Layoffs and Purpose

A few years ago, software engineering was a pretty great job market.

Then, in 2022, tech companies laid off 165,269 employees. In 2023, they laid off another 264,220 employees. So far, in 2024, they’ve laid off 124,517 employees.

It used to take very little time to find a new tech job, and now most of us have friends who have been looking for a new job for months, or even more than a year.

Were tech companies running out of money? Was it AI taking everyone’s jobs?

Nope. Most of these layoffs happened while tech companies were making record profits. And so far, most tech jobs are safe from AI (except perhaps customer support jobs).

There are exceptions – Intel just announced that they’ll be laying off 15,000 employees due primarily to revenue shortfalls.

But most big tech companies didn’t “have” to lay people off, they did it because it “raised shareholder value”.

Also, it helped that all the big companies were doing it, since that normalized the behavior and made it look more like a sad fiduciary obligation and less like corporate greed.

(Personally, I think any company that lays off thousands of employees while making record profits is in dire need of one thing: a union. But this article is not about that.)

For more on the reasons behind these layoffs, I recommend watching this YouTube video that Patrick Boyle just released titled “Big Tech Doesn’t Want You Anymore”.

What effect have these layoffs had on employee attitudes for those lucky people who still have jobs?

StackOverflow just released their new 2024 survey, so we can find out:

Currently, 81% of employees are dissatisfied with their job, of which 32% are actively unhappy.

So, in addition to the hundreds of thousands of people who have been laid off (many of whom are still looking for work), there are potentially millions of other people who might be looking for a new job.

A big part of this is that their companies have demonstrated very convincingly that they don’t give a damn about employees if there a way to increase shareholder value without them. So why should employees care about their companies? There’s not a great deal of trust in tech right now.

How To Find A Good Job

If you find yourself thinking about a new job in tech, what does a “good job” look like?

I’ll argue that it’s not one that treats you like a child, in an office with foosball tables and bright primary colors and nap pods. It’s a job that makes you feel like you’re doing something of value and are part of something that matters.

That’s where purpose comes in. Purpose is one of the most important parts of any job that you won’t end up hating.

If you poke around in psychological research, you’ll come across an infinite number of theories of motivation, including:

• Self-Determination Theory (SDT):

This theory, developed by Ryan and Deci, posits that humans have three basic psychological needs: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. When these needs are met, people experience greater intrinsic motivation and well-being. A sense of purpose often aligns with these needs, particularly autonomy (acting in line with one’s values) and relatedness (feeling connected to something larger than oneself)

I think “purpose” (which is used in other theories) is better word than “relatedness” because it describes an intent (i.e. it implies a motive rather than a simple correlation).

The behavioral economist Dan Ariely has a story that helps explain the role of purpose in tech. In his talk for the YouTube channel Big Think he relates a story of how a large software company in Seattle totally demoralized 200 engineers. The big mistake was that the CEO didn’t realize that people aren’t rats in a maze (in Ariely’s words), they are people with motivation largely driven by purpose and meaning.

Making money, or “increasing shareholder value,” is not a meaningful purpose to employees. That’s a given. That’s just how the world works. It’s like saying that “breathing” is your purpose.

Sometimes, a company’s purpose is shared and believed when it’s founded, but then it changes over time.

When Google was founded, what did they say they wanted to do?

“To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

Awesome, right?

That appears to have changed over time like this:

“Sell ads to support our core mission, of organizing the world’s information and making it universally accessible and useful.”

And finally to:

“Sell ads.”

Sometimes purpose fades over time like that, like a beloved t-shirt that brings back fond memories but is no longer suitable to wear in public.

Mostly, people can coast along for a while without thinking too hard about why they’re at their current job. As long as they feel like they have job security, and nobody comes by and throws everything they’ve been working on for years into the trash, people don’t tend to get all existential about work.

But if your company lays off thousands of people just like you, and you find out many of your friends can’t find new jobs, it does tend to make you worry. You want to make sure you’re working on something important, both because it makes you feel good about work and because it makes it less likely that you’ll be laid off.

The rest of this article is about how to find a job with a purpose that aligns with your own values.

The purpose of a company is reflected in their business model, not their mission statement, and their values are reflected in their actions, not their press releases.

Sometimes, like Theranos, their purpose is based on fraud.

Other times, like WeWork saying they are “elevating the world’s consciousness,” their stated purpose is just a kind of self-parody, like an episode of “Silicon Valley”.

WeWork’s actual “purpose” is to lease office space. Whoever came up with their mission statement seems to have had an artificially elevated consciousness.

The world changes out from under many companies (and individuals). If your job depends on the world needing more office space than is available, and suddenly everyone is working from home during a pandemic, it’s time for your company to find a way to pivot. If your job hinges on there being more tech jobs than candidates, it might be time for your company to find a way to change based on the new reality.

Most of us have worked for companies that need a new purpose, for one reason or another. Maybe one reason why so many startups fail is the sunk cost fallacy? If you find yourself working for a company like that, make sure you don’t go down with the ship.

If you’re currently out of work, you’re probably super stressed out and don’t have time for even one more thing that isn’t directly related to your search. But if you do have a little time left over, you might find this helpful for brainstorming. Remember, most tech jobs are not in tech companies.

Let’s get to it!

Here’s one way to find a job with a purpose that you believe in (if this looks like a lot of work, remember that work is also a lot of work):

1. Self-reflection:

   • Take time to think about what matters most to you in life and work.
   • Consider your past work experiences, both positive and negative, and what you learned from them.
   • Reflect on moments when you felt most fulfilled or proud, and identify why.

2. List your core values:

   • Write down words or phrases that resonate with you (e.g., integrity, innovation, sustainability).
   • Don’t limit yourself; aim for a comprehensive list initially.

3. Prioritize:

   • Review your list and narrow it down to 5-7 core values.
   • Rank these in order of importance to you.

4. Define your values:

   • For each core value, write down what it means to you personally.
   • Consider how these values might manifest in a work environment.

5. Identify your purpose:

   • Think about the impact you want to have in your career and life.
   • Consider questions like: “What problems do I want to solve?” or “How do I want to contribute to society?”

6. Research industries and causes:

   • Look into sectors that align with your values and purpose.
   • Explore current issues or challenges in these areas that interest you, and find companies that are involved.

7. Investigate company purposes:

   • Research companies within your chosen industries.
   • Read about their business model. Ignore their mission statement. Decide what you think their purpose is.
   • Look for alignment between what you believe their purpose is and your personal values.

8. Assess company actions:

   • Look beyond stated purposes to see how companies actually operate.
   • Check news articles, corporate social responsibility reports, and employee reviews.
   • See if their actions align with your values and their stated purpose.

9. Consider your skills and interests:

   • Reflect on how your skills and interests can contribute to a company’s purpose.
   • Look for roles where you can apply your strengths in service of a purpose you believe in.

10. Ongoing evaluation:

    • Your values and purpose may evolve over time. How have they changed since you started?
    • Regularly reassess your alignment with your current or potential employer.
    • You never really know a company until you’ve worked there. Re-evaluate them with new information periodically.

If you’ve done all this, when you find a company that you want to work for, you can tell them why.

Choose your next company on purpose.