Will tech layoffs force a workplace culture reckoning?
“Community culture” makes way for cash-flow, “Family” for fundamentals.
Welcome to The Dejargonizer, a newsletter (and soon a podcast) that helps communications professionals, marketers, content producers, and journalists cut through the jargon to find the story behind the press release. From Amir Mizroch, a communications professional and former WSJ tech editor. You can read more about the newsletter here. If you like it, please consider subscribing and sharing this post.
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According to The New York Times, in 2011, the tech sector began a hiring boom that would last a decade. It added an average of more than 100,000 jobs annually, and by 2021, it had recouped all the jobs it lost when the dot-com bubble burst.
Many of those jobs were advertised in a way that appealed to young people (I always found them excruciating). Companies were looking for “ninjas” and “rock stars” to “join our family”. Employees were “empowered to bring your whole self to work.” Companies said they were serious about promoting a “strong company culture,” where “creativity, friendship, curiosity, motivation, and professionalism are the driving force”. Venture-backed companies championed “collective growth”, “collective values,” and “accountable culture building.”
Many tech workers didn’t know what those things really meant, and never really asked, happy to take cushy jobs and drink free Kool-Aid at plush offices with nap pods. They forgot, or perhaps didn’t want to know, that jobs are breakable contracts, not sacrosanct vows.
But now, as layoffs sweep the tech sector around the world, the curtain has been lifted on the playacting that was startup employee hiring jargon.
Job cuts happen in a tough economic climate, nothing new there.
But what’s become evident by the way these companies are letting people go is that the family vibe of “our people are our most important resource” and “we put our people first” was largely theater.
Laid-off workers were reportedly informed by email or Zoom, though in some cases, they only knew they had been fired once they arrived at work, where their access badges were denied. Those that didn’t check their email before going into work did not realize that they had been terminated until they tried to use their access badges.
Employees who applied for jobs requiring strong verbal and written communication skills --candid, vocal, open, honest-- were summarily fired by those same companies without any communication skills on show.
Employees on work visas had their livelihoods entirely upended. People who had just relocated and found schools for their kids now have 60 days to find a new visa sponsor or leave the country.
People who had just received favorable development reviews -- even trophies for their team contributions-- and were top performers were let go, adding to a sense of general arbitrariness. Some people were laid off while on maternity leave, or pregnant with twins.
What happened to “putting people first”? What happened to “supportive, collaborative, and accountable company culture”? Where did the company’s values go? Would you do that to your “family”? Does that happen in your “Community”? This kind of thing doesn’t happen to ninjas and rock stars, right?
Bottom line: Companies may present a certain image or culture to attract and retain employees, while also prioritizing financial goals. This can create a disconnect between what the company says it values and how it actually operates. Tech workers should keep that in mind as they head back into the job market.
