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Ask HN: Who is firing?

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Re: Ask HN: Who is firing?

#341

Post by jknoepfler »

intoverflow2 wrote: post #184
jknoepfler wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Companies can self-consistently seek to hire the best and fire the worst from the the hired-pool. 1. Hiring is a noisy process. You can tune your hiring test to lean more towards false negatives or more towards false positives, but you cannot (at this juncture in history) eliminate a large amount of bias (error) from evaluations of candidates. 2. Regression to the mean ensures that any hiring process that sets a "hig…

Knew the HN SV crowd would find a way to spin this as "This is good for "

For the record, I am neither employed in or near Silicon Valley (not that it should matter), nor do I have any strong beliefs about whether or not actively weeding out developers is a good tactic for a business (five years ago I would have said it wasn't, now I'm agnostic).

Whatever my beliefs or situation though, it's not hard for anyone to understand how a medium-to-large scale organization with a high hiring bar could make a rational decision to "hire the best" while still making an effort to release the least valuable developers in the company.

An alternative strategy is Google's. Google tunes their hiring process to produce almost exclusively false negatives rather than false positives (they very deliberately reject qualified candidates far more often than they hire under-qualified candidates). With this hiring strategy in place, it wouldn't make as much sense for Google to "weed out" developers.

And for the record I think 20th-century impersonal, statistical business thinking is toxic, but that doesn't mean I don't see its use or that I know of a better way to do things.

Re: Ask HN: Who is firing?

#342

Post by muyuu »

jszymborski wrote: post #339
KB1JWQ wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hand of fate is moving and its finger points to you It throws you on the street; now what's next for you? Your options: worthless, and you're bound by NDA Pied Piper seems quite cushy, best update your resume -- Iron Maiden, "The Wickr Man"

are you suggesting he apply for a job at that new compression company Hooli tried to buy?

Their middle-out algorithm doe, what a Weisman score.

Re: Ask HN: Who is firing?

#343

Post by mywittyname »

cookiecaper wrote: post #336
Curnee wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it hard to believe Trump wouldn't, or hasn't, done exactly as Hertz has done. This seems like an all too common stratagem for upper echelons within a business to convince shareholders that the books are healing.

Trump does this kind of thing because he believes it's necessary to compete. For example, he makes neckties in China/Mexico/wherever because that's the only way one can do so profitably. Trump is the epitome of "Don't hate the player, hate the game". While Trump has played the game as necessary in the business world, Trump claims he is running for office so that he can change policies such that offshoring American jo…

Tangential discussion: but change comes from within. There are plenty of companies out there who figured out a way to make a profit operating against industry norms, like making their clothes in the US -- Raleigh Denim comes to mind.

Trump could absolutely have (hired someone to) figure out a way to make a profit on artisanal ties. He was just too concerned with maximizing personal gain to care.

Re: Ask HN: Who is firing?

#344

Post by more_corn »

jdale27 wrote: post #16
ryandrake wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of my favorite sites back in the day! I remember checking it daily to make sure my employer wasn't there. Fun times! We seem to be missing that edge--that deep cynicism and unashamed negativity--this time around.

Well, as they say: "This time it's different!"

Isn't the quote "This time... will be different!!!" And then when the corn kills him again and: "That's not different at all now, is it Steve?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TMOMTtAMBI

We are all Steve and this time will not be different.

Re: Ask HN: Who is firing?

#345

Post by iLemming »

anon2020 wrote: post #90
jennisNo wrote: post #63

Acorns is not firing people, but has already lost ~15 top performers due to poor executive leadership

The same is happening to Funding Circle in the UK. The company is still profitable, but a lot of devs are leaving because of certain decisions.

Do you mean decision of becoming Clojure-centric? That was probably the best thing that could happen. Can't say about UK but in the US office we are interviewing for engineering positions almost every day.

Re: Ask HN: Who is firing?

#346

Post by jknoepfler »

kefka wrote: post #217
intoverflow2 wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Knew the HN SV crowd would find a way to spin this as "This is good for "

Its not a spin. Its the actual business process and thought behind it. The solution to that is challenge it with clout equal to the business. And that means unions. Only when 2 powers butt heads, will there be any fairness out of that.

> Its the actual business process and thought behind it.

Exactly. Even if one disagrees with a thought process (actually, especially if one disagrees with a thought process), one should still seek to understand it inasmuch as possible. Otherwise one is doomed to repeat it.

Re: Ask HN: Who is firing?

#347

Post by toomuchtodo »

stevetursi wrote: post #289

Hertz laid off nearly the entirety of their rank and file IT staff earlier this year. https://news.slashdot.org/story/16/02/13/1630244/hertz-is-pu... In order to receive our severance, we were forced to train our IBM replacements, who were in India. Hertz's strategy of IBM and Austerity is the new SMT's solution for a balance sheet that's in shambles, yet they have rewarded themselves by increasing executive compensa…

I appreciate you taking the time to post this. I'll make sure to never use Hertz again.

Re: Ask HN: Who is firing?

#348

Post by toomuchtodo »

hsod wrote: post #331
pjc50 wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm always astonished that companies that treat their IT staff this way don't find landmines left behind more often that destroy their infrastructure.

Really? It sounds like you're describing a felony, and one that would probably not that hard to be traced back to the perpetrator.

You're naive if you think this doesn't happen more often than not. Some shops are very good about preventing this, most enterprises are not. Drop a bunch of USB sticks in the parking lot or other common areas, someone else ends up doing the work for you.

Re: Ask HN: Who is firing?

#349

Post by roninb »

7Z7 wrote: post #335
cwilkes wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably related to Coventry being "ignored" in WWII by British officials so that German wouldn't catch on that the enigma machine was broken. http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-11486219

The phrase is much older than that.. >Grose's The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue - 1811: >>To send one to Coventry; a punishment inflicted by officers of the army on such of their brethren as are testy, or have been guilty of improper behaviour, not worthy the cognizance of a court martial. The person sent to Coventry is considered as absent; no one must speak to or answer any question he asks, except relative to du…

Wow, I wonder how effective time-out was on infantrymen of the early 19th century and how often it was enforced. It seems like an analog to solitary confinement while still forcing you to be a contributing member of your armed forces.

Re: Ask HN: Who is firing?

#350

Post by lizavp »

d23 wrote: post #247
patmcguire wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Twitter is a known tire fire. When I was out in San Francisco everyone who worked at Twitter had a shell-shocked look and talked about the experience the same way they would if they'd just gone to use the restroom and found a dead body.

Can anyone actually give any details here or is everyone just gonna do the "nudge nudge wink wink" thing?

Vine was warned by their power users and Vine ignored them.
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