Everything moves in trends. Like mass layoffs, return to office, AI “all the things”, etc. That’s basically herd mentality. The question is what triggers these trends. And it seems to be perception. Somebody does something, it gets noticed and amplified, and the rest follows out of FOMO.
If we dig deeper we wonder whether those actions are justified or simply opportunistic. Companies with big profits doing large layoffs to increase their margins seem to be the latter. Or maybe it’s a race to the bottom to maximize shareholder returns as part of the general enshittification trend.
If it is indeed partly due to perception, it’s then a form of self fulfilled prophecy. Whatever event gets media (social and main stream) traction balloons into overreactions. In a way, self-inflicted reactions. Everybody starts talking about the “doing more with less” trend, and everyone else feels the need to jump in the wagon.
The same goes the other way. Or maybe, more accurately, went the other way. All those trends that greatly benefited tech workers could be seen as an act of self-preservation on behalf of the companies. To avoid losing talent and stay ahead of the competition, they maxed up the perks they offered. And now we see an overcorrection of that previous trend.
But, how often are those decisions made with enough introspection to understand if they are the right ones to make? Are individual particular circumstances taken into account and evaluated? Or are they made to be part of whatever is the new thing to do? How should we incorporate and evaluate what is going on in the wider industry to make better decisions?
We need to stop and apply critical thinking. Consider what the different course of actions will mean in the short, medium, and long term. We need to start weighting the sustainability of our decisions. So that we can stop overreacting to what’s happening around us and create a better future for ourselves.
What does this look like in reality depends on everyone’s particular circumstances. And that’s the point. Frameworks and approaches can only take us so far. It’s on us to make the transition from the map to the territory.