Automation Comes for Knowledge Workers: Undermining High-Tech Workers During 2022-2024 Layoffs

• In Event: 20881 - Section on Labor and Labor Movements Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 6: Technology and the Future of Work

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of mass layoffs in the high-tech industry from 2022 to 2024, focusing on shifting labor relations and the role of automation. Historically, high-tech jobs have been viewed as privileged and resistant to unionization due to their individualist culture (Saxenian 1996). However, the recent wave of layoffs—including among software engineers—has disrupted the employee-driven labor market, leading to increased discussions on collective bargaining (Sheehan & Williams 2023). Using ethnographic content analysis of subReddit threads, this study explores how tech workers perceive job security, skill, and automation in the wake of mass layoffs. Reddit’s anonymity allows workers to express concerns about labor precarity and unionization that might not emerge in traditional research methods. By analyzing these discussions, the study sheds light on the growing realization that even highly skilled knowledge workers are vulnerable to economic downturns and technological displacement. Theoretically, this research extends labor process theory to the tech industry, considering how automation and deskilling—central to Braverman’s (1974) framework—apply to knowledge work. While some argue that knowledge replaces skill in modern economies (Adler 2007), others suggest that skill itself is being redefined, leading to greater labor instability (Aronowitz 2010). Ultimately, this study argues that the tech industry's resistance to unionization is eroding as workers face new vulnerabilities. By employing digital ethnographic methods, it also highlights how online spaces serve as crucial arenas for understanding shifting labor dynamics in the knowledge economy.

Author

• Sophia Katharine Harris, University of Colorado-Boulder