Some people tell me making money online is a scam.
They tell me passive income is BS and writing is a silly little kid’s game for losers who can’t win in a capitalist economy.
“Go get a job, ya bum” they say.
Yet here we are. The richest tech companies in the world are laying off human beings without giving a care in the world.
Layoffs
- Opendoor 18%
- Delivery hero
- Chime 12%
- Lyft — 13% — 700 employees
- Stripe — 14% — 1,000 employees
- Twitter — 50% — 3,700 employees
- Opendoor — 18% — 550 employees
- Udaan (tranches)
- Chargebee 10%
- Byjus 5%
- Kry
- Hootsuite
- MessageBird
- CloudKitchens
- Dapper Labs
- Affirm
- Pleo 15%
- Oracle
Hiring freezes
- Apple
- Qualcomm
- Amazon
- Salesforce
No employer gives two hoots about you. They will happily fire your ass, even though the global economy hasn’t gotten any worse yet.
They protect their ass before they protect your ass. Never forget.
The same thing happened in March 2020. Virus gets unleashed. Companies flush employees’ livelihoods down the toilet without giving a fudge.
This isn’t a tragedy. It’s a brutal reality too many refuse to accept.
The bull market got too frothy
Why do these tech companies have to lay people off?
A bat virus locked the world down. We all stayed at home. Many businesses were obliterated.
The governments and central banks created trillions of dollars out of thin air. The financial markets quickly recovered. All the excess free money sent the stock and crypto market to new highs.
We came out of the other side of the pandemic thinking we were heroes.
(I’m guilty and got too cocky. Please throw mud at me as well.)
Then as the free money hangover wore off the market started to change. Inflation hit record highs. Financial markets crashed. What looked like incredible demand to tech companies turned out to be fake demand.
Just look at Facebook/Meta. Bloodbath. Zuck sucks.
The war on the other side of the world then went into overdrive. As interest rates have risen to try and fight off the naughty man-made inflation, businesses and consumers are getting their faces ripped off.
Rich tech companies are smart. They have the data. They can see what the average joe like us can’t see.
Greed from bull markets never has a happy ending.
Company loyalty is B.S.
The idea that employers care about their people is ridiculous.
When times get tough humans are the first to be let go. This isn’t supposed to be a sad fact. It’s just reality and we need to accept it.
The best thing you can do for your life is to take care of yourself. Stop falling for the HR puppets and the nonsense social justice agendas these rich tech companies preach.
It’s all marketing spin.
Any company can change its logo to a nation’s flag. Doesn’t mean they care. What matters is action. And the action of these rich tech companies shows you their true colors.
They don’t care. Profits over people. That’s capitalism baby!
I ain’t mad at it. I worked for a rich tech company. I saw what they did to my colleagues when March 2020 happened. So I started doing two things:
1. Have a side project or die trying
I doubled down on my side business. I stopped staying late or attending useless town hall meetings about nothing. I stopped doing all the extra work and quiet quit the crap out of my job.
Every spare minute went into making sure if the layoff ax cut my throat, I wouldn’t bleed out. Although I was never going to get laid off because the executive minions called me “revenue generating.”
I managed to 12x my annual sales target in one year.
Guess how much I got of the upside? $0. Another reason many modern tech employers are a scam.
2. Get an emergency fund
Most Americans do not have savings.
This stat scares the crap out of me. Consumerism has forced us to become so indebted that we’ve forgotten commonsense financial advice: spend less than you earn. Everything is outsourced to the future.
“Kick the can down the road” politicians quietly say to each other.
If layoffs happen and you have a 6-month emergency fund you’ll be fine. Always stack some cash on the side. And if you can’t then downgrade your lifestyle. Be prepared to lower your status.
Swap to a cheaper car. Ditch the expensive apartment. Tell Starbucks to get stuffed. Whatever it takes.
Understand the recession will get worse before it gets better
Let me finish on this harsh note.
We’re in a bad recession. It’ll probably get worse before it gets better. All these tech layoffs are a sign. So don’t run around living in the clouds and thinking the last few years are a reflection of the next few.
Times will get tough because interest on debt is climbing at the fastest rate in history. When debt costs more stock prices go down and businesses do it tough. Consumers struggle to pay their home loans too.
At the same time the strength of the US dollar is acting like a wrecking ball in many countries.
Bottom line: stay safe out there. Don’t trust tech companies pretending to change their world. Look after yourself. Be kind to those who get laid off. And pick up the phone and help someone affected get another job.
