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Comment by MisterKent | Hacker News Reader

Companies should probably be banned from doing layoffs if they can't show that they are either:

- actively losing money

- shuttering an entire division (that is losing money)

Currently, it just seems like they're going through needless cycles of over-hiring and then layoffs. All while maintaining record profits.

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Crazy talk. Consider this scenario: I have a company with 80% of my revenues and profits coming from 20% of my company, but that other 80% still requires 80% of my time and energy. Should I be forced to continue to maintain that 80% rather than devoting time and attention to the part of my business that is clearly far more successful, in demand, and probably enjoyable, just for the sake of maintaining the jobs?

No? OK, now I'll hire 20 people so that division is losing money. Great, now I can legally shut it down.

The first logical workaround that appears to violate the spirit of the law while maintaining the letter tends to work out better in fantasy than in the courtroom, as courts take a pretty dim view of that.

Not that you can't use some legal chicanery, just that you need to make sure lawyers came up with it.

This all lands pretty deep in fantasy-territory discussion without picking a particular jurisdiction, however, and assuming legislation that didn't cover that scenario.

I have a company with 80% of my revenues and profits coming from 20% of my company, but that other 80% still requires 80% of my time and energy.

You've just described pretty much every big corporation.

80% of the revenues comes from the sales department (or equivalent), but 80% of your time and energy spent with the rest of the company, the rest of the company makes it possible for that 20% to just do whatever it is that makes the company revenue.

If it is making money you could sell it off. You could also not give it 80% of your time, presumably it would be dysfunctional and not profitable at that point and you could justify laying them off. Or perhaps the division would operate less optimally but still create profit.

"I should be able to wreck 20 people's lives because honoring my agreements is inconvenient for me"

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