Good post! In general, difficult economic conditions have contributed to heavier workloads, higher stress levels and lower morale… So it’s not necessarily a good timing for layoffs (depend of the situation of course) I would say, the negative side of layoffs is that, after the cut, some employees (even for usual “productive employees”!), could become less productive because they are scared to be fire as well. A few can’t deal with their non-productive emotions like insecurity, uncertainty, stress, anger, insomnia, …