[_ea1k]

I often hear the phrase "you can't drive by looking in the rear view mirror". In practice, though, most businesses actually do that.

A lot of the companies with layoffs had a "bad" quarter or so, but hiring continued during that bad quarter. So they correct for the past with layoffs, then resume hiring.

It makes perfect sense if you don't think about it.

[malfist]

If I've learned anything in the past decade it's that CEOs aren't any better at predicting the future than you or I.

In fact a lot of business strategy seems to be making 5 year plans from last quarters data and assuming last quarter will repeat for five years. Look at all the aggressive hiring. Look at all the aggressive layoffs.

[RoyalHenOil]

To be honest, I sometimes think they are worse at it than you and I would be.

I was truly shocked by how some companies behaved during and after the pandemic. I can understand why companies that struggled (like restaurants) had to lay employees off, but companies that received what was obviously going to be a temporary boost in revenue behaved as if this were the new normal, over-invested in growth, and then freaked out when customer demand returned to normal pre-pandemic levels.

I know that interest rate changes also played a big role here, but the interest rate changes were also extremely predictable. Interest rates were obviously going to be lowered during the pandemic to keep the economy chugging, and then they were obviously going to be raised later to compensate. This is how modern economies are managed. It's nothing new.

All the investment and VC capital floating around during the pandemic was obviously going to dry up, so why did all these companies decide it was a good idea to become reliant on it?

[gedy]

And enforcing RTO