Live data from Hacker News

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

marketwatch.com

61–70 of 355 posts

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

#61

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.

That’s the thing, with this labor market businesses might start opening new locations or moving. I see that happening with hardware startups.

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

#62

Know what's odd to me? It seems like every company that did layoffs over the past 3 months overhired by 8% - 12% somehow. Why was it such a narrow range?

Could be a harbinger of whats to come. Reminds me of this Sequoia graphic.

https://twitter.com/PanchalBrinda/status/852947043576426500/....

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

#63
post #34

Whenever 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).

While the lock-in is real, there are other platforms that are catching up fast. My firm does Salesforce to HubSpot migrations as part of our services, and it's getting easier and easier to switch. Still takes time to retrain and shift business processes to a different philosophy, but we almost always see better usage of the platform, better data, and happier users. HubSpot is not a replacement for hugely complex orga…

What I like about Hubspot is it doesn't try to eat half your org. Salesforce is the ERP of the product world.

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

#64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

typically you need 1.5-2x a persons salary in revenue to cover their cost in the US.

Which is why you typically quote that value instead of revenue per employee which without context could be great or terrible.

Quote what value?

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

#65

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.

In theory less people working means less demand, which means less of a need for labour. Places like Japan where you have had a collapsing working population for years have never seen similar spikes in job openings like the US is currently seeing,

https://tradingeconomics.com/japan/job-vacancies

The US saw a crazy spike in job openings at the start of 2021 which has only recently started to show signs of cooling. So imo what we're seeing in the US is much better explained by the $2T stimulus injection that occurred at the start of 2021 than demographics.

https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/job-vacancies

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

#66

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.

When this collapse in workforce population occurs perhaps firms will learn that they can survive and even thrive with much less "fluff staff" who mostly sit idle or contribute very little to the overall success of any given project. I continuously see a decent amount of what I consider staffing excess in a large fraction of the companies I've worked with. (My personal philosophy here is that companies/projects/etc are better off with fewer and much higher quality employees. The challenge is finding them, hiring them and keeping them.)

It's been echoed here often that many of the large SV firms and MAANG-type companies were just hoovering up talent to keep them away from competitors. This seems like a decent corp strategy when cheap money is raining down for 1-2 decades. However, now that we're entering into a new macro-economic climate maybe this practice will subside a bit, too.

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

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is why you typically quote that value instead of revenue per employee which without context could be great or terrible.

Quote what value?

Revenue multiple per employee.

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

#68
post #10

I forget which podcast I heard it on (so forgive me if my memory is sloppy), but after their latest quarterly report didn't CAC payback go from 24 months to something wild like 10 years? Meaning their new ARR add rapidly fell off so quickly, before they adjusted their Sales and Marketing salaries and spending, that it immediately put their unit economics way way way way underwater. So I'd expect at least a big chunk…

CAC = Customer Acquisition Cost ARR = Annual Recurring Revenue S&M = Sales and Marketing Is that right?

Yes.

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

#69
post #56
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Then you probably don't want to be a shareholder at all; I'm pretty sure any business that is publicly traded has done it at one time or another.

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

#70

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.

When this collapse in workforce population occurs perhaps firms will learn that they can survive and even thrive with much less "fluff staff" who mostly sit idle or contribute very little to the overall success of any given project. I continuously see a decent amount of what I consider staffing excess in a large fraction of the companies I've worked with. (My personal philosophy here is that companies/projects/etc ar…

Companies without slack can’t respond effectively to emergencies. see: Southwest.
Post reply on HN