Where was the empathy and hysteria for the 25 million workers laid off during lockdowns?

The left-wing media and Twitterati seem to only extend empathy to laid-off Twitter workers. Weird how that happens.

With the recent acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk, the company laid off about half of its workforce, approximately 3700 employees. Despite having 450 million active monthly users, the social media platform has only delivered profits to their bottom line in two of the last nine years.

In 2021, Twitter generated $5 billion in revenues, but $221 million in net losses. Some might say it’s been a poorly run company, since the primary goal of any business is to deliver profits.

Many might even say that cost-cutting combined with revenue generation should be initiatives number one and two on Elon’s “to do” list and are, in fact, his obligation to shareholders.

But in the wake of the admittedly poorly executed layoffs (what is a “well-executed” layoff anyway?), it’s hard to capture the breathless, hysterical “worker empathy” by The New York Times, the Washington Post and the rest of the pro-lockdown press:

It’s as if the most egregious human rights violation has just been committed by laying off thousands of well-paid, highly 401k-ed and stock-optioned employees of the pajama class, who did quite well during lockdowns. And certainly, broadly speaking, these tech workers have nest eggs big enough to get them through what will likely turn out to be only a brief period of unemployment for them, given low unemployment rates combined with their in-demand skill set, in this world of virtual everything.

Note: I’ve not asked for any sympathy for my ousting, as I recognize that I am - or was - a well-paid executive with a nice 401k. The point I’ve made, and continue to make, is about free speech and open debate, NOT about Woe is me!

Now back to Twitter . . . During the mass layoffs, one worker was locked out of the Twitter system during a work call! The emotional toll here must have been staggering!!

Look, that’s admittedly an awful way to find out you don’t have a job anymore. And losing one’s job is consistently ranked in the top 5 of life’s most traumatic experiences. I certainly haven’t enjoyed it. So I will grant that it could have and should have been done much better.

But where was all of this hysteria and hand-wringing about the unjustness when an estimated 25 million jobs were lost in the United States from lockdowns? These non-Twitter workers who suffered job loss during lockdowns were more often than not, not highly paid and 401k-ed, and they didn’t have hefty savings accounts to get them through. Where was the empathy then? Where was the outrage at CEOs for laying them off?

Oh I forgot. Large companies said they were acting with “empathy.”

On April 8, 2020, just a few weeks into lockdowns, Levi’s announced that they were furloughing all of their salaried retail staff, about 4000 workers.  CEO Chip Bergh said about the decision:

We just announced we are furloughing all of our salaried employees in our U.S. retail stores. But we are trying to do it with empathy. We are leading with our values. 

Where was all the corporate media and pajama class handwringing over the emotional toll and unfairness of this decision? These were mostly retail workers who were living paycheck to paycheck. Where were the shrieks to unionize, as we see now?

Sure, some of these folks were calling for checks to be sent to laid-off workers but one or even two $1000 checks were never enough to live on and were simply window-dressing. What these folks needed were actual jobs. I don’t recall the stay-at-home enthusiasts or the media calling for that. These job losses were considered necessary sacrifices for the greater good.

Just a few months after the Levi’s furloughs, in July 2020, the company laid off about 15% of its workforce. Where were the teeth gnashing and rending of proverbial garments as a show of mourning? Do only “tech bros” elicit sympathy? Or is it simply enough that the CEO at Levi’s said that the mass furloughs and layoffs were done with empathy, whereas Elon said no such thing?

This is Elon practicing un-woke capitalism. Love it or hate it, it’s more honest.

A few months after Levi’s laid off those folks (there were 100 more for good measure in October 2021), CEO Chip Bergh cashed in on over $40 million in stock. The stock price was bolstered by all the furloughs and lay-offs. Actual empathy was nowhere to be found.

I’m sure that all that pretend empathy did those furloughed retail workers and laid-off employees at Levi’s a lot of good and made the whole thing much more palatable. Perhaps they even enjoyed it because it was done with the company’s “values” front and center.

I’m not cheering for layoffs or job loss ever. But it seems to me, that the narcissistic laptop class who enjoyed job security and an easy path to virtuousness in the lockdown world of “stay home, save lives,” might have spoken up back then if they actually cared about their fellow citizens who would have also liked to maintain their employment.

Instead, all too often, tech workers were avid proponents of lockdowns, eager to prove their moral superiority by supporting the shut-downs, which directly resulted in the unprecedented job losses of 2020-2021.

These self-indulgent, refuse-to-go-the-office, hypocrites demand our sympathy now when they offered none for those with far less.

My gut inclination would be not to offer it. But I’ll not stoop to that level of unkindness. I wish them the best, including a speedy path to employment.