Philips CEO Roy Jacobs announced difficult but necessary 6,000 job cuts by 2025.
A total of 40,000 employees have been laid off from Amazon, Microsoft, and Google in the past two weeks, making it a nightmare for tech workers. Thousands of former employees on LinkedIn and other social platforms are complaining about ruthless firings.
The pain and feeling of betrayal are not surprising. Over the years, the tech industry has fostered attitudes among its employees that their work is more than a transaction, and that they are part of a family working toward a common goal.
Tech layoffs are completely different from Wall Street, which has introduced its own job cuts in recent months. More than 15,000 employees have been laid off from companies such as Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, Citi, and Morgan Stanley, and employees have been quickly and brutally ousted.
Unlike technology, however, the banking sector’s operations are driven by two factors: performance and the cyclical nature of the market. There is no illusion that these jobs are more than business contracts. And now, as a steady wave of layoffs hit the tech industry for the first time in 20 years, laid-off workers and remaining co-workers alike are facing the hard truth that work isn’t like family.
Dutch medical device maker Philips said on Monday it would cut a further 6,000 jobs worldwide after further losses from a massive recall of faulty sleep ventilators.
CEO Roy Jacobs announced “additional but difficult job cuts” by 2025, just three months after another 4,000 layoffs were announced.
