(Question): Are all major tech companies doing this when everyone else is so that they face less backlash for it ? Also what about the news of companies having record profits during pandemi. Were they false/fake too ?
Major companies are laying off now not because they don't have money. It is mostly because they have been hiring a lot for past year based on growth they had during pandemic. Now as economic situation has changed, they just revert their previous hiring decision. They don't want to risk their money by holding to people they hired 'by mistake'.
Hiring managers have attention span of 1 year max. So if some departments were doing good due to pandemic and now are flop cause times changed and you need to align costs with revenue.
This is about growth they kept hiring as they expected growth if they are not expecting to grow then then need to cut expenses. A lot of people in silicon valley are not realising the pain that is about to come. In the last decade a lot of startups have cropped with the main target instead of a profitable business was getting sold to 1 of the big companies.
Some of it is trimming the fat because these companies grew a lot over the pandemic. These companies are also looking at what's happening right now in their business, not last quarters profits. They are likely all seeing a slow down and preparing.
Ideally, layoffs should happen when employee count is above the amount which maximizes company value. It should never be a response to stock price changes, makes no sense.
apparently : "Over the past two years we’ve seen periods of dramatic growth. To match and fuel that growth, we hired for a different economic reality than the one we face today."
