Something to readJob security
The right way to lay people off
A former CEO's essay on running layoffs well, written for executives and useful to employees
Why it’s worth your time
If layoffs are in the news or the rumors at work, it helps to know how the decision gets made and what a decent one looks like. Ben Horowitz, who led a software company through three rounds of layoffs, wrote this for other chief executives, and he's blunt about whose failure a layoff is. Reading it from the other side can take some of the personal sting out, and show you what to expect from the people who'd deliver the news.
How layoffs are run, and what to ask now
The essay · 6 min · Free
How to get it
Opens their site. We don’t copy it here; we’d rather they get the read.
- Read the essay.
It's short and set out as six steps. Read the third, on being clear about why the layoff is happening, and the fourth, on training managers, which he calls the most important step of all.
- Write down what you know about your company's plan.
Write three lines: what you know about how the company is doing against its plan this year, what you don't know, and one question you could ask your manager, such as how the year is tracking against what was planned. Ask it at your next 1:1.
Good moments for this: when layoff rumors startafter a round of cuts at your companybefore you deliver hard news to a team
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Making it work for you
Every workplace is different. Here’s what to think about before you start, and what might get in the way.
Things to think about
Horowitz insists the message be that the company failed, and says individual performance problems call for a different measure. Holding on to that can make it easier to ask practical questions instead of personal ones.
What might make this harder
Add a fourth line: what you'd need to know to answer your team's questions about pay, benefits and support, and ask for it in writing before the day comes.
Questions people ask
What is Ben Horowitz's The Right Way to Lay People Off about?
A 2010 essay by Horowitz, cofounder of the venture firm Andreessen Horowitz, drawn from three layoffs at his company Loudcloud, later Opsware. Written for CEOs, it argues a layoff should be done quickly, explained honestly as the company's failure, and delivered by each person's own manager.
Should managers lay off their own people?
Horowitz argues they should: people remember the day they were let go in detail, and hearing it from the manager they worked for is a matter of respect.
How do I know if layoffs are coming at my company?
There's rarely a sure sign. Missed targets, hiring freezes and cost cuts can point that way, and asking your manager how the year is tracking against plan is a fair question, though nothing in the answer predicts your own role.
What it says, and how it holds up
From the outside, a layoff can feel arbitrary and personal: a short meeting, a call from someone you barely know, an account switched off. Horowitz's essay looks at the same day from the chief executive's chair. He ran Loudcloud, later Opsware, through three layoffs that cost about 400 people their jobs, and he wrote this in 2010 as his answer to a venture capitalist who had never seen a company come back from repeated layoffs to a billion-dollar outcome. He argues that a layoff breaks the trust a CEO has asked people for, and that rebuilding it starts with admitting the company failed.
The six steps are written for executives: get your head right, don't delay, be clear about why, train your managers, address the whole company, and stay visible afterwards. Two details are worth knowing from the employee's side. He wants managers to tell their own people, never handing the job to HR or a tougher colleague, because people remember that day in detail. And he passes on a point from his friend Bill Campbell, that the company-wide message is really for the people who stay, who watch closely how their colleagues are treated.
Hindsight shapes the essay, since it's written by someone whose company came through. He concedes that the title sounds odd for something he calls fundamentally wrong. His don't-delay rule starts once the decision is made, and the essay doesn't get into how that decision is reached. If you manage people and have only heard that cuts might come, the most useful thing in the meantime may be telling your team plainly what you can and can't say.
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Picked by Truest and described in our own words. The original belongs to its creator. Last updated October 9, 2026. We sell a career membership; where that’s relevant above, we say so.