What happens if the COVID lockdown demand surge happens and companies don’t hire?
Customers don’t get what they want. Businesses that want to move online can’t or have a worse experience. The companies themselves are under-resourced for the actual demand and can’t invest in the future of their business because they’re struggling to keep the lights on.
I understand people are pissed about layoffs. Entirely reasonable, and as someone laid off I can empathize. But at the same time, COVID was kind of a black swan event. No one know what would happen and companies made their best guesses. Many were wrong! And that’s fine.
For public companies, there was public information about their strategies and the bets they were taking. For private companies, it probably depends on what they’d share during hiring. I knew going into Stripe in January 2022 what their bets were, my confidence level in leadership, and my personal risk tolerance for an uncertain future.
We shouldn’t be ripping companies apart when they’re wrong. At least not with over-hiring that had a plausible justification behind it. I don’t want to work for a CEO who doesn’t take risks. I don’t believe that’s better for the world.