How about their future prospects? From the 4 implementations I've seen all are desperately trying to leave the platform. One succeeded so far. Is the enterprise Salesforce craze over?
Salesforce will lay off 10% of staff as part of restructuring
21–30 of 355 posts
Re: Salesforce will lay off 10% of staff as part of restructuring
#22Last time they did this, it was _right_ after the window that they had grandstanded and asked other companies to pledge no pandemic layoffs. Benioff did a whole media tour talking about how Salesforce would do no pandemic layoffs to set some kind of example, and said that they didn't expect other companies to follow their example, but asked them to just pledge no layoffs for 90 days, even though Salesforce was going…
He seems like the slimiest CEO imaginable. I have no data to back this up, just his constant woke clamoring, before woke dominated the culture, and the way he looks. My gut just instantly sets off alarm bells.
Re: Salesforce will lay off 10% of staff as part of restructuring
#23makes sense given their employee to revenue ratio for Salesforce. They had 73,000 employees with just ~31B/year of revenue. That’s just 424k of revenue per employee. Such a ratio only makes sense with high growth rates.
Sometimes I feel like I live in a parallel universe because 424k revenue per employee sounds like a large amount and should be very profitable.
Admittedly I'm not in the USA but even adjusting for that it still sounds large?
Are all US salaries so inflated that 424k doesn't more than cover a typical employee even after all overheads?
Re: Salesforce will lay off 10% of staff as part of restructuring
#24Last time they did this, it was _right_ after the window that they had grandstanded and asked other companies to pledge no pandemic layoffs. Benioff did a whole media tour talking about how Salesforce would do no pandemic layoffs to set some kind of example, and said that they didn't expect other companies to follow their example, but asked them to just pledge no layoffs for 90 days, even though Salesforce was going…
well sounds like we can expect them next year. What I don’t understand is why they don’t stretch it out over the whole year - less than 1% a month could be relatively easily “hidden” even if people kinda know what is going on. Average churn might be lower than that, even. Which makes me think it’s performative and they WANT the shareholders to see it.
Yeah I agree. Something about actions being louder than words here. I will say spreading it out creates a worse environment of fear from employees. It’s like pulling a bandaid off slowly. This way, the survivors know they’re safe for some period of time and can focus on longer term things. They likely feel that they can tread water performance wise and make it through the next year too. They can also approach their personal finances from an assumption of having a paycheck for the next year at least. These things are typically to address the under-performers and misfits that come with hiring thousands of people each year. It forces the business to reevaluate its needs based on its goals on a cadence. Otherwise you end up with a bunch of Milton’s in the basement (to use an Office Space reference).
Re: Salesforce will lay off 10% of staff as part of restructuring
#25makes sense given their employee to revenue ratio for Salesforce. They had 73,000 employees with just ~31B/year of revenue. That’s just 424k of revenue per employee. Such a ratio only makes sense with high growth rates.
/s ?
Re: Salesforce will lay off 10% of staff as part of restructuring
#26makes sense given their employee to revenue ratio for Salesforce. They had 73,000 employees with just ~31B/year of revenue. That’s just 424k of revenue per employee. Such a ratio only makes sense with high growth rates.
Sometimes I feel like I live in a parallel universe because 424k revenue per employee sounds like a large amount and should be very profitable. Admittedly I'm not in the USA but even adjusting for that it still sounds large? Are all US salaries so inflated that 424k doesn't more than cover a typical employee even after all overheads?
typically you need 1.5-2x a persons salary in revenue to cover their cost in the US.
Re: Salesforce will lay off 10% of staff as part of restructuring
#27Whenever I look at client’s Salesforce setups, I always wonder in the back of my mind what they will do if Salesforce has a significant down-turn?
The lock-in to the platform appears to be very fierce. Are there viable routes to exit Salesforce if anyone ever needed to?
(Note: I’m not saying Salesforce is doomed or anything, just the layoffs got me thinking in that direction theorically).
Re: Salesforce will lay off 10% of staff as part of restructuring
#28Last time they did this, it was _right_ after the window that they had grandstanded and asked other companies to pledge no pandemic layoffs. Benioff did a whole media tour talking about how Salesforce would do no pandemic layoffs to set some kind of example, and said that they didn't expect other companies to follow their example, but asked them to just pledge no layoffs for 90 days, even though Salesforce was going…
well sounds like we can expect them next year. What I don’t understand is why they don’t stretch it out over the whole year - less than 1% a month could be relatively easily “hidden” even if people kinda know what is going on. Average churn might be lower than that, even. Which makes me think it’s performative and they WANT the shareholders to see it.
How would that work? Identify the 10% in December and then slowly remove them? Or have your management go through a 1% low performers identification process every single month? The logistics of both options are difficult to pull off. It is especially hard to keep the layoff list secret.
Re: Salesforce will lay off 10% of staff as part of restructuring
#29Last time they did this, it was _right_ after the window that they had grandstanded and asked other companies to pledge no pandemic layoffs. Benioff did a whole media tour talking about how Salesforce would do no pandemic layoffs to set some kind of example, and said that they didn't expect other companies to follow their example, but asked them to just pledge no layoffs for 90 days, even though Salesforce was going…
well sounds like we can expect them next year. What I don’t understand is why they don’t stretch it out over the whole year - less than 1% a month could be relatively easily “hidden” even if people kinda know what is going on. Average churn might be lower than that, even. Which makes me think it’s performative and they WANT the shareholders to see it.
"Performative" _is_ the word that comes to mind most often when I think of the years I spent at Salesforce.
Re: Salesforce will lay off 10% of staff as part of restructuring
#30makes sense given their employee to revenue ratio for Salesforce. They had 73,000 employees with just ~31B/year of revenue. That’s just 424k of revenue per employee. Such a ratio only makes sense with high growth rates.
Am I the only one who thinks $424k/employee is quite a lot? May be a too european perspective?
That's how I'm feeling too and I'm in the US. Just doing some rough math, my company is at around half that and we're doing quite well at the moment. We are much smaller though.