Isabel Fattal in an excellent article called ‘Contagion’ for The Atlantic:

Some argue that, as they wait out this intermission, CEOs are copying one another—laying off workers not simply as an unavoidable consequence of the changing economy, but because everybody else is doing it. “Chief executives are normal people who navigate uncertainty by copying behavior,” Derek writes. He cites the business professor Jeffrey Pfeffer, who told Stanford News: “Was there a bubble in valuations? Absolutely … Did Meta overhire? Probably. But is that why they are laying people off? Of course not … These companies are all making money. They are doing it because other companies are doing it.”

This is a trend, a fad, a CEO fashion statement.  You are laying of 10,000, i see you and raise you to 12,000.  Because their investors are asking - “hey all the tech companies are laying off, why aren’t you?"  And they are - Google’s stock went up 5% after layoff of 12,000 employees.

Just Wait. In about 6-9 months they’ll be back on a hiring spree that was even bigger then before - and you know what? All of us tech workers who had chip on our shoulders, well that’s going to grow to a gigantic boulder. 

Personally, I can’t wait.  I am hearing it in the circles already.  Tech people are pissed - the media (which is controlled by the corporations anyways) are dumping article after article of the few who ride the wave, get lucky and are rewarded for being lazy and a drain on the business.  It makes good reading, and infuriates everyone in other industries.  And I don’t blame them - but most people in the tech industry work insane hours, are asked to do crazy things with limited budgets/time frames and are evaluated by the most sophisticated and toughest systems for employee evals.  

Sure tech workers get great perks, benefits and pay.  You know what - you too can join the party.  But you need the discipline to stay on top of the tech sector, work grueling hours, risk your mental sanity and at the end of it all have people telling you that you are spoiled children who need to be sent back to their rooms for a time out.  Shunned as a geek by the cool kids.  So yea.  Go ahead signup.  I dare you. 

See I told you that chip on the shoulder was going to get a lot bigger. 

Did you really think those 10,000-12,000 tech people were just sitting around sipping latte’s and playing video games all day? The hiring frenzy will ensue shortly, and with much greater frenzy.  Engineers are process people with excellent memory who thrive on data and the historical analysis of it.  You think they are going to forget how they were treated?

When those offers start flowing again, those crazy compensations will be back. As the old saying goes - “you ain’t seen nothing yet.”