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Meta and Google are cutting staff

wsj.com

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Re: Meta and Google are cutting staff

#181

Post by time_to_smile »

battery_glasses wrote: post #58
o10449366 wrote: post #29

The article highlights that the easiest way for these companies to let go of staff right now is to dissolve entire teams. I've heard from friends that work at these companies that recent hiring freezes have actually made managers more hesitant to fire low performers because anyone they fire can't be replaced and they'd rather have a low performer than no one at all. The team dissolving process seems to sidestep this…

At Meta managers can't really get away with hiding low performers. Your performance review isn't finalized by your manager, but rather the manager submits your review to a calibrating board that tries to ensure fairness and maintain quality standards. They will refute at all cost that this is stack ranking but you are absolutely graded on the curve of the other engineers in your department and level.

> ensure fairness and maintain quality standards

Got a good chuckle out of this.

My experience with calibration at multiple companies is it's where you realize not only does your review depend on how happy you make your manager, but how politically savvy your manager is coupled with how much you were able to impress the people on the calibration committee.

It also gives your manager a nice out if you work hard, but they don't quite like you. All they have to do is not fight for you in calibration and you'll never be able to get much beyond a "meets expectations" rating.

Re: Meta and Google are cutting staff

#183

Post by edmundsauto »

nluken wrote: post #120
nappy-doo wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really. Meta raised 10B (really their first debt ever) in April 2022, and GOOG has like 14B in debt. Google could pay that with less than a quarter's worth of earnings, and I think Meta's not far behind. IMO, the market is overreacting. Both companies look pretty cheap to me.

Markets are forward looking. FB's growth numbers don't look great, and if you don't buy into their bet on the Metaverse you might be less inclined to see a bright future for that company.

Markets are forward looking, but people making the decisions are plagued by recency bias and fighting the last battle. No comment on the relative contribution of different incentives, but being "forward looking" doesn't mean "correct" and it can also include an overreaction based on recent data points.

Re: Meta and Google are cutting staff

#185

Post by mmmpop »

Beaver117 wrote: post #143

Maybe some of these engineers can take some time to reflect on their lives and possibly retire. I did a few months ago and I love it.

YEAH THIS

My company is being eaten again by another company that makes them a market leader and rather than compete for a new job in a much bigger tech department, I’m taking my stack of cash and finishing my engineering degree of which I have about 75 applicable credits toward. Fuck “development” as a career, that’s just a toolset now.

I’m still sticking around the old gig to support the legacy systems for 10 hours a week and keeping the channel open for the future, but I’m gonna sit back and watch the industry smolder for a bit.

The prospect of interviewing for a development job makes me shudder.

Re: Meta and Google are cutting staff

#186

Post by fleetwoodsnack »

strix_varius wrote: post #150
fleetwoodsnack wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems like I’ve ruffled a few feathers and ended up -2 on my previous comment here, not clear what rule I violated but that’s beside the point. I have a suggestion: take these findings and send them to your direct report and their direct report too (or whoever the appropriate party is in your organization). You’ve spotted some major issues and I think your organization would benefit from your insights. Include the na…

While that's a nice ideal, it's often not practical. As an IC, you'll rarely be rewarded for pointing out inefficiencies like this publicly - especially if it makes your boss look bad. As a manager, it's often better to expend your social/political capital to advocate for your best employees, rather than to address your worst. Relevant to the top-level topic here, that's why many managers welcome environments in whic…

Seems like the deficiencies exist throughout the entire organization’s vertical. Under-performing workers and underperforming managers acting in their own self interest and shirking responsibilities that would otherwise benefit the organization.

Re: Meta and Google are cutting staff

#187

Post by Firmwarrior »

geodel wrote: post #139
piva00 wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "meets most" likely doesn't sound too bad to non-Metamates. Internally it's a pretty bad mark on your record. The kind of newspeak I've heard from multiple friends and former coworkers that ended up at FB/Meta at some point. Well, the ones that didn't fall into the cult of Mark. It might be because I'm getting older but this is the kind of stuff that makes me want to puke. The co-optation of language to exude an au…

See the comments in this thread and elsewhere about HR related issues and you can gauge how much plain speak is hated. So no wonder companies, HR departments resort to newspeak.

People hate it when they realize they wasted their lives trying to appease some faceless corporate masters, only to be stabbed in the back.

It doesn't matter how much friendly-sounding bullshit you slather on if that's what's happening.

relevant to the overarching topic: https://dilbert.com/strip/2021-05-24

Re: Meta and Google are cutting staff

#188

Post by astrange »

sequoia wrote: post #165

Facebook and google have "required some employees to apply for new jobs if they wish to remain at the company." I have to say this is a sort of hilarious newspeak framing of layoffs. "We're not laying you off, you just need to apply and get accepted for a job or else you're terminated." OK, so I was a job-haver, now I'm a job-seeker... but at least I haven't been laid off!

This can be very valuable because it means you don't lose your unvested RSUs. Plus internal teams are more likely to already know you, or at least it's easier to show them your work, so the interview isn't necessarily that hard.

Re: Meta and Google are cutting staff

#189

Post by piva00 »

bin_bash wrote: post #167
piva00 wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I meant in the case of "meets most" being used in an extremely negative connotation.

ah apologies, I'm not sure why I didn't read that correctly the first time. It's wrong to call it "extremely negative" though, my words were "pretty bad". There are 2 levels lower than MM but they're rarely used. MM is a warning—it means you need to improve or you'll likely be put on a PIP.

No worries! I apologise for misrepresenting it as "extremely negative", still with the meaning of "pretty bad" I believe it's a specially disgusting type of language, why use positive-sounding jargon for "underperforming"? What's wrong with using "underperfoming" if that's what "meets most" means?

I despise this, the dissonance between a positivity-sounding "meets most" with the actual meaning being "pretty bad" is what I expect from the North Korean regime, or Russia. It's a disgusting type of newspeak/corporatespeak which, admittedly irrationally, boils my blood.

Re: Meta and Google are cutting staff

#190

Post by dzikimarian »

llbeansandrice wrote: post #173
dzikimarian wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everybody is incompetent about detecting slackers for last two years. I've seen multiple people having two or even three full time contracts and successfully juggling tasks at minimal required level, due to remote work and flexible hours. I guess they'll finally spoil it for everyone.

If they're doing what's required, what's the problem?

They don't. Some of them try to raise arguments, that they completed given tasks, but forget to mention that they compromised quality along the way.

Couple years ago, we had a lot of talks saying that engineers should have slack time to polish things. That's kinda counter-productive if slack time goes into working for other companies.

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