The flood of Big tech layoffs has again upended the dynamic between employers and employees, workers and executives say, leading to prolonged job searches and widespread fear and anxiety among many in the industry. “It is an employer’s market after years of employees having the benefit of working from home [and] more jobs with higher pay and perks,” said Angela Bateman, who is looking for work after being let go by educational-tech company Osmo in November. “Employers are reasserting their dominance — Disney
DIS,
+2.14%,
Google
GOOGL,
+1.81%
GOOG,
+1.94%,
Meta
META,
+2.80%,
Apple
AAPL,
+2.35%,
Snap
SNAP,
+2.10%
[are] asking workers to be on site three or four days a week.”
On Friday, Alphabet Inc.’s Google was the latest tech giant to add to the uncertainty, announcing the elimination of 12,000 jobs just two days after Microsoft Corp.
MSFT,
+0.98%
announced it was cutting 10,000 positions. The two join a long list of companies that have announced layoffs in recent months, including Salesforce Inc.
CRM,
+3.05%,
Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc., Amazon.com Inc.
AMZN,
+0.28%,
Cisco Systems Inc.
CSCO,
+1.54%,
Intel Corp.
INTC,
+3.59%,
HP Inc.
HPQ,
+2.47%,
Coinbase Global Inc.
COIN,
+1.45%,
Spotify Technology Inc.
SPOT,
+2.07%
and Snap Inc. For more: A MarketWatch tally of tech companies laying off thousands of people As laid-off workers struggle to land new jobs, many executives believe that could make people more willing to stick with their current companies. Former Cisco Chief Executive John Chambers sees it this way: The Great Resignation, in which tech workers jumped from one high-paying job to another, has turned into the Great Recommitment. “A career used to be two years at a company. That was the case for more than a decade,” Chambers, who is now a venture capitalist, told MarketWatch. “Now, the last hired is the first fired. There has been a shift to employees re-evaluating their commitment to companies, with an emphasis on culture. There is dramatically lower turnover.” But while tech executives foresee a renewed commitment to jobs, rank-and-file workers see escalating tensions amid job cuts, mandates to work at least three days a week in the office and expectations of higher production with fewer resources. They say they are now more inclined to stay with their employers and forgo the job-hopping o …