How Wrong Is It That There Are Such Things As Layoff Trackers?

Posted at July 28, 2009

I can’t honestly believe it! When did the term ‘layoff tracker’ become part of our normal vocabulary?

Tech Crunch published a blog in which there is a growing chart of company names with corresponding totals of layoffs. Seeing the headline ‘Layoff Tracker’ and reading the Tech Crunch numbers was eye-opening and sad but it made me think, ‘layoff tracker’. ‘Layoff tracker’ is said so often and used by so many in the past year that it’s actually part of our regular language.

I did a search and found that there are over 72,000 websites that promote, use, or write about their layoff trackers. There are even a layoff tracker widgets that you can add to your website and read constant updates on mass layoffs around the world. I researched over two-dozen websites that came up in my search and found that in every single site the purpose of the layoff tracker was to either drive traffic to the website or increase sales, or shall I say revenue, to the tool. I failed to come up with logical purpose of using a layoff tracker widget.

Every entrepreneur needs to make money. Perhaps creators of tools like these have found a niche or at least a way to turn lemons into lemonade. I just want to know to what end could a tool such as a layoff tracker widget possibly do to help? This weblog’s purpose is to help people who’ve been laid off. I am laid off and only speak for myself, but I know I don’t want to see stories of thousands being laid off every hour of every day because it’s depressing, not helpful.

Did you ever think that being laid off would become so commercialized? Please write your thoughts, I’m very interested in getting opinions on this.