Layoffs and Mistakes

By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter

There is a lovely article in Inc. Magazine contrasting the layoffs at Twitter with the layoff announcements at Microsoft. Elon Musk, “The Barbarian,” took the innocents out back and metaphorically shot them. In contrast, Satya Nadella of Microsoft wrote of acting with other senior leaders in a “thoughtful and transparent way” about the layoffs that will be coming in the next few months.

As announced, 10000 people, approximately 5% of the corporate population, will be losing their jobs at Microsoft. In contrast, 3700 people, or 50% of the corporate population of Twitter lost their jobs.

I am curious about the interpretation of Nadella’s announcement of layoffs as being thoughtful and transparent. After all, leaving 200000 people waiting to be told between now and the summer whether Caesar will give them a thumbs down in the Coliseum doesn’t seem either thoughtful or transparent. It seems like a miserable form of torture designed to encourage people to leave before being laid off.

I can imagine a young couple discussing having a baby wondering whether the job one of them holds at Microsoft will be there in a few months. I know from experience how, as a parent wanting to adopt, the agency that screened my wife and me for an international adoption wanted to make sure we were financially and…