If you want to do layoffs you will be best suited doing them at the same time as all the other companies. That’s because normally layoffs bust morale and lead not only to the ejection of the people you wanted gone, but also to the departure of the people you wanted to stay. However when everyone is doing layoffs at the same time there is nowhere for your good employees to go.
Is this effect real, or am I seeing things?
Another tactic is announcing negative news on a Friday afternoon, to miss the news cycle.
Easy money is gone. Companies that balanced their budget without the need for debt to continue to operate are OK.
The reason why the distinction is important is that the bandwagon effect will come and go, while the fundamentals can stay negative for any amount of time.
Many companies are going to get hit hard when their corporate loans come due over the next 1-3 years.
"nowhere else to go" isn't really a thing right now - but "the mood is right" is probably more of what is happening. Employees are at least a little on edge (which significantly impacts performance, for what it is worth) right now.
Most companies that are laying off people do not need to lay them off. Their survival is not at stake.
Doordash, for example, is making something like 4billion $ of gross profit a year.
That's enough to pay all of these 1200 employees $3m a year, with some left over.
https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/DASH/doordash/net-...
Take it up with them.
So while the 700M statement is true in financial speak it's not true in the way you're impyling it i.e. it's not profit leftover they could be paying out instead it's just a certain financial measure in a company that overall is losing money pretty hard. Likely feeding into this reduction of corporate headcount to be honest.
Profit is an opinion, but cash flow is a fact.
What do you base that on? As others have pointed out, DoorDash is losing money every quarter. These companies have experienced hyper growth in employee count while the economy is good. But they are still losing a lot of money every quarter. When the economy turns, that high burn rate quickly becomes a threat to their continued existence. I think most of these layoffs are essential and may still prove inadequate. DoorDash for instance is selling a non-essential service. When the economy tightens up, people stop spending on things like DoorDash.