilio CEO, Jeff Lawson, “I’m not going to sugarcoat things. A layoff is the last thing we want to do, but I believe it’s wise and necessary. Twilio has grown at an astonishing rate over the past couple of years. It was too fast and without enough focus on our most important company priorities. I take responsibility for those decisions as well as the difficult decision to do this layoff,” Lawson said.

And there’s more. A lot more. Here’s a link to Crunchbase News and a listing of Tech layoffs in 2022 thus far. 

The Raw Ingredients of Mass Layoffs:

Flawed assumptions, myopic thinking, lousy strategy, cognitive-bias-laden decision-making, and a general disregard for people combine to create a layoff situation. The pain felt by those affected is just a bit more than that felt by those remaining in a now sour culture and environment.

In my own executive experience, we cut costs, suspended backfills for attrition, and improved our work of weeding under-performers, but we worked hard not to create a layoff situation. We operated under the assumption(s) that quality, not out-of-control growth, is healthy and that great times don’t last forever. While our pace of hiring may have cost some growth points on the upside, our people were protected in the inevitable challenging time. 

What I find most odious about layoff announcements are the CEO and top executive team apologies. Instead of apologizing, they should be the first to sacrifice salaries or lose their positions. 

The Bottom-Line for Now:

Mass layoffs are a failure of top leaders to guide their organizations properly. You cannot apologize your way out of a leadership failure at scale. The economic, social, and psychological hardships imposed upon those affected are brutal, and the words—likely crafted with p.r. professionals and carefully tuned by attorneys, ring hollow.

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