Live data from Hacker News

Meta lays off 11,000 people

about.fb.com

741–750 of 1001 posts

Re: Meta lays off 11,000 people

#741
post #32

So, after Twitter and Meta layoffs there will be around 15,000 people looking for the job. In one moment. With other layoffs it can be counted over 20,000 people IMHO. Will this over flood the market and bring expectations and salaries down?

Per last job report in US, there were two positions for every person finding normal jobs. For IT, I would think that ratio is twice. However, the biggest issue that people have to deal with: (1) Meta paid 2X to 4X higher than regular employers so that’s massive pay cuts for the folks, (2) they lost the unvested stock aka their hold out compensation of past 4 years they worked for. So, this would be huge financial set…

Outside of the 2:1 job postings to job seekers ratio, none of what you're saying here is correct.

Re: Meta lays off 11,000 people

#742
post #734

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As always with these things, I wonder what taking responsibility actually means in practice. Remember a few years ago when people were asking "Why can't people just say they made a mistake and own up to it instead of shifting blame?" Now that people are taking responsibility for mistakes publicly the response is "Yes, but what does that mean?" Taking responsibility means just that. It means saying you fucked up and…

Taking responsibility is more than just admitting reponsibility. It is also about bearing the consequences. Such as, if you broke something, you fix it. If you lost something, you pay up to replace it. Or similar. A manager usually can't fix a problem themselves though. But unless they pay a cost for their mistakes, they are not really taking responsibility. Then they just pay lip service to the word.

What do you suggest?

Re: Meta lays off 11,000 people

#743
post #704
post #690

I'm sorry, but honestly fuck Meta. Conducting psychological experiments on users without consent, and enabling psyops from organizations like Cambridge Analytica, is enough for me to never use their services. I hope they implode as a company. I happily said no when people from meta approached me on LinkedIn.

Not saying it makes it okay, but every company in existence does this to some extent. Everyone does A/B testing with the intent to alter user behavior (aka psychology) to increase their profits.

It isn’t just the one thing, it is a pattern where when given a choice between respected a sense of ethics and decency or taking more money, Facebook as an org has at every instance that is publically known, has taken the money. The high salaries seem to be justified not by their technical skill but their willingness to do what they are told for momey without regard to conscience.

Read the whistle blower report, witness the evolution from seeing content from your friends posted in less addictive chronological feed to addictive content your friends like in the internet sorted by addictive news. Hell, the site started as a PHP hack to creep on pretty women. They sold a bunch of data to foreign adversaries. For years, they let people sell ads to Nazis. They don’t give the people faced with the psychologically brutal jobs of moderation get benefits. They have been a platform for genocide and government surveillance.

I might be missing some examples of them missing some money to do the right thing, but nothing comes to mind.

Re: Meta lays off 11,000 people

#744
post #704
post #690

I'm sorry, but honestly fuck Meta. Conducting psychological experiments on users without consent, and enabling psyops from organizations like Cambridge Analytica, is enough for me to never use their services. I hope they implode as a company. I happily said no when people from meta approached me on LinkedIn.

Not saying it makes it okay, but every company in existence does this to some extent. Everyone does A/B testing with the intent to alter user behavior (aka psychology) to increase their profits.

A/B testing compared to creating algorithms that prey on human vulnerabilities to drive “engagement” are 2 categorically different things.

Absolutely, go bananas A/B testing different colors for a “Sign Up” button or testing different pricing models.

But let’s not go bananas optimizing algorithms that are damaging to users mental health at a massive scale.

Re: Meta lays off 11,000 people

#745
post #32

So, after Twitter and Meta layoffs there will be around 15,000 people looking for the job. In one moment. With other layoffs it can be counted over 20,000 people IMHO. Will this over flood the market and bring expectations and salaries down?

A link if you need to keep track of. https://layoffs.fyi/

This is a pretty slick use of AirTable, ngl.

Re: Meta lays off 11,000 people

#746
post #424

While many are commenting that these layoffs are sensible given the situation, I am fearful that laying off approximately 13% of Meta employees will lead to a less connected world. I don’t think people fully understand the magnitude of step-backwards it will be in terms of people connecting in this world. Does Zuckerberg take responsibility for what this will mean to people who simply need to connect more through gre…

What is your concern here? What does "a more connected world" actually mean?

Do you think that Meta could be worth 273 billion, and yet promulgate a false, inaccurate or misleading mission statement? Perhaps, but it would not seem like it would instill much confidence in the company leadership.

Re: Meta lays off 11,000 people

#747

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Per last job report in US, there were two positions for every person finding normal jobs. For IT, I would think that ratio is twice. However, the biggest issue that people have to deal with: (1) Meta paid 2X to 4X higher than regular employers so that’s massive pay cuts for the folks, (2) they lost the unvested stock aka their hold out compensation of past 4 years they worked for. So, this would be huge financial set…

Outside of the 2:1 job postings to job seekers ratio, none of what you're saying here is correct.

Meta does pay higher (maybe not 2x higher) and the message in OP says employees will get their November 2022 vesting, which implies they won't get any future vested stock.

Re: Meta lays off 11,000 people

#749

I worked at Facebook when covid first hit. Zuckerburg treated everyone in the company very, very well. There was a blanket "don't worry about performance, take care of your families" guarantee that honestly was an enormous help. The thing that particularly struck me though was the way he handled contract workers like (some of) the kitchen staff, cleaners, etc. These people don't work for Facebook and he had zero obli…

Meta may sound like an unethical company frequently from a product standpoint, but Zuckerberg is a very good guy in general and he treats employees very well.

People are multifaceted. I'm sure he is good to his employees, like people are describing, but that ain't it.

He's repeatedly betrayed user trust, and eventually what goes around comes around.

Re: Meta lays off 11,000 people

#750

I worked at Facebook when covid first hit. Zuckerburg treated everyone in the company very, very well. There was a blanket "don't worry about performance, take care of your families" guarantee that honestly was an enormous help. The thing that particularly struck me though was the way he handled contract workers like (some of) the kitchen staff, cleaners, etc. These people don't work for Facebook and he had zero obli…

No post body was provided.
Post reply on HN