In order to attract more skilled talents in the field of artificial intelligence, big technology companies such as Facebook parent company Meta and Salesforce are extending an olive branch to the employees they laid off. However, even if the company is proactive, these laid-off employees will consider whether to return to their original positions.
Sandra Sucher, a professor of management practice at Harvard Business School who studies layoffs, said that if companies handle layoffs properly, former employees may consider reemploying. “If you want me back, give me value,” she said. Still, many former employees are concerned about rebuilding their careers at the company beyond their current situation.
At the beginning of this year, many large companies in Silicon Valley said that they had hired too many employees in the previous two years and then began to lay off employees. According to data from Trueup.io, a recruitment platform for the technology industry, various technology companies have laid off about 350,000 employees so far this year, with layoffs peaking in January.
Cloud software company Salesforce plans to hire about 3,000 more employees after cutting 10% of its workforce earlier this year. Salesforce expects to hire employees in areas such as sales, engineering and the data cloud product team, and said the new hires are mainly to grow the company’s artificial intelligence business and attract more investment.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff called on older employees working elsewhere to consider coming back. The company recently held an alumni day event aimed at attracting older employees back to the workforce, handing out stuffed toys wearing “Boomerang” shirts to about 50 former executives.
However, for employees who have been laid off, they may still be dissatisfied with how Salesforce handled their departures. Some employees criticized the way the company communicated the layoffs, saying they were contrary to the culture Salesforce has built. For years, executives like Benioff have encouraged employees to treat their coworkers and the company like family.
Salesforce said earlier this year it would sharpen its focus on profitability and efficiency in response to pressure from activist investors on business growth and margins. This seems to mean that a focus on profitability will trump the company’s “family” philosophy.
Thatcher says that for some older employees, the fact that the company knows you and you know the company may mean it’s worth considering returning.
She said employees considering returning to their old companies might ask themselves some questions: Why was I fired? Why do you need me now? Why should I trust you again?
In many cases, making the decision may not be easy. For some employees, re-establishing trust in the company will be a difficult task.
“I would probably take another look at the company and fundamentally no longer fully trust it,” Thatcher said.
In late July, a user on the social platform Reddit asked whether he should return to his old company. The user was fired from the company, but a few weeks later the company changed its mind and offered him a management position in another department.
The user had started a new, lower-paying job and faced a dilemma. He wrote: “The company fired me not long ago, so I obviously have doubts about it.” Other netizens gave different suggestions, some suggested going back, some suggested continuing to search, and some suggested more demanding positions. Return only after payment.
Another Reddit user wrote that he received a call from a former department head at the company who both hired and fired him. He was asked if he would be interested in returning. “Honestly this is the last thing I expected,” the user wrote.
This precarious employment attitude is familiar to workers in industries such as hotels. For example, many restaurant workers were laid off during the early stages of the pandemic, and when lockdowns were lifted, employers scrambled to recruit to fill vacancies because employees also wanted better working conditions.
Now it’s the tech workers’ turn. Some may demand higher pay, while others may argue that tech companies are unavoidable from making large-scale layoffs. However, job stability remains a major consideration on recruitment platforms like Trueup.io. People consider not only job postings from well-known companies like Amazon or Meta, but also the number of days between a job opening and the company starting layoffs.
Strong market demand may lure some employees back. Overall, major technology companies have strong demand for talent with artificial intelligence skills. A LinkedIn spokesperson said the number of English-language job postings mentioning AI technology has increased 21 times since November 2022, when ChatGPT first went live.
Thatcher said employees who decide to return to their old companies may want to understand the company’s strategy to avoid being laid off again. Even laid-off employees who ultimately choose to return may view the company differently, she said. Thatcher said: “This has a lasting impact on people’s sense of security, shaking their assumptions that even if I do well, I may not be able to keep my job.”
