Category: Coaching

When Growth Means Goodbye: What Layoffs Are Really Costing Tech Leaders

November 17, 2025

By Susan O’Connor, Shift Left Ltd – Leadership Development for Women in Tech

Layoff patterns continue to hit women hardest. The real cost? Lost leadership capability, slower delivery, and cultures that can’t sustain transformation.

Tech Leaders — We Need to Talk About the Hidden Cost of “Rebalancing”

IBM has just announced another round of cuts — thousands of roles, mostly in the US.
Not a shock. Not unusual. Not isolated.

It’s part of a pattern we’ve watched spread across the industry: restructuring, flattening, “rebalancing”, “optimising”, “aligning to future strategy”, “leveraging AI efficiencies”… pick your preferred corporate synonym for letting people go.

The headlines focus on the numbers. But they miss the human truth inside the business:

The real cost isn’t who goes. It’s who’s left — and what they’re left with.

Organisations are cutting people faster than they’re developing leaders to replace them. And inside engineering, product, and tech functions, the cracks aren’t hairline anymore. They’re structural.

If you’re a CTO, VP Engineering, Director of Product or senior HR leader, this raises a question you cannot ignore:

“Who is being cut, and what is that really costing us in leadership, culture, and

Here’s What the Patterns Shows

We don’t yet have gender-specific figures for the most recent round of layoffs — ONS workforce data always lags by 12–24 months.

But here’s what we DO know from the data we have:

1. Every major redundancy wave has disproportionately impacted women.

·   In Europe, women made up 41.6% of tech layoffs despite being only a third of the workforce.

·   In the US, women accounted for 46% of tech layoffs during October 2022–June 2023.

2. UK workforce data shows women’s representation falls even when the tech sector grows

·   Q4 2022 → Q1 2023: women in tech fell by ~17,000.

·   Q1 2023 → Q2 2023: women in tech fell by ~3,000.

Meanwhile, the overall UK tech workforce grew by around 85,000 between Q1 and Q2 2023.

3. ONS figures show instability, not progress.
Women in tech fluctuated sharply between Q1 2022 (447,000) and Q3 2022 (532,000), before dropping again.

4. Representation remains fragile.
Women still make up only ~22% of the UK tech workforce — and progress is easily reversed during economic stress.

Given this long-term pattern, and with major tech organisations restructuring again in 2024–2025, it is entirely reasonable, and honest, to assume the same disproportionate impact has continued.

Which means your organisation likely has fewer women in tech than it should… at the exact moment you need their leadership capability the most.

If you’re already thinking about the risk inside your own teams, my Expert Directory listing explains exactly how I help tech leaders strengthen culture, retain women in tech, and protect the leadership capability your organisation relies on

What Leaders Rarely See from the Inside


In a global PayTech organisation where I held a senior leadership role, we went through multiple rounds of redundancy over the years. And here’s what most senior leaders never see or realise until it is too late.

The people who stay, the “survivors”, carry guilt, exhaustion, fear, uncertainty, anger, anxiety, and a deep erosion of trust.

Even when my role was not made redundant in earlier rounds, I and everyone was thinking:


“Is my job secure?”

“Can I trust what is being told to me?”

“Should I be preparing to leave?”

“Is this business in trouble”

And when I was made redundant, the response from other women within the business was immediate:


“I’m looking. I don’t want to stay somewhere that’s removing senior women.”

“If they can make you redundant, no-one is safe”

Within three months, they had left.

Operationally, the gaps were huge: influence, continuity, delivery pace, cross-team relationships, institutional memory — gone.

And here’s the uncomfortable truth: women talk. And when one goes, others follow.

The Leadership Capability Organisations Lose When Women Leave

Mid-career women bring leadership capability that is nearly impossible to replace quickly.

When they leave, you lose leaders who can:
• influence across departments
• translate business needs into delivery
• manage conflict and hold psychologically safe teams
• maintain momentum and rebuild trust
• anticipate risks and stakeholder reactions

These are the exact skills you need in AI adoption, transformation and cross-functional delivery.

If you want to retain this level of leadership capability — the influence, the continuity, the cross-functional glue — this is exactly the work I do with tech teams. You can review my Expert Directory listing to see how.

The Opportunity Cost Tech Leaders Can’t Ignore

When someone leaves, especially a mid-career woman, the cost is never just recruitment.

