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Comment by tirrellp | Hacker News Reader

Easy way to accelerate attrition (and thus, headcount reduction) without announcing layoffs.

Exactly. I would rather be laid off with severance rather than be forced into the choice to be be offered a 100% on-site job across the country or quit. Cruel.

In either a place with an order of magnitude higher cost of living or an order of magnitude lower quality of life, too.

Easy way to kick start the Dead Sea effect and significantly reduce the amount of applicants to backfill

https://medium.com/geekculture/the-dead-sea-effect-d71df1372...

Except your best talent may have access to the most opportunities

Large enterprises don't recognize or even want "best talent"... they want replaceable resources that can be reorg'd with little thought.

True. Walmart puts up a quote in their store breakrooms that goes something like "Don't be creative, follow the procedures". While that's aimed at retail workers, not the people in tech centers, it was interesting to see actually turned into a poster with Sam Walton's face on it. Suspect that it permeates the culture of the company.

I think this is what's going on too. Easy way to have folks self select out.

It's a weird way of doing it though, right? This will surely push away your better workers who have options. You're going to be left with the worse employees who have no other options.

I’m not sure a company like wallmart sees anything other than headcount.

The effects will only be seen 5-10 years down the line when all their systems will have turned into a morass of madness

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