As an Employee, You Are Disposable
The recent tech layoffs have shown that employees are disposable in the eyes of executives.
Source: TrueUp: Tech Layoff Tracker
It doesn’t matter if investor expectations are surpassed, layoffs can still take place. Source: CNBC: Shopify cuts 20% of its workforce; shares surge on earnings beat
It’s somewhat understandable if a company is struggling financially and resorts to layoffs. However, there’s plenty of companies that are profitable and still lay off the people that earned the company those profits. Source: Polygon: Microsoft mass layoffs reportedly impact Bethesda, Halo Infinite teams
Many companies are not only profitable, but their executives continue to earn huge sums of money amidst layoffs.
Source: Ars Technica: Googlers angry about CEO’s $226M pay after cuts in perks and 12,000 layoffs
It doesn’t matter how much value you’ve delivered. It doesn’t matter how much impact you’ve had in a company. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been at a company. You are still disposable.
Source: Jeremy Joslin (@jcj) on Twitter)
I recently came across a blog post that is very relevant when understanding that the executives that earn 100x your pay can also lay you off at any moment: Maybe you should store passwords in plaintext.
It’s okay to like your job and employer. Just understand that, as an employee, you are disposable.