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Stack Overflow reduces global workforce by approximately 15%

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Re: Stack Overflow reduces global workforce by approximately 15%

#31

Post by johnvanommen »

dylan604 wrote: post #27
mattigames wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's becoming a meme, like a viral tweet said > I like how ads have gone from “buy a toyota” to “this is a difficult and uncertain time for us all...buy a toyota” Like when ever company says how we are in this together or how emphatetic they are in these difficult times it just fills me with dread, the opposite of what they were aiming for, it's clear that talking about the crisis is now just another trick in the PR…

It quickly became the new "Thank you for your service"

Welcome to Costco, I love you.

Re: Stack Overflow reduces global workforce by approximately 15%

#32

Post by dmlittle »

s9w wrote: post #4

I will totally fulfill that HN clichee of people in disbelief that any tech company has employees... But: TIL they have 250 of them. It's a fully automated site, huh.

This blog post illustrates the nuances of changes at the scale of StackOverflow (really all of StackExchange) https://nickcraver.com/blog/2017/05/22/https-on-stack-overfl...

Re: Stack Overflow reduces global workforce by approximately 15%

#33

Post by dylan604 »

KingOfCoders wrote: post #20
duxup wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm usually wondering about what everyone does at a company. But 250 doesn't seem like an high number to me for what SO has for products.

When I was at eBay, I wondered what 35.000 were doing.

35 whole people with no fractional people isn't that large o a number. If you use a period for the thousands mark, what do you use for the decimal part a semi-colon?

Re: Stack Overflow reduces global workforce by approximately 15%

#34

Post by [deleted] »

dylan604 wrote: post #33
KingOfCoders wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was at eBay, I wondered what 35.000 were doing.

35 whole people with no fractional people isn't that large o a number. If you use a period for the thousands mark, what do you use for the decimal part a semi-colon?

[deleted]

Re: Stack Overflow reduces global workforce by approximately 15%

#35

Post by cma »

CameronNemo wrote: post #26
nrb wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to the post, it’s due to contraction with their talent sourcing product: > This week, we reduced our global workforce by approximately 15%. Most of the affected employees were furloughed, except for employees and contractors in regions where furloughs were unfortunately not an option. These actions primarily affected sales and customer success teams within our Talent business, which is dependent on the hiri…

What I find notable is that close to 15% (at least 7.5% if "most" means what everyone thinks it means) of the workforce is sales and marketing for a service that is not even core to their business.

What percentage of a newpaper's employees in the old print days did ad sales vs doing reporting?

Re: Stack Overflow reduces global workforce by approximately 15%

#36

Post by all_blue_chucks »

noncoml wrote: post #15

I have some karma to burn, so here it goes: Be shitty to people and they will turn their back to you. I am ashamed to admit it, but I am happy to see companies that embrace being shitty to users, fall like a house of cards. Yes, SO embraced being shitty to users and creating a toxic environment for far too long, despite their latest weak attempts to fix it. I hope eBay, Paypal and Yelp are next. Also somewhat Reddit.…

You think mean comments are a SO or reddit problem? The fact that anonymous online discourse gets rude and heated has been known since the days of usenet.

There was even some of this on BBS forums, but that was a more civilized time, likely because we knew the people we were talking to were within our local calling area in most cases.

None of this is new. It's a humanity problem, not a technology problem.

Re: Stack Overflow reduces global workforce by approximately 15%

#37

Post by dylan604 »

johnvanommen wrote: post #31
dylan604 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It quickly became the new "Thank you for your service"

Welcome to Costco, I love you.

yeah, but that's just funny and was meant to be satirical. the other phrases are just empty words used in a way to fake sincerity. (maybe fake is too harsh for "thank you", but if you were really sincere, you wouldn't be using a catch phrase)

Re: Stack Overflow reduces global workforce by approximately 15%

#38

Post by nickcox »

KingOfCoders wrote: post #17
Trasmatta wrote: post #2

> This is a key moment in our company’s history, as the whole world is dealing with significant uncertainty. Know that you are not alone. We are facing this situation together. Our goal is to stay focused on living our core values and actively connect with teammates, our community, and our customers. The phrase "We are facing this together" must sound really hollow if you're one of the people who has been laid off...

I would have thought better of Stack Overflow than this business speak.

You haven't been paying attention then. Check out the ridiculous series of non-apologies over the Monica Cellio debacle.

https://meta.stackexchange.com/a/340913/627733

Re: Stack Overflow reduces global workforce by approximately 15%

#39

Post by bryanrasmussen »

gorgoiler wrote: post #30
mattigames wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's becoming a meme, like a viral tweet said > I like how ads have gone from “buy a toyota” to “this is a difficult and uncertain time for us all...buy a toyota” Like when ever company says how we are in this together or how emphatetic they are in these difficult times it just fills me with dread, the opposite of what they were aiming for, it's clear that talking about the crisis is now just another trick in the PR…

“I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore.” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_(1976_film) This comment isn’t a rebuttal — I agree with you and every time I mull on these things I am reminded of the memorable saying from the movie Network .

I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore. I'm buying a Toyota!

On edit: wait, I don't even have a driver's license!

Re: Stack Overflow reduces global workforce by approximately 15%

#40

Post by guardiangod »

Trasmatta wrote: post #2

> This is a key moment in our company’s history, as the whole world is dealing with significant uncertainty. Know that you are not alone. We are facing this situation together. Our goal is to stay focused on living our core values and actively connect with teammates, our community, and our customers. The phrase "We are facing this together" must sound really hollow if you're one of the people who has been laid off...

This reminds me of a quote from Jack Mah, the founder of Alibaba, from a few months ago.

在阿里巴巴二十周年时，马云提及未来的一个畅想：“30年以后，我们希望每年向社会推荐输出至少1000名10年以上的阿里人，他们应该参与到社会的建设。”

Translation: During Alibaba's 20th anniversary celebration, Jack Mah expressed a wish of his: "Thirty years later, I hope that we at Alibaba can export, with commendation, at least 1000 Alibaba-rians that are >10 years seniority, to society each year, so that they can participate in the building of our society."

If you think Jack Mah was talking about annual layoff, you aren't the only one. Needless to say, people are impressed (sarcastically) that he even made layoffs sound so patriotic.

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