How do companies decide who to let go during layoffs?
Nov 3, 2021
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Asking for a friend at Zillow that joined recently, he's concerned about getting let go. Do companies use tenure as a key metric and target new hires first or do they use performance metrics and target low performers first?
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And contractors don’t have their contracts renewed
First to go are all contractors.
Then local labor laws will dictate what approach is taken in determining layoff candidates.
In the US, there aren’t labor laws protecting white collar employees. But companies will go to great lengths to avoid triggering discrimination claims or filing WARN act notices. So companies use a formula of performance (low performers lose legal standing with dismissal lawsuits) vs tenure vs race/gender to ensure the layoffs appear random enough to not trigger any legal action.