# layoffs
26 moments across 14 episodes. Click any moment to jump straight to that part of the episode.
19:01Microsoft's Xbox layoffs: Who pays for lost focus?Leanne Elliott: Layoffs. Sadly, layoffs at Xbox, which are of course part of Microsoft. They are laying off 3,200 people. That's roughly 20% of Xbox's workforce Al Elliott: Wow Leanne Elliott: Yeah, they said that 1,600 EP 316 · 7 Jul 2026·news roundup· 19:01–23:2416:22Tech firm fires entire HR departmentAl Elliott: Yeah, yeah, agreed Leanne Elliott: Anyway, that went in a different direction than I expected. What have you seen this week, Al? Al Elliott: Well, this week I saw in, and again, a friend of the podcast, I've EP 306 · 2 Jun 2026·news roundup· 16:22–23:0919:57The JP Morgan scandal & US job cutsJake Tuber: Have you heard about the salacious employee lawsuit happening at JPMorgan? Al Elliott: I haven't. Jake Tuber: So the simple version, Al, is that a junior—EP 300 · 12 May 2026·news roundup· 19:57–28:3144:03Laying off 100 people with dignity (and eventually himself)Al Elliott: I'd like to stick with you on this idea of resilience because I think with the number of companies that you've been involved in, the number of people that you've managed, the HR departments you've been involvEP 281 · 5 Mar 2026·interview· 44:03–48:2116:50Amazon's AI-fuelled HR layoffsLeanne Elliott: Well, I'm not sure I'm gonna lighten the mood with this one, but Amazon is preparing another round of job cuts. Um, only this time it's HR that's gonna get the chop. So this is according to Fortune, uh, wEP 242 · 21 Oct 2025·news roundup· 16:50–19:1720:50Hot Take: DOGE, layoffs & workplace trauma with Sara WeinerLeanne Elliott: Yes, she gives us her opinion on how Doge, or Doggy, did we decide, Al? Al Elliott: Doggy style Leanne Elliott: Has tackled the massive layoffs in US government recently. It's guaranteed to be spicyEP 186 · 9 Apr 2025·hot take· 20:50–36:287:58Jack Dorsey's 'Good Layoffs' at BlockJohn Chan: I don't know Leanne Elliott: Oh, this is a trend at the minute, isn't it? Al Elliott: I've seen that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've seen a lot of people doing lowercaseEP 184 · 1 Apr 2025·news roundup· 7:58–15:1146:39Workplace Surgery: Redundancy Red FlagsAl Elliott: Okay, Lee, right, so question number 2, and I'm going to summarize it saying redundancy red flags. This person says, how do I know if I'm And what do I do if I am? So here we go. I can see the writing on the EP 168 · 4 Feb 2025·workplace surgery· 46:39–51:2035:31The uncomfortable truth about redundancyAl Elliott: I mean, speaking of redundancies, it's, you know, it's a lot of disruption we've seen in the tech industry last 12 to 18 months. I mean, what are your thoughts on the mass redundancies being made by so many tEP 162 · 14 Jan 2025·interview· 35:31–37:1531:25Workplace Surgery: Choosing who to make redundantAl Elliott: Okay, question number 2, Leanne. Are you ready for this question? Leanne Elliott: Yes Al Elliott: All right, so this is from a leader, and I don't think it's clear on whether this person owns the business or EP 121 · 13 Aug 2024·workplace surgery· 31:25–37:585:14News: The layoffs reality checkLeanne Elliott: Well, changing the mood slightly— layoffs. We see a lot about it. There have been tens of thousands in the tech industry, and given the continued economic situation, we could be headed for more. We saw thEP 92 · 23 Apr 2024·news roundup· 5:14–9:1323:15COVID: letting 2,700 people go and the HUGS fundPatti Simpson: When COVID started, we let everyone go on one day, 2,700 people by Zoom. We let them go. We kept 49 people. And we only kept them so we had something to build on when we were hoping to come back. And we diEP 66 · 23 Nov 2023·interview· 23:15–26:529:21Clip 1 — Dr. Candice Schaefer: empathy in layoffsAl Elliott: Um, but it's good. It's good. Anyway, so should we get on to the clips then? So do you wanna kick things off with your— one of your first favourite clips? Yes Leanne Elliott: My first clip is from Uh, the verEP 52 · 17 Aug 2023·other· 9:21–12:306:10Putting the