Ronald Reagan’s (1911-2006) father lost his job on Christmas Eve. It’s a reminder of how different things used to be.
Since life was so much more uncertain over 100 years ago for the average American, it’s no surprise that life was equally, if not more uncertain for those who employed people. Is it any wonder that fathers were so stern when Reagan was a child?
A century ago a lost job was just that. Not only was there shame and embarrassment, there was also abject fear for the laid off. How to provide when the day you’re let go is also the day that the pay stops?
Consider the past while contemplating the news about layoffs at Meta. Anyone who has ever experienced being let go knows how awful the feeling is. It doesn’t matter the circumstances, including pivots inside corporations that require a different mix of employees: anyone laid off feels it’s a reflection on them to varying degrees. And it stings for a very long time.
Except that it’s so much better now, so much less fraught. Meta shows us why. According to the New York Times, “Employees in the United States will receive 16 weeks of severance pay, along with two weeks for every year they worked at Meta.” Stop and think about that.
While Reagan’s father’s job loss correlated with substantial poverty, those let go at Meta will have months at a minimum, and some seemingly over a year at handsome pay as they search for what’s next. And there will be next.
Painful as layoffs are, the frequency of them (a George Will column from 2025 indicated that 3 million Americans lose their jobs every year) in the United States is paradoxically the sign that options for those out of work will quickly reveal themselves. That’s because rapid job destruction is the surest sign of rapid job creation.
Precisely because U.S. corporations are so persistently looking ahead with reinvention and efficiency top of mind, they’re a magnet for the very investment that powers all business re-invention and expansion. Translated, forward-looking investors who create all the jobs tend to direct that investment to U.S. corporations similarly looking ahead.
Which means the talent that rated Meta’s laid off employees a job there in the first place is what ensures they’ll be well employed again soon. And while the sting will as mentioned persist, more than a few ex-Meta employees will look back on what stung as the beginning of something much better as their release positioned them to find work that is much more reflective of their unique skills and intelligence. In other words, layoffs almost certainly benefit the laid off more than they do the corporations.
For now, however, it’s worth celebrating how Meta handled what no one enjoys happening to them, and that no one enjoys doing. About the latter, ask any CEO, president or supervisor what they hate most about being CEO, president and supervisor: they’ll almost all say they hate laying people off. This was awful for the Meta executive suite, and all others enlisted to give bad news.
What’s worth celebrating is that American corporations are increasingly so rich that they would never announce layoffs anywhere near Christmas, let alone let people go on Christmas Eve. Exactly because they’re so prosperous they can move people out with dignity, and with a financial cushion that allows fathers, mothers, and employees in general to go home from the bad news knowing that whatever awaits them, none of it will involve abject poverty.
