Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Yahoo planning 10% layoffs as early as this month, report says

bizjournals.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 140 posts

Re: Yahoo planning 10% layoffs as early as this month, report says

#21

Post by andrewvc »

w1ntermute wrote: post #12
Esau wrote: post #9

Don't worry people; I am sure the CEO will be okay.

Mayer will be walking away with a $158M golden parachute[0], and will undoubtedly have another nice executive position lined up in no time. It's amazing how much respect she's garnered in the tech community. From all the public info on her, she doesn't seem to have much product vision - rather, she's just a manager who's good at making data-driven decisions (the infamous "41 shades of blue"[1]) to incrementally optim…

I agree and disagree with your point. It's incredibly hard to determine how much good a new CEO has done, and how much is inertia. I think that's a strong argument against the incredibly high CEO pay in contemporary companies, it dramatically underestimates the importance of the work of the rank and file.

That being said, if you ARE going to judge her by contemporary CEO standards, the question is, would anyone else have done better? And of the set of people who could have done better, how many would take an offer to fix yahoo contingent on performance? I think the answer is probably zero.

The whole system is rigged, companies feel like they have to pick someone out of a relatively narrow talent pool, and since they are (wrongly) in such demand, they can all command extremely high salaries.

Re: Yahoo planning 10% layoffs as early as this month, report says

#22

Post by Alupis »

aaronbrethorst wrote: post #19
Alupis wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's only the people who did the work and made the stuff who will be laid off. Well... what do you expect? You're either the job creator or the job filler. If you could create jobs and had the right motivation and ability to do so, you wouldn't be filling a job. > Their fault for not cultivating the right connections. And yes, knowing the right people is part of that game. And yes, sometimes the job creators must d…

You're either the job creator or the job filler. Please explain to me which one of those labels best applies to the executive team at Yahoo.

> Please explain to me which one of those labels best applies to the executive team at Yahoo

Clearly the former. In 2012 Yahoo had 11,700 employees, and by 2014 they had 12,500 employees.[1] The 10% layoff is going to be around the difference there (so net zero), but I don't think any reasonable person could argue not cutting jobs in this situation would result in a net gain for Yahoo.

It's a company in trouble, and it's a reasonable course of action.

[1] http://www.statista.com/statistics/260291/number-of-full-tim...

Re: Yahoo planning 10% layoffs as early as this month, report says

#23

Post by Alupis »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #20
Alupis wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's only the people who did the work and made the stuff who will be laid off. Well... what do you expect? You're either the job creator or the job filler. If you could create jobs and had the right motivation and ability to do so, you wouldn't be filling a job. > Their fault for not cultivating the right connections. And yes, knowing the right people is part of that game. And yes, sometimes the job creators must d…

If you could create jobs and had the right motivation and ability to do so, you wouldn't be filling a job. Haha... I'm happy you believe this. No sarcasm; it just made me wish that I still did. In this world, merit is judged by more than ability. Motive, if not aimed perfectly, is a burden that will decrease your chances, not increase them. Background is so important. My family was totally broken, like one hundred pe…

There are many counter examples to your anecdote. Larry Ellison comes to mind, but there are others (in fact, most of our most successful people come from very broken backgrounds).

It's what you do with that drive/anger/passion/frustration/motivation/defiance that counts.

It takes a lot of risk, and guts to strike out and create jobs - and more often than not it doesn't work out... but that's all part of the game.

It's one thing to be really good at what you do... to even be the best. It's another thing entirely to convince other really good and sometimes the best people to work for you, your company, and your ideas.

Re: Yahoo planning 10% layoffs as early as this month, report says

#24

Post by jkot »

andrewvc wrote: post #21
w1ntermute wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mayer will be walking away with a $158M golden parachute[0], and will undoubtedly have another nice executive position lined up in no time. It's amazing how much respect she's garnered in the tech community. From all the public info on her, she doesn't seem to have much product vision - rather, she's just a manager who's good at making data-driven decisions (the infamous "41 shades of blue"[1]) to incrementally optim…

I agree and disagree with your point. It's incredibly hard to determine how much good a new CEO has done, and how much is inertia. I think that's a strong argument against the incredibly high CEO pay in contemporary companies, it dramatically underestimates the importance of the work of the rank and file. That being said, if you ARE going to judge her by contemporary CEO standards, the question is, would anyone else…

I think the question is not if CEO is good, but if CEO is worth her/his salary.

Re: Yahoo planning 10% layoffs as early as this month, report says

#27

Post by vinceguidry »

jkot wrote: post #24
andrewvc wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree and disagree with your point. It's incredibly hard to determine how much good a new CEO has done, and how much is inertia. I think that's a strong argument against the incredibly high CEO pay in contemporary companies, it dramatically underestimates the importance of the work of the rank and file. That being said, if you ARE going to judge her by contemporary CEO standards, the question is, would anyone else…

I think the question is not if CEO is good, but if CEO is worth her/his salary.

Hmm, I would think salary would be one of the smaller considerations when choosing a CEO at that level. It's generally going to be a drop in the budget compared to annual revenue. A negotiation point for sure, but more of a side show to other concerns.

Re: Yahoo planning 10% layoffs as early as this month, report says

#28

Post by [deleted] »

jkot wrote: post #24
andrewvc wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree and disagree with your point. It's incredibly hard to determine how much good a new CEO has done, and how much is inertia. I think that's a strong argument against the incredibly high CEO pay in contemporary companies, it dramatically underestimates the importance of the work of the rank and file. That being said, if you ARE going to judge her by contemporary CEO standards, the question is, would anyone else…

I think the question is not if CEO is good, but if CEO is worth her/his salary.

[deleted]

Re: Yahoo planning 10% layoffs as early as this month, report says

#29

Post by ausjke »

Been a yahoo mail premium member for so many years (along with its calendar) it's something I care daily. From about 2 years ago the new mail became a hit or miss randomly, overall a much worse experience than what I used to have, and I am unhappy about that.

To me since Mayer came to power, yahoo email became less reliable, a big negative.

Re: Yahoo planning 10% layoffs as early as this month, report says

#30

Post by sillysaurus3 »

Alupis wrote: post #23
sillysaurus3 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you could create jobs and had the right motivation and ability to do so, you wouldn't be filling a job. Haha... I'm happy you believe this. No sarcasm; it just made me wish that I still did. In this world, merit is judged by more than ability. Motive, if not aimed perfectly, is a burden that will decrease your chances, not increase them. Background is so important. My family was totally broken, like one hundred pe…

There are many counter examples to your anecdote. Larry Ellison comes to mind, but there are others (in fact, most of our most successful people come from very broken backgrounds). It's what you do with that drive/anger/passion/frustration/motivation/defiance that counts. It takes a lot of risk, and guts to strike out and create jobs - and more often than not it doesn't work out... but that's all part of the game. It…

Correlation: Look up Sam's comments about his parents. Think of pg's background. Of the successful people from broken backgrounds, they were usually successful by moving on to affluent universities where they recovered.

It's one thing to be really good at what you do... to even be the best. It's another thing entirely to convince other really good and sometimes the best people to work for you, your company, and your ideas.

This is in fact the central argument of my original comment: Merit is mostly communication, and your ability to communicate is defined by the context you grow up in. Not in spite of it.

When the world shapes you, reshaping yourself is not the only thing that matters. Your old mistakes can brand you for life.

Post reply on HN