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Salesforce will lay off 10% of staff as part of restructuring

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Re: Salesforce will lay off 10% of staff as part of restructuring

#51

Post by wil421 »

brookst wrote: post #37
wil421 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At my first job they would lay off employees, then systems would fail and the person who could fix it was laid off. Eventually a big customer would complain and the company would incur monetary SLA penalties for the systems being down. They would have to hire the laid off guy back as a contractor and pay some company $100+ an hour for a $30 (at the time) an hour salary employee. Eventually someone with a brain would…

Yeah that’s bad management. The trick is understanding when part of the company is genuinely not contributing, and since things are complicated, what other parts are entangled and need to be adjusted as part of the plan. Just randomly laying off x% is like randomly removing x% of code to improve performance. It’s going to produce more pain than gain.

I’m pretty sure upper management just dictated cost savings amounts per org and delegated it down. Middle management met and figured out what salaries fit cost savings and saved themselves above all.

Re: Salesforce will lay off 10% of staff as part of restructuring

#52

Post by vrc »

eganist wrote: post #43

"and I take personal responsibility for that." As usual, no accountability for it. Just responsibility. I take it boards are incapable at holding leaders accountable for bad decisioning?

Boards see this as good “decisioning”. Decisions are made by proportional controllers — money cheap, hire and grow, money expensive, fire and slow. So execs are being very prudent here, according to investors.

Re: Salesforce will lay off 10% of staff as part of restructuring

#53

Post by bajirao »

danielfoster wrote: post #8
mkl95 wrote: post #5

> Stock rises after company announces broad restructuring plan focused on driving ‘profitable growth’ Could someone explain how layoffs lead to stock rises in layman terms?

Stockholders likely think Salesforce had too much fluff and can get the same results with fewer staff. For example I believe they were working on some sort of solution for managing NFTs.

Ex employee here. Salesforce was the most laid back, rest and vest, coasting culture in my experience. Generous employee benefits, absolutely no work pressure. They took pride in their work life balance. Many employees (in product and marketing) were just focusing on (flavor of the day) activism - BLM, AAPI, GLBT, Homelessness in SFO. I always wondered if these employees had any 'actual job' in the company or their managers even cared what their team delivers. As an employee it was great. As an ex employee whose vested RSUs are more than 50% down from it's peak, it sucked. While I feel bad for those who are laid off, this downsizing was written on the wall.

Re: Salesforce will lay off 10% of staff as part of restructuring

#54

Post by stcroixx »

But I just saw this commercial on TV where Mathew McSomethingOrOther led legions of happy looking people through the streets of a city pledging to change how the world works all because of Salesforce.com . It looked like an expensive commercial. I know I'd sign up if I could.

Is this the first step? How exciting.

Re: Salesforce will lay off 10% of staff as part of restructuring

#55

Post by bajirao »

ubertaco wrote: post #14

Last 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…

As an ex trailblazer I can confirm this. That all hands was unreal. Everyone was asking about layoffs on all-hands slack channel, and Mark/Brett were demoing upcoming new features in their Work.com product.

Re: Salesforce will lay off 10% of staff as part of restructuring

#56

Post by prottog »

bombcar wrote: post #18
wil421 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At my first job they would lay off employees, then systems would fail and the person who could fix it was laid off. Eventually a big customer would complain and the company would incur monetary SLA penalties for the systems being down. They would have to hire the laid off guy back as a contractor and pay some company $100+ an hour for a $30 (at the time) an hour salary employee. Eventually someone with a brain would…

It SOMETIMES works. You lay off 50 people and only have to contract back one or two and it’s a net savings. But often it’s just boardroom machinations for various reasons that can change as quickly as the weather. I know people who made a good living being the layoff/callback dude for years. Basically considered it a 3-6 mo vacation every couple years. “Oh you want me to come in to consult? I’m in the Bahamas- it’s g…

> I know people who made a good living being the layoff/callback dude for years.

That's hilariously inefficient. I would be mad if I were a shareholder in this business, but good for those employees in question who were savvy.

Re: Salesforce will lay off 10% of staff as part of restructuring

#58

Post by csbingel »

mensetmanusman wrote: post #57

There are over two jobs open for every layoff. People haven’t realized how crazy the labor market is about to get with a collapsing workforce population over the next many decades.

There are, but the people aren't necessarily where the jobs are. I've got positions in Huntsville, AL that aren't remote-capable, and we cannot get people to even apply.

Re: Salesforce will lay off 10% of staff as part of restructuring

#60

Post by eganist »

vrc wrote: post #52
eganist wrote: post #43

"and I take personal responsibility for that." As usual, no accountability for it. Just responsibility. I take it boards are incapable at holding leaders accountable for bad decisioning?

Boards see this as good “decisioning”. Decisions are made by proportional controllers — money cheap, hire and grow, money expensive, fire and slow. So execs are being very prudent here, according to investors.

Yeah that's what breaks my heart. It's gratuitously meaningless language designed to soften the human blow even though everyone who doesn't rely on Salesforce employment for a paycheck ends up benefiting. So there's no check on over-hiring and then dumping once convenient.
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