Tech companies sucked up talent during the pandemic with the fury of the latest Dyson.

Everyone thought the pandemic’s bull run would last forever. Not so. Talent is hitting the street in unprecedented numbers. Meta dropped 11,000 employees. Getir laid off 4,480 people accounting for 14% of their staff. Booking knocked off 25% of its workforce or 4,375 people. And Elon just axed 50% of Twitter’s staff, or around 3,700. Uber, Better.com, Groupon, Peloton, Carvana, Zillow, Stripe, Lyft, Salesforce, and the list goes on. 23,000 tech workers in November alone. Financial firms are set to follow suit.

Sited are all the macroeconomic factors. Inflation, rising interest rates, and the risk of recession pile together to produce smaller corporate profits and agitated investors. But in truth, firms went crazy hoarding talent during the pandemic and over-hiring. Something Mark Zuckerberg apologized for after laying 13% of its workforce. “I made the decision to significantly increase our investments. “Unfortunately, this did not play out the way I expected.”

The truth is, much of the damage was self-inflicted. Soaring profits and the belief that the pandemic’s revenue effect would last forever spelled doom and sparked a drive to find, hire, and hoard the best and most talented. Google and Meta scaled employees at a breathtaking rate. Meta doubled its staff during the pandemic. Along with that came all the incentives, perks, and free meals, all incented with stock options, many of which never even had time to vest.  

And now, we return to reality and the need to manage the P&L. And a significant opportunity for smaller firms to grab tech talent. 

Keep an eye out, Amazon layoffs are next.