It took a little while to realize that the culture of positivity there was a toxic kind of positivity. Management seemed unwilling or unable to have the kinds of tough conversations necessary to navigate the Covid-19 pandemic, and at the end of the day the people who were spared layoffs were the ones who were part of "the family" and not those who were actually top performers.
The rest of us were given the false impression that the company was working hard to keep us, but unfortunately the CEO seemed blinded by national politics over the reality of the business market. All the necessary pivots happened too late, including transitioning the staff to work from home, because upper management only seemed to want to view the market landscape through the lens of Trumpism.
Of course I don't know the whole story, but I do know based on public record that they applied for and were approved for the federal payroll loan program for up to $1m. They then laid off a good number of their staff and kept only family members. And to make myself perfectly clear - I mean they laid off some of the top-performing recruiters they had in order to keep blood relatives who didn't even have a consistent job title or function on board.
I don't think this was done maliciously, but I do think a culture of poor planning and prioritization led to that moment and will continue to drive the company moving forward. The reason I say that is because the timing of the layoffs happened to where those affected will not be getting the full three months of extra unemployment money, and I think if they were really looking at the big picture they would have taken that into account.