I don’t care how much he was pushed. He’s the guy at the helm. Part of that lavish comp package should be the ability to say “we don’t need that many employees; that hiring is not in the best interests of investors/customers”.

this. my small company in 2020 & 2021, grew with COVID like most tech companies. But last year, we scaled back hiring more, heck we struggled to hire as anybody worth a penny was picked up for higher wages by the big boys. we are not laying anyone off. heck I am looking to hire aggressively this year, as others lay off.

Part of being a competent leader is correctly assessing staffing needs of your org. If you suck at upsizing your staffing needs correctly, why should we trust that you don't also suck at downsizing correctly. I have little respect for leaderships that overhire then layoff. I view them as incompetent.