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Mark Zuckerberg explains why so many tech companies are doing layoffs right now
(www.businessinsider.com)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Don't need to hear his excuse, the answer is pretty obvious. Companies are really fucking stupid. They saw an increase in demand during COVID and assumed that, rather than being a temporary blip due to lockdowns, this was a permanent change. And so they drastically over-hired during that period, without thought for how it might end up affecting people down the line when they inevitably have to lay them off.
They never assumed any such thing.
The bean counters know things wax and wane. They hired when the needed the staff, they layoff when it makes financial sense to do so.
The end.
Yes they did make the assumption that it would be permanent, they've literally admitted as much. In many cases they didn't even need the extra staff to begin with. They did it because that's what dipshit investors expected them to do.
And when they have a good year and do a bunch of hiring, they say to shareholders "look at us growing! We hired 1000 extra people, so our business is booming!"
And when it slows down "we made difficult decisions but are now more efficient than ever! We benefited from the previous growth and now we can run lean again" and apparently shareholders eat that shit up.
I know the saying about not attributing to malice what can be attributed to stupidity... but I think we can say pretty confidently that it's not incompetence, it's deliberate and disgusting