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SpaceX to lay off 10% of Workforce

latimes.com

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Re: SpaceX to lay off 10% of Workforce

#441

Post by njarboe »

sitkack wrote: post #236
yholio wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> towards sitting on the falcon 9 and launching to LEO. That would still leave them with many thousands of redundant employees. Falcon 9 is done and the production is dropping due to reusability. Recently, they had a 3rd re-flight of the same core, which, coupled with the slowdown of the global launch market, means that in the next years they will need to produce a third to a half of the number of cores they used in…

> they can't justify keeping those people around I would have put them on other Musk projects to keep them from going to the competition. SpaceX doesn't have a monopoly on low cost launch. The next place to figure out how to 3d print a tungsten titanium copper nickel chromium iron one piece rocket nozzle will also have that advantage.

If Musk is really more interested in getting humanity into space as soon as possible then padding his already large bankroll, having some competition can really keep people and companies focused on making quick progress. I have heard him say he would like some more companies competing with SpaceX in interviews for just this reason and his actions seem to suggest he his main goal in life really is making humanity a multi-planet civilization.

He also said that he joined Tesla to help jump start the electric car revolution by a decade and his total asset liquidation in 2008 to support Tesla and SpaceX seems to support that this attitude is not just some PR move, but who knows for sure.

Re: SpaceX to lay off 10% of Workforce

#442

Post by ecshafer »

AdrianB1 wrote: post #425
syntaxing wrote: post #410

It's not unsual to layoff 10% of your workforce in hardware companies but it is unusual for a "growing" company. To put in perspective Pratt and Whitney laid off about 10-15% a couple years ago when they were in between the phasing out of the old engine and ramping up the new engine. Sometimes companies are unlucky because there is a drought where the demand for the new stuff is lower than the demand of old stuff but…

It is normal to layoff about 5% per year, you trim the one in the 20 that is the weakest and it has positive, not negative effects. Going to 10% is a bit stretch, but still workable. In the last companies I worked, if up to 20% of the people left one day it would have an immediate positive impact on the performance, less complexity to deal with and more focus to work on real stuff.

5% is insane, I would never work for a company that regularly laid off that many people. Firing under performers is one thing, but to systematically clear house is toxic. How are you supposed to build a career if one of your coworkers/friends is canned every year, so everyone is wondering what year is theirs? So people overwork themselves to make sure it doesn't happen to them. You need to show your employees safety, so one bad project doesn't ruin their lives.

Re: SpaceX to lay off 10% of Workforce

#443

Post by TheCoelacanth »

Spooky23 wrote: post #431
TheCoelacanth wrote: post #430

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The employment to population ratio is 79.7% for people 25-54. That has only been exceeded for less than 10 years in history. The only time it has ever been exceeded by more than a point was June 1997-May 2001 during the dot-com bubble.

For some demographic groups, labor force participation is significantly lower. This is what I’m referring to. Unemployment only factors in labor force participants. Data: https://www.bls.gov/emp/tables/civilian-labor-force-particip...

Employment to population ratio does not exclude anyone. It is the number of people divided by the number of people who are employed. It is also not 2016 anymore. The prime-age labor force participation rate has risen about a point since then.

Labor force participation rate is also not a measure of employment. It is the number of people who are employed plus the number of people who are actively looking for employment but who aren't employed. If you want strictly what portion of the population is currently working, that is employment to population ratio, which is what I posted.

Re: SpaceX to lay off 10% of Workforce

#444

Post by tasssko »

sokoloff wrote: post #405
tasssko wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem here is you said I. Personally if anyone in my company fires someone because “I no longer need your services” will be fired for hiring someone permanent that needed firing. Also if they follow our hiring criteria we want them in other places. This across the board lay-off is a sign of some kind of corporate correction. My advice is to think of it that the people you manage work for the company not for you…

If you fire a permanent hire for doing that, presumably you then also need firing for making a permanent hire that needed firing...

Well done ...

Re: SpaceX to lay off 10% of Workforce

#446

Post by grogers »

marktangotango wrote: post #419
14 wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would you do when you got there? Thought it was sort of inhabitable for humans with such temperature swings.

