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Tell HN: IBM and SAP are cutting thousands of jobs

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11–20 of 68 posts

Re: Tell HN: IBM and SAP are cutting thousands of jobs

#11

It's funny to write "IBM (IBM)" and "SAP (SAP)".

>It's funny to write "IBM (IBM)" and "SAP (SAP)".

It's because in the original text, the text in (parentheses) was the stock ticker symbol that linked to its chart performance:

https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/26/tech/ibm-layoffs-intl-hnk/ind...

The copy&paste removed the hyperlinks which makes the extra text look redundant.

Re: Tell HN: IBM and SAP are cutting thousands of jobs

#12
post #6

I can well imagine there are lots of upset people having lost their jobs. However it never seems to be a priority or even on radar for jobseekers to consider how a a company handles layoffs or handled layoffs in the past as a proxy for their own treatment should that time come again. I wonder if this is partially because jobs seekers have over optimized for salary or total comp relative to other things like job secur…

Personally I'd focus more on making a layoff less of a traumatic event than playing ultra safe with a low salary in a low risk company. For most software engineers it's not hard to build up a significant emergency fund. I'd advocate for 6 figures. Feel free to invest 80% of that as well in something liquid. Keep at least 3 months in cash.

Any recommendations on what type of accounts to use or what might be decent investments? I certainly wouldn’t put anything I’d call an “emergency fund” in stocks right now

Re: Tell HN: IBM and SAP are cutting thousands of jobs

#13
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally I'd focus more on making a layoff less of a traumatic event than playing ultra safe with a low salary in a low risk company. For most software engineers it's not hard to build up a significant emergency fund. I'd advocate for 6 figures. Feel free to invest 80% of that as well in something liquid. Keep at least 3 months in cash.

Any recommendations on what type of accounts to use or what might be decent investments? I certainly wouldn’t put anything I’d call an “emergency fund” in stocks right now

High Yield Savings Accounts (HYSA) like Marcus by Goldman Sachs can be a good place to keep the 3 month cash reserves.

Re: Tell HN: IBM and SAP are cutting thousands of jobs

#14

Following the trend :-( Time to get rid of people they don’t want, without them look bad since everybody is doing it, and also they’ll have an excuse if financial results aren’t very good. IMHO it’s the retaliation of big companies to what remote working brought to all of us (freedom, better wages, quality time, escape from bad environments…).

Nah. It's about making your financial results look better. My company touts every quarter how not only is revenue up, profit per revenue is up, ie. we're making more money on the money we make. Yet, when it comes to compensation and dealing with cost of living, the statement is that we haven't met our targets so it's a 3% pool. Not minimum or maximum, but that for someone to get more someone else has to get less.

COVID had many enlightening observations about the economy, one of which is that there was a lot of inelasticity in consumer demand versus compensation. Companies have realized that there is a lot more value to extract from employees.

Re: Tell HN: IBM and SAP are cutting thousands of jobs

#15

Following the trend :-( Time to get rid of people they don’t want, without them look bad since everybody is doing it, and also they’ll have an excuse if financial results aren’t very good. IMHO it’s the retaliation of big companies to what remote working brought to all of us (freedom, better wages, quality time, escape from bad environments…).

This kind of conspiratorial thinking is a fib people say to make themselves feel better. "financial results aren't very good" is the leading cause of death of most companies -- you can't just gloss over it as if preventing it isn't the leading root cause.

The truth is that companies could afford a lot more less ROI positive resource investments, and yes that even extended to hiring. Now that companies are in a situation far rougher than anything we've seen in the past 15 years (end of zero interest rate policy and cheap funding), companies are scrambling to cut costs and maximize ROI on their existing costs, so that they don't die. They have to, now.

Re: Tell HN: IBM and SAP are cutting thousands of jobs

#16
post #6

I can well imagine there are lots of upset people having lost their jobs. However it never seems to be a priority or even on radar for jobseekers to consider how a a company handles layoffs or handled layoffs in the past as a proxy for their own treatment should that time come again. I wonder if this is partially because jobs seekers have over optimized for salary or total comp relative to other things like job secur…

Personally I'd focus more on making a layoff less of a traumatic event than playing ultra safe with a low salary in a low risk company. For most software engineers it's not hard to build up a significant emergency fund. I'd advocate for 6 figures. Feel free to invest 80% of that as well in something liquid. Keep at least 3 months in cash.

It’s not just the money. Losing health insurance is pretty bad, especially if there are others on one’s insurance.

Re: Tell HN: IBM and SAP are cutting thousands of jobs

#17
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally I'd focus more on making a layoff less of a traumatic event than playing ultra safe with a low salary in a low risk company. For most software engineers it's not hard to build up a significant emergency fund. I'd advocate for 6 figures. Feel free to invest 80% of that as well in something liquid. Keep at least 3 months in cash.

Any recommendations on what type of accounts to use or what might be decent investments? I certainly wouldn’t put anything I’d call an “emergency fund” in stocks right now

Yeah risk tolerance is up to you. Personally I went stocks and it worked out great, but I am not advising as such. If you go into a more risky asset it's really only a problem until growth provides enough of a buffer to handle the risk. I wouldn't really want a full 6 figures in a HYSA though when it could be earning a lot more.

Re: Tell HN: IBM and SAP are cutting thousands of jobs

#18
post #6

I can well imagine there are lots of upset people having lost their jobs. However it never seems to be a priority or even on radar for jobseekers to consider how a a company handles layoffs or handled layoffs in the past as a proxy for their own treatment should that time come again. I wonder if this is partially because jobs seekers have over optimized for salary or total comp relative to other things like job secur…

Well, there is a kind of employer that will always have the top spot for layoff resistance -- the government. Nonprofits as well are generally similar.

Re: Tell HN: IBM and SAP are cutting thousands of jobs

#19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally I'd focus more on making a layoff less of a traumatic event than playing ultra safe with a low salary in a low risk company. For most software engineers it's not hard to build up a significant emergency fund. I'd advocate for 6 figures. Feel free to invest 80% of that as well in something liquid. Keep at least 3 months in cash.

It’s not just the money. Losing health insurance is pretty bad, especially if there are others on one’s insurance.

[flagged]

Re: Tell HN: IBM and SAP are cutting thousands of jobs

#20
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not just the money. Losing health insurance is pretty bad, especially if there are others on one’s insurance.

[flagged]

You’re on an American website, and talking with people who are statistically likely to be American.

So yes.

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