[carlosjobim]

Isn't it much better that the employees instead go work somewhere were they're needed? What in the world would be the reason to keep them around doing nothing? Give them better pay when they actually work and then send them on their way.

[interactivecode]

Well because clearly the board isn’t great at anticipating market fluctuations, so better keep people around for when demand picks up again.

Also its about 10% of employees right, that means if you give the whole company 1 day off every two weeks. Everyone who would have a full workload again. Googles 20% was about double that

[mnky9800n]

I feel like,

> surprise! You are probably needed elsewhere!

Is not the way to handle this kind of thing.

[ethbr1]

The difficulty is that putting the onus of reallocation on a centralized authority leads to less efficient allocation (e.g. all the problems with command economies).

Decentralized people that each make individual choices more quickly and ideally allocate unused labor where it's most needed.

... but to the broader point from sibling threads, the humane solution here is {permit companies to be agile with layoffs} + {fund strong government-provided safety nets for unemployed workers}.