Everyone cutting junior roles does not make it a sound strategy. It makes it baseline behavior, and baseline behavior produces no competitive advantage.
This is so accurate, and I cannot believe people are not realizing this. Part of me wonders if those in charge of making the cuts recognize this, but in an effort to save their position by increasing margins and shareholder value, they are willing to take actions that lead to short-term benefits while ignoring the long-term consequences. Maybe they are thinking whoever is in charge when shit hits the fan will someone else, so it's simply not their problem, and they get to sail away with all the money they received from making these junior-level cuts.
You're spot on, but I think it's even simpler than calculated self-interest: it's herd effect. Everyone is cutting, cutting feels safe. Nobody questions it when the whole crowd is doing it. Once the blade starts falling, the momentum carries itself. The act of cutting becomes its own justification.
And that's exactly what makes it stupid. When everyone moves together, nobody feels personally responsible. If it all falls apart in five years, they'll just point at the industry and say "everyone did it." By then, they'll have already cashed out.
This is so accurate, and I cannot believe people are not realizing this. Part of me wonders if those in charge of making the cuts recognize this, but in an effort to save their position by increasing margins and shareholder value, they are willing to take actions that lead to short-term benefits while ignoring the long-term consequences. Maybe they are thinking whoever is in charge when shit hits the fan will someone else, so it's simply not their problem, and they get to sail away with all the money they received from making these junior-level cuts.
You're spot on, but I think it's even simpler than calculated self-interest: it's herd effect. Everyone is cutting, cutting feels safe. Nobody questions it when the whole crowd is doing it. Once the blade starts falling, the momentum carries itself. The act of cutting becomes its own justification.
And that's exactly what makes it stupid. When everyone moves together, nobody feels personally responsible. If it all falls apart in five years, they'll just point at the industry and say "everyone did it." By then, they'll have already cashed out.