Why Airbnb’s boss thinks CEOs should avoid multi-round layoffs

Some 417,500 jobs were cut in just the first three months of 2023 by U.S.-based employers alone, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas. 

What’s more, with companies like Meta and Amazon already on their third round of layoffs of the year, the constant culling of headcount can feel relentless. 

That’s why Airbnb’s CEO and co-founder, Brian Chesky says that struggling firms are better off saving the mental toll that multi-rounds of layoffs take on the surviving employees by doing one drastic sweep.

“Multiple layoffs can be very difficult from a cultural standpoint, because if there’s more than one, then people can’t trust they’ll ever end—and the company is like in a paralyzed standstill if that happens,” he said in a video interview with Bloomberg, when probed how Meta, Amazon and others are handling layoffs. 

“When you do a layoff, if you’re going to cut you need to cut once and therefore you better cut deep enough,” Chesky insisted. “Try to avoid doing multiple layoffs.”

Why are CEOs using the same layoff language?

The other layoff norm that Chesky took issue with is the robotic carbon copy manner in which they’re all seemingly being announced. 

“I always felt like when I read some of these corporate communications that…they weren’t written by people,” Chesky explained while adding that the corporate jargon is probably written by “committee”.

“It felt like maybe a bunch of lawyers or HR people had sanded edges off the person to the point where the person speaking wouldn’t actually talk like that,” he continued.

He may have a point. 

Spotify’s CEO Daniel Ek confessed, “I take full accountability for the moves that got us here today,” while announcing that 6% of the company was being laid-off at the beginning of the year. It echoed Mark Zuckerberg’s note to staff in November after announcing the first major layoff in Meta’s 18-year history, which began, “I want to take accountability for these decisions and for how we got here.”

Stripe cofounders Patrick and John Collison, and Twitter’s founder Jack Dorsey, also offered a mea culpa to water down news of company failings, massive layoffs, and poor performance. But the nearly identical language used between them is no accident.

Like Chesky, experts previously told Fortune that claiming responsibility for layoffs might seem like a noble move, but in reality, it is scripted by PR professionals to minimize reputational damage.

What’s more, CEO’s blanket layoff announcements aren’t fooling employees either.

“What does taking full responsibility entail?” one disgruntled Google employee asked ahead of its town hall. They added that “responsibility without consequence seems like an empty platitude”, while taking aim at executive pay.

Chesky practices what he preaches

“A lot of CEOs don’t write anything that they have their name on,” Chesky said. “Any communication I write.”

He isn’t throwing stones from a glass house. Barely two months into the pandemic, Airbnb laid off a quarter of its employees, after losing roughly 80% of its business.

Yet Airbnb was lauded for how it handled the layoffs. The memo Chesky wrote, in which he transparently outlined the rationale behind the layoffs and his love for his staff, was considered compassionate, empathetic, and a lesson in leadership and communication.

In addition to offering a substantial severance package and health care benefits, Chesky previously revealed to Fortune that he was proud of the alumni directory that allowed laid-off employees the opportunity to hear from recruiters at other companies looking to hire through Airbnb and field offers for new jobs.

“With layoffs you should just make sure you do more than what’s expected, you’re incredibly compassionate, and that you allow people to leave the company with dignity,” he concluded.