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Google execs threaten workers with layoffs: ‘There will be blood on the streets’

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Re: Google execs threaten workers with layoffs: ‘There will be blood on the streets’

#31

Post by IceMetalPunk »

aetherson wrote: post #26
IceMetalPunk wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you Google "tech industry quitting", all the results seem to paint a different picture. Some articles even call it "The Great Resignation".

Yep, those articles have been discredited. The labor market has been tight! There was a wave of job changes back a year ago -- but to be clear, those were not people who were leaving the labor force, they were people who got new, better jobs. That wave is definitively over in tech, and has been for about four to six months. The labor market in tech is slacker than it has been in a decade: it's harder now to get a new…

That's weird, then, given my personal experience of several major team members quitting basically one after another in the past few months, and my managers' inability to find any suitable replacements. Shrug Guess my company just extra sucks then.

Re: Google execs threaten workers with layoffs: ‘There will be blood on the streets’

#33

Post by SpicyLemonZest »

IceMetalPunk wrote: post #2

Can someone explain how burning out your employees, freezing hirings, possibly laying off a large number of your employees, in a market where people are actively quitting en masse... is supposed to increase productivity? Or are company execs just under the impression that "the beatings will continue until morale improves" was seriously good leadership advice?

The attitude of high-pressure tactics is deeply baked into American sales culture. It's conventional wisdom that you need high commissions, and high commissions necessarily entail high stress; you can't have "I can make $20,000 from the right deal" without "I could lose $20,000 if anything goes wrong". So sales organizations will often be brutally honest (and frankly mean) in ways that, you're right, would be a very bad idea in any other context.

Re: Google execs threaten workers with layoffs: ‘There will be blood on the streets’

#34

Post by PuppyTailWags »

arberx wrote: post #9
IceMetalPunk wrote: post #2

Can someone explain how burning out your employees, freezing hirings, possibly laying off a large number of your employees, in a market where people are actively quitting en masse... is supposed to increase productivity? Or are company execs just under the impression that "the beatings will continue until morale improves" was seriously good leadership advice?

> actively quitting en masse won't happen in a downturn/recession. Employers will have all the leverage.

I don't actually know if we're in a downturn proper. At most people salaries offered might be less aggressive... but someone leaving for a more fulfilling job and are a high performer from Google probably don't need to worry about being paid their worth even in a weak job market.

Re: Google execs threaten workers with layoffs: ‘There will be blood on the streets’

#35

Post by correlator »

IceMetalPunk wrote: post #2

Can someone explain how burning out your employees, freezing hirings, possibly laying off a large number of your employees, in a market where people are actively quitting en masse... is supposed to increase productivity? Or are company execs just under the impression that "the beatings will continue until morale improves" was seriously good leadership advice?

Yes,

Team of 5 and 1 person is coasting. Get rid of the 1 and you just reduced burn by 20%.

You lose the output of the coasting team member, but that's small to begin with by the scenario's setup.

If you believe coasting is contagious (why am I working so hard when clearly I don't have to like this other person), you could potentially see a boost in output.

Of course, this needs to be weighed against the risk of everyone being upset and leaving after such a decision, but in this market, that risk may be mitigated.

PS. It's really hard to make specific statements about vague hypothetical scenarios :)

Re: Google execs threaten workers with layoffs: ‘There will be blood on the streets’

#36

Post by qbasic_forever »

I remember this royally backfired with Microsoft in '08 and '09. They did some rounds of layoffs, froze raises, etc. whereas all the other major tech companies held off on doing the same. There was _massive_ attrition and Balmer had to do multiple emergency pay bumps to the entire company's engineering roles to keep people from jumping ship in the following years.

Re: Google execs threaten workers with layoffs: ‘There will be blood on the streets’

#37

Post by xfitm3 »

IceMetalPunk wrote: post #2

Can someone explain how burning out your employees, freezing hirings, possibly laying off a large number of your employees, in a market where people are actively quitting en masse... is supposed to increase productivity? Or are company execs just under the impression that "the beatings will continue until morale improves" was seriously good leadership advice?

In my experience the unproductive employees bitch and moan the most, taking valuable time from those who do wish to work and contribute to the company.

Re: Google execs threaten workers with layoffs: ‘There will be blood on the streets’

#38

Post by icedchai »

IceMetalPunk wrote: post #17
icedchai wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know guys who've gone from job to job basically doing nothing, just collecting a fat check. It's incredible how much dead weight there is in these companies.

And... how is that relevant?

Getting rid of those types will increase productivity. You'll get the same work done with less people. Well, probably more, because you won't have guys pretending to do their work and then not actually producing anything.

Re: Google execs threaten workers with layoffs: ‘There will be blood on the streets’

#39

Post by [deleted] »

deepdriver wrote: post #23
emptysea wrote: post #6

The quote from the article specifically mentions the Google Cloud sales org: > Employees who work in the Google Cloud sales department said that senior leadership told them that there will be an “overall examination of sales productivity and productivity in general.”

Not a surprise. When I was at G, Cloud was the fastest-growing org by far. You can't grow an org that fast without an inevitable decline in hiring standards, as many discussed at the time. That's not to say the regular Google hiring process is fair or even usually makes sense.

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