Tech Executives Get Rich While 22,000 Workers Get Fucked
I'm tired of watching 22,000 tech workers lose their jobs while CEOs buy more yachts and blame "AI automation." This isn't innovation
- it's systematic wealth extraction disguised as technological progress.
Oracle's CEO made $138 million last year while cutting 200+ jobs across Santa Clara, Pleasanton, and Seattle.
Cisco's executives got massive bonuses while eliminating 221 roles in Milpitas and San Francisco. Restaurant365 fired 100 people after missing growth targets, but I guarantee the C-suite kept their seven-figure compensation packages.
These aren't "strategic adjustments"
- they're blood sacrifices to the stock price gods. Workers get destroyed so earnings reports look prettier and executive bonuses get bigger.
February Was a Goddamn Bloodbath
February 2025: 16,084 people lost their jobs in one month.
Think about that
- sixteen thousand families suddenly couldn't pay rent while executives blamed "market conditions" and collected record bonuses.
Intel's shitshow perfectly captures this insanity. First they announced 500 layoffs, then "oops, actually it's 2,400 people in Oregon alone." That's not strategic planning
- that's executives having no fucking clue what they're doing while real people lose their livelihoods.
Microsoft fired over 15,500 employees while spending billions on AI research. The message couldn't be clearer: human workers are disposable, but Copilot development is sacred.
Satya Nadella makes $55 million a year telling shareholders how "efficient" these cuts are while thousands of families deal with mortgage payments and healthcare costs.
Salesforce cut over 1,000 jobs while actively hiring for "AI-related roles." Translation: we're firing experienced workers and replacing them with cheaper AI engineers.
Marc Benioff probably celebrated this "innovation" from his $7 million Hawaiian compound.
The \"AI Automation\" Bullshit
"AI automation" is the new excuse for the same old corporate greed. Companies claim AI eliminates redundant positions, but here's what actually happens: they fire workers, dump extra work on survivors, and pocket the savings while calling it "efficiency."
Chegg fired 248 people because students started using ChatGPT instead of paying for homework help.
But instead of building better AI tools to compete, Chegg's executives just cut costs and hoped for the best. That's not automation
- that's giving up disguised as strategy.
Atlassian cut 150 customer service jobs claiming their "improved platform tools reduced manual support needs." Translation: we replaced human support with shitty chatbots, customers now get worse help, but our labor costs disappeared.
Executives probably high-fived over champagne while customers struggled with broken ticket systems.
Startup Bloodbath vs. Big Tech Calculations
Startup layoffs follow a different pattern than established tech companies. Beam, Cushion, Pandion, and Level shut down entirely after burning through venture funding. These weren't strategic adjustments
- they were companies running out of money and closing operations.
But established companies like Meta, Amazon, and Google conducted systematic workforce reductions while maintaining healthy cash flows.
Meta cut 5% of staff targeting "low performers"
- a convenient excuse to eliminate positions without admitting the cuts were financially motivated.
The Geographic Impact Pattern
Layoffs aren't distributed randomly
- they follow predictable geographic and demographic patterns. Seattle, San Francisco, and Austin bear disproportionate impacts because these cities have the highest concentrations of tech workers. Oracle's cuts hit Santa Clara, Pleasanton, and Seattle. Cisco targeted Milpitas and San Francisco. F5 eliminated 106 jobs in Washington.
These locations have high living costs that were justified by tech salaries. When the jobs disappear, workers face impossible choices: take massive pay cuts to stay in expensive cities, or relocate and abandon social networks, housing equity, and career opportunities.
The Franchise and Contractor Reality
Beyond headline layoffs, companies are quietly eliminating contractors and franchise workers. Scale AI ended relationships with 500 contractors while laying off 200 employees. These contractors don't appear in official layoff statistics, but they represent thousands of additional job losses.
The gig economy model allows companies to shed workers without the negative publicity of formal layoffs. Contractors simply don't get renewed. Freelancers stop receiving projects. These invisible job losses may exceed the documented layoffs in total impact.
The 2025 tech layoff crisis isn't about efficiency or innovation
- it's about companies prioritizing shareholder returns over workforce stability. The AI automation narrative provides convenient cover for what amounts to systematic labor cost reduction disguised as technological progress.