It’s the gap.

And gaps slow down delivery, collaboration, decision-making, quality, innovation and morale.

Your Tech Leads and Engineering Managers suddenly become hiring managers, counsellors, fire-fighters and interim team leads.

Meanwhile, a new hire takes 6–12 months to build the trust, influence and context the woman they replaced already had.

AI Doesn’t Replace Leadership. It Exposes It.

AI can generate code, summarise meetings and flag risks.

But it cannot rebuild morale, repair trust, read the room, support humans through uncertainty or hold culture together.

When layoffs remove women from your pipeline, AI won’t fill the gap. You need humans to do that, and you’ll have fewer of them.

Let’s Talk About Retention — the Real Kind

Maybe it’s too late for you and you have let a lot of your talented future leaders go and are now aware that you need to retain the ones you have left.  Here’s how you can start.

Real retention looks like:

• sponsorship, not vague career chats
• leadership development that builds confidence and capability
• managers who can lead humans, not tasks
• psychologically safe teams
• visible pathways into leadership

This isn’t about “fixing women.” It’s about creating an environment in which they can develop, advance and lead effectively.

Leadership development is often the pivot point.  It’s the stage where a high-performing woman moves from delivering excellent work to unlocking her full potential and driving meaningful impact across the organisation.

This is where organisations like Shift Left come in.

Our work combines practical leadership development, helping women strengthen their influence, presence, gravitas and impact. Together with coaching from experts that have worked in the industry deeper self-awareness and a clearer understanding of the behaviours within the teams and stakeholders they work with, is built. This insight is essential for effective stakeholder management, which is a critical capability for any mature, forward-thinking organisation.

If you want to find out how this could work for you, check out our listing on the Expert Directly and get in touch

Tech Leaders — The Three Questions You Must Ask Yourself

1️⃣ What is the future leadership consequence of our rebalancing?
2️⃣ Are we protecting the culture that enables innovation — or eroding it?
3️⃣ Who are we sponsoring into the needed leadership spaces these changes create?

Retention Isn’t a DEI Problem. It’s a Leadership

Problem.

Mid-career women are not leaving in ones and twos. They are leaving in waves.

When they go, your organisation loses continuity, judgement, cohesion, delivery capability, influence and leadership potential — and gains cost, disruption and slower delivery.

The Lovelace Report makes it clear: women leaving tech is one of the most expensive and preventable losses.

What Forward-Thinking Organisations Are Doing Right Now

Organisations working with Shift Left Ltd are:

• retaining mid-career women
• stabilising delivery during AI and organisational change
• strengthening culture and psychological safety
• accelerating women into leadership
• reducing post-redundancy quiet attrition
• protecting productivity through leadership capability

Leadership — not technology — is your biggest competitive advantage.

If your organisation is restructuring, scaling or losing people, this is the moment to act. My Expert Directory listing outlines how Shift Left Ltd helps tech leaders retain talent, grow future leaders and protect delivery during change

    Looking for suppliers? let us know.





    The Microaggressions That Are Stifling Your Business

    November 13, 2025

    By Susan O’Connor, Shift Left Ltd – Leadership Development for Women in Tech

    Microaggressions in tech workplaces are costing UK businesses millions. Susan O’Connor explains how inclusive leadership can stop the drain.

    It’s Not About the Tea — It’s About the Culture

    I’m not talking about asking the female in the meeting to get the tea, or to sort out lunch – I really hope that isn’t happening (unless that happens to be their job!).
    I’m talking about the subtle comments that land like paper cuts — the kind of microaggressions in the workplace that women in tech experience every day. And paper cuts really hurt!!!!

    Things like:
    “I didn’t know you were that ambitious,” when a female colleague applies for a senior role (even though she’s said it in every appraisal and one-to-one with them).
    “Ooh, here comes Puss in Boots,” because she’s wearing knee-length boots.
    “Can we get Rich in here to confirm this?” when Rich is just a team member and not the Programme Manager.

    All of these are real experiences from my own career — and they’re not isolated.

    The first made me realise that my manager was not sponsoring me for senior positions – he wasn’t even considering me. To him, because I was a middle-aged woman, I obviously wasn’t ambitious anymore! Yet he was the same age as me and still ambitious for his next role.

