Meet Silicon Valley’s rattled layoff ‘survivors’ • Hacker News Board

Re: Meet Silicon Valley’s rattled layoff ‘survivors’

#71

Post by AzzieElbab » Sun, Oct 02, 2022, 10:14 PM UTC

nytesky wrote: post #31

MikeTheRocker wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. Tech workers at large companies often earn income commensurate with the economic value they produce. When each employee nets the company 7 figures on average, it's hard to make a case that they shouldn't earn some meaningful fraction of that IMO.

I thought a company like Snap didn’t make a profit, so I dont think the employees are netting 7 figures for the company? That probably only applies to Google, FB, Apple, Amazon?

Yes, I meant the big guys and I am worried about the trend

Re: Meet Silicon Valley’s rattled layoff ‘survivors’

#72

Post by fakecrusade » Mon, Oct 03, 2022, 3:17 AM UTC

theptip wrote: post #49

fakecrusade wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah yes the 0.5 dev, conjured up by the manager to push 4 devs work onto 3 realistic devs

Cynical nonsense. In a small shop, more likely that the manager codes but considers themself only 0.5 a dev because of overhead.

and that's one of the many reasons why project got delayed, manager gets optimistic and consider himself a 0.5, only to realise halfway that he is overwhelmed by meetings, and his superior is asking why is he even coding? He then simply leave it to the team, which is actually the best outcome in this situation. But like inflation, the initial estimation based on 3.5 dev is probably not gonna get revised because it has been committed to the boss or client.

The best thing a manager can do, is to support team when he can and NOT consider himself a resource, even if he does the coding.

Re: Meet Silicon Valley’s rattled layoff ‘survivors’

#73

Post by zbuf » Mon, Oct 03, 2022, 5:05 AM UTC

MikeTheRocker wrote: post #13

AzzieElbab wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, we should all be very very worried when companies with 1m profit per employee start laying people off. Excesses of SV aren’t really relevant from my point of view

Agreed. Tech workers at large companies often earn income commensurate with the economic value they produce. When each employee nets the company 7 figures on average, it's hard to make a case that they shouldn't earn some meaningful fraction of that IMO.

May be the mean average, but in these large companies a high proportion of employees seem to be working on moonshots or speculative projects.

So some care should be taken talking about the economic value produced by each individual -- reading HN gives the impression that many high salaried employees don't consider that theirs may actually be zero.

Re: Meet Silicon Valley’s rattled layoff ‘survivors’

#74

Post by five82 » Mon, Oct 03, 2022, 5:20 AM UTC

pyuser583 wrote: post #67

When I was let go, I had to go through a whole procedure of giving back IDs, being debriefed, etc. It was emotionally hard. After it was over I found myself, outside the entrance to the building, with no way in. I reached into my pocket, and realized I left my keys inside at my old desk. There’s a procedure for letting in visitors, but it takes a long time. When I went to the receptionist to explain the situation, I…

Five years ago I was working for a large tech company and things were going downhill quickly in our division due to a failed acquisition. We were a very tight knit team that made a point to stick together, meet up regularly outside work, and help each other out through layoffs, departures, and other chaos. I owe my former co-workers a huge debt of gratitude for their help in getting my current job.