Getting fired in the public square
Gen Z first brought us 'quiet quitting' and now 'livestreamed layoffs'.
Despite all the pixie dust and hopium spread far and wide by the mainstream media, the reality is that the avalanche of layoffs that started last year is not abating. Over a quarter of a million Americans lost their jobs in the tech sector alone in 2023, according to Layoffs.fyi, and over 10,000 employees have already been dismissed from 62 tech companies in the first three weeks of 2024. The Congressional Budget Office expects this trend to continue throughout the rest of the year.
The excess of government stimulus and high interest rates are coming home to roost, as companies are now being forced to streamline their headcounts to match their bottom lines, which are softening faster than ice cream on a hot summer day. For anyone with a basic understanding of the economy, none of this retrenchment comes as a surprise.
But one unexpected, cringeworthy trend that has emerged is the parade of social media posts from Gen Z workers documenting the exact moment they get laid off (and often the excruciating aftermath).
Why young folks choose to share this painful experience publicly is unclear, but watching the videos is uncomfortable. Some react just like you might expect them to — they burst into tears, like @amandameinh, then accept the news and move on.
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Some, like @chloeshih, swear a lot.
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Some fill their company-branded tote bag with free snacks one last time.
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And then there’s Brittany Pietsche, who became internet-famous last week when her recorded layoff went viral.
On January 9, Brittany prepared herself for an unplanned video call with someone at Cloudflare, the company where she had been working since the end of August. Knowing she was about to get canned, she started her phone’s camera to record the call, took a swig of her drink, and waited for the other parties to log on. The post is captioned:
When you know youre about to get laid off so you film it :) this was traumatizing honestly lmao #layoffs #tech #techlayoffs #corporate
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Four months into her sales gig, with no closed deals yet on her books, Brittany was not going to go quietly. When one of the people on the other end of the call told her she had not met performance expectations, she jumped in and said “I’m going to stop you right there.” She then proceeded to explain how hard she had been working since joining the company and why she didn’t think it was fair that the company wouldn’t give her a reason for her dismissal.
This behavior comes from the longstanding indoctrination of schoolchildren who have been brainwashed by the ‘equity’ doctrine. Everyone gets a ribbon for participation. Everyone gets a trophy for being who they are. There are no losers, only winners, regardless of merit or performance. And with that, as is demonstrated by the stellar four examples above, comes a staggering sense of entitlement, even in the face of cold hard facts that counter any reason for such.
Ultimately, the real world doesn’t give a shit about feelings, or safe spaces, or gold stars for everyone. During the Great Financial Crisis — when most of these new-to-the-workforce Gen Z-ers were just children — over two million people lost their jobs in one year (2008) and by late 2009, government statistics report that 15 million people were unemployed.
Only by the grace of the Federal Reserve’s printing press were the consequences of ridiculous financial shenanigans kicked further down the road. So instead of sober reflection and allowing reality to flush the system of its weakest and most vulnerable companies, more fake stimulus and more financial chicanery reinforced the consequences-be-damned entitlement mentality, which has clearly impacted both the millenial generation and Gen Z.
History has shown time and time again that the piper will be paid. We can hope that by the end of this year, things don’t look quite as grim as in 2009. But if the SHTF and we have a moment of reckoning, the poor kids will need all the “assets” like Skittles, Boom-Chicka-Pop, and Milanos they can get their hands on, cause they sure won’t be getting a 1st Place ribbon just for showing up.
It is just business reality overcoming years of really bad decisions brought about by a huge influx of venture capital enabling their misbehavior. This isn't the first time we have seen it. The last tech bust was the same. The big difference being that the first time around, people had a stake in the startups and had a vested interest in the company doing well.
Companies that have no reason being in high dollar real estate locations paying premium wages and providing unsustainable perks to entry level positions and non-income generating personnel, often guided by leadership with absolutely zero business experience, are pretty much doomed at inception.
Look no further than the hordes of useless employees that Elon Musk dumped when he bought Twitter. What did he get rid of? I think it was like 80% of the staffing, off the top of my head. These other tech companies are set up the same way and are full of bloated staffing that doesn't generate income.
There have been some exceptions for the "fake it until you make it" mentality that have done well financially despite this but the weak economy has made it more apparent that even the big ones have problems.
A perfect example is that I ordered some stuff from Walmart the other day. I had a package delivered by UPS, then I had FedEx drive up to my house and personally hand me another package that I paid $8 for, all with free shipping. I will get two more packages, one for $6, and another with two $10 USB WiFi dongles, that drop shipped from Hong Kong, all still with free shipping. There is no reality where the profit margins on this will sustain any business. That is not even counting all the other people involved in picking the order, packaging it, and all the other logistics involved.
I really do understand the people's trauma of getting pink slips. Been there, done that, and have the T-shirt. I can't imagine going through that with the exorbitant cost of living in SF and NYC where they have a lease on an expensive apartment and probably a huge car payment for the new car they probably bought counting on the nice paychecks that they were getting. Especially living in the fantasy land of the free perks and amenities that sold them on taking the job in the first place. Living in a big city is wonderful when you have a high paying job. They are a nightmare when you are unemployed.