A Silver Lining in Tech Layoffs: An infusion of tech talent into legacy companies would improve the US economy

The scale of digital transformation twenty years after the first dot com bust means strong talent can find a home in traditional companies

I was walking from my regular morning train when my phone trilled.

“Where are you?” My colleague and friend was loud whispering. “There’s a big meeting about to happen.”

I hustled into the two-story brick warehouse near the train tracks and stepped into the crowded conference room. My colleagues at the tech startup stood shoulder-to-shoulder or sat on the floor as the CEO and COO, with sad faces, announced that 25% of us would be laid off that morning.

Nausea deep in my core told me that I would be one of the unlucky few.

This could have been last week at a company like Meta, Lyft, or Stripe, but this scene actually played out a generation ago in June 2001.

I was 27 and living in Chicago. We didn’t have smartphones yet — Nextel two-way radios were all the rage — and we had only desktop computers so it wasn’t like we could look at our phones or laptops for an email while we sat there getting the news together.

The company handled the layoffs with more humanity than most. They gave everyone the day off and paid the tab at a local bar where we all drank together for the last time. And those of us laid off got a few months of severance.

Before Google’s minimalist design became the UX standard for search engines, there was AltaVista

After licking my wounds, I tried to enjoy my summer while casually interviewing for other jobs in industries that hadn’t been hit yet. Eventually, my cat Lyle and I drove back to my…