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Google to reduce workforce by 12k

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Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#141

Post by DebtDeflation »

DrBazza wrote: post #110

Another multi-billion dollar company making billions of dollars of profit dumps thousands of staff on the streets. There are two approaches here. Firstly, attrition, simply don't replace those that leave. Given the sheer size of the company, a hiring freeze and attrition would gradually reduce the size of the workforce. I'd be astonished if a company with a market cap of $1.2 trillion would be likely to collapse if i…

That would be the logical approach if their only objective were reducing headcount. In reality, it's both that AND they're trying to get the wage spiral under control. As terrible as it sounds, layoffs send the "stop asking for more money, you should be thankful to even have a job" signal to the workforce.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#142

Post by paulsutter »

A timid half-step. If you’ve ever visited Google (even before the pandemic) the offices are empty (everyone is “working from the bus”) and only a small minority of employees are involved in revenue products

FANG have been stockpiling very skilled people and letting them atrophy, it’s the biggest tragedy in Silicon Valley and for the US economy generally

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#143

Post by rsynnott »

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…

> However, after the 10+12K layoffs by the giants, and constant news about smaller layoffs by smaller companies (in the 100s per announcement), I think the situation becomes at once clearer and bleaker.

The major economies are posting record or near-record levels of employment; layoffs in one section of one sector are not a particularly good signal for recession one way or another.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#144

Post by rvba »

DrBazza wrote: post #110

Another multi-billion dollar company making billions of dollars of profit dumps thousands of staff on the streets. There are two approaches here. Firstly, attrition, simply don't replace those that leave. Given the sheer size of the company, a hiring freeze and attrition would gradually reduce the size of the workforce. I'd be astonished if a company with a market cap of $1.2 trillion would be likely to collapse if i…

The employees who can leave on their own are often the "better" ones.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#146

Post by kypro »

Are we about to enter a new era of ultra-profitable tech companies?

While companies like GOOG and MSFT have had ridiculously healthy margins compared to traditional industries for some time now, it's also been clear in recent years that these companies have become very loose with spending. Take GOOG for example, they spend so much unnecessary money on fancy offices, free lunches, diversity programs, highly speculative investments, stock based comp, etc.

But perhaps more importantly what happens when all the unprofitable tech companies with 80% gross margins decide to operate profitably? A lot of companies are so wasteful in tech today that they're actually choosing not to operate profitably so they can grow faster. We've seen Uber basically do a u-turn on this stance, but many other companies are following suite.

The media seems to think these cuts are a sign that tech companies are struggling and other industries like energy will now take the lead, but surely being able to drop 10-50% of your workforce with almost no consequences is a sign of strength not weakness?

I guess this whole time the most profitable companies in the world apparently weren't even trying that hard to be profitable.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#147

Post by lm28469 »

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…

What if most companies have no long term vision and just follow the trend, like when they all hired hundred/thousands of employees during covid for seemingly no reasons

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#148

Post by shapefrog »

Google had 156,500 full-time employees in 2021, an increase of nearly 16% year-over-year as compared to the 135,301 full-time employees in 2020. Google's pace of hiring was also torrid in the second quarter of 2022 as the company added 10,000 new employees to its 163,906 workforce - that is only through to July 2022.

These "Layoffs" are awful for individuals, but they are simply a sign that they went on a hiring spree in 2022 - plenty here were talking about the massive pay increases on offer all over the valley with demand off the charts.

So really it isnt sign of pending apocalypse etc.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#149

Post by lexapro »

HeckFeck wrote: post #116
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.

You think executives had to watch TikTok videos to know what's going on in their companies? I mean they allowed this to happen. It's not the fault of the employees. And of course these videos don't show reality, they cut out the boring parts (the desk work).

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#150

Post by oaiey »

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 any lawyer (or the work council) will block you from getting fired (because Google has no legal reason to fire you). What they do here in Germany is to negotiate to mutually void your contract by you accepting a financial package.

So in theory you are right, in practice however, most companies (especially the ones like Google) have to buy you out of your contract.

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