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Macroeconomic changes have made it impossible for me to want to pay you

mcsweeneys.net

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Re: Macroeconomic changes have made it impossible for me to want to pay you

#61

Post by drdrek »

Not to rain on the common man parade, most of these layoffs are after even bigger hiring rounds. Microsoft hired 40K employees in 22 to layoff 10k in 23, that is still 30K more employees.

In 22: Meta hired 12K+ Netflix 2k+ Google 20K+ Amazon 300K+ (!)

But oh me oh my the free market that lets the companies hire lets them fire. Evil money man used to give me money to get compensation, that is good greed. Now evil money man wants to take away money to get compensation that is bad greed angry face emoji

Re: Macroeconomic changes have made it impossible for me to want to pay you

#62

Post by A4ET8a8uTh0 »

Zvez wrote: post #51
gorgoiler wrote: post #7

I grind away at our codebase day in day out causing me immense personal anxiety and burnout risk and all for what? Well! The honest answer is because software engineering is an incredibly satisfying intellectual pursuit. So satisfying that outside of work in my spare time I literally do it for free , giving away my work to strangers as free / open source software. Why draw a salary then? Or stock? Well obviously I ha…

simple answer - without you they easily find other developers. Without them you will have to find another exec to work for. And as long as it is easier for them to find replacement than for you to find another/better job, they have an upper hand.

Hmm, but are developers that easy to find? Not to search very far, but my most recent interaction with a vendor suggest even relatively simple things are not so simple. OTOH, MBAs are aplenty ( hell, even I have one ).

Re: Macroeconomic changes have made it impossible for me to want to pay you

#63

Post by Tade0 »

> Even as we speak, they’re streamlining, optimizing, and booking the best contractors in the Bay Area for the next eighteen months.

I suppose the author didn't want to sound racist or the equivalent that concerns people of the same skin tone but, somehow, different economic situations and options in life, but over here in Eastern Europe Google and Amazon have been hiring all this time.

Re: Macroeconomic changes have made it impossible for me to want to pay you

#64

Post by severine »

The Cinque Terre (Italian pronunciation: [ˈtʃiŋkwe ˈtɛrre]; Ligurian: Çinque Tære, meaning "Five Lands") is a coastal area within Liguria, in the northwest of Italy. It lies in the west of La Spezia Province, and comprises five villages: Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. The coastline, the five villages, and the surrounding hillsides are all part of the Cinque Terre National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinque_Terre

TIL!

Re: Macroeconomic changes have made it impossible for me to want to pay you

#65

Post by A4ET8a8uTh0 »

Zvez wrote: post #56
jerrre wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Would they get it if the other top engineers and I all downed tools or walked out as a group? No Why not try that? Or use it as leverage? If you believe this.

The (not so) fun fact here is that majority of IT workers won't do this. While exec might want their mansions, we want our latte and iphones. I work at a company which recently had big chunk of layoffs and I can clearly see how a lot of people are just relieved that they were not laid off. Yes, there are talks how everyone is outrageous, they are mostly kitchen talks. The company literally fired thousands of people w…

That is seriously rough. Times change I guess. Last time me and my buddies from office survived layoffs, we kept a list going of who is where to see if we can help one another get through the rough patch. In the end, it did not matter since the company closed its doors, but the list remained so the underground railroad continued its existence. I actually got my previous job thanks to it.

Re: Macroeconomic changes have made it impossible for me to want to pay you

#66

Post by manmal »

mshake2 wrote: post #15
gorgoiler wrote: post #7

I grind away at our codebase day in day out causing me immense personal anxiety and burnout risk and all for what? Well! The honest answer is because software engineering is an incredibly satisfying intellectual pursuit. So satisfying that outside of work in my spare time I literally do it for free , giving away my work to strangers as free / open source software. Why draw a salary then? Or stock? Well obviously I ha…

>So why is their exit equivalent to several mansions and mine is around about a year’s worth of salary? Honestly? Because 1) you are very replaceable and 2) you have a very low chance in succeeding at organizing any kind of group/union action. If either of those two facts were different, you would have more leverage. But they aren't so you don't.

Everyone is replaceable, in some way. Even Steve Jobs and Bill Gates seem to have been replaceable, at least from a stock owner perspective.

I'd like to offer a different explanation: Entrenched in-groups and institutions control access to the highest paid jobs. You need to become a part of those to be allowed to participate.

Re: Macroeconomic changes have made it impossible for me to want to pay you

#67

Post by okokwhatever »

safety1st wrote: post #37
ath3nd wrote: post #17

What a funny write! Despite it being funny, if it wasn't for the outright satire, it would be virtually indistinguishable from the recent tech layoff messages: Gitpod - https://www.gitpod.io/blog/building-for-the-long-run Microsoft (this is maybe the classiest) - https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2023/01/18/subject-focusing... Zuck/Meta - https://about.fb.com/news/2022/11/mark-zuckerberg-layoff-mes... Stripe - https:/…

Maybe I've lost my heart but it's hard for me to find fault with the way Nadella communicated MSFT's layoffs. They're a business, they need to reallocate capital and headcount, he doesn't shed any crocodile tears, but they are providing above market severance benefits, end of transmission. If I have to be laid off I want it to go something like this.

It's called subjectivism for a reason.

Re: Macroeconomic changes have made it impossible for me to want to pay you

#69

Post by Aeolun »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #50
Aeolun wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> their job is to increase value for investors Is their job to increase it in the short or the long term? These “I know we’ve been doing great for 3 years, but the past 3 months haven’t been so hot, so we’re going to cut jobs.” Messages seem incredibly shortsighted.

Do investors sell if they company income falls for a quarter? I'm guessing yes, and that answers the question of whether the company looks to the short term when seeking only to satisfy investors. The whole system is wrong.

Why would the company care if the investors sell? They’ll happily buy again when things are looking up.

Only when things are going so terrible that the board is trying to get you replaced is when it becomes important.

If the board aims to replace you because of a bad quarter in a bad economy… find a different company to be CEO of I guess.

Re: Macroeconomic changes have made it impossible for me to want to pay you

#70

Post by piva00 »

mshake2 wrote: post #60
arrrg wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think it‘s pointless to talk about the ethics of decisions of other people, especially if those decisions affect several thousand people? Do you think anything that is legal is also ethical? Also, in general I don’t live in that world. It‘s much harder for sound companies to just lay off people in Germany (though not impossible).

I don't think it's productive or wise to speculate on decisions that restrict the free association of people. Outside of narrow circumstances, an employer should not be legally required to employ someone any more than an employee should be legally required to work at the company.

Why is it so easy for you to disregard any kind of power/leverage relationship about labour and employment? Reality isn't that simple nor that reductionist.
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