Written by Kieran Delamont, Associate Editor, London Inc.

WHAT’S BETTER, MASS, layoffs done all at once, or a slow drip of headcount reductions that seems never-ending? While the economic headlines over the past couple of months have focused mainly on the former, it’s the latter — so-called “forever layoffs” — that have been plaguing employees in 2025, and which are expected to continue into next year.

According to Glassdoor’s Worklife Trends 2026 report, 2025 was the year where, counter to what you might think as you watch news of mass layoffs at Amazon, Bell, GM and others, smaller layoffs dominated, with 51 per cent of all layoffs comprising fewer than 50 individuals. That number sat at just 38 per cent a decade ago.

“Employers have started engaging in smaller but regular layoffs instead of infrequent but large cuts,” Glassdoor’s report reads. Employers, it speculates, believe mass layoffs bring things like resentment and bad press. But the knock from smaller, more frequent cuts may be worse.  

“Rolling layoffs may give companies a way to reduce headcount without making headlines, but they create cultures of anxiety, insecurity and resentment at companies,” Glassdoor wrote, noting that “the connection between employees and leaders feels more tense than ever.”

What impact this may have on performance metrics for the employees that remain is yet to be seen, but early indicators are not good. “Though of course layoffs are nothing new, what feels new is the near constance, even as companies bring in ever more revenue,” wrote Money Moves author Alicia Adamczyk. “What these forever layoffs leave us with is a workforce perpetually anxious about when it will be their turn to lose a job, and with it their income, health insurance, retirement contributions, and, in some cases, sense of purpose.”

Not surprising then that Glassdoor also predicts diminishing employee loyalty for 2026, noting that positive worker ratings of bosses is tanking — while the number of negative reviews spiked by around 25 per cent last year.

“While serial layoffs may fly under the radar, they don’t fool the employees who take on more work afterwards and wonder if they might be next,” Glassdoor wrote.

“The persistent drag from forever layoffs is likely to damage worker morale and workplace culture in 2026 and beyond.”

CAREERS

Job prospects looking bleak? Not if you’re in the corner office

Despite a job market that is increasingly challenging for jobseekers, executive roles abound

OF COURSE, THE double-whammy of the age of forever layoffs is that things are not necessarily coming up Milhouse in the job market these days. Find yourself out of a job, and it might be a while before you land yourself back in a similar role.

That is, unless you’re in the corner office. “At the top of the corporate ladder, openings remain plentiful. C-suite executives are still being actively recruited,” reads a report from Bloomberg News reporter Rachel Phua. “A mix of burnout, retirement and performance pressure is driving some of the churn, while activist investors, artificial intelligence adoption and a pickup in deals are also prompting boards to rethink who they want at the helm.”

So, as Business Insider puts it, CEOs are not job-hugging like the rest of us. The numbers back this up, with the average tenure of CEOs, which peaked at 8.4 years, having now dropped to only 7.2 years as CEOs are shuffled in and out with increasing frequency, according to data from Russell Reynolds Associates.

This dynamic is affecting the Canadian job market as well, says executive consultant David Wexler. “While I can’t speak to the broader market, in the segment where I concern myself, which is working with [Canadian] executives in career transition, the market is currently very active,” he wrote on LinkedIn recently. “Not only are executives landing faster, many are receiving offers from multiple prospective employers in the process.”

Executive search firms, he added, are doing well and are working at full capacity, and candidates at the top are taking advantage of that.

So, if you’re reading this from the corner office, contemplating a career move, perhaps the time is right. On the other hand, if you’re reading this after receiving your 900th automated job screening email, your reaction might be less positive — and with an added dose of profanity (hey, we aren’t judging).

“As the old saying goes,” John Hopkins business professor Richard Smith told Business Insider, “it’s good to be at the top.” 

WORKPLACE

The glue that holds the team together

Motivated by progress, not attention, glue employees may be more valuable to high-performing teams than their star talent

WHAT MAKES YOUR favourite sports team good? Their star performers, maybe. Or perhaps it’s their glue players — the ones on smaller contracts who are holding everything else together?

Same goes for workplaces, say behavioural scientists. “A glue player is the team member who multiplies everyone else’s results, helping the team win,” said Jon Levy, author of Team Intelligence: How Brilliant Leaders Unlock Collective Genius. “Imagine a new employee who feels invisible in meetings. A glue player notices, draws them out privately and then highlights their ideas in the next group discussion. Suddenly, the newcomer feels included, their perspective strengthens the team and the company gains value faster.”

But the plight of the glue employee is a tough one these days. They may be the connective tissue holding an organization together, but they’re also not the star performers with the killer performance metrics, and are at risk of getting caught up in some of those forever layoffs. Many of them are also likely part of middle management layers, among the hardest hit by AI-related job cuts.

Folks like Levy suggest this is the wrong path for firms to go down. “Most evaluation systems measure what is obvious: sales closed, code shipped, campaigns launched. Glue work doesn’t show up in those metrics, so it goes unnoticed,” he told The Wall Street Journal.

“At a certain point, the only way an employee can make sure they stand out is by other people failing around them. When only the top 10 per cent get a giant bonus or a promotion, the corporate hierarchy has incentivized people to fight rather than collaborate and perform at their best.” 

CULTURE

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