Druidic Sacrifice in the Tech Sector
What can we learn from the tech layoffs?
The Celts, the tribal peoples who inhabited large swaths of Bronze Age Europe, had a peculiar cultural practice.
The Greek historian Strabo describes how the ancient Celts would try to discern the future by practicing human sacrifice. A man would be stabbed in the back with a knife, and the Druids, members of the mysterious Celtic priest class, would stand by to observe how the man fell, and how he thrashed around as he bled to death. They’d extrapolate from his movements and the way his body came to rest to make predictions about the future of the community. Perhaps the fate of a coming battle, or next year’s grain harvest. A gruesome twist on reading tea leaves.
With the news of a terrific round of layoffs among tech companies like Meta, Lyft, and Google parent company Alphabet, we, like bronze age Druids, are left squatting by the fire inside our circle of standing stones, watching the layoff of tens of thousands of members of the work-from-home class, to figure out our own futures. Many of us hope to gather insight into the economic conditions that lie ahead of us, as well as the future of remote work.
Recent articles described how workers at companies like Twitter and Vox found themselves suddenly without a paycheck, in the isolation of their own homes. The tone of the pieces have been of surprise and dismay as employees discover that remote work, a pandemic necessity and then a prized luxury, may have changed the relationship between bosses and workers
Despite the creature comforts of working from your couch, there are intrinsic disadvantages to a Zoom commute, the remote workers are discovering. The difficulty of networking with colleagues, prior to and after a layoff is formidable. Suddenly jobless in your own home, cut off from Slack and your work email there is no one to turn to. You are left in isolation. You don’t even know who else has been laid off. Likewise, your employer likely feels less guilt taking your living away from you as a face on Zoom and an email address than he would from a living, breathing person in his office.
Will workers realize the disadvantages remote work has for labor organizing and collective bargaining? If so, how will they respond and what form will that take? Is an increased desire for return-to-office likely? Or will there be a push for alternate ways to connect and organize with your coworkers, in order to discuss salary and network about positions with better conditions and benefits? It seems that already, the recession is empowering those in the executive suite to force white collar workers back into the office. How far will the balance of power tip? Only time will tell, but we study these layoffs for clues.
Then there are larger questions about the greater economic picture. Will these layoffs signify an overall weakening of the labor market, or will it be largely restricted to the tech industry? Furthermore, what does it mean for employment? We are hearing the death-knell of the easy money era caused by low interest rates. Are these layoffs an omen of recession-shaped things to come for the rest of us, or will it be contained? The U.S. GDP is cruising along strong despite taking a pummeling from the Fed. Again, we are left squinting at the morbid twitching of Meta PMs and Spotify UX designers, trying to figure out which way the wind is blowing.
The immediate signs are ominous. The chatter online is that tech layoffs are only going to continue. It's interesting to note that many of those who considered themselves dedicated and valued employees find themselves getting a brisk email from HR. It’s dawning on many that the work-from-home era has further eroded the connection between employer and employees – reducing white collar workers from valued contributors to faceless widgets –temporary workers who can be plugged in to fill a need then hired and fired at will.
It’s easy to see the layoffs as the start of a dystopian future for so-called knowledge workers. But history shows us that the balance of power never tips completely in one direction: the historical record of the ancient Celtic peoples has an interesting twist. In 2006, two bodies were found in bogs in eastern Ireland by workers harvesting peat. From an elaborate hairdo on one body, and the manicured fingernails and fancy jewelry on the other, researchers concluded they had found the remains of Celtic nobility, remarkably preserved in the oxygen-less peat bogs, victims of ritual sacrifice.
It turns out, when Celtic society was under pressure– when a famine was ongoing, or enemy armies closing in, a sacrifice of low-level peons or wartime captives was no longer enough. Instead, in times of great strife, historical peoples often turned on those in leadership positions. The minor kings, who had enjoyed an exalted and pampered position as leaders of men, and selected the tribesmen for death, became targets for ritual sacrifice themselves, in order to ensure a good harvest or positive outcomes in the battles ahead.