When your layoff has a hashtag

The norms of candid communication that Twitter enabled have been on display at the company throughout Elon Musk’s takeover, as some former employees shared their layoff frustrations in tweets, and Musk used the platform to defend his leadership decisions (and make jokes about masturbation).

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“The very town square that Elon Musk owns is now exposing all his flaws,” said Mary Inman, a partner at the law firm Constantine Cannon, who has worked with more than 50 whistleblowers, including Tyler Shultz, who helped expose failed blood testing startup Theranos, and Ed Pierson, who spoke up about safety hazards at Boeing. “I’m thinking about ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ — it’s like watching someone eat themselves alive.”

Recently, Meta said it was laying off more than 11,000 staff, or 13 per cent of its workforce. Lyft said it was cutting 13 per cent of its employees, about 650 of 5000. Stripe cut 14 per cent of its staff, roughly 1100 people.

Some Meta, Lyft and other laid-off workers joined former Twitter employees in posting. “Just found out I’ve been laid off at Meta,” wrote David Jagneaux, a former technology communications manager, on Twitter. “I’m actively seeking my next opportunity.”

Viral layoff moments have surfaced throughout the pandemic. A video of Better.com CEO Vishal Garg firing more than 900 of his workers went viral in December 2021, provoking an outcry. Braden Wallake, CEO of HyperSocial, a sales and marketing company, posted a photo of himself crying on LinkedIn after laying off two of his 17 workers. Wallake called the selfie “vulnerable”; to many others, it seemed callous to highlight his own feelings when his employees were suffering.

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But for workers, public layoff processing can provide a boost at a wrenching moment. Some people get offers to interview at other companies: One of HyperSocial’s laid-off workers, Noah Smith, said he received messages from recruiters after defending his former boss’s viral post. It can also provide a sense of community that remote layoffs undercut. And it can create a form of accountability for companies that mishandle their layoffs.

“Many of these firms will be hiring again at some point in the future,” Soltes said. “Some of the best ways you evaluate a future employer is how they treated people when times were more difficult. This will come back in the future as those firms try to hire amazing people.”

Erika Cartagena, who previously led human resources at Etsy and JustWorks and has overseen mass layoffs at a number of other companies, was gratified people had an outlet for processing amid job cuts that she saw as especially chaotic: “What’s helpful in these situations is when people get to own their own narrative,” she said.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.