As an Employee, You Are Disposable (2023)

The recent tech layoffs have shown that employees are disposable in the eyes of executives. This isn’t surprising though and I’m definitely not the first person that has written about this. I just want to highlight the current situation.

It doesn’t matter if investor expectations are surpassed, layoffs can still take place.

It’s somewhat understandable if a company is struggling financially and resorts to layoffs. However, there’s plenty of companies that are profitable and still lay off the people that earned the company those profits.

Many companies are not only profitable, but their executives continue to earn huge sums of money amidst layoffs.

Aside from layoffs, employees may have their pay frozen even though company revenues are up. That’s what happened at Microsoft. Let’s not forget that Microsoft is a $2.5 trillion dollar company (at the time of this writing).

It doesn’t matter how much value you’ve delivered. It doesn’t matter how much impact you’ve had in a company. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been at a company. You are still disposable.

This article shows the mindset some very wealthy executives have about the average worker/employee.

There are some bits I want to highlight:

“There’s been a systematic change where employees feel the employer is extremely lucky to have them,” Mr Gurner said. “We need to remind people they work for the employer, not the other way around.”

[Mr Gurner] has previously made headlines by suggesting young people cannot afford homes because they spend too much on avocado toast.

In Conclusion…

It’s okay to like your job and employer. Just understand that, as an employee, you are disposable.

Further Reading

Here are some articles I’ve come across that share similar sentiments or are very relevant. I highly recommend giving them a read.

• Maybe you should store passwords in plaintext
• Our Company Is Doing So Well That You’re All Fired
• What Companies Still Get Wrong About Layoffs
• I Accidentally Saved Half A Million Dollars