"This is going to be difficult for all of us" (This is going to be more difficult for you than for me. For me this really isn't going to be that difficult. I want you to think we're in the same boat, but you're just kinda clinging to the liferaft in shark-infested waters watching my luxury superyacht sail away over the horizon while I sip margs on the deck and wipe a tear away from my eye for the webcam.)
"We're going to need to learn to do more with less" (but mostly you'll need to learn to do more and you who'll be getting less. I already learned that I don't really need to do much of anything to keep my job and can throw billions on the metaverse dumpsterfire without consequence. Good to have this little chat.)
Realistically the layoffs usually come with a set of projects/features that will also be getting the boot to allow the remaining employees to regroup under specific initiatives that are deemed more important. Since the layoffs are top down there is a delay between them and the actual projects getting shuttered for lack of resources.
The rough seas probably aren't over. Cutting staff and buying back stock are easy ways to raise the stock price in the short term. Whether they can keep that momentum will be another question.
"we destroyed employee morale, and the best employees were the ones that had the least difficulty immediately going elsewhere, thus negating the 'we're only getting rid of bad employees' claims"?
