2023: The Year of the Layoff Without Logic

Whether it's Google, Meta, Amazon, an investment house, or your local nonprofit, I have great apprehension that 2023 may become the year, retrospectively, of “the layoff.”

Layoffs are challenging. And that's when they're done well with a great deal of forethought. People's lives are affected. If leadership has a heart, they feel as if they failed because they're responsible for the decision of the layoffs. And for many younger workers in our country, certainly those 35 or so or younger, this may be the first time they have experienced this challenge.

What concerns me is the size of the layoffs and the decision-making that goes behind them. Rather, the lack of overall thought. Take any one of the major announcements, you realize that there is no real logical way to lay off that many people without there being inconsistency. Several of the largest announced layoffs have been followed by confusion among employees. And with questions. People who were long-standing high performers were laid off. People who were just promoted were laid off. People who were just hired were laid off. And with these groups of people come questions about the central concept of fairness considering high performers, recently promoted, and recently employed who are laid off look around and see lower performing, not promoted, and other employees still getting paid.

The realization is that with these kinds of layoffs, there might not be any logic. There's just a number. A dollar goal of how much monthly expenses must be reduced to get to that number goal. And thus, decisions are made without a lot of forethought.

This is not new. And sometime in the future in a different economic swing downward, this will happen again. The key is to be ready in your own home so you have as many options as possible. A little extra savings in cash and keeping expenses and debts down. Then when the illogical happens to you, you have plenty of time to adjust.  That is logic you CAN control.