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Google to reduce workforce by 12k

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Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#941

Post by mda »

michaelgrosner2 wrote: post #792
ifyoubuildit wrote: post #699

> Pivoting the company to be AI-first years ago led to groundbreaking advances across our businesses and the whole industry. > Thanks to those early investments, Google’s products are better than ever. Does he really believe this? Maybe I'm just biased towards the parts that are annoying and I end up missing the good parts, but search seems worse every day. I worry about using google products for anything essential d…

I literally only hear that Google search is bad from HN. No one else in my daily life - my family, friends, people out at my gym or grocery store - ever complain that Google search is bad. In fact, Google is still the default for looking up information anywhere. It's sentiments like this that make you realize how much of a bubble HN exists in. OTOH, people have trouble using GMail, google home, or ban YouTube in thei…

Your second paragraph points that you are living in a bubble as well.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#942

Post by YokoZar »

KerrAvon wrote: post #927
snotrockets wrote: post #922

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> what could you have done to prevent this? realize it was too good to be true. Don't enter the rat race, be cautious about hiring. Focus business. Nothing could have been done, because nothing needed to be done. Is there a recession? Probably. Was valuation and market expectation inflated? Obviously. Did Google overhire? looks like it. But is that the cause for the firing? Of course not. Last quarter revenue was alm…

Yes, but I would add that we're not in a recession currently. Really. There may be one coming, but it hasn't happened yet.

Planet Money had an episode this week showing a poll where literally 99% of CEOs responded that they thought a recession was going to happen in 2023.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#943

Post by ngcazz »

MuffinFlavored wrote: post #686
charles_f wrote: post #656

> I take full responsibility for the decisions that led us here When an incident occurs in prod and it affects the livelihood of 12.000 people (or more if you include family), you'd expect at the very least a post-mortem. I've never seen a company produce one after that. What was the root cause? crazy hiring, massive wage war Could the current situation be anticipated? hell yeah, out of a pandemic, war raging in Euro…

> you'd expect at the very least a post-mortem. "Despite getting paid millions to be good at my job, I did what every other CEO was doing when the Federal Reserve set interest rates low and hired a bunch of staff. I didn't think "hmm... this might change in the next 6-12 months". It changed. I am now doing what every other CEO is doing and jumping on the bandwagon and correcting." Now I don't actually have proof that…

Hearing a lot about top performers getting laid off too

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#944

Post by draw_down »

KerrAvon wrote: post #927
snotrockets wrote: post #922

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> what could you have done to prevent this? realize it was too good to be true. Don't enter the rat race, be cautious about hiring. Focus business. Nothing could have been done, because nothing needed to be done. Is there a recession? Probably. Was valuation and market expectation inflated? Obviously. Did Google overhire? looks like it. But is that the cause for the firing? Of course not. Last quarter revenue was alm…

Yes, but I would add that we're not in a recession currently. Really. There may be one coming, but it hasn't happened yet.

[dead]

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#945

Post by asda_ »

LordDragonfang wrote: post #774
insane_dreamer wrote: post #438

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 inves…

This is definitely the case. I was just talking with a Googler after the Microsoft layoffs about how Google is (now was ) one of the last big tech companies avoiding layoffs, and Pichai was fighting investors like hell to keep it that way. He supposedly literally told them "these are real people " out of frustration at some point. It's hard to look at that incredibly generous layoff package an not see it as a "fuck y…

[dead]

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#946

Post by jpadkins »

mejutoco wrote: post #94
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.

I guess it just means they will follow the law in each country. In the case of Germany I believe the minimum notice period is one month (unless on probation, 2 weeks), but it is common to get 3 months. So they will pay for 3 months.

US FTEs were paid 6 months. We will see, but DE will probably get as much.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#947

Post by ckdarby »

crdrost wrote: post #905
xiphias2 wrote: post #584

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google of 2008 didn't do this, I was there. The difference is that current Google is full of non-tech non-sales people who fight with eachother to reorganize tech people who are trying to build things. Other tech people change the API for no reason and give work to 1000 more people to ,,upgrade to the newer system'' and stop maintaining the old system. Also the new CEO is not a software engineer, so he doesn't unders…

I made it my goal to get to Google several years back precisely because of stories like these about the Google of 2005 and whatever, Bock’s “Work Rules!” and all that. And I made it! And now I have lost it, I am part of the unfortunate 6%. The old-timers I knew there must be shocked. They all said “that's just not what we do” when this was rumored months ago. “If those conversations are happening, I haven't heard abo…

Did your manager survive the cut? Google should have started there before ICs.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#948

Post by wildrhythms »

rmk wrote: post #880

It is beginning to look like all the large companies that were hiring to deny talent to competitors are now feeling comfortable trimming the fat because they know that the startup fundraising scene has shifted dramatically in their favor (fewer potential competitors being funded), and they can trim costs and regain the initiative as far as having more leverage/bargaining power over current and future employees is con…

My theory is that it's cyclical: trim costs today, and a few years from now buy up all the startups that resulted from a suddenly flooded tech labor market. Rinse and repeat.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#949

Post by oblio »

ehsankia wrote: post #717
oblio wrote: post #247

If you've ever wondered, this is not about immediate money concerns. In 2021 Google made $257 billion aka $257 000 000 000. And a profit of $76 bn aka $78 000 000 000. It had 187 000 employees. That works out to $1.3 million income per employee. And a net profit of $406 000 per employee. They don't need to lay off anyone. They just want to. I've seen smaller companies where they first shift employees around, offer ev…

I'm curious why are you looking at 2021 specifically? Isn't the whole idea that 2021 was a huge year for every tech company, leading to overhiring, followed up by 2022 which was a rough year for every tech company? They went from $18.9B profit in Q3 2021 to $13.9B in Q3 2022. That's a 36% YOY drop and given todays news, it's fair to assume Q4 was even worse.

Wikipedia shows that number. And even if their profits drop, you can't honestly tell me that they will post a loss for 2022 or even 2023. Heck, their profit margin would still be solid.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#950

Post by candiodari »

specialp wrote: post #856
MuffinFlavored wrote: post #686

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you'd expect at the very least a post-mortem. "Despite getting paid millions to be good at my job, I did what every other CEO was doing when the Federal Reserve set interest rates low and hired a bunch of staff. I didn't think "hmm... this might change in the next 6-12 months". It changed. I am now doing what every other CEO is doing and jumping on the bandwagon and correcting." Now I don't actually have proof that…

I think this is more of sliding the levers to keep the earnings good. There was a massive amount of money dumped into the economy over the last couple of years. Companies produced record earnings, and their stock prices correspondingly increased. Now to keep "growing" they need to decrease spending to keep earnings at the same or higher levels. It is also an opportunity to cut some cruft. A lot of good people get swe…

I'm not sure about this. Here's WHO is asking for this:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/nov/15/major-inv...

His first argument is bullshit, because Google is effectively debt-free. So Google can choose what to do with its money. He is quite open about that it's simply HIM wanting money:

"TCI also called on Alphabet to increase its already substantial share repurchase programme to run down its $116bn of cash, given that large-scale mergers and acquisitions are limited owing to regulatory scrutiny. It urged it to copy Apple’s approach and become “cash neutral” over time."

His style described in the article sounds like "corporate raiding" from the 80s. One might point out corporate raiding caused a financial crash ...

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