[ljm]

From Amazon's point of view, this doesn't seem too far removed from their annual firing quotas which I think is already an onerous practice.

From the hyper-scale startup point of view, it's blatantly unsustainable and frankly irresponsible to play fast-and-loose with people's careers by hiring them and then making the position redundant, sometimes within less than a year; even six months in some cases that I've known. The best one can hope for is a generous severance so as to buy time to find a new job in an increasingly crowded market.

[notyourwork]

Irresponsible for who? Corporations are in the business of their own interests. Employees are a resource to furthering a businesses goals. They aren’t a charity that owes individuals anything. If you think that you’re being naive about what we call at-will employment.

[kodah]

> Irresponsible for who? Corporations are in the business of their own interests. Employees are a resource to furthering a businesses goals.

Personally, I find layoffs irresponsible at a corporate level. When they happen they disrupt team relationships, gut out tribal knowledge, break trust, and create friction that trades short term savings for long term cost. The human cost for unemployment is also hard to ignore. For every 1% increase in unemployment there is a 1-1.6% increase in suicides.

I say that as someone who is working at a company that made headlines for layoffs.

[LetsGetTechnicl]

But corporations can't exist without their employees. If they don't see the value in retaining and building good employees, what kind of business do they expect to build? It should be a more symbiotic relationship.

[ljm]

At-will employment being something specific to the US and not the world that exists outside of it...we don't all share the same view on employment (and employment rights for that matter) that the US does.

[DangitBobby]

You have decided they don't have a responsibility to their employees, but that doesn't make it true.

[notyourwork]

No, I personally did not decide this. Corporations decide this for themselves. Whether I agree or not has nothing to do with the reality of the current situation.

[DangitBobby]

Again, declaring things to be reality does not make them so.