layoffs in context: the scale of the numbersLeanne Elliott: Yes. And I think the first thing we need to try and do is, is try and put the recent layoffs in the tech space into some type of context. So what we know, Twitter have laid off 50% of employees. So that'sEP 12 · 15 Nov 2022·other· 6:10–9:259:25The human story vs. the business realityAl Elliott: As much as it is a human story, we have to remember, and this is what some of the users don't seem to understand, is that Twitter is a business, and it's now a privately held business. I've seen tweets this mEP 12 · 15 Nov 2022·other· 9:25–13:2613:26Big tech is nursing wounds: the wider economic pictureAl Elliott: So it does seem like the big tech players are all nursing wounds this month because it was only last week, I think Amazon became the first public company to lose $1 trillion in market cap Leanne Elliott: MakeEP 12 · 15 Nov 2022·other· 13:26–15:0417:59The heartbreaking reality of Twitter's cultureLeanne Elliott: It's heartbreaking, to be completely honest with you. Twitter has a very magical culture. It's like I said, it's very hard to explain. And Elon Musk started the talk about purchasing the company like liteEP 12 · 15 Nov 2022·other· 17:59–24:4624:46A critical lens on the layoffsAl Elliott: Hmm Leanne Elliott: So to flip this slightly, I mean, let's put this critical lens on. Given what we know about what, let's be honest, seems unsustainable rapid growth of these massive tech companies, added iEP 12 · 15 Nov 2022·other· 24:46–26:2126:21How layoffs *should* be done: Stripe vs. TwitterLeanne Elliott: So again, we're coming back to how it's done. So what is the right way to lay people off from a business and people perspective? Let's hear from Stephen Al Elliott: So let's not make any mistake, right? LEP 12 · 15 Nov 2022·other· 26:21–29:1729:17What united our guests: the importance of honestyLeanne Elliott: One of the things that I really noted from talking to our guests this week, and one thing that really united people in their opinion on how things should be done. It's really about making sure that it's dEP 12 · 15 Nov 2022·other· 29:17–30:5630:56If employees know it's coming, what's the psychology?Al Elliott: So here's a question then. If employees know it's coming, if they know they're going to get laid off, from a psychological point of view, what difference does it make, a more human-centered approach? Like, whEP 12 · 15 Nov 2022·other· 30:56–38:0038:00How Elon went about it: cringeworthy or calculated?Leanne Elliott: Yeah Al Elliott: Just kind of lost for words. Um, but how did he go about doing it? Cringeworthy, the way, the way he's gone about doing it Al Elliott: We actually have a lot in common. We both use behaviEP 12 · 15 Nov 2022·other· 38:00–40:3040:30The consensus: this was not handled wellLeanne Elliott: So I think the consensus is fairly there in that Elon Musk did not deal with this in a very good way. So you have to ask yourself, is this just going to be a little dent in Elon's crown? Is it gonna be thEP 12 · 15 Nov 2022·other· 40:30–44:0344:03Dr Candice's unique perspective as employee wellness leadLeanne Elliott: So what I loved about talking to Dr. Candace about is that her background as an employee wellness but actually stemmed from content moderation. So she used to work with a lot of people, a lot of employeesEP 12 · 15 Nov 2022·other· 44:03–49:1252:02The ripple effect on remaining employeesAl Elliott: So this again comes from anecdotal evidence that I gathered during my interviews. The moment you do the ripping of the plaster exercise, you're basically sending a message to the people who remain. That we'veEP 12 · 15 Nov 2022·other· 52:02–54:1754:17Can Twitter's culture survive?Leanne Elliott: I don't know, to be honest. I think Facebook has gone through such a metamorphosis, no pun intended, Meta. But Twitter, I don't I am afraid Twitter will not recover from this. This is so decimating for whEP 12 · 15 Nov 2022·other· 54:17–57:08
Jumping to a moment opens the episode page with the player already cued to that timestamp — press play to hear it.