Laying Off the "Vital Arteries": Modern Enterprises Should Learn from History and Be Cautious in Layoffs

Abstract

Taking the historical event of Sima You, Prince of Qi in the Western Jin Dynasty, being excluded from the imperial court as the starting point, this paper analyzes the important role of key figures in maintaining organizational stability. Sima You was highly respected and outstanding in ability; he could have stabilized various forces in the Western Jin imperial court and prevented the outbreak of the "War of the Eight Princes". However, after he was forcibly "laid off" (excluded from the court) by Sima Yan, Emperor Wu of Jin, the court lost its stabilizer, eventually leading to 16 years of internal chaos. By in-depth analysis of this historical case and combining it with modern enterprise management theories, this paper discusses the potential risks in enterprise layoff decisions. It puts forward management suggestions that enterprises should learn from history, carefully evaluate layoff decisions, and avoid "laying off the vital arteries".