Google to reduce workforce by 12k • Hacker News Board

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#111

Post by throwaway29303 » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 11:01 AM UTC

swyx wrote: post #56

afandian wrote: post #9

> Pivoting the company to be AI-first years ago That seems like a weird thing to throw in there. Does anyone else read it as a hasty "we were doing AI before ChatGPT was cool"?

> "we were doing AI before ChatGPT was cool" definitely google is on the defensive right now[0] and just this week they had jeff dean do a "here's all our AI credentials" recap [1] 0: https://lspace.swyx.io/p/google-vs-openai 1: https://ai.googleblog.com/2023/01/google-research-2022-beyon...

Jeff Dean has been doing yearly recaps since 2017.

2017

  https://ai.googleblog.com/2017/01/the-google-brain-team-looking-back-on.html

2018

  https://ai.googleblog.com/2018/01/the-google-brain-team-looking-back-on.html (part 1)

  https://ai.googleblog.com/2018/01/the-google-brain-team-looking-back-on_12.html (part 2)

2019

  https://ai.googleblog.com/2019/01/looking-back-at-googles-research.html

2020

  http://ai.googleblog.com/2021/01/google-research-looking-back-at-2020.html

2021

  http://ai.googleblog.com/2022/01/google-research-themes-from-2021-and.html

2022

  http://ai.googleblog.com/2023/01/google-research-2022-beyond-language.html

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#112

Post by parasight » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 11:01 AM UTC

bawolff wrote: post #65

eCa wrote: post #51

I guess someone has to write this comment: > I take full responsibility for the decisions that led us here As usual, he says nothing more what the consequences for him are. It seems like all of the FAANGs have made severe strategic cockups when it comes to hiring lately. I wonder if it will affect their longterm attraction as employers.

I always find these comments a bit silly. Saying something is "my fault" is not the same as saying they intend to die on their own sword.

He did not say, "It is my fault." He said, "I take full responsibility." The question stands: what does that mean?

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#113

Post by RivieraKid » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 11:01 AM UTC

raverbashing wrote: post #60

dzonga wrote: post #30

I blame companies for blaming with people's lives like this: not market dynamics. companies are the ones that decided to overhire, overpay - based on covid demand, cheap money that was floating around. companies not the market, resulted in a war over talent. now it's a war on talent. and of course everyone and their grandma will want to work at these tech companies where life is laid back and you get all the benefits…

Yeah, I also wonder how much of the current layoffs are "we need to fire people as to look good on paper for the market"

I think it's more "we want to increase company value" rather than "we want to increase the perception of company value, aka stock price".

Which is good, that's what the management is supposed to do.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#114

Post by ben_w » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 11:01 AM UTC

kmac_ wrote: post #46

Silverback_VII wrote: post #13

Well, developing AI systems which are able to replace you and your abilities was not the best idea I guess.

Wait until everyone realize there is no AI but a really large statistical string concatenate machine. Edit: I forgot /s

A large statistical string concatenation machine by any other name will smell just as much of redundancy.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#115

Post by ako » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 11:01 AM UTC

dzonga wrote: post #30

I blame companies for blaming with people's lives like this: not market dynamics. companies are the ones that decided to overhire, overpay - based on covid demand, cheap money that was floating around. companies not the market, resulted in a war over talent. now it's a war on talent. and of course everyone and their grandma will want to work at these tech companies where life is laid back and you get all the benefits…

Is overhiring really a problem, would the world be better if companies didn’t overhire? Then many of the people now laid off wouldn’t have had a job in the first place. If you accept a job for what it is, a temporary need for your help, and plan for what’s next, a period of layoffs should become manageable.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#116

Post by HeckFeck » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 11:02 AM UTC

csvm wrote: post #89

Amazon, Microsoft, and now Alphabet. Is this because Twitter showed an example where you can lay off most of the non-core workforce and the tech will still go on?

I do wonder if this is a consequence of the "My day at Linkedin" TikTok videos that were circulating. Looks like they'll have to manage life without the wine on tap and the morning pedicures before attending 1/2 hour of meetings each day.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#117

Post by ak_111 » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 11:02 AM UTC

sillysaurusx wrote: post #109

ak_111 wrote: post #4

Question for those who got laid-off from tech recently (say since Aug last year): how hard did you find it to get another tech job? Would be interesting to get some anecdotal evidence to shed light on the following WSJ article which claims laid-off tech workers are finding it easy to get re-recruited: https://www.wsj.com/articles/laid-off-tech-workers-quickly-f... If the phenomena described in the WSJ article is true…

I had a new job lined up roughly a week after they broke the news to me. The tradeoff is that I took a 37% reduction in salary. Easily worth it. Everyone else is being laid off all around me, while I kick back and fire up a bunch of A100s for ML research. The best part is that I didn’t have to do any damn leetcode interviews. I went back and forth on whether to post this, since it feels like I’m an outlier and maybe…

Can you give us more details concerning your seniority/domain/tech stack?

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#118

Post by eftychis » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 11:03 AM UTC

mkl95 wrote: post #57

> In the US: > We’ll pay employees during the full notification period (minimum 60 days). Weird flex. Would it be legal not to?

No it wouldn't be legal. Edit: This is a layoff.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#119

Post by DrBazza » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 11:04 AM UTC

MonkeyClub wrote: post #92

eCa wrote: post #51

I guess someone has to write this comment: > I take full responsibility for the decisions that led us here As usual, he says nothing more what the consequences for him are. It seems like all of the FAANGs have made severe strategic cockups when it comes to hiring lately. I wonder if it will affect their longterm attraction as employers.

> It seems like all of the FAANGs have made severe strategic cockups I’m becoming more and more convinced that they’re preparing for a global recession. I posed such an Ask HN a while ago, before the Microsoft layoffs, where the general takeaway was that there’s no indication for a recession. However, after the 10+12K layoffs by the giants, and constant news about smaller layoffs by smaller companies (in the 100s per…

> I’m becoming more and more convinced that they’re preparing for a global recession.

The tech industry famously over inflated once before in the original dotcom boom. This just seems like another correction.

I don't think the tech industry is big enough to trigger a global recession on its own, but then again, the financial industry have a herd and panic mentality, so perhaps it could trigger a sell-off for no real economic reason.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#120

Post by parasight » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 11:04 AM UTC

sai_c wrote: post #48

Does anyone know what "Outside the US, we’ll support employees in line with local practices." exactly means? In Germany I could imagine it to be "You're fired. Go to the Arbeitsagentur and find a new job". Of course within the legal forewarning period.

In Germany, local practices could include severance pay too. It is common for long-time employees to receive significant severance payments when they get fired.