    The Puss in Boots comment was one of a daily commentary on what I had chosen to wear to work that day. I found myself second-guessing EVERYTHING I wore to avoid drawing attention to it.

    And asking someone else in my team to confirm what I was updating in terms of the programme, well, that not only undermined my confidence — it undermined my authority.

    And this is happening to so many women in tech today, that it’s not surprising that in November, LinkedIn was flooded with updates on Women in Tech new jobs — a small but visible signal of how gender bias in technology still plays out in 2025.

    If you recognise this pattern in your own organisation, view my Expert Directory listing to see how Susan O’Connor and Shift Left Ltd help companies create inclusive leadership cultures that drive performance and retention.

    The Hidden Cost of Microaggressions in Tech Organisations

    When microaggressions in tech go unchecked, they don’t just damage confidence — they damage performance, retention, and reputation. They quietly corrode psychological safety at work, and that impacts everything from collaboration to creativity.

    If women in your organisation face a constant barrage of subtle undermining, the following happens:

    1. They start to hate working there (or with that individual), leading to potential sickness absence often related to stress.
    2. They usually don’t raise what is happening, for fear of being labelled “too sensitive” or being targeted even more negatively.
    3. They become wary of every interaction, second-guessing how they’ll be perceived, leading to less input in meetings, going quiet, and withdrawing.

    A woman who doesn’t trust her colleagues won’t be performing at her best. She’ll be spending her energy managing perception, not performance. And before long, she’ll be looking elsewhere — contributing to the industry-wide challenge of retaining women in tech.

    The outcome? Lost innovation, lower productivity, and higher attrition — all avoidable costs for your business. Inclusive leadership in technology isn’t a nice-to-have; it’s a business imperative.

    If you’re seeing these patterns in your tech teams, view my Expert Directory listing to learn how Susan O’Connor and Shift Left Ltd helps organisations retain and accelerate women in technology through leadership coaching and culture transformation.

    How to Stop the Slide — Build Awareness, Accountability and Support

    There are two sides to addressing microaggressions in the workplace: prevention and support. If you’re wondering how to reduce microaggressions at work, it starts with awareness and accountability.

    1. Raise Awareness and Accountability
    Ignorance isn’t an excuse. Create forums for honest conversation. Equip managers to recognise the impact of their words and actions. And when someone crosses the line, address it. Consequences matter.

    2. Support the Women Affected
    Not everyone will speak up. Coaching and leadership development in tech can help women to rebuild confidence, reframe their experience, and strengthen resilience. This isn’t about “fixing women” — it’s about coaching for women in technology that gives them tools to navigate and challenge what shouldn’t be happening in the first place.

    3. Teach Leaders to Listen and Act
    Managers and senior leaders must hear what’s being said — and do something about it. Not hush it up. Do not push it into HR purgatory. And definitely NOT offer a settlement agreement with an associated NDA. Call it out. Model what leadership should look like.

    4. Build a Culture of Calling It Out
    Imagine a workplace where inclusive leadership is the norm — where inclusive workplace culture is visible day to day. That’s what organisational culture transformation really means: behaviour, not slogans.

    Want to start building that culture? Start by supporting your Women in Tech and provide them with coaching that accelerates readiness for leadership, strengthens retention, and drives performance. Shift Left Ltd works with leaders to help them retain talent, grow leaders, and drive results.

    The Business Case for Getting It Right

    The 2025 Lovelace Report found that the UK tech sector loses up to £3.5 billion a year due to women leaving roles they could have (should have) thrived in. Much of that loss stems from disengagement and cultures that quietly exclude — proof that diversity and inclusion in technology is both an ethical and commercial issue.

    If your business wants to retain female tech talent and build a diverse tech leadership pipeline, this is where to start. Programmes that focus on leadership development for women in technology create measurable returns in performance, innovation, and retention.

    Final Thought

    Microaggressions might seem small, but their impact isn’t. They drive out talent, weaken leadership pipelines, and cost millions in lost productivity. The solution is inclusive tech leadership that creates trust, fairness, and accountability.

    Build awareness. Support your women. Hold people accountable.

    Want to start building that culture? Start with supporting your Women in Tech and provide them with coaching that accelerates readiness for leadership, strengthens retention, and drives performance. View my Expert Directory listing to see how Shift Left Ltd helps leaders retain talent, grow leaders, and drive results.


    Change doesn’t start with policy; it starts with people.