<story><title>Thoughts on tech employment</title><url>https://ma.tt/2024/02/thoughts-on-tech-employment/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jawns</author><text>&amp;gt; At Automattic last year we did not do layoffs, but allowed performance management and natural attrition (voluntary regrettable was 2.9%, non-regrettable 6.8% for us in 2023) to allow our size to shrink down more naturally&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Non-regrettable&amp;quot; attrition means either that the person was fired or laid off.  Since the post says Automattic didn&amp;#x27;t do layoffs, that means all of that attrition took the form of being fired because of performance problems.&lt;p&gt;If 7% of the company exited the company in a year because they were fired -- which seems quite high to me -- then even if you don&amp;#x27;t call it a layoff, it has many of the same characteristics as a layoff.&lt;p&gt;In a classic layoff situation, you&amp;#x27;ve over-hired, expecting future growth, and then the winds change, and you need to reduce the workforce to match the declining growth.&lt;p&gt;In a case where you&amp;#x27;re firing 7% of the company because of performance problems, you haven&amp;#x27;t over-hired, but you have certainly poorly hired!&lt;p&gt;Either way, now the remaining workforce has to adjust and &amp;quot;do more with less,&amp;quot; and I&amp;#x27;m going to guess that most of them have a reasonable fear that they might be next on the chopping block!</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>kelnos</author><text>&amp;gt; &lt;i&gt;&amp;quot;Non-regrettable&amp;quot; attrition means either that the person was fired or laid off.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Unless that&amp;#x27;s a technical&amp;#x2F;industry term, I assumed it additionally means people who quit, but the company did not mind seeing them go.  That is, their performance was only fine-ish, maybe not down to the level where they&amp;#x27;d get fired, but also not at a level where their departure would be lamented by their manager.</text></comment>
<story><title>Thoughts on tech employment</title><url>https://ma.tt/2024/02/thoughts-on-tech-employment/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jawns</author><text>&amp;gt; At Automattic last year we did not do layoffs, but allowed performance management and natural attrition (voluntary regrettable was 2.9%, non-regrettable 6.8% for us in 2023) to allow our size to shrink down more naturally&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Non-regrettable&amp;quot; attrition means either that the person was fired or laid off.  Since the post says Automattic didn&amp;#x27;t do layoffs, that means all of that attrition took the form of being fired because of performance problems.&lt;p&gt;If 7% of the company exited the company in a year because they were fired -- which seems quite high to me -- then even if you don&amp;#x27;t call it a layoff, it has many of the same characteristics as a layoff.&lt;p&gt;In a classic layoff situation, you&amp;#x27;ve over-hired, expecting future growth, and then the winds change, and you need to reduce the workforce to match the declining growth.&lt;p&gt;In a case where you&amp;#x27;re firing 7% of the company because of performance problems, you haven&amp;#x27;t over-hired, but you have certainly poorly hired!&lt;p&gt;Either way, now the remaining workforce has to adjust and &amp;quot;do more with less,&amp;quot; and I&amp;#x27;m going to guess that most of them have a reasonable fear that they might be next on the chopping block!</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>maximinus_thrax</author><text>&amp;gt; &amp;quot;Non-regrettable&amp;quot; attrition means either that the person was fired or laid off. Since the post says Automattic didn&amp;#x27;t do layoffs, that means all of that attrition took the form of being fired because of performance problems.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; If 7% of the company exited the company in a year because they were fired -- which seems quite high to me -- then even if you don&amp;#x27;t call it a layoff, it has many of the same characteristics as a layoff.&lt;p&gt;In my experience, this will have a way worse effect on morale than layoffs and will trigger regrettable attrition, as the smarter people in the room realize that you&amp;#x27;re always one reorg away from having a &amp;#x27;performance problem&amp;#x27;. Sad.</text></comment>