Worker layoff protections.

https://www.ft.com/content/b6fdff1c-94a1-41d6-ae52-5dcbffa5dcea

The article mentions European worker layoff protections and implies it isn’t the case in the USA. All the Facebook and Twitter layoffs were under WARN, which requires 60 days. Workers were mostly given 90 or 120 AFAIK.

The horizontal or egalitarian aspects of tech work culture emerge from its cross-functional organization instead of command-and-control top-down as with, for example, GE. This XFN style can make for a more “political” or otherwise frustrating work environment for some folks, but also more autonomous and self-driven. (It’s meant to make the company more dynamic, but can easily slip into an ambiguous morass of vague friction as a company gets large, if there isn’t rigor about process roles and a relentless push towards small, quick units.)

I don’t think anyone was under the illusion that this meant that your employment itself wasn’t “autocratic”. That is actually considered a feature not a bug by many tech workers, who prefer the clarity and efficiency and effectiveness of central authority. Investors like it too, based on the VC and public market history of Facebook, Google, etc.