Google to reduce workforce by 12k • Hacker News Board

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#591

Post by nullhash » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 3:18 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.

Consider my situation. I passed my Google interview in October for New Grad 2023 and was told that my starting date would be April.

Now I’m most likely not going to be hired and need to restart my job search and this will have derailed my entire plans for the first few months of this year. I won’t see a cent.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#592

Post by oneeyedpigeon » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 3:19 PM UTC

neodypsis wrote: post #2

Amazon and Meta I can understand why. But why Microsoft and now Google? What positions were affected in Google? Just developers?

Definitely not just developers; I know a non-dev who lost their job today. Of course, 1 out of 12,000 isn't a very helpful statistic, though.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#593

Post by kderbyma » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 3:20 PM UTC

deanmoriarty wrote: post #462

For what is worth, I am employed at the company and I think this is a good thing, the amount of “fat” around here is just astonishing and, quite honestly, demoralizing. I truly believe that the company could function well, and continue its mission, even with a 30% reduction or more. The number of people who do completely nothing all day, in SWE roles, is just unbelievable. And this without even counting the incredibl…

Sounds like poor poor management, probably many layers thick. Too many people is not a problem a company like Google if run well....

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#594

Post by Eupraxias » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 3:20 PM UTC

xdavidliu wrote: post #488

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…

> It was written in the sky since April 2020. Anyone with a semblance of understanding could guess that the COVID-fueled situation and artificial economic prop up would come due in the medium term. Can you point to any comments that people with a semblance of understanding made back then in which they were able estimate the rough time window when things would come back down to earth?

Fair point! However, I suspect many people have, as I have, been screaming silently for a few years that we will have to pay for all of this at some point soon. I expected what we are seeing, and I'd be amazed if most others on this site are surprised.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#595

Post by kderbyma » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 3:21 PM UTC

JCM9 wrote: post #562

Google’s best days may be behind it. The search revenue is looking increasingly shaky. New business units like GCP are struggling to operate profitably. They had an amazing cash cow (ad revenue) for a long time but that cow is getting old and starting to look rather ill. Compared to some of the other tech giants Google has struggled to evolve its business to diversify revenue and profit streams and evolve offerings.…

way behind it....like....Trump was not yet elected...

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#596

Post by ralph84 » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 3:21 PM UTC

Jagerbizzle wrote: post #151

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.

Significantly better than the tone-deaf email Satya sent Microsoft employees, which continues to cause undue anxiety for employees who have no clue if or when they'll be laid off over the next 90 days.

Yeah Satya’s note was bad for several reasons, not the least of which is he sent it right after attending a private Sting concert. Starting to wonder if rather than being an exceptional leader, he just benefitted from following Steve Ballmer which would make almost anyone look better in comparison.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#597

Post by monero-xmr » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 3:22 PM UTC

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #580

FlyingSnake wrote: post #550

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whatever’s happening is a prime example of how disruptions happen in tech industry. Previous giants become fossils and new incumbents take the spot. IBM -> GE -> Google etc will all follow the same trajectory towards irrelevance.

I think this is an old myth that is no longer relevant. Sure, it might happen, but many companies now fully understand "the disruption game" and know how to adjust, primarily through acquisitions. The only way to break this is with more muscular antitrust, which (at least for now) seems to be happening. For example, Microsoft is famously still doing quite well despite desktop operating systems no longer being the mos…

I met a traveller from an antique land,

Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;

And on the pedestal, these words appear:

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#598

Post by nvarsj » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 3:22 PM UTC

EthanHeilman wrote: post #543

The Google of 2005 wouldn't do this. The Google of 2005 would use this as opportunity to monopolize all the talent and move into some new space and eat everything with fantastic software. * I had a good seat to watch google obliterate mapquest and yahoomaps with amazing javascript maps. It was day and night. Yahoo was penny pinching their mapping engineers while Google was buying geographic satellite companies and in…

It's funny to me because this has been happening in tech a long time and is happening to the current giants. The old giants like IBM, GE, Motorola, etc. all suffered similar fates. And it's been discussed ad nauseum by disgruntled engineers who then go and make new companies/start ups to get away from the "suits".

It's called "Takeover by MBA". You know it's happened when you start hearing phrases like "Cut costs", "Make things more efficient", "LEAN process", etc. Basically the garbage pioneered by Jack Welch and taught at MBA schools everywhere to boost stock prices in the short to medium term.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#599

Post by htrp » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 3:23 PM UTC

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #580

FlyingSnake wrote: post #550

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whatever’s happening is a prime example of how disruptions happen in tech industry. Previous giants become fossils and new incumbents take the spot. IBM -> GE -> Google etc will all follow the same trajectory towards irrelevance.

I think this is an old myth that is no longer relevant. Sure, it might happen, but many companies now fully understand "the disruption game" and know how to adjust, primarily through acquisitions. The only way to break this is with more muscular antitrust, which (at least for now) seems to be happening. For example, Microsoft is famously still doing quite well despite desktop operating systems no longer being the mos…

> For example, Microsoft is famously still doing quite well despite desktop operating systems no longer being the most important game in town.

There was a period about 10-12 years ago when Microsoft was basically left for dead

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#600

Post by siliconviking » Fri, Jan 20, 2023, 3:24 PM UTC

I'm surprised people aren't connecting all these layoffs with their root cause: the increasing cost of capital. Naturally, projects that were economically profitable only at a very low cost of capital could turn unprofitable at a higher cost of capital, destroying value instead of creating value. Shifting resources away from such projects is the logical thing to do, but if you end up with a surplus of resources, the only other possibility is to trim those resources. Discussions about how much cash Google has on hand are completely irrelevant in my view.