From Nike to Meta, companies are telegraphing broad cuts in advance, leaving workers in limbo on the details. The memo arrives in employees’ inboxes with unsettling news but few specifics: Layoffs are coming. Soon. Exactly who will get the ax, and when it will fall, isn’t divulged. For staffers, it’s too little information to plan around, and just enough to stoke weeks—even months—of worrying and guessing.
Nike became the latest major company to pre-announce layoffs this way. The sportswear maker told staffers Thursday that it would shrink as part of an effort to speed up its operations—though not until 2027. “This work will result in fewer roles across Nike,” Chief Executive Elliott Hill wrote in a companywide memo. Nike’s leadership wouldn’t decide on which until next year.
Other companies have taken a similar approach. Meta told employees in an internal memo in April that it would lay off 10% of its staff, or roughly 8,000 people, and that affected employees would learn their fate May 20. Robert Sweeney, who was an engineering manager at Meta, described the limbo period as a “death march.” Last year, Starbucks told employees in January that it would cut jobs by March. It didn’t initially specify which roles would be impacted. Likewise, Disney pre-announced 7,000 layoffs in 2023, which played out over multiple rounds.
Just about every way of cutting jobs has trade-offs. For employers, announcing a layoff months in advance also carries risks: The most in-demand employees could decide to end the uncertainty by jumping ship.
Source: Wall Street Journal US Business · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing