A layoff fundamentally changed how I perceive work

> But today, companies are announcing layoffs alongside record-breaking financial results. You work hard, focus on impactful projects, and receive praise from your lead—only to find yourself let go by someone who likely doesn’t even know you exist

This what happens when country policy and businesses are driven by awful neoliberal economic theory and neoclassical/orthodox economic policy.

For the past 40 years, we have seen:

- wage stagnation for labor

- decreasing worker protections (in tech, this means forced NDAs, arbitration, non-compete clauses)

- significant decreases in social safety nets

- increasing wage disparity across the board

- decrease in investment of labor and company and emphasis on stock —manipulation— buy back programs and layoffs for short term gains

- decreasing participation in labor unions and thus decrease in collective bargaining power for labor

- non-transparent pay grades across the industry

- rampant wage theft in the form of: “instead of paying overtime, give you a title, a salary, and expect you to push more than 40 hrs a week” (or do a job that usually requires 3-4 people)

- decreasing worker loyalty to companies

- increasing consolidation of power and money through monopolies and monopsonies