# The uncomfortable truth about redundancy

- **Episode:** [162](https://agents.truthliesandwork.com/episodes/162.md) (2025-01-14)
- **Type:** interview
- **Tags:** redundancy, layoffs, tech-industry
- **Time:** 35:31–37:15 (start 2131s)
- **Listen:** [https://truthliesandwork.com/162?t=2131](https://truthliesandwork.com/162?t=2131)

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[35:31] Al Elliott: I mean, speaking of redundancies, it's, you know, it's a lot of disruption we've seen in the tech industry last 12 to 18 months. I mean, what are your thoughts on the mass redundancies being made by so many tech tech companies? And what are your predictions for tech in 2024?
[35:46] Bruce Daisley: Yeah, it's a really interesting thing about redundancy that generally making people redundant doesn't have any impact on performance. It doesn't make performance better. You know, it's really interesting research on it. So I think what you would probably say is that there was like a social contagion. When a few firms started making job cuts, everyone else started making job cuts because it looked like that's what everyone else was doing. And if you didn't, it posed the question, Why are you not doing job cuts? So it's a degree of social contagion, really interesting phenomenon. It's, look, you know, it's a reflection that the economy's been tough the last couple of years. Every firm I chat to has said this has been a really difficult year, you know, expectations haven't been met. It's been a really difficult year and I don't think tech's alone in those challenges. So Hopefully around the world, the economy is improving, and so, you know, we might move beyond that contagion of wanting to reduce the headcount of organizations, I think
[36:53] Al Elliott: Staying in tech, moving on to YouTube, where you were for 3 years. I've seen some data being published that suggests that the culture there might be in a bit of a pickle and a bit of a decline. And I guess the thing that I've seen is employees losing confidence in the leadership team. What are you hearing about YouTube, and why do you think employees might be losing faith?