Look, I have worked for big companies in the past and currently work for a company that has 4000+ employees. The only time when I witnessed completely justified layoffs was during 2008-2010. Have any of you any idea how many rounds of layoffs L3 has done since then??? You can blame it on profit, market, etc. but I blame it on poor leadership from the top.
I know many people who have worked for L3 in the past and know a few who currently still do. The personal accounts of many of them are eerily similar. There's even this joke when you find out if someone has worked at L3 in the past and you automatically ask "what round of layoff they were a part of." See, that's what they're mostly known for "LAYOFFS."
If the market is the main one responsible for the layoffs, how come my company (mainly financially government dependent) and many..many others haven't had a single market based layoff since 2010?
Why expand when you can't financially afford it? Why give out such huge bonuses to management when you can use that money to keep the people that will truly help you stay ahead in the future? Why hire so many employees all at once, train them, and then 6 months later lay off the higher paid workers? Doesn't management see that this is a major disaster waiting to happen? Fines, lawsuits, you name it.
Although my spouse likes working with many of his coworkers and managers, the thought of him/her coming home one THURSDAY (ahhh those famous Thursdays) will always taunt us. What if we're next?
Managers caring and feeling sorry for the people they regularly lay off doesn't mean a damn thing to someone who has spent the last 10-20 years serving the company.
Fix your policies. Don't act like you see more than just numbers because it's clear that you don't and that's fine, it's only normal in the business world but the least you can do is hire someone that will fix those numbers and fix your broken company.