Layoffs also shake every other employee in an immeasurable way.

Even if you didn’t lay someone off they may now change their priorities. Maybe they focus on the people pleaser tasks. Maybe they focus more on what is good for them to keep their job vs what is good for the company.

Layoffs should be a last resort but tech companies are just playing follow the leader right now. In a few years we’ll see memoirs and books stating “in hindsight we may have made a mistake, but we made the best decision we could with the information we had at the time”, it’s all absolutely bullshit. This is all being done for a temporary stock boost.