Google to reduce workforce by 12k • Hacker News Board

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#401

Post by hgsgm » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 1:00 PM UTC

ddevault wrote: post #355

makach wrote: post #104

Not a bad email, and a decent follow up on the ones that are affected. It is also a reminder that killing yourself slowly at the workplace is meaningless. Management has no responsibility to you, and no promise is certain. It’s your responsibility to take care of yourself. My take, don’t be bitter. Take the severance as soon as possible and get back on your feet. Having Google on your resume is a very good thing.

Having Google on your resume is not a good thing depending on who's reading it. Googlers generally need to be extensively re-trained on reality outside of companies that cargo-cult Google's practices, and I'll have some questions about the moral compass of anyone who shows up with Google on the resume.

That tech stack concern and attitude only affects a small-poulation collection of startups.

"Morally opposed to Google" affects a tiny sliver of professionals who boycott Google products or choose to use it despite allegedly being opposed to it.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#402

Post by revskill » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 1:00 PM UTC

makach wrote: post #104

Not a bad email, and a decent follow up on the ones that are affected. It is also a reminder that killing yourself slowly at the workplace is meaningless. Management has no responsibility to you, and no promise is certain. It’s your responsibility to take care of yourself. My take, don’t be bitter. Take the severance as soon as possible and get back on your feet. Having Google on your resume is a very good thing.

Per my experience, nothing beats the "i work on what i love and passionate".

Coorporate environment of course has some advantages, for what they called "the real world experience". But it doesn't mean they're more capable than "lonely hackers" that can build his own universe by the weekends.

"Learn/Work by heart" is a dangerous thing.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#403

Post by voytec » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 1:00 PM UTC

ako wrote: post #115

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.

Due to tech giants' overhiring and overpaying policies, a lot of people re-qualified in recent years. Now those Juniors can't find their easy-to-get-dream-jobs f or months and situation is getting worse for Seniors, too, as both bigger and smaller (and also both public and private) companies are doing hiring freezes, layoffs, invoke no-raises policies and all sorts of cost cuts.

Sure - all those people could try to go back to what they were doing earlier but there are layoffs and freezes in not only tech and related industries.

Those people are being punished for doing what the giants-led market demanded.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#404

Post by nextstep » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 1:00 PM 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…

You should check out this guy called Marx, he wrote a couple books about how labor is always disadvantaged in such a system because their power ebbs and flows with the fluctuations of the market. The main check that labor has on this power is to bargain collectively. Seems tech missed that opportunity five years ago when it was top of mind but many people felt things are good why would we need a union.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#405

Post by ninkendo » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 1:02 PM UTC

bdavis__ wrote: post #388

12K? What is that 5 to 7% of the total employment. Just don't hire for 120 days. Accomplish the same results and you don't even need to make a press release.

Layoffs make it easier to get rid of underperforming people without having to file too much paperwork, so it probably has a better effect on the median employee quality to do layoffs instead of a hiring freeze.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#406

Post by dec0dedab0de » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 1:02 PM UTC

Are all of these layoffs essentially collusion to reduce wages?

If they all end up with the same headcount but with a reduced wage in the next year, there should be a class action. Not that those help anyone but lawyers, but it's nice to have an official punishment on record.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#407

Post by pnt12 » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 1:02 PM UTC

ergonaught wrote: post #234

I need to see these "I take full responsibility" people actually punished. At the very least, this sentence needs to be removed from their mouths. Alphabet had 116 billion USD "cash on hand" at the end of September 2022. Even if the full cost of each of those 12K employees is 500K per year, that's "only" 6 billion dollars to keep those "great" people that they "love" working with around. Net income for that quarter w…

We can criticize but this will never change. A CEO is the face of a company, everything they say publically is basically a PR stunt.

- They won't say the company is falling apart until the insolvency, it's some new strategy or refocus. - They won't say they sold the company for money, it's a new chance to reach out to more people. - They won't say they laid off people to increase profits, it's all for some other reason.

We cannot stop this without some draconian laws, but let's criticize it and increase awareness, so that other people aren't fooled by it.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#408

Post by elektrontamer » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 1:02 PM UTC

Judging by the comments I think it's safe to assume that the "taking responsibility" part is a meaningless statement at best. What I want to understand is does he even owe anyone an apology? Isn't employment just an agreement to provide services in exchange for money and benefits? Anywhere I work I expect my employer to fire me the moment they don't need my services or find a better/cheaper alternative, I wouldn't think twice if I found a better employer. So why would I be owed an apology or someone to "take responsibility"?

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#409

Post by paulcole » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 1:03 PM UTC

sillysaurusx wrote: post #135

makach wrote: post #104

Not a bad email, and a decent follow up on the ones that are affected. It is also a reminder that killing yourself slowly at the workplace is meaningless. Management has no responsibility to you, and no promise is certain. It’s your responsibility to take care of yourself. My take, don’t be bitter. Take the severance as soon as possible and get back on your feet. Having Google on your resume is a very good thing.

Hear hear re: not letting work consume your life. Seeing someone else say that was very refreshing. It’s so true that when you’re gone, the company hardly notices. Being let go with no severance and zero days notice was the last straw for me to ever put my soul into a soulless company again. Luckily there are cool ones out there worth putting yourself into. I managed to find one. Weirdly I now seem to enjoy staying u…

> Hear hear re: not letting work consume your life

This isn’t what the comment you’re replying to said. They just said don’t let work slowly kill you. I think there are plenty of people whose work consumes their lives whose work isn’t also slowly killing them. And if you disagree with that I guess I’d say that everything is slowly killing everyone.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#410

Post by franczesko » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 1:04 PM UTC

While this is always bad news, this is also a cold shower - back-to-reality check for anyone who thinks that working for a company is anything beyond just a job.

I hope, that for the ones affected, in the end this will turn up as an opportunity.