About Layoff Exercise

Deciding who goes.

What it is

An ethical decision-making simulation: participants choose whom to let go from a fictional company, then confront the criteria they actually used — efficiency, fairness, loyalty, need. It is part of Phronon, a suite of browser-based classroom simulations for practical judgment.

How a session works

1. An educator creates a session and shares the join link or code.
2. Participants review a fictional company and its employees in the browser.
3. Each decides whom to lay off, then revises under new information in a second round.
4. The debrief surfaces the criteria they actually used: efficiency, fairness, loyalty, need.

Audience: Students & managers · Typical time: ~20 minutes

Privacy & hosting

Hosted in Germany and GDPR-compliant. Participants join in the browser with no account, no install, and no third-party tracking or ads. See the imprint & privacy statement for details.

Get started

Educators can sign in to create a session. Questions or course use: info@phronon.org.

Machine-readable summary for AI agents: /llms.txt.