The first time Julian Chavez got laid off from his job as a digital ad sales rep at web.com didn’t turn him off from the tech industry. Neither did the second time when he was laid off from ZipRecruiter. By the third time, though, Chavez had had enough.
“I really loved what I did,” said Phoenix-based Chavez in a text message. “But the layoffs got me jaded.” Now he’s pursuing a graduate degree in psychology.
Chavez is one of hundreds of thousands of tech workers who’ve been laid off in the past two years in what now seems like a never-ending wave of cuts that has upended the culture of Silicon Valley and the expectations of those who work at some of America’s richest and most powerful companies.
Last year, tech companies laid off more than 260,000 workers according to layoff tracker Layoffs.fyi, cuts that executives mostly blamed on “over-hiring” during the pandemic and high interest rates making it harder to invest in new business ventures. But as those layoffs have dragged into 2024 despite stabilizing interest rates and a booming job market in other industries, the tech workforce is feeling despondent and confused.
The U.S. economy added 353,000 jobs in January, a huge boost that was around twice what economists had expected. And yet, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Discord, Salesforce and eBay all made significant cuts in January, and the layoffs don’t seem to be abating. On Tuesday, PayPal said in a letter to workers it would cut another 2,500 employees or about 9 percent of its workforce.
The continued cuts come as companies are under pressure from investors to improve their bottom lines. Wall Street’s sell-off of tech stocks in 2022 pushed companies to win back investors by focusing on increasing profits, and firing some of the tens of thousands of workers hired to meet the pandemic boom in consumer tech spending. With many tech companies laying off workers, cutting employees no longer signaled weakness. Now, executives are looking for more places where they can squeeze more work out of fewer people.
Tech engineers need to unionize. Many probably feel guilty of even considering such things because the salaries are insane compared to other jobs, but it doesn’t matter. Being treated like shit is being treated like shit regardless of how much money you make.
The psychological abuse tech companies regularly push on engineers is unhealthy, and then the constant layoffs that literally play games with peoples’ lives just to make a family of yachts a little happier. It’s disgusting. Sad thing is, some tech workers may not even notice how far down the well they’ve traveled with the constant pressure the companies try to apply to their staff.
The constant goals of annual tech releases and huge profit gains were never sustainable. Tech bros think they’re being so “disruptive” but they’re just playing a grift with lipstick on at the expense of thousands upon thousands of lives that shouldn’t be as stressful as they are. All while creating mountains of ewaste to help push the planet towards being uninhabitable.
Am union. Can confirm better work-life balance, way more off time (47days) during which no one reaches out without justification, and no wildcat layoffs.
Pay is 15% low but the pension plan is kickass. And isn’t that what you want?
Our union contract says 100% remote. I hope that continues to be a valuable goal as contracts come up for renewal in 4 more years. Since our hiring has been primarily across the country for retiree replacement (no one quits, just retires), I’m confident in its continued enshrinement.
U.S. based employer?