HR departments face layoffs and voluntary departures

Big tech firms are charting troubled waters by slashing once coveted perks and laying off employees by the thousands. HR people might be tasked with the unfortunate job of administering layoffs, but they can also face the chopping block themselves in times of economic pressure, as Amazon’s most recent cuts show.

We asked HR Brew readers if they’re worried about impending layoffs, or if they have already been laid off. Among respondents, 55% said they’re not worried, 33% said they had a bad feeling, and 12% said they’d already been laid off.

Lost in the shuffle. In March, Bloomberg reported that Meta laid off 1,500 recruiting and HR pros. When companies slow hiring, recruiters are often the first out the door, laid-off technical recruiters explained to Insider last summer. Mass layoffs, HR Brew previously reported, can lead to more voluntary departures and germinate into “turnover contagion,” when scores of workers flee en masse.

Problems across the board. Layoffs have also bled into the DE&I space, impacting teams in various industries. “Unfortunately, we are still missing the incentives for the most powerful people in business to feel like this work matters,” Abadesi Osunsade, a DE&I consultant and former global VP of inclusion and belonging, explained to HR Brew last year. Eliminating diversity teams can erode engagement, especially when employees who don’t like DE&I cuts choose to leave, Aaron Terrazas, chief economist at Glassdoor, told CNBC last December.—SB