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Google to reduce workforce by 12k

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Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#121

Post by A4ET8a8uTh0 »

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?

Musk definitely seem to have served as a convenient excuse[1] for a ton of related articles. Just yesterday, my boss gave us speech on working full 40 hours and not abusing the system. Something is definitely in the works now.

edit: I figured some context may be warranted here. We are obviously salary. Some remote. Some hybrid. Seemingly, it is a result of someone in person in the office complaining. I love people.

[1]https://www.wsj.com/articles/is-elon-musk-your-bosss-anger-t...

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#123

Post by theGnuMe »

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…

Healthcare is largely recession proof although hospitals had big layoffs just as COVID hit which was a huge mistake in retrospect.

Epic is also a private company and yes pays less but they’ve taken up with Google now as well.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#124

Post by pocket_cheese »

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 like to categorize jobs into 3 tiers.

Tier 1: Outrageous comp and difficult interviews. Tier 2: Great comp and medium level difficulty interviews. Tier 3: Companies that pay at or below average for an engineer and sometimes don't even have a coding interview!

for the tier 1s I was outright rejected my application twice as often as before. I also noticed that they are more selective. I've passed "high bar" technical interviews before, so have some understanding of what it takes. This time around I thought I did pretty well, but didn't get an offer (coincidentally at Google). More candidates + focus on cost cutting has made things much more competitive for really high paying jobs.

For those tier 2/3 jobs they are exactly the same as before. Recruiters constantly messaging and got an offer after only being on the market for a couple of weeks.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#125

Post by nix23 »

jacquesm wrote: post #99

This 'I take full responsibility' thing is getting really tiresome. Of course you take full responsibility, you're the f'ing CEO, and in case on account of this someone loses their house I'm sure you'll make good on it, because it's your responsibility, right?

>Of course you take full responsibility

But politicians normally don't say that, but they also don't have stocks :)

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#126

Post by KptMarchewa »

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.

As rest of them besides Facebook, this looks like opportunistic firing rather than any world economy based action.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#127

Post by varjag »

bearmode wrote: post #5
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…

Not been laid off myself, but I'm still being absolutely hounded by recruiters. There are still a ton of tech jobs out there, at least in the UK.

This reminds me of Slashdot posts early in dotcom bust. "Everyone says there's a downturn but I'm not feeling it!"

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#128

Post by cmrdporcupine »

Next earnings report (for Q4 2022 results): Feb 2nd. Last reports showed EPS down by ~15%. The one before by ~6%.

Layoffs seemed timed to get out in front of all of this.

All a bit callous and cynical, what these companies are doing.

Still, while I resigned from Google a bit over a year ago, I almost wish I'd stuck around to roll the dice and see if I could have gotten this severance package. Accelerated vesting is pretty sweet, even with the currently lower stock price.

On the other hand I'm glad I left and landed in a place I prefer and didn't have to live through the stress and bleak feeling something like this would bring to the workplace.

I also doubt this will be the last round and if history with other companies is any predictor, the next round of layoffs will have less generous severance packages.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#129

Post by DrBazza »

pembrook wrote: post #58

A lot of people seem to be chalking this one up in the “memetic imitation among tech execs” column. However, in the case of Google, I’m not so sure. Google is an advertising business. And advertising revenue is extremely sensitive to changes in the economy (Companies cut ad spending when there isn’t as much demand to soak up). In the last recession Google was still rapidly stealing ad share from old media, but now th…

This all happened in the dotcom crash - all the companies shed staff.

It happened again during the credit-crunch.

It (used to?) happens in reverse every year in the banks - everyone watched Goldmans pay out bonus before xmas and then adjust their bonuses accordingly.

Business always watches what the other guy does.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#130

Post by md_ »

I found https://news.stanford.edu/2022/12/05/explains-recent-tech-la... to be very insightful, framing layoffs as "social contagion."

As others noted here, irrespective of whether there is a coming recession, for companies like Google and Microsoft, 10-20k employees are not so expensive as to be existential for the company, *or even for specific opportunities the company wants to pursue*. (E.g. for Microsoft, buying Blizzard is not predicated upon laying off employees.)

Instead, it's best to see this as a sort of social trend: layoffs to demonstrate fiscal responsibility to investors, in order to promote equity valuations that are in general valuable (either strategically, or as the ultimate purpose of a publicly traded company).

If that sounds like I think this is all reasonable and justified, I don't. But it's a reasonable thing to do if your sole goal is profit, which is how we generally look at public companies in a capitalist economy.

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