📓 layoffs & comebacks

🔍 job hunting 

✍🏾Will you be covering anything about the HR job market? The HR job market is highly oversaturated right now – and I’d love to hear more about this. Also, why is HR often the first department to get downsized?

Context: It seems many are laid off, looking to change roles/companies, or wanting out of HR completely given the current climate.

📣 Blake Wilson, Senior Talent Partner @ BambooHR:

You’re absolutely right about the HR market being brutally oversaturated right now – it’s like when everyone suddenly wanted to be a data scientist a few years back, except the market correction hit way harder and faster.

The oversaturation is happening for a few interconnected reasons. During the pandemic boom years, companies were hiring HR folks left and right to handle remote work policies, employee wellness programs, and all the “people operations” that suddenly became critical. Plus, HR seemed like a stable, recession-proof career path that attracted tons of career changers. Now we’re seeing the classic supply-demand imbalance play out in real time.

As for why HR gets axed first during downturns – it’s frustrating but predictable. Companies view HR as a cost center rather than a revenue generator, which is honestly short-sighted but very common in corporate America. When budgets get tight, executives look at departments and think “sales brings in money, engineering builds the product, marketing drives growth… what does HR do that we can’t survive without for a few months?” It’s the same flawed logic that treats customer service as expendable until everything falls apart.

There’s also this perception that HR work can be “absorbed” by remaining staff or automated away, which anyone who’s actually done HR knows is nonsense. But try explaining the nuances of employee relations and compliance to a CFO who’s only looking at spreadsheets.

Here’s the thing though – this crisis is also an opportunity for HR professionals to completely redefine their value proposition. The ones who survive and thrive are going to be those who stop being the equivalent of C-3PO (protocol droid taking orders) and start becoming more like Nick Fury (strategic mastermind who sees the big picture and influences key decisions).

The biggest shift has to be moving from reactive to proactive. Instead of waiting for managers to come to you with problems, HR needs to be the ones walking into leadership meetings with data-driven insights about retention risks, skill gaps, and market trends. Think less “please fill out this form” and more “here’s how our compensation strategy is going to help us crush our competition for top talent.” You want to be the Tyrion Lannister of the C-suite – the strategic advisor everyone turns to because you understand the game better than anyone else.

This means becoming genuinely fluent in business metrics, not just HR metrics. Learn to speak revenue, not just engagement scores. When you can walk into a room and say “our attrition in engineering is costing us $2.3M annually and here’s my three-point plan to fix it,” suddenly you’re not overhead anymore – you’re solving expensive problems.

The AI piece is absolutely crucial right now. HR professionals who aren’t experimenting with tools for resume screening, predictive analytics, or even ChatGPT for policy writing are going to get left behind faster than someone still using Internet Explorer. You need to be the Tony Stark of HR – always tinkering with the latest tech and figuring out how to make it work for your organization before your competitors do.

Continuous learning isn’t optional anymore either. The half-life of HR knowledge is shrinking rapidly. Employment law changes, generational workforce shifts, new compliance requirements – if you’re not constantly upskilling, you’re basically choosing to become obsolete. Subscribe to industry publications, get those certifications, attend conferences, join professional communities. Be the Hermione Granger who always knows the latest spell when everyone else is still stuck on basic charms.

The people trying to escape HR entirely? I totally get it. When you’re constantly seen as overhead rather than strategic, and your department gets decimated every economic hiccup, it’s natural to want to pivot. But for those willing to evolve and fight for their seat at the table, there’s a real opportunity to emerge from this downturn as indispensable strategic partners rather than expendable support functions.

The bottom line? Stop being a passenger and start being the driver of your organization’s people strategy. The market is brutal right now, but it’s also separating the order-takers from the game-changers.

📣 Christina Flynn, Senior Director, People Experience @ Good Moose:

Responding to share my personal story.

I was the Sr. Director of HR for a small media agency and was laid off in February. On my way out I had to lay off 25% of the company – we ended up losing a major client and the focus of the CEO was the survival of the business, what’s the bare minimum needed to operate.

I’ve been in the advertising industry for the past 10 years – in the last 5 years I’ve been laid off 3 times. This not only has been affecting my bottom line, but my mental health as well. The industry and economy are so volatile, that I am looking to break out of advertising and am trying to figure out what’s next. That’s where I’m stuck. I’ve been applying to HR & Recruiting roles in different industries, but the market is so saturated they don’t want someone who doesn’t have their direct industry experience. So I’m currently at an impasse. Do I stay in HR? Do I start over in a different role/industry? My main focus is finding a ‘stable’ job.

📣 Sondra Norris, OD/OE Consulting:

HR is often the first to get downsized because:

1. It doesn’t directly affect revenue. One of the start-ups I was in was getting close to running out of funding and hadn’t yet secured the next round. The CEO’s question to me, “If I have XX dollars left, should I invest it in product and engineering that enables us to stay alive or in management development?” Valid question. Once a company gets to the point of having to consider laying people off – whatever the route was to get there – the survival of the business has to be prioritized.

2. HR has long been an ill-defined and ill-valued function of the business – often with HR being the worst offenders. Leaders and managers have long expected that HR is responsible for employee engagement, motivation, and commitment.

3. Many people “end up” in HR and grow under ill-equipped HR leaders. Leaders who do not have enough understanding of the business, how to influence, and/or the human operating system. The cycle repeats.

4. Many leaders and managers “hire smart people,” wrongly assuming that smart people have different psychological make-ups than any other human – that smart people “understand the business and what’s needed” and will therefore endlessly commit their discretionary energy on the company’s behalf, offering direct and helpful feedback about what they need and will “check their humanity” at the door with the understanding that the only thing they should expect in this relationship is what they’ve contractually agreed to: a paycheck and benefits.

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✍🏾How do I find a job if I was accused of theft but everything was dismissed? My name also appears on google with the allegations.

Context: N/A

📣Tammi Burnett, Director of People and Culture @ Rainforest Action Network:

I have so many questions but most of all, how did this end up on Google? Did this go to court, or was this dismissed via workplace investigation? Do you have any documentation of the dismissal? Can you (or can you work with an attorney) to get the Google results taken down?

Without knowing the details it’s hard to answer. Personally, I would probably be up front about this and get ahead of it, rather than having someone Google it and see it, but provide the documentation of the charge/accusation dismissal.

📣Tara Turk-Haynes, Founder/Consultant @ Equity Activations:

I think the other question is does this appear on your background check or is it just on a Google search? If just a Google search I would work to get it removed and also possibly mention it in interviews if you get an opportunity to talk about a challenging time. 

Background checks are more important so I would see if you can do one on yourself to ensure it doesn’t come up. Also, was it at work or not at work?

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