Recently, Chris Williams, Ex-Microsoft Vice President- Human Resources has come forward to share three categories of employees that are unsafe during layoffs and two categories of employees who are at least at risk during layoffs.
Below are the categories of employees who are at least risk:-
Profit-making employees: “If you’re an essential part of building the most profitable product for your company, your layoff risk is low. When retreating to the core business, companies turn to the quality products that make money,” Chris Williams, Ex-Microsoft vice president of human resources said.
Human resources staff: “HR is essential in the layoff process, and finance is often relied on as the financial status gets more scrutiny. As such, these areas are rarely the source of major cuts in most layoffs,” Chris Williams said.
Below is the list of the three most unsafe categories:-
Employees associated with new initiatives: Chris Williams, Ex-Microsoft vice president of human resources said, “Unless the company is making a concerted effort to pivot entirely to these new areas, these kinds of new initiatives are often the first ones cut when times are leaner.”
Employees associated with event planning: Chris Williams said, “If you are involved in planning events, for example, those are some of the first things that companies cut when times get tight.”
“People who are part of providing such services are at high risk of being laid off,” Chris Williams added.
Contract workers: Chris Williams said, “At the extreme end of the risk spectrum are contract employees. One of the main reasons companies use temporary or contract workers is for this very contingency.”
“They want to remain flexible in case of a downturn,” Chris Williams added.
Chris Williams told Business Insider, “Every industry, company, even department has a different risk, but some areas are more vulnerable than others.”
The year 2023 has begun on a bad note for tech workers globally. There have been nearly 91 companies that have laid off more than 24,000 tech employees in the first 15 days this month. More than 1,600 tech employees are being laid off per day on average in 2023 globally including in India.
Recently, Microsoft announced to sack of 11,000 employees worldwide due to the global economic slowdown. The company planned to cut several engineering divisions in fresh rounds of layoffs. The company employs 221,000 full-time employees, including 122,000 in the United States and 99,000 internationally as of June 30.
Recently, in 2023 January, 154 tech companies reportedly laid off nearly 55,225 in just 21 days. Many companies such as Amazon, Google, Ola, and Wipro have sacked many employees.
