The Company Has Reported Strong Financial Performance

Wal-Mart loves doing this. Anyone who works there know that it's all over the splash screen on Walmart One. "DOUG MCMILLON WANTS TO TALK ABOUT YET ANOTHER STRONG QUARTER!". And the shitshow of podcasts and whatever the fuck they run also want to talk about it.
Yet you're going around shopping and finding yourself debating as to what to shop for because almost everything is fucking marked up.

Be me, 2021, leading a team of energetic people and rebuilding the department I inherited into a productive, dynamic team focused on creating solutions and training up new people. Get awarded employee of the year, get told thanks in part to me that the company will be set to see its strongest earnings ever. Widespread praise and appreciation. Develop strong bonds with team and feel rewarded going to work.
Get laid off suddenly, told that it was part of the deal with selling the company to private equity. It was the plan all along to make the company "appear" profitable and successful so it would fetch highest value. Spend two years unemployed and depressed as covid ravages the working world and nobody wants to hire anyone over about age 28 or so, because it's cheaper to hire younger people willing to fill any role than spend a lot on someone with specialized skills and management experience.
We need to overthrow capitalism guys.
- You may benefit from watching cgpgrey's keys to power video. The people who you need to gain power are not the same as those needed to maintain it. So a dictator will seize power and kill off all the people who helped him, because money going to those people is money not going to the people who can overthrow you, which is loot that can be promised to them by rivals trying to take your job.
  You outlived your usefulness. They have no interest in the long term growth of the company - their job was to get a return on their investment and that means inflating the value at a point in time so that they can cash out.

I, as professionally as I could, laid into an interviewer recently.
Spent the first 15 minutes gassing up this company "x growth over y years, we have z offices across n countries, we did a bajillion in revenue and were just getting started. So what're you looking for for a salary?"
I responded "wow, it sounds like you guys are doing really well. Considering what I bringing to the table, market averages, and the fact that if sounds like you all are doing quite well I'd say a ballpark of 10 to 12 thousand a month makes sense.
Guys face dropped. He countered with 60k.
"Alright dude, listen, you just made me sit through 1t minutes of you telling me how much money this company has and how dominant they are in the field, and you're going to legitimately give me the lowest offer I've ever heard in my professional career? I went from impressed by to embarrassed for your company in an instant. Let's not waste one another's time here."
- I've had interviewers tell me they wish they had known i had quality certifications before the interview started.
  Glances at previous employment, list of certifications, cover page, previous employment #2, previous employment #3
  The HR people i encounter during contract interviews that aren't literate is staggering.
- I might be mistaken but 60k > 12 thousand, no?
  Or are you taking about 60k per year, suddenly?
  
  Yes, per year. They started at 50% of my low end.
  
  He meant 10-12k per month. 60k is less than 5k per month.

This is why all the inflation bullshit during Biden's last year or two was so annoying to read. There's no way he could control that level of greed.
- Biden doesn't control interest rates or QE, thus he doesn't control the growth in money supply, so therefore can't possibly control inflation.

We just want everyone here to ask themselves "can I do more for the company".
We're a big family here.
Overtime isn't required, but we really encourage it.
Here is your bonus this year, thanks for your hard work (bonus is literally less than yearly inflation).
And other fun company bullshit that we get to experience.
- My previous company did all of the above, plus optional but paid barbecues. As in, we had to bring the coals, meat, beer, etc.
  
  Bet the boss strolled by and grabbed a free meal that day.
- But think of the free, cheapest pizza around you'll get to share with all your colleagues once a year! A $1 slice for everyone, yay! We really care about you!
- So bonus shouldn’t be taking care of inflation right? The annual increment should?

It hasn't been every company I've worked for, but this has been a common theme throughout my life...
The more the executives brag about how good the company is doing and about its financial strength, the more likely it is that a serious downturn is on the horizon.
I just personally experienced it again, too. End of 2024, record number of projects awarded. Billions in new government contracts. Hiring frenzy. February 2025. 90% of those contracts cancelled. Mass layoffs.
Prior job: Record sales each year. Fastest growing business in the region in our niche and for our size. Always supposedly on the verge of buying our own office building, a skyscraper no less. Within a year of me leaving, they ran into trouble (not related to my departure in any way and I had no idea there would be such a significant downturn). No layoffs, but conditions got so bad that people left far faster than they could be replaced, until things stabilized at about 1/3 of the peak number of employees.
So all I'm saying is, if your employer is feeding you the story that they've had record profits, prepare yourself for the incoming storm.

I worked for a company once that sent out an email announcing layoffs and record profits in the same message. I was amazed at the audacity.

They can afford to pay more, just not to employees. Only to themselves.

did someone say pizza party?
- How about a potluck, and the company can provide the paper plates and napkins?
  
  That's ridiculous, we're a family. Everyone can share the same plate and napkin.
- "Pizza was not plural. We're getting booted"

Also layoffs

For all the problems in the tech industry, having a large chunk of your compensation be in the form of RSUs does address this meme's complaint. Company does well = you get paid more.
- Except that RSU typically require vesting, are often not liquid enough to be useful as wages and aren't as beneficial if the company isn't going to skyrocket and be sold off.
  The issue I ran into was that my team of 3 directly generated $25M in new areas of growth in a single year causing our company to have an increase of 12% gain in our profit margin. With RSU and profit sharing I saw a two hundred dollars worth of income increase that year. The next two years the industry flopped, profits were down in all areas except my team, and we started a three year pay freeze. I did my job amazing and rather than just paying me better I had to go down with the ship.
  This caused me to leave along with my two coworkers. The company couldn't replace us and ended up scrapping our division losing out on that business.

This is an exploit or be exploited society. And most people don't even have a choice. Workers will make money for someone else or they will starve.
- And/or they will starve, even.
- Or they will...
  
  Yes, there is a third option. I'm not sure Americans will take it.

Would we ever have a chance of tying employee termination to a “reason”? Eg, if the company has decided to end a certain venture, downsize, or is down in revenue, each could be a reason - but if investor releases contradict those, then they could be investigated for it and possibly have the termination reversed, much like many of the recent DOGE firings (because no one in Congress said to downsize)
Probably a vague and incomplete thought.
- Yeah, it's called employee rights and strong laws. Those exist overseas, most European countries are good examples. The USA is ass backwards when it comes to our employee protections.
  As an example, in many countries they need to give a reason for terminating your employment - pay out x amount of time depending on the reasons given and since your healthcare is NOT tied to employment you don't need to worry about that going away. That's not even discussing their paid vacation time or other legal protections.
  Basically, you can't just fire people for some janky made up reason. As you can imagine this also leads to better hiring practices because the companies can't just cut a person out of nowhere so they need to make sure they're hiring good folks from the get go. Plus it means more job security and that the companies do a better job forecasting labor demand since they can't just hire a bunch and fire whatever percentage as a rule of thumb.
  Anyways, I don't know if we would ever have a chance as Americans, but I can tell you what you're asking literally already exists.