Fwiw just how many of the people posting negative comments on here are paying SO users? It's still a business that needs to make money. Just saying...
Stack Overflow reduces global workforce by approximately 15%
141–150 of 193 posts
Re: Stack Overflow reduces global workforce by approximately 15%
#142I do not have data to back this claim. But the tone of this blog post makes me feel that, the new CEO is an incompetent person who decided to use the vehicle of the covid virus to announce job cuts that he has planned a long time ago. With the crap ton of marketing buzz in the post, and the casual mention of the layoffs, I don't think the CEO or the new board seem to care all that much about the laidoff employees. Ag…
Imagine he planned these layoffs a month after he started. Why would he keep paying these people 6 extra months until a pandemic offered a chance to lay them off under cover? Wouldn’t it make a lot more sense to quietly let small groups of these people go every month if they were long-planned?
I can’t imagine why a CEO would plan layoffs for a time in the distant future rather than executing them as shortly after the decision as possible.
Re: Stack Overflow reduces global workforce by approximately 15%
#143I don't get it. It is as if Zoom would announcing job cuts "because COVID-19". Stackoverflow is an internet service providing answers to questions, why would they get lower counts of traffic?
If Zoom had a division that went around doing Zoom room installs in offices, I can easily imagine them having cuts or furloughs in that group.
Re: Stack Overflow reduces global workforce by approximately 15%
#144Assuming there was enough runway for a rainy day, this could be a great time to invest in some R&D projects that will pay off dividends when the sun starts to shine again.
If those projects are worth investing in, why weren't they invested in before COVID?
It's not that the engineers have nothing to do - it's that there is little revenue, and no amount of features they ship is going to change that.
Re: Stack Overflow reduces global workforce by approximately 15%
#145Does this mean more or less rude comments on this toxic website?
Re: Stack Overflow reduces global workforce by approximately 15%
#146Is it time for SO 2? Lets be real, many articles are out of date with answers being for older versions, the culture is getting worse and the company is looking to cash in on the thing. Could we use a blank slate?
You might be interested in codidact.org. With a significant portion of SO/SE mods going on strike as a result of the company's missteps in the past months/year, the push for an alternative site was strong, and it's being built right now.
Re: Stack Overflow reduces global workforce by approximately 15%
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
The post directly says they are seeing growth in their advertising business.
Does stackoverflow have ads? I would imagine that a large percentage of their technically savvy user base would be using an ad blocker.
They have job ads and "normal" ads. You get an opt-in if you have enough rep.
Re: Stack Overflow reduces global workforce by approximately 15%
#148I don't get it. It is as if Zoom would announcing job cuts "because COVID-19". Stackoverflow is an internet service providing answers to questions, why would they get lower counts of traffic?
They aren't getting lower counts of traffic. But QA traffic is not their primary revenue source. Job ads and SO for teams are.
Re: Stack Overflow reduces global workforce by approximately 15%
#149I understand they had to do it (I'm sure we—their users—understand), but I can't understand the need for bullshit business-speak. Just say, "Due to circumstances you all familiar with, business is slow, so I have to let go of some people from X department." Putting up bullshit like this is like adding insult to injury. Especially, since their user demographics are mostly people who don't like bullshit.
The Stackoverflow CEO and/or PR team is guilty of what journalists call “burying the lede” but the following quote from the message is quite good in my opinion: > 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 cus…
This is a quarterly update on the entire company, and I don’t think the main purpose of this update was to announce layoffs. I’m sure there were internal communications about the layoffs that were more pointed and had a different tone.
I agree on the paragraph you pulled out. This writing style is more formal and “corporate” than preferred, but it’s not inherently terrible.
Re: Stack Overflow reduces global workforce by approximately 15%
#150I don't really know much about this guy or his business, but I can't help but comment that the tone and phrasing he uses comes off as "I'm an asshole." I know that's less than civil, but that was just what I gleaned. It struck me as someone who doesn't care but wants to sound like they do.
Sorry, but can you explain why? Impugning someone’s character like this seems unfair if you can’t point to anything more concrete than a vague feeling. What makes you think this guy is an uncaring asshole?
Also, to be clear, this is a quarterly update on the entire business, not a lay-off announcement. I highly doubt that anything related to the layoffs was news to anyone in the company. That was likely covered in internal communications over the past few weeks.