Another round of layoffs hit the industry this year – Meta, Google, Amazon, and others trimming teams while calling it “efficiency.” It’s a word that gets repeated so much it starts to lose definition. Sometimes efficiency means tightening operations. Sometimes it means redirecting investment. Increasingly, it feels like shorthand for correcting two years of over-hiring.
What’s curious is how predictable this cycle has become. Boom years lead to hiring sprees. Uncertain years lead to spreadsheets and reorg decks. Somewhere in the middle are thousands of people whose work didn’t suddenly become less valuable – the equation around them just changed faster than the org could adapt.
The pattern raises a bigger question about tech’s maturity. If “move fast” is still the default operating mode, how do companies avoid swinging between extremes? And what does sustainable growth look like when the industry prides itself on constant reinvention?
Is efficiency an actual goal, or just the story we tell to make volatility sound intentional?