Read up on mercury, it’s tide locked one face to the sun, other side dark and cold. There’s dusk/sunrise zone that’s probably livable.

Mercury is 3:2 locked, it still has normal days (although they are longer than its year). The poles don't get direct sunlight though so they are frigid all the time.

Re: SpaceX to lay off 10% of Workforce

#447

Post by 7e »

MarcysVonEylau wrote: post #438

It all makes sense when you look at basic facts. Rocket reuse became a normal occurance, probably earlier than the majority of the industry anticipated. Their competitive pricing took the market by storm, changing the equation of sending anything to space. There are less new payloads to launch in 2019, because it takes much longer to contract and build a satellite than to send it to space, and the market hasn't yet a…

The launch market is very small and it's always taken longer to build a satellite than to provision the launch vehicle.

These layoffs are a direct result of SpaceX's recent failures to raise money.

Re: SpaceX to lay off 10% of Workforce

#448

Post by dogma1138 »

jamiek88 wrote: post #439
dogma1138 wrote: post #422

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Define easy anyone who works on such technologies is on some FBI database somewhere and likely more than just one. SpaceX doesn’t hire non-US citizens due to how hard it is to get the security clearance needed for them if they try to go to China they will likely get caught maybe not everyone, but enough to prevent any real knowledge transfer and more importantly the first one that will get caught is going to be made…

They can and do hire approved permanent residents too. It’s harder but they can work on ITAR information too. However the point stands that those people are vetted and tracked. How effective that is once they are in China or Russia etc I don’t know.

They can but I don’t think they do that Elon was asked several why don’t they hire non citizens.

I’m sure some special cases do happen but the bulk of their workforce is US citizens.

And again you assume that they won’t get caught going to Russia or China to begin with or that they won’t be tasked with assets in country once they arrive.

We’re talking about 500-600 people here out of them it’s not clear how many would be really critical for technology transfer prevention but say it’s 25% so what we have is about 150 people or so that need to be tracked say 10% out of those will be contacted by a foreign entity that’s what 15 people?

It’s really not hard to track them at that point.

In fact I would guarantee you that this likely will be covered by their exit interview, they might even get a “scary” federal agent explaining them the do’s and don’ts and likely many of them already know them.

And again this isn’t a new thing, NASA and the defense industry have fired people before it’s jot like it’s the first time that 500 people with security clearances lose jobs.

Re: SpaceX to lay off 10% of Workforce

#449

Post by shaklee3 »

vidarh wrote: post #272
shaklee3 wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it has anything to do with launch costs. Satellites take a very long time to develop, and they're hundreds of millions of dollars. You have one shot to get it right, and lowering launch costs doesn't really make a big dent in that.

Satellites are that expensive in large part because if you're spending hundreds of millions on a launch anyway, you can't afford to launch ten cheaper satellites. To be a bit hyperbolic: if launches were cheap enough you'd have amateurs launching stuff hacked together in the garage, knowing if they fail it doesn't matter - they can just try again.

I would agree with this if the launch cost was a substantial portion of the satellite. There are a lot more things that play though, especially for Geo satellites. Things like orbital slots are finite, so you really want to make as large of a satellite as possible, which also translates to more expensive. Even if SpaceX gets the launch costs cut in half, that's still not a large portion of the total costs. I believe after all is said and done, the launch cost is still between 5 to 10% of the total costs.

Re: SpaceX to lay off 10% of Workforce

#450

Post by Cardinal_ »

JanSt wrote: post #418
Cardinal_ wrote: post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kinda off topic but job protection in Germany is such a joke it's almost fake news. Got terminated recently after 12 months for no reason, filed for unfair dismissal, won the case. 3000 eur is what I got (lawyer fees 1500). You can be fired for very little cost, it's dangerous to think you're protected.

The longer you are with your employer, the longer the protection. You should also receive Arbeitslosengeld I for at least 6 months (longer if you would‘ve been employed longer) and unlimited time of Arbeitslosengeld II (I think you would qualify), so you won‘t be homeless, freeze, lose your health insurance nor hunger, because it‘s all payed for by social security.

True but this is more social protection rather than job protection. As for severance pay in Germany, law is half a month salary per year...
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