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Apple: The only big tech giant going against the job cuts tide

blog.pragmaticengineer.com

271–280 of 405 posts

Re: Apple: The only big tech giant going against the job cuts tide

#271
I think I’m more in favor of over hiring than under hiring.

Getting money and experience in the hands of the workforce doesn’t seem like a bad thing.

Being laid off sucks, been there, but I was glad to have had the work, compensation and experience while it lasted.

Re: Apple: The only big tech giant going against the job cuts tide

#273
post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hear this a lot lately, and intuitively it is true of startups and businesses that are pre revenue, but I have trouble seeing how it applies to companies with billions in profit.

Because it effects the whole economy (afaik) so from housing to banking to any industry. Interest is a compound factor in a complex modern economy. Even big companies have to factor in the effect of interest, even if they haven’t borrowed anything.

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Re: Apple: The only big tech giant going against the job cuts tide

#274
post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No scandals, no twitter addiction, no sexual assault cases. No bullshit. All this guy does is wake up at 4, work till 10, and sleep. Cuts his own pay voluntarily. Didn’t double his headcount while revenues fell like so many. Tim Cook is such a beast. Jobs left one last blessing for Apple shareholders in his decision to elevate Cook.

> No scandals, no twitter addiction, no sexual assault cases. No bullshit. It’s unfortunate (and it says a lot about our current situation) that that behaviour is worthy of note. > Jobs left one last blessing for Apple shareholders in his decision to elevate Cook. I don’t understand the obsession with shareholders. It’s all about money money money, good products and respect for the customer be dammed. Cook was a fant…

did he not have any decision making on going towards ARM and M chips?

Re: Apple: The only big tech giant going against the job cuts tide

#275
post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not sure I believe that. It honestly sounds like an excuse to fire people. Or leadership has no clue. The biggest thing I got from the pandemic is flexible work arrangements. But I and everyone I knew all wanted to get back out there. Just not back out on public transport to work. We were doing things online because there was no other option. But once the borders opened and restrictions eased, everyone did what t…

I never wanted to commute. Not in busy trains and certainly not getting stuck in traffic jams. I also never wanted to shop or spend time in the supermarket getting spaced out by their weird lightning they install to make you make bad decisions. I do want to visit friends, go out in nature and once in a while eat at a restaurant. But for me, I am so happy to wfh 80% of the time and do 99% of shopping and groceries onl…

>I also never wanted to shop or spend time in the supermarket getting spaced out by their weird lightning they install to make you make bad decisions.

Not that I ever used grocery pickup during the pandemic, my anecdotal observation is that, at least around where I live, you see very few pickers in stores for curbside pickup at this point. Curbside delivery/home delivery/meal kits/etc. are by all indications extremely niche from what I can see. I'm sure things have changed for some small minority however.

Re: Apple: The only big tech giant going against the job cuts tide

#276
post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Everyone who got laid off wouldn't have had at a job at all if they weren't hired Maybe I've been lucky, but every time I've been looking for a job I've had AT LEAST two options. People move cities, sell houses, buy houses, give up apartments, plan their finances, and plan their career around their job all the time. Investing a year learning the ropes at a company, finding ways to fit into the structures, etc. only…

> Maybe I've been lucky, but every time I've been looking for a job I've had AT LEAST two options. You got many offers precisely because a lot of companies were (over)hiring. And the fact that you had many options on the table allowed you to get a better compensation (either because you negotiated, or because everyone else did so the industry standard increased). You benefitted from these hiring binges. When that was…

Can we stop using the household budget analogy for megacorps, governments and economies? It’s overly simplistic and wrong.

(For just one example, a household has a single non-varying income stream and everything else is expense. Large companies have many revenue making depts, lines of business, products, etc)

Re: Apple: The only big tech giant going against the job cuts tide

#277
post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No scandals, no twitter addiction, no sexual assault cases. No bullshit. All this guy does is wake up at 4, work till 10, and sleep. Cuts his own pay voluntarily. Didn’t double his headcount while revenues fell like so many. Tim Cook is such a beast. Jobs left one last blessing for Apple shareholders in his decision to elevate Cook.

> No scandals, no twitter addiction, no sexual assault cases. No bullshit. It’s unfortunate (and it says a lot about our current situation) that that behaviour is worthy of note. > Jobs left one last blessing for Apple shareholders in his decision to elevate Cook. I don’t understand the obsession with shareholders. It’s all about money money money, good products and respect for the customer be dammed. Cook was a fant…

As a longtime apple customer, the quality and innovation in my M1 pro is absolutely in line with their old values.

Re: Apple: The only big tech giant going against the job cuts tide

#278
post #244
post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never wanted to commute. Not in busy trains and certainly not getting stuck in traffic jams. I also never wanted to shop or spend time in the supermarket getting spaced out by their weird lightning they install to make you make bad decisions. I do want to visit friends, go out in nature and once in a while eat at a restaurant. But for me, I am so happy to wfh 80% of the time and do 99% of shopping and groceries onl…

Something that the pandemic has rammed home with my wife and I is just how poor the out of home dining experience is in general. The food is lackluster, the ambiance is awful, being surrounded by other people eating is terrible (my wife is a quiet talker and being fat always makes eating in public a shameful experience), so we'd MUCH rather eat at home. The quality of the ingredients are far higher, the food is tasti…

I've found that eating out varies a lot city by city (estimate: 50%+?). Some cities have excellent base-level food; others are terrible.

As someone who lived in Atlanta during the restaurant revolution, it went from "I could do better than this at home" to most places being able to put together an interesting plate I couldn't/wouldn't do at home. And oddly, pre-pandemic prices didn't change that much when it happened.

My working theory is that restaurants only strive to be a bit better than the average restaurant in an area.

Re: Apple: The only big tech giant going against the job cuts tide

#280
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on the company but yes. Stripe, as an example, drastically slowed down hiring when the pandemic hit expecting an economic slowdown. It then turned out that so much commerce moved to online—rather than stopped—so they ramped up hiring to meet demand. The bet that companies like Shopify and Stripe [1] made was that COVID created a “new normal”; much of the economic activity that went online would stay there. Th…

Is it called a "bet" when you stand to win big, but if you lose it's the people you hired who've lost, and you don't lose basically anything?

I don’t get it. What did they lose? They got paid good money during the mean time and have the fact that they worked for $BigTech on their resume. What did they spend all of the money on? Coke and strippers?

I was also hired for a remote role at $BigTech in mid 2020. Fortunately I didn’t get laid off. But I wouldn’t exactly be bitter that I got paid 50% more during the interim. I save/invested/paid off debt with 80% of the difference in take home pay.

Yes, I’ve been laid off before when I was making a lot less in 2012. I made sure I had savings then

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