Live data from Hacker News

Uber lays off 435 people

techcrunch.com

21–30 of 611 posts

Re: Uber lays off 435 people

#21
post #13

I’d like the see HN consider layoffs in other verticals as well. Particularly manufacturing.

Why?

It seems like technology plays a role in these paradigm shifts, perhaps awareness might inspire folks to leverage the workforce in new ways, maybe with technology.

Re: Uber lays off 435 people

#22

How does this work with layoffs + hiring? Can you layoff and then hire in the same department? I assume companies agree to pay at least unemployment and possible severance too in the case of layoffs. Can a company say "These 80 employees are under preforming" and justify a reduction in force that way? (I guess in at-will employment you don't need to justify it at all, so long as you meet legal unemployment requiremen…

Like another poster mentioned, up until 2 years ago (?) Uber was handing out very fat compensation packages even to entry level engineers. It's possible these are employees who've been at Uber for 2+ years and are frankly overpaid even if there were no serious performance issues.

Re: Uber lays off 435 people

#24
post #20

Uber was actively poaching from our team when I was at Edmunds.com a few years ago; hope my ex-teammates that jumped ship are doing alright. Uber is in a precarious position and I can't help but wonder what would be different if Travis Kalanick were still in charge. I know it might be an unpopular opinion, but I think his leadership and vision were really instrumental to Uber's early success.

> I know it might be an unpopular opinion, but I think his leadership and vision were really instrumental to Uber's early success.

I don't think that's an unpopular opinion at all.

Never heard someone say otherwise.

EDIT: From the the downvotes I can tell I am wrong.

Please help educate me: Honest question: Who or what was "really instrumental to Uber's early success"?

Re: Uber lays off 435 people

#25

How does this work with layoffs + hiring? Can you layoff and then hire in the same department? I assume companies agree to pay at least unemployment and possible severance too in the case of layoffs. Can a company say "These 80 employees are under preforming" and justify a reduction in force that way? (I guess in at-will employment you don't need to justify it at all, so long as you meet legal unemployment requiremen…

My impression is that at a large company it's easier to cut in broad strokes and then hire for specific roles.

Many companies, certainly Uber as well, do smaller force reductions where the employees have ~60 days to find an internal role, after which they're laid off. It sounds like the same thing, but, it allows you to possibly keep the employees.

Re: Uber lays off 435 people

#26

How does this work with layoffs + hiring? Can you layoff and then hire in the same department? I assume companies agree to pay at least unemployment and possible severance too in the case of layoffs. Can a company say "These 80 employees are under preforming" and justify a reduction in force that way? (I guess in at-will employment you don't need to justify it at all, so long as you meet legal unemployment requiremen…

The article says they're trying to reduce overlapping and redundant work, and restructuring teams in a way such that they intersect less implies they run more efficiently, so they only options at this point are to lay people off or find new projects for them to do. The former makes the most sense considering how little money Uber is making and how their bottom line might increase if they legally become employees (minimum wage, health insurace, threat of unionization, etc)

Re: Uber lays off 435 people

#27
Serious question: what does Uber need 27k employees for?

1k people to run the show in the main headquarters + some small-ish ~50-100 people regional offices should be enough to keep the company running.

Re: Uber lays off 435 people

#28
post #20

Uber was actively poaching from our team when I was at Edmunds.com a few years ago; hope my ex-teammates that jumped ship are doing alright. Uber is in a precarious position and I can't help but wonder what would be different if Travis Kalanick were still in charge. I know it might be an unpopular opinion, but I think his leadership and vision were really instrumental to Uber's early success.

> I know it might be an unpopular opinion, but I think his leadership and vision were really instrumental to Uber's early success. I don't think that's an unpopular opinion at all. Never heard someone say otherwise. EDIT: From the the downvotes I can tell I am wrong. Please help educate me: Honest question: Who or what was "really instrumental to Uber's early success"?

From my experience, singing Travis Kalanick's praises (at least on HN) has generally been met with resistance. I remember everyone piling on him about that (what I thought was a relatively innocuous) company retreat memo a few years ago.

Re: Uber lays off 435 people

#29
Google is pretty well-known for maintaining a very deep bench-- if an engineer isn't effective in some role, they'll just move them to some other team. Heck, a lot of hires (especially 3rd/last attempt) go directly to the bench. This strategy pays off well when a new competitor (like Facebook or Uber) comes along and snatches up people in the lead roles, or if the company feels the need to pivot to something really fast (e.g. Google+, which drew from many teams across the entire company).

Moreover, hiring a long-term employee today versus tomorrow might save money for a place like Google, assuming we expect competition and wages to continue to increase.

It strikes me that if Uber is laying off software engineers, their company outlook must be very, very dire. A layoff is perhaps better strategy than firing the bottom 5%, which would likely preclude the departed from re-joining at a better time. But probably the wrong message to send to a cohort like software engineers-- a layoff is a legal confirmation that the company made a big mistake.

Re: Uber lays off 435 people

#30

There's definitely a tightening of capital happening right now. Investors are pulling back as fear of recession grows. EDIT: Did I say I believe there's a recession coming? No. I said (accurately) that there are growing FEARS of one. There's definitely tightening of investments and capital happening.

I mean there's also the fact that California has pending legislation that seems ready to pass that will kick Uber (and others in the gig economy space) right in the wallet. Next 2 years should be interesting as we see what effect that has on things.
Post reply on HN