Mass layoffs | Are larger firms more brutal in their redundancies?

Mass layoffs have plagued virtually all major tech companies in recent months, and now firms in all sectors are making large swaths of employees redundant due to economic strain.

Employees from many of these businesses are echoing similar experiences of being let go in an unethical way, but what do they mean by this?

Ex-employees have described getting sacked in a nonchalant and insensitive manner with little care or attentiveness, making them feel they were never valued by their company in the first place. As a result, the supposed ruthlessness of these layoffs has created a culture of fear, making existing workers worried their own job could be at risk.

The New York Times reported a conversation from a Meta employee online group chat where workers joked: “Raise your hand if you know who is getting fired? Fire emoji if you think it’s a dumpster fire.”