this post was submitted on 09 Nov 2024
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[โ€“] herrvogel@lemmy.world 102 points 1 month ago (4 children)

I got fired when the company decided to downsize.

"How is that dumb?" you ask? That happened less than two weeks after I was hired. The boss man's speech indicated that that was the result of a long deliberation by corporate. So if you knew there could be layoffs any moment, why the fuck were you hiring?

[โ€“] Thorry84@feddit.nl 32 points 1 month ago (2 children)

This is usually done to keep things going as normal as possible for as long as possible. Once people start noticing something is wrong, the best people start looking elsewhere. Before you know it, not only is the company in financial trouble, but it can't recover because some of the best people left. At least one time I witnessed, the company was working on layoff plans and even limited bankruptcy, but at the same time negotiating with the investment firm that owned part of the company to get more money. If they got the money, everything would be fine. It wasn't till that fell through, they had to start laying people off.

[โ€“] tias@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

As if the best people won't leave once the layoffs start

[โ€“] Robust_Mirror@aussie.zone 3 points 1 month ago

Right but you're trying to avoid them leaving before that in case you get a win and don't need to make the lay-offs. If they leave earlier the win you're hoping for may no longer be enough to save you.

[โ€“] qevlarr@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago

Exactly. Companies are typically working on multiple conflicting scenarios because you don't know which it's going to be

[โ€“] Professorozone@lemmy.world 14 points 1 month ago

Yup, I worked for a company that was laying off but they were still hiring because, "they had a hiring policy." Absolutely nonsensical.

[โ€“] superkret@feddit.org 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

What do you think would happen if the C-suite called HR and told them "we're about to announce a downsizing in 2 months, stop hiring people"?

[โ€“] Professorozone@lemmy.world 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I worked for a company that did just that and it was the best way to do it because a lot of people left on their own.

[โ€“] superkret@feddit.org 5 points 1 month ago (2 children)

The problem is that this way, your best people with the most options leave first.
Those you want to keep long enough to do the re-structuring and make the numbers on the books look good, so you can sell the company before it disintegrates completely.

[โ€“] Breadhax0r@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

Aren't those people also the first to be let go? They're the most expensive and you can maximize short term profits by letting go to expensive employees and hiring on cheap ones.

[โ€“] Professorozone@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

Not always. I think the best people think they WON'T be let go and some others who don't perform, figure they are on the chopping block.

In our case it didn't matter because they wound up having four rounds of layoffs before shutting that location down entirely. So it really wound up being WHEN you were fired, not IF.

[โ€“] Anticorp@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago

Because they're heartless.