Lowfrequencydrive t1_j5dl2cj wrote on January 22, 2023 at 5:29 AM

Reply to comment by Dissenting_voice in What High Tech and Media Layoffs Say About the Economy by PleaseThinkFirst

I'm design adjacent to tech and one of the problems I saw even during the pandemic around when I graduated, was companies hiring a lot of people without always having a clear, long term need for those roles on the team. A lot of individuals who were really talented, great at their jobs being onboarded to do very little throughout the day or just hang out essentially.

My first company only had about two major clients and when one downscaled (the client shifted their content development internally) it meant half our creative wound up getting let go. They expanded too fast without having a clear need for a large design team.

Even where I work currently, there's an issue with having too much downtime, filler meetings, mandatory in office work, long breaks, alongside not enough concrete tasks throughout the day. So to agree with your points, I think this was going to happen sooner or later. There's a lot of belt tightening within tech, creative entertainment and design.

Dissenting_voice t1_j5dn2hv wrote on January 22, 2023 at 5:49 AM

I have seen what a slow, directionless operation can do to good employees in the short term. I can only imagine the long term effect this would have on the work culture of an entire industry where this was common.

Lowfrequencydrive t1_j5dnxer wrote on January 22, 2023 at 5:58 AM

Despite some of the day to day shortcomings, I've had the fortune of learning a lot from my boss in the short/ long term. And it's been a great knowledge + hands on experience in a lot of other ways too. However, it's really organization/ leadership dependent.

I've had the contrast of an org where they were beyond the pale passive aggressive, toxic short/ long term too. So that factor really does modulate the experience. I would never work in the theatrical design industry again for that reason tbh.