Lyft to lay off about 700 employees in second round of job cuts • Hacker News Board

Re: Lyft to lay off about 700 employees in second round of job cuts

#301

Post by danuker » Fri, Nov 04, 2022, 10:28 AM UTC

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #68

4gotunameagain wrote: post #11

Ask HN: Isn't recession just mass hysteria ? Layoffs leading to more layoffs leading to the entire economy slowing down ?

In this case, rising interest rates have a very direct negative impact on new investments. As new investments contract, demand shrinks for services across the industry. As demand shrinks, fewer employees are needed and companies need to reduce headcount to avoid overspending relative to revenues. There is a cascading effect, but it would be a mistake to attribute it all to a big psychological mistake. When demand goe…

When demand goes down (in this case due to rising rates)

Rates are rising because of inflation. Inflation is rising because people are spending.

Why are people spending all at once? It could be because of the pandemic restrictions lifting, but also because of mass psychology ("OMG! everything is getting more expensive! I must buy while I can").

If people resisted the bandwagon effect, and bought when stuff is cheap, while saving when stuff is expensive, they'd be much better off.

"The time to buy is when there's blood in the streets." - Baron Rothschild

Re: Lyft to lay off about 700 employees in second round of job cuts

#302

Post by MomoXenosaga » Fri, Nov 04, 2022, 11:53 AM UTC

elforce002 wrote: post #283

Here's an interesting thing: there are other fields too. People tend to forget we need Civil Engineers, Electrical Engineers, Mechanical Engineers, Electronic Engineers, etc... This is not the end of the world. STEM professionals were switching careers because of the money and other amenities tech companies were offering (See "a day in x-company" trend on social media). The way I see it (cynical take) is that there h…

You can't "push" people into a field. I know smart people who would quite literally go insane if they had to stare at a screen all day. They don't have autism. They want to work with people not machines. So they work in healthcare.

Re: Lyft to lay off about 700 employees in second round of job cuts

#303

Post by yardie » Fri, Nov 04, 2022, 2:35 PM UTC

khazhoux wrote: post #256

ghaff wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be sure the 2001 crash was also mixed in with 9/11 and its aftereffects. But, in general, I agree. 2001 was catastrophic for a lot of people in the broad tech domain--as in not even a sniff of work and, for many, just got a job any job doing something else. I was really lucky to get a related job at the small company someone who I had been a client of in a prior role ran. Things still got difficult over the follow…

> To be sure the 2001 crash was also mixed in with 9/11 and its aftereffects The dot-com crash was in the Spring of 2000.

I remember friends coming back to the university job fair telling me how bad it was out there. With 1-2 years experience they came back to our engineering job fair looking for internships and entry-level positions. Those without prospects just rode it out in graduate school. If you weren't in a position to repay student loans it was better to load up more debt and delay it a few years.

I was c/o 2003. There was a lot of slack in the entry-level pipeline as companies were recovering but didn't need to seek new graduates because there was a 3 year backlog.

Re: Lyft to lay off about 700 employees in second round of job cuts

#304

Post by jonathankoren » Fri, Nov 04, 2022, 4:31 PM UTC

WillPostForFood wrote: post #286

jonathankoren wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always think of it as more of a DoorDash thing. There was that whole partnership with Starbucks immediately before the implosion.

You are right that DoorDash might be closer to Kosmo (and may also go under). I meant that Amazon Prime showed that a scaled up, same day delivery service could be viable and profitable

DoorDash and Uber were fun while they lasted.

Maybe someone will try and fail again in 10 or 15 years.

Re: Lyft to lay off about 700 employees in second round of job cuts

#305

Post by aksss » Sat, Nov 05, 2022, 6:09 AM UTC

relaxing wrote: post #230

aksss wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wage inflation, interesting that the whole "fight for $15" thing literally died overnight at some point. But when you're at 40-year high for inflation, rates rise, part of what the Fed is trying to do is raise unemployment. Here you are. https://thehill.com/policy/3658981-why-the-fed-is-pushing-un...

> interesting that the whole "fight for $15" thing literally died overnight at some point Not that interesting. With the Senate split 50/50 it only took one Democrat to kill that effort.

I mean the coverage in the media, and am being a little sarcastic calling it “interesting”.

Re: Lyft to lay off about 700 employees in second round of job cuts

#306

Post by relaxing » Sat, Nov 05, 2022, 9:59 PM UTC

aksss wrote: post #305

relaxing wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> interesting that the whole "fight for $15" thing literally died overnight at some point Not that interesting. With the Senate split 50/50 it only took one Democrat to kill that effort.

I mean the coverage in the media, and am being a little sarcastic calling it “interesting”.

There’s no news to cover!

Re: Lyft to lay off about 700 employees in second round of job cuts

#307

Post by darkwizard42 » Sun, Nov 06, 2022, 9:28 PM UTC

shoshoshosho wrote: post #241

jeffbee wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's cool, I am just vaguely concerned about it. They seem to have tacitly abandoned it in the East Bay area.

The maintenance for Citibike is also basically nonexistent, many bikes that feel like peddling through mud

Huh, I feel the opposite. Feels like more and more I get the "next-gen" e-bikes in Manhattan. The older gen e-bikes do feel like they are on their last legs.

Re: Lyft to lay off about 700 employees in second round of job cuts

#308

Post by darkwizard42 » Sun, Nov 06, 2022, 9:29 PM UTC

jeffbee wrote: post #136

darkwizard42 wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe the bike-share is their most profitable division. Would it make sense to spin that off? It has a de facto monopoly in many markets it operates in

That's cool, I am just vaguely concerned about it. They seem to have tacitly abandoned it in the East Bay area.

From my past time at Lyft, there was a much larger loss and theft issue with East Bay's bikes. Not sure if they figured that out. Used to hear about bikes regularly being pulled out of Lake Merritt.