Reddit mentions of Corporate Executions: The Ugly Truth About Layoffs -- How Corporate Greed Is Shattering Our Lives, Companies, and Communities

If you have time, read Corporate Executions. I have been downsized twice.

First time, (years ago) I was given 20 months of severance. The second time, I was given one month severance, a cardboard box and 15 minutes to get the fuck out of the building.

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you.

I actually had a whole class on this some years ago. Essentially after WWII, there was an implicit contract between industry and workers that essentially traded employee loyalty for job security. Many people in the Silent Generation and even Boomers had one or two jobs for their entire lives. People were proud to say, I worked for GM, Ford or Hughes Aircraft my whole life. Today, the average shelf life of an employee is 4.5 years.

When was in high school, I worked after school for an insurance company where it was easy to find people who had been with the firm 10 , 20 even 30 years; cradle to grave as it were. My brother started with "Ma Bell" about a month after he graduated high school and stay with the various telephone companies for 30 years. He never went to college. He retired at 55, full pension and now lives in Thailand. T

Several things have caused this to be a different job market than the one your parents knew. First downsizing, then offshoring and finally automation. All of this done in the name of short term profits. This is where that implied social contract between employer and employer has been broken.

Sources:

1. The Great Reckoning
   
2. Corporate Abuse
   
3. Corporate Executions