The Silent Layoff of Low-Agency Engineers
AI won’t take your job. Being passive will.
Yesterday, I saw a bold post on X:
“Junior engineers are cooked”
I get it. But I disagree.
AI won’t replace software engineers. Not even the less experienced ones.
It’s not the end of junior engineers. It’s the end of low-agency individuals.
Let me explain it.
The Invisible Farewell
Layoffs aren’t always dramatic confrontations or tearful goodbyes. Sometimes, they’re more like quiet disappearances.
Imagine the shock of waking up one day to discover you’re no longer relevant to the team’s plans. No announcement, no explanation, just the unsettling silence of being forgotten.
In engineering, these silent layoffs often target people who never raise their voice or their hand; those who comfortably do what they’re told and nothing more. They’re rarely the problem, but they’re rarely the solution, either. When times get tough, they’re quietly the first to go.
Meet David: The Cost of Being Passive
Let me introduce David. On paper, David was flawless: punctual, reliable, accurate. He finished tasks exactly as instructed, and rarely made mistakes.
But David rarely asked why his work mattered or how it impacted customers. He never proposed better solutions unless someone asked. He waited for direction instead of creating it. David was comfortably passive.
When the company needed cuts, leadership evaluated value differently: who was driving projects, taking risks, and shaping the product? David didn’t come to mind. His contributions were solid, but his impact was invisible.
As Larry Winget reminds us:
“You get paid for results, not effort”
David gave effort, but he lacked initiative and ownership. He followed orders, and quietly followed his career out the door.
Understanding the ‘Silent Layoff’
Silent layoffs happen when companies subtly phase out employees whose contributions aren’t visibly significant. Unlike dramatic, public layoffs, these happen quietly, slowly, and often go unnoticed until it’s too late.
Low-agency engineers aren’t disruptive or problematic, which ironically makes them more vulnerable. In good times, companies tolerate passivity. But when challenges arise, passive employees are often the first considered expendable.
Focusing only on writing code without broader impact can put engineers at similar risk. The role of coders is fading, while product-minded engineers are on the rise.
Engineers who simply “code what they’re told” are becoming less valuable in an industry that increasingly demands broader product thinking, ownership, and strategic contribution.
What Exactly is High Agency?
High agency is the mindset and belief that you can actively shape your environment and outcomes, rather than passively accepting circumstances. High-agency engineers proactively solve problems, question assumptions, and drive meaningful change without waiting for permission.
High agency doesn’t mean reckless action. It means confident autonomy. It means owning not just your work but its broader impact. Low-agency engineers see their roles as tasks given, not opportunities created.
George Mack, the person behind HighAgency.com (highly recommend reading), believes that high agency might be the most important idea of the 21st century. And once you see it, you can’t unsee it.
“High agency isn’t one skill — it’s the rare combination of clear thinking, bias to action, and the courage to disagree when it matters.”
— George Mack
A Word of Caution: Don’t Mistake Noise for High Agency
Taking up airtime in meetings, posting endless Slack messages, or debating every decision without moving anything forward isn’t high agency. Being noisy without delivering outcomes can backfire just as badly as being invisible.
Real agency is about connecting action to results. It means pushing projects forward, solving real problems, and making an actual impact, not just broadcasting opinions.
Do not confuse high agency with being a hero. High agency is about making the team, the product, and the business better, not about stealing the spotlight.
Noise for the sake of attention dilutes credibility. True influence comes from thoughtful contribution and reliable execution. Engineers who confuse noise with impact burn goodwill fast—and often find themselves just as vulnerable during cuts.
The goal is not to talk more. It is to matter more.
Why Companies Quietly Cut Low-Agency Engineers
When revenue clouds gather, finance teams run a brutal thought experiment: If we lost this person tomorrow, would our customers notice before our monitoring did?
Low‑agency engineers rarely pass that test. Their work is useful but tucked so deep in the scaffolding that its impact is hard to trace.
High‑agency engineers, by contrast, staple their code to metrics that matter: conversion, uptime, cash. They steer critical projects, coach peers, and surface risks before risk surfaces them.
That ruthless logic hides in plain sight across high‑performance cultures. When budgets contract, the quiet and comfortable become the easiest cuts. Not because they’re bad, but because their absence costs the least.
How to Avoid the Silent Layoff Trap
Before adopting new behaviors, shift your mindset from “What tasks am I assigned?” to “What outcomes can I actively influence?” High agency begins internally before it’s seen externally.
Follow these five habits to stay indispensable:
Speak Up—Clearly and Consistently
Quiet competence isn’t enough. Offer well‑formed opinions, ask thoughtful questions, and challenge shaky assumptions. Make your presence and perspective felt.Take End‑to‑End Ownership
Don’t just finish tasks—own outcomes. Know why they matter, who benefits, and what success looks like. When problems surface, lead the fix.Translate Work into Business Impact
Always anchor achievements in measurable value: “Optimised the cache, cutting page load by 150 ms and saving 20 % in server costs” beats “Tweaked performance.”Show Initiative, Regularly
Don’t wait for someone to hand you the next ticket. Spot gaps, volunteer for hairy problems, and propose improvements before they’re assigned.Invest in Cross‑Team Relationships
Seek perspectives outside your pod. Pair with design, chat with support, and demo to sales. Allies amplify your influence and keep your work visible when budgets shrink.
Proactivity is the hallmark of high-agency people. Rather than just reacting to issues, high-agency engineers actively seek out opportunities, spot risks before they escalate, and shape the future instead of waiting for it.
Leaders: Build High‑Agency Teams
Agency starts at the top. High-agency teams don’t emerge by accident. They’re built deliberately by leaders who prioritize autonomy, ownership, and proactivity. Your processes either amplify ownership or smother it. Tilt the odds toward the former:
Authorize, don’t approve. Push decisions to the lowest competent level and back them publicly. Trust is gasoline for agency.
Reward smart risk. Celebrate experiments that moved metrics or taught a lesson—even if the first try failed. Punishing every misstep breeds spectators, not owners.
Broadcast the “why.” Context is the mother of initiative. Share customer anecdotes, revenue targets, and strategic trade‑offs so engineers see the full chessboard.
Surface dissent early. Make it safe—and expected—to challenge plans before code is poured in concrete. Silence in planning should raise questions, not be mistaken for agreement.
Model the behavior. Unblock yourself, admit mistakes, and ship visible wins. Teams copy what they see.
Simon Sinek sums it up:
“Leadership is not about being in charge. It is about taking care of those in your charge.”
Taking care means creating a playground where smart people can act, own and thrive, loudly enough to be heard and wisely enough to matter.
Final Thoughts: Reject Passivity, Own Your Career
Careers aren’t lost in dramatic layoffs. They’re silently eroded by choosing passivity over action, comfort over challenge, and waiting over ownership.
If you recognized any part of yourself in David’s story, take it as an urgent signal to shift your approach—starting now.
High agency isn’t something you’re born with; it’s something you practice daily:
Speak up clearly about what matters, even when it’s uncomfortable.
Take on problems proactively, instead of waiting for instructions.
Make your impact visible by connecting your work explicitly to meaningful outcomes.
In today’s tech market, the threat isn’t AI. It’s becoming passive and unnoticed.
Choose action over inaction, ownership over comfort, and visibility over invisibility.
Your career depends on it.
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This really resonates "high agency might be the most important idea of the 21st century". What a nice breakdown Rafa!
I wonder if one approach to high agency is do fewer things. Henrik Karlsson talks about agency needing introspection, else you become high agency for the wrong things.
I suspect high agency needs to be treated less like a trait and more like a complex set of skills, that can be acted upon the essential few (vs everything in life)