Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

'Too many employees, but few work': Pichai, Zuckerberg sound the alarm

business-standard.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 1001 posts

Re: 'Too many employees, but few work': Pichai, Zuckerberg sound the alarm

#11

Post by senttoschool »

This is inherently a problem with full-remote or hybrid work.

People will point to "studies" showing how remote work improves productivity. Maybe it did initially but eventually, people will check out, feeling isolated, feeling less motivated.

Some people who worked remotely before covid swears that it helped their productivity. But these people are biased because they were probably one of the few who were disciplined enough to make it work and they gained the employer's trust over time.

There were a lot of reports of Zuckerberg bemoaning about productivity. Tim Cook wanted everyone back in the office full-time before Delta. Google also wanted everyone back in the office. Clearly, these CEOs aren't just making decisions on a whim and they have real data on productivity rather than some 3rd party studies.

This opinion is not popular here but this is how I see it.

Re: 'Too many employees, but few work': Pichai, Zuckerberg sound the alarm

#12

Post by dev_0 »

senttoschool wrote: post #11

This is inherently a problem with full-remote or hybrid work. People will point to "studies" showing how remote work improves productivity. Maybe it did initially but eventually, people will check out, feeling isolated, feeling less motivated. Some people who worked remotely before covid swears that it helped their productivity. But these people are biased because they were probably one of the few who were discipline…

The amount of meetings need to be cut down for engineers...

Re: 'Too many employees, but few work': Pichai, Zuckerberg sound the alarm

#13

Post by senttoschool »

dev_0 wrote: post #12
senttoschool wrote: post #11

This is inherently a problem with full-remote or hybrid work. People will point to "studies" showing how remote work improves productivity. Maybe it did initially but eventually, people will check out, feeling isolated, feeling less motivated. Some people who worked remotely before covid swears that it helped their productivity. But these people are biased because they were probably one of the few who were discipline…

The amount of meetings need to be cut down for engineers...

Sure, just have no meetings at all. Just send you tickets with perfect specs. You'll never have to talk to anyone.

Re: 'Too many employees, but few work': Pichai, Zuckerberg sound the alarm

#16

Post by dev_0 »

senttoschool wrote: post #13
dev_0 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The amount of meetings need to be cut down for engineers...

Sure, just have no meetings at all. Just send you tickets with perfect specs. You'll never have to talk to anyone.

I mean the middle men meeting where someone translate business requirements to technical solutions. Engineers should be treated as problem solver and not code monkey

Re: 'Too many employees, but few work': Pichai, Zuckerberg sound the alarm

#17

Post by codefreeordie »

SavageBeast wrote: post #5

I see this as more or less a ruse to justify ridding the companies of all the now remote people who moved away to live in Cheap Town during the pandemic. This is a pretext for the typical Corporate House Cleaning/Reduction In Force scenario. Some people do well working remote (Im one of them in fact) but I suspect and from what I've seen the majority of people simply cant handle the responsibility/self management of…

"Rest and vest" is a phrase that gets bandied about often -- including by people who are trying to do it.

I couldn't tell you what fraction of employees, but there are folks hiding in all of the big tech companies that are happy with their comp, aren't trying to advance, and have adopted the "do the minimum to not get fired" approach to their work.

If too many of these get together in one org or on one team, the whole thing gets poisoned and everyone starts barely getting anything done.

Re: 'Too many employees, but few work': Pichai, Zuckerberg sound the alarm

#19

Post by galdosdi »

jstx1 wrote: post #15

I don't think that this is about anyone's slacking off. If you're going to reduce staff, you make yourself look better by dressing it up as improved productivity and efficiency, that's why Zuckerberg is making these statements.

Bingo. Nothing about a "recession" makes it easier or harder for upper management to manage performance. If they were good at it before they're good at it now and if they were bad at it before, they're not going to suddenly get any better at identifying poor performers. But if layoffs are going to have to happen for unrelated reason, might as well try to spin it so that those that are left behind feel grateful and prideful rather than resentful and worried.

Re: 'Too many employees, but few work': Pichai, Zuckerberg sound the alarm

#20

Post by acdha »

fred_is_fred wrote: post #6
SavageBeast wrote: post #5

I see this as more or less a ruse to justify ridding the companies of all the now remote people who moved away to live in Cheap Town during the pandemic. This is a pretext for the typical Corporate House Cleaning/Reduction In Force scenario. Some people do well working remote (Im one of them in fact) but I suspect and from what I've seen the majority of people simply cant handle the responsibility/self management of…

"I suspect and from what I've seen the majority of people simply cant handle the responsibility/self management of working remote." While this may be true, if this has to be solved by forcing everyone to move to SF/NY - then couldn't you just save more money by firing their managers?

Exactly. You can’t make this claim without saying that your managers are incompetent all the way up to the C level because it means nobody was measuring performance even though that’s a core job requirement.
Post reply on HN