In this issue:

They brag about never doing layoffs.
History says that might be the most dangerous promise of all.

From tech giants to legacy icons, the companies that refused to cut often didn’t protect their people—they protected denial… until everything collapsed. Meanwhile, the firms that made hard calls early gained something no press release mentions: clarity, focus, and a real chance to survive.

This article challenges one of corporate culture’s most sacred beliefs—and explains why not doing layoffs can quietly destroy a company from the inside out.

👉 If you think layoffs are always a sign of failure, this will make you uncomfortable.
👉 If you lead a team, it might change how you think about “compassionate” leadership forever.

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The HR Blotter

Merit Left the Room and No One Said a Word - I watched a whole slice of the workforce get sidelined without anyone admitting it was happening. Older leaders kept their chairs, DEI became the justification, and a generation of white male millennials learned that merit was no longer the currency that bought access in Hollywood, academia, or medicine. When the rules shift like that, careers don’t just stall, they quietly disappear.

When White Males Stop Applying and No One Asks Why - In the workplace, discrimination against white males rarely looks dramatic. It shows up as roles they are discouraged from applying for, promotions they are quietly excluded from, or hiring criteria that screen them out before performance is even considered. When race or sex determines who gets access to opportunity, white males are covered by the same civil rights protections as everyone else, and work does not get a pass just because the bias is fashionable.

When the AI Pitch Stops Matching the Paychecks - I’ve seen this movie before at work. A hyped AI startup promises the future, inflates the numbers, mistreats employees, and dares anyone inside to question the story while investors chase the next miracle. If allegations like this keep surfacing, the AI bubble won’t burst in one dramatic crash, it’ll leak trust job by job, offer by offer, until workers and buyers stop believing the pitch.

Inflation Cools, Hiring Freezes, Anxiety Shifts - I’m starting to see workplace anxiety shift away from prices and land squarely on jobs. Inflation is cooling, but hiring is not, and for people trying to hold onto work or find it, the economy already feels recession-like even if the headlines say otherwise. When companies choose headcount cuts over price hikes and quietly swap hiring plans for AI, job security becomes the new cost everyone feels but no one can ring up at checkout.

Bah, humbug. I watched frontline workers learn they were disposable by letter, days before Christmas, after years of showing up to the same drive-thru shifts. Management reversed course only after public blowback, but the damage was already done because once workers see how fast jobs can vanish during a sale, trust doesn’t come back with an apology. At work, this is what instability looks like when decisions are made above people and explained only after the outrage hits.

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The Jim Stroud Podcast

Not subscribed to The Jim Stroud Podcast? Then you’ve been flying blind. Here’s a taste of what they’ve been hearing—while you’ve been missing it.

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The Silent Risk Companies Ignore: Sometimes Not Doing Layoffs Is the Most Dangerous Move of All.

Corporate leaders love to say, “We’re proud to have never done layoffs.”

It’s meant to signal stability, strength, and loyalty.

But after looking at decades of business failures, restructuring cases, and postmortem analyses, a different pattern emerges—one far less comfortable:

Companies that refuse to make cuts often collapse completely.

Companies that cut early often survive—and sometimes thrive.

And here’s the twist:

The teams that remain after a layoff almost always gain something critics rarely acknowledge.

Clarity.

Focus.

Alignment.

This is the part of the story you don’t hear in the headlines.

The Hidden Risk Few Executives Admit

There’s a dangerous myth inside corporate culture:

“A company that never does layoffs is a healthy company.”

But the investigative record shows the opposite:

Meta (Facebook) cut early to refocus.
Yahoo waited. The market didn’t.

Amazon restructured in the downturn.
Sears delayed until there was nothing left to save.

Nintendo reset early and lived.
Sega hesitated and exited hardware.

Toyota adjusted before the cliff.
GM waited until bankruptcy pushed it.

Intel cut early and stayed dominant.
AMD delayed and nearly disappeared.

IBM cut, pivoted, and reinvented itself.
DEC waited and was absorbed.

Fujifilm diversified before film died.
Kodak waited until it did.

The companies that avoided layoffs didn’t preserve stability—

they preserved denial.

Meanwhile, their competitors became sharper, leaner, and faster.

Why Avoiding Layoffs Becomes a Silent Killer

Through interviews with executives and post-crisis insiders, several themes emerge:

• Costs stay bloated long after revenue stalls.

• Underperformers remain because no one wants the conflict.

• Teams stay confused because priorities never shift.

• Leadership signals comfort when urgency is needed.

Companies that refuse to cut staff in downturns end up cutting entire divisions later.

Or worse—filing for bankruptcy when it’s too late for any restructuring to matter.

Not doing layoffs feels compassionate.

But sometimes it’s just procrastination in a suit.

What Actually Happens Inside Companies That Do Layoffs

Here’s the part employees won’t say publicly, but managers will confess off the record:

After a layoff, priorities become unmistakably clear.

Why?

• The “nice-to-haves” vanish overnight.

• Only revenue-driving work remains.

• Ownership becomes obvious.

• The team knows exactly what matters for survival.

• Bureaucracy shrinks.

• Meetings disappear.

• The mission gets sharper.

• Accountability returns.

An executive who shall remain nameless once said, and I paraphrase:

“Our post-layoff team wasn’t smaller. It was cleaner. Everyone finally knew the goal.”

When done responsibly (a big caveat), layoffs don’t just cut headcount.

They cut confusion.

The Counterintuitive Reality

When I combine the data, the interviews, and the historical patterns, a contrarian truth emerges:

Layoffs aren’t always a sign a company is failing.

Sometimes they’re the reason a company survives.

If a business corrects course early, trims fat responsibly, and resets priorities clearly, the remaining team often becomes more aligned and more productive than the bloated version that came before it.

And here’s the uncomfortable truth:

A company that proudly avoids layoffs may not be protecting employees.

It may be quietly avoiding reality.

The Takeaway for Leaders

Healthy companies aren’t defined by whether they never cut.

They’re defined by whether they’re willing to adjust when the environment demands it.

Sometimes the most compassionate long-term move

is the one that looks harsh in the short term.

Reader Survey:

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One more thing before I go…

Have a very merry Christmas and a hap-hap-happy new year!

And as always, hit reply and let me know how I’m doing. Or slide into my DMs as the kids say. All good.

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