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#90: 10 Year's Until Inflation Gets Normal, How To Avoid Layoffs
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#90: 10 Year's Until Inflation Gets Normal, How To Avoid Layoffs

Freelance first companies don't need layoffs, they scale up/down without screwing people

Matthew Mottola's avatar
Matthew Mottola
Oct 04, 2022
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The Human Cloud
#90: 10 Year's Until Inflation Gets Normal, How To Avoid Layoffs
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Leaders, this past weekend Luca did a two for 1. He fell in a gross pond, then stepped in dog poo all in one trip.

Why bring this up?

  • Because falling for the layoff trap is like his bath trap. It seems great to ramp up hiring full time, just like it seems great for him to leap into a marsh, but most likely you’ll be stuck with the toughest conversations and wasted time come layoffs. We’ll explain more below…

Quick Recap:

  • 🚨 BOOK GIVEAWAY - We have some exciting events coming up. Our most exciting is a webinar with Worksome on how to be ready for the repeal of IR35. We’re giving away 2 books for the first 2 people to comment on THIS post.

  • Y’all LOVED Vinod’s Leader Portal. We did too, which is why we made these graphics for you to share/add to your decks.


🤔 Redo: What if you could avoid layoffs? (yes, this is the Luca reference)

Don’t be a Luca and mess up twice by over hiring full time then laying off. Instead, prioritize freelancer talent pools you turn to when you need them rather than keeping full timers in seats then laying them off.

We get it…growth justified your hiring spree, salary inflation, and the board (or leadership) was breathing down your neck.

BUT we don’t get it…because you should’ve prioritized elastic talent, built freelancer talent pools (prioritized freelancers you always turn to), and empowered your leaders by giving them budget to hire freelancers.

  • What’s the definition of insanity again? Oh yeah…repeating the same actions and expecting different results.

And guess what. This uncertain business climate isn’t going away. The only thing going away is that perception of a labor surplus in full time employment.

But as we know - this talent isn’t just disappearing, it’s shifting to independent work models in the Human Cloud 👇

How To Get Started:

  1. Identify low risk outcomes or skills that have been stuck on the shelf.

    1. Most leaders start with presentation design, article generation, or research

  2. Hire using a marketplace like Upwork or Fiverr (or start discussions with a niche marketplace)

  3. Socialize it with colleagues you trust - here’s some data of ALL STATS we find relevant :)

*Shoutout to Maari Casey, founder of Uncompany, for spurring this discussion (stay tuned for her leader portal!).

Maari (Thrall) Casey
Maari Casey, founder of Uncompany

💩 Inflation - Something We’ll Live With For The Next 10 Years

Sick of hearing how “tomorrow’s best companies will be built in todays recession”? You’re not alone, but it’s also true, because companies that can survive today’s storm will enjoy tomorrow’s boom. Unfortunately ‘tomorrow’ is a long time off, maybe 10 years off according to BofA Research.

Twitter avatar for @SamRo
Sam Ro 📈 @SamRo
"Once inflation is above 5% in advanced economies, it takes on average 10 years to drop to 2%" - BofA
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1:50 AM ∙ Sep 26, 2022
1,731Likes423Retweets

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