A lot of these comments have stated the surface level of what is happening. That is, these companies have failed based on bad business tactics&#x2F;marketshare, over-valuation, etc... And that the employees being laid off are just the tech-bubble fallout, but will be okay &#x27;because jobs are aplenty&#x27; or that they&#x27;ll just have to reapply themselves in some other job sector.<p>However, what we don&#x27;t see is the terms of the layoff that the employees are forced into. Generally, employees don&#x27;t have a say in what they get in their layoff package, and many times it is not a fair amount in comparison to the work they do and in comparison to what management is getting. In addition, employees generally have to sign a legal document that prevents them from defaming the work practices&#x2F;management&#x2F;etc of the company. Either they sign and get their package, or they get nothing at all. I&#x27;m basing this on accounts from personal friends who have worked in startups, and although I&#x27;m speaking from an anecdotal point of view, I don&#x27;t see what other data points we can draw from given that no one is allowed to speak out legally.<p>The bottom line is, we will always be screwed over since we lack basic worker protections. We can talk about bad management and how that can be solved, but ultimately I think each and every one of us need to collectively force a set of protections for workers. Either through law or by forming a strong collective. Until then, this cycle will continue.