Why are most people at larger firms scared of layoffs? Even the worst layoffs at major firms have only been around 30% of people, right? Unless you’re a low performer, there shouldn’t be (continued)

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I think you’re underselling how much 30% actually is. Also, oftentimes employers choose to keep longer tenured employees over new top performers. It’s very plausible for somebody to have recently switched jobs, been a high performer and still get laid off.

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OP - Plenty of firms will say that their employees’ jobs are safe. Talk is cheap and if an industry/company is struggling, they’re going to do what they need to stay afloat.

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It's not only performance, it's politics too.


And there is impostor syndrome attached to it. You never feel you are performing at the correct level

likeuplifting

In 2008 it didn’t play out that way.

It had little to do with performance and mostly to do with timing and staffing.

I survived but it wasn’t performance but more so luck. At Deloitte at the time, a peer and I both received 2’s which were the second highest rating. Our project ended, he went to one, I went to another. His was a large ERP and the client had capital issues and shut it down quickly in phases. About 40 consultants hit the bench and this was happening all over.

My project was a smaller compliance initiative and continued while his closed. Most of those consultants got laid off because it was wrong place and wrong time. In a cash flow strapped environment the impetus will be to let go negative cash flow resources and maintan positive cash flow resources.

likehelpful

Because most places have shut down hiring, Americans are bad at having savings, the US has a comparatively poor safety net for unemployment (tapered some temporarily by the stimulus bill) and they might lose their current health coverage.

And some companies may well enter bankruptcy the longer this drags on.

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My reply doesn’t apply any less to consulting. Demand is down, and not all firms are in a good spot with liquidity to carry current payrolls for too long with markedly reduced revenue.

You can’t blanket assume that higher paid individuals are in a better position. Maybe they don’t have savings because of bad spending habits, buying too expensive of a house, or bad investments, but the reason can be less obvious. About 12 years ago, my wife and I were sending large amounts of money abroad for elder care for her parents after both got seriously ill within a month of each other and the 2008 crash caused us a lot of stress over potential job loss even though we ultimately didn’t get laid off for example.

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Are you one of those people who thinks that a 1-3% fatality rate for coronavirus is also not a big deal?

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If we have an actuary perhaps they can explain the algorithm behind it.

Working in healthcare when recall and adverse event costs were calculated, age, income/projected income loss, family/dependents, and their previous health were variables included.

When Endo had a birth control faillure, I believe the payments for children produced was approximately $900k

New hire checking in🚨

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Layoffs can be indiscriminate at larger firms... just cause you met your targets doesn’t mean your not on the chopping block.

In smaller firms where the layoffs have been 50%+, you have the opportunity where senior leadership actually know you and you might be safe.

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Layoffs are not just performance based. Also, in my experience, those who perform well always think they could be doing better. It’s the mediocre performers who have the confidence. (Exceptions to this rule, of course. I’m making a generalization.)

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Nah it'll be fine. Of course you DO have 6 months rainy day fund

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any reason to be concerned, no? Am I missing something?

In many firms layoffs are done purely by seniority. Government and union shops are easy examples of this.

The layoff criteria vary widely from firm to firm, but I don't think you understand just how many people that 30% is.

Take Deloitte, as a random example. FY20 headcount in the US is ~106k per their website. If D were to lay off 30% of their staff, that'd be more than 30,000 people laid off. I dunno about you, but that's a huge number of people.

Beyond just the number of people, there can be a number of different criteria beyond performance that are considered for layoff decisions:
-Tenure
-Utilization
-Profitability
-Sales/MR metrics for those that have them
-Compensation in your band
-Level

Given all of that, if you're at a firm that has announced layoffs but hasn't made the criteria public, there could absolutely be reasons to be worried.

In a downturn, it isn't just "low performers" that were cut.

My company cut 10%, not bad right? Well 10% translates to like 75% of my team. Were we low performers? No. Some functions or groups are at higher risk.

For clients, we aren't having individual clients cut, but literal entire client teams that were cut.

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