'When did workplace leadership become so disconnected from basic humanity?': Reddit's workers on surviving a culture of fear

A post on Reddit’s r/jobs has talked about someone who watched their company lay off employees every month for two years while continuing to hire new people. The pattern, as they and their colleagues read it, is not restructuring, but gradual replacement that carefully managed to protect the company’s image.

The reasons given for terminations feel vague or suddenly manufactured. New managers seem more focused on delivering outcomes for leadership than on giving honest feedback or helping people improve, and the way departing employees are treated has become so inhumane and painful to watch.

“When did workplace leadership become so disconnected from basic humanity?” the original poster asked. “How do you cope when the workplace starts feeling like everyone is quietly waiting to be targeted?”

What Reddit said

The responses confirmed that the pattern the original poster is describing is not unique to their company, and offered a range of coping strategies, from the practical to the grim.

One commenter described what happens when a culture of fear becomes internalised: “Worked at a prior IT company where the coping mechanism was to sabotage or gossip about coworkers so they were the target. When I figured it out, I found another job.”

Another pointed to the economic consequence of this layoff culture: “The continuous layoffs are rightfully scaring people into not buying houses. Once upon a time, full-time employees were called permanent employees. People had stability and stayed at the same job for decades. That time is gone.”

One commenter in IT was particularly blunt about the industry’s structural instability: “Six months of unemployment is more certain than this stupid industry. There is no such thing as a ‘lifer’ in IT. All they have to do is say the magic words ‘restructure’ or ‘budget constraints’ and you are gone the next day. IT fields need unions.”

Another described a variation of the same pattern. “And then when that doesn’t work, they rehire cheap contractors overseas,” they wrote.

The answer the thread points toward is the one the original poster may not want to hear but probably already knows: document everything, build financial runway where possible, and treat your own job search as an ongoing process rather than something to start when the axe falls.

A company that runs monthly layoff cycles with vague justifications is telling you, in the clearest language available, that your tenure there is contingent on factors you cannot fully control.

That is not a comfortable reality. But naming it is more useful than waiting.

Read also: ‘It’s no one’s business’: Reddit’s working mothers on why they hide their children from employers