Even Stanford with its multi-deca Billions in endowment cuts technical staff. They may not call them layoffs but they do cut budgets and headcount. I don’t believe they reduce pay in lieu of headcount. They’re hypocrites! As others pony out, you risk having your best leave, unless they harbor true communist spirit and take one for the team.
ok I really can't speak for the first part, but the more I think about it, the more preferable than the layoffs to me it seems...
* not sure why is this communist spirit, the difference in levels and salaries still remains, but presumably you're not as mad because the cut is by design not targeted at you
* discerning who is a performer and who is not cannot be done instantly, especially if the managers themselves are getting cut (and kept out of these conversations), so even the layoffs end up being random and blind, like the cut. Just read all those linkedin posts from people with 10+ years and recent promos getting booted currently
* if you are really concerned about top performers, double down on bonuses, say next time you're going to get 2x the usual bonus, which will give the company some time to measure performance at a normal pace
In a harmonious and fair world where moochers don’t exist and people are reasonable yes I think ideally an even shave seems fair (communists kind of do this) however in practice I’m not aware of unions pushing back on furloughs or layoffs and preferring all members getting an equal cut back on wages. There are probably exceptions but by and large even unions don’t make this choice for their members.
