IBM says no — “only a few thousands.” Forbes’ Robert Cringely begs to differ, saying that his projected 110,000 number includes not only layoffs but also firings (a lot of them from artificially lowered evaluations), offshore staff reductions, released PT contractors, and “strongly motivated early retirements.” We’ll see.
Full disclosure: I’ve been through a massive corporate layoff myself when I worked for Avery Dennison. I can’t say I’m bitter — I got a great severance package and didn’t like the direction the company was taking anyway — but that layoff and the subsequent layoff waves that happen to this day did not help AD.
I believe that mass layoffs can demoralize and even cripple a company. What do you think? Corporate layoffs: necessary evil or evidence of a CEO running scared in the eyes of the shareholders? Or to be fair, something else entirely? I would love to hear from you in Comments.