Google to reduce workforce by 12k • Hacker News Board

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#431

Post by jyrkesh » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 1:17 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.

I'm so rapidly becoming someone who just feels no guilt. It's balance against the abject anxiety I feel no matter what day or time of day it is. The balance against waking up on in a panic that's it's 9:30a and I missed 2 hours of EU meetings only to realize that it's Sunday and everything is fine and I'm supposed to be relaxing. It's clearly not healthy.

But yeah, I've got a FAANG(+? what's it called now? I think I'm in whatever the new one is called now?), and the market isn't _so_ bad, I think? But at the end of the day, the checks clear, and it's mostly on me to decide and act on the prerogative that software is just software, and I need to chill. (But it's really hard...9s are addictive...)

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#432

Post by shapefrog » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 1:17 PM UTC

2143 wrote: post #412

shapefrog wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Firstly, attrition, simply don't replace those that leave Nobody is retiring - why would you, you get a fat pay cheque and once you get out of the meat grinder Jr levels life is pretty good. Oh and if they fire you rather than you retiring, they have to pay you another stack of cash and keep those options that vest in a few years. "Seeing people posting about being laid off after 30 years of employment at Microsoft…

> Is it last in first out or first in last out? Aren't they the same?

Corrected!

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#433

Post by adriand » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 1:17 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…

It sounds like what you're experiencing is a sense of freely-chosen duty to the company, rather than that duty being taken for granted. It's perfectly okay to choose to feel duty to your employer. A company can earn your respect and sense of obligation, and then instead of resenting the demands it makes on your time, you can feel a genuine sense of shared purpose that drives additional levels of commitment.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#434

Post by wp_efexx » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 1:18 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…

[flagged]

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#435

Post by spacephysics » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 1:18 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…

I understand the frustration with the PR corporate speak, but that’s to be expected of one of the largest companies in the world.

Cash on hand isn’t a reason to keep people. They probably recognize there’s unhealthy parts of the organization, and this is a restructuring opportunity. It sucks from the employees side.

employee at will goes two ways, and saying that this is bounds for a “revolution” seems a bit far stretched.

Yeah it’s shit, and sucks for anyone who looses a job regardless of severance. Typically at this scale, it’s not on the individual as to why he/she got fired.

But your rhetoric reminds me of a mid-century revolutionary calling to overthrow the Provisional government.

Let history be a teacher as to the consequences of that.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#436

Post by Zvez » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 1:19 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.

while I agree with the attitude you promote. But it is not that simple. If your visa is attached to your job, you are pretty much fucked. Same goes if you decided to leave your previous job just to join Google (because it was your dream) and now you are let go - you are fucked.

So yes, it is your responsibility to take care of yourselves. But it is hard to be prepared for everything and layoffs like this one doesn't make it easier.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#437

Post by redleader55 » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 1:19 PM UTC

pm90 wrote: post #262

shapefrog wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Firstly, attrition, simply don't replace those that leave Nobody is retiring - why would you, you get a fat pay cheque and once you get out of the meat grinder Jr levels life is pretty good. Oh and if they fire you rather than you retiring, they have to pay you another stack of cash and keep those options that vest in a few years. "Seeing people posting about being laid off after 30 years of employment at Microsoft…

I would be surprised if they let go Senior Staff/Principal engineers.

Meta did, I think MSFT and GOOG will do as well. It has to be balanced among all sorts of groups otherwise the company is liable to be sued.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#438

Post by insane_dreamer » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 1:19 PM UTC

This comment from a NYT opinion piece by former Slack CPO added some clarity as to one reason why tech companies are doing this: pressure from investors to keep the share price up. Public companies lose that freedom to do whatever they want even if they have tons of money in the bank.

> Meta and Salesforce combined lost more than $700 billion in market cap last year. Both companies are now dealing with activist investors who have taken prominent positions in their stocks. The activists have called for the companies to slash costs, reduce nonstrategic investments and, notably in Meta’s case, aggressively reduce its work force.

edit: link to article: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/19/opinion/tech-layoffs-meta...

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#439

Post by dustingetz » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 1:19 PM UTC

AYBABTME wrote: post #422

Every time I read stuff like: > "Over the past two years we’ve seen periods of dramatic growth. To match and fuel that growth, we hired for a different economic reality than the one we face today." I feel taken for a fool. Every damn body knew that the last 2 years were not representative of the future. Everybody knew that free-money, COVID and related phenomenons were a phase. I can't believe that Google, Shopify, C…

we are measuring something about humanity here

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#440

Post by pyrrhotech » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 1:19 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…

You are not entitled to your multi-six figure job, and no one should feel bad for you if the company decides you are an excess. If you are not creating enough value to justify your presence, the company has every right and frankly society should demand that you be let go, otherwise you are wasting all of our finite resources. Sure, Google should have been a bit more cautious in their hiring during the unsustainable COVID bubble conditions, but at least they are correcting the mistake now.

This sort of attitude is exactly what makes left coast limousine liberal tech workers so insufferable to the rest of the country. Thanks for living up to the stereotype