<story><title>Why are there so many tech layoffs, and why should we be worried?</title><url>https://news.stanford.edu/2022/12/05/explains-recent-tech-layoffs-worried/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>roncesvalles</author><text>Really? I thought it was fairly obvious from the beginning that this is hysteric copycat behavior. To me the smoking gun was how suddenly in a brief period of time, every tech company CEO was making &lt;i&gt;absolutely certain&lt;/i&gt; predictions about economic headwinds in 2023, up to 6 months before the end of 2022. Nothing qualifies them (or anybody for that matter) to assert that. It doesn&amp;#x27;t even make sense to do layoffs today when you expect trouble 6-12 months later.&lt;p&gt;That and the panic from tech stock prices being decimated after 10+ years of growth. The layoffs felt like Boards and CEOs were smashing the controls until the numbers went back up again.</text></item><item><author>avgDev</author><text>This is coming from a &amp;quot;Stanford scholar&amp;quot;, yikes.&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;What explains why so many companies are laying large numbers of their workforce off? The answer is simple: copycat behavior, according to Jeffrey Pfeffer, a professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Since the answer is so simple I stopped reading the article. Obviously companies should not care about the their stock dropping massively in the last year, rates going up and consumer spending reducing. The layoffs is just copycat behavior.
&amp;#x2F;s&lt;p&gt;Man, this guy must have predicted 50 of the last 2 recessions.&lt;p&gt;Edit: This is such a bad take I would expect to read it on r&amp;#x2F;investing in a most downvoted comment. A &amp;quot;scholar&amp;quot; should know rarely things are black and white. There isn&amp;#x27;t a simple to answer to literally anything in macroeconomics, or just in life in general really.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>lowercased</author><text>&amp;gt;  To me the smoking gun was how suddenly in a brief period of time, every tech company CEO was making absolutely certain predictions about economic headwinds in 2023, up to 6 months before the end of 2022.&lt;p&gt;This has to have had a somewhat self-fulfilling prophecy effect.  When you start predicting &amp;#x27;downturn&amp;#x27; and your solution is &amp;quot;lay people off&amp;quot;, then yes... economic activity will slow (from your former staff) and... that spreads around.  It can&amp;#x27;t &lt;i&gt;not&lt;/i&gt; be having some impact, and as more and more places do it, it compounds.</text></comment>
<story><title>Why are there so many tech layoffs, and why should we be worried?</title><url>https://news.stanford.edu/2022/12/05/explains-recent-tech-layoffs-worried/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>roncesvalles</author><text>Really? I thought it was fairly obvious from the beginning that this is hysteric copycat behavior. To me the smoking gun was how suddenly in a brief period of time, every tech company CEO was making &lt;i&gt;absolutely certain&lt;/i&gt; predictions about economic headwinds in 2023, up to 6 months before the end of 2022. Nothing qualifies them (or anybody for that matter) to assert that. It doesn&amp;#x27;t even make sense to do layoffs today when you expect trouble 6-12 months later.&lt;p&gt;That and the panic from tech stock prices being decimated after 10+ years of growth. The layoffs felt like Boards and CEOs were smashing the controls until the numbers went back up again.</text></item><item><author>avgDev</author><text>This is coming from a &amp;quot;Stanford scholar&amp;quot;, yikes.&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;What explains why so many companies are laying large numbers of their workforce off? The answer is simple: copycat behavior, according to Jeffrey Pfeffer, a professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Since the answer is so simple I stopped reading the article. Obviously companies should not care about the their stock dropping massively in the last year, rates going up and consumer spending reducing. The layoffs is just copycat behavior.
&amp;#x2F;s&lt;p&gt;Man, this guy must have predicted 50 of the last 2 recessions.&lt;p&gt;Edit: This is such a bad take I would expect to read it on r&amp;#x2F;investing in a most downvoted comment. A &amp;quot;scholar&amp;quot; should know rarely things are black and white. There isn&amp;#x27;t a simple to answer to literally anything in macroeconomics, or just in life in general really.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>avgDev</author><text>When you expect trouble in 6 months, you prepare TODAY, not in 6 months.&lt;p&gt;The FED has spoken. The market has spoken. The inflation is high. It is a risky environment, layoffs are extremely reasonable after the hiring frenzy we experienced.</text></comment>