Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Tech CEOs Should Be Held Accountable, or Even Fired, Amid Layoffs

businessinsider.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 386 posts

Re: Tech CEOs Should Be Held Accountable, or Even Fired, Amid Layoffs

#161

Post by trilobyte »

colinmorelli wrote: post #86

Regardless of individual opinions on whether CEOs should be terminated for layoffs or not - there's a surprising amount of comments here that seem to not understand that growing companies don't hire for today, but for where they want to be tomorrow. Where you want to be tomorrow is based on where you and your investors believe the world is going. If the world materially changes enough to shift your expectations about…

Stepping back from any emotional assessment, the growth of these businesses was not commensurate with the hiring. You can look at both the financial reporting and the economic indicators from that period and a reasonable measure of growth was warranted but not at the level these companies [edited from "comments"] hired at. It was more of an irrational tragedy of the commons, where companies were hiring because they were afraid of losing access to talent due to other company's hiring. It was not rational through the lens of business growth.

Re: Tech CEOs Should Be Held Accountable, or Even Fired, Amid Layoffs

#162

Post by dijit »

k8t wrote: post #115
automatic6131 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>when COVID hit and tech companies saw large surges because investors and CEOs saw industries leaping 5-10 years into the future overnight, they hired to support that growth Yes, they all egregiously failed. A massive, widespread, collective failure for which they should lose their jobs, as many other people do. On the face of it, it was obvious, that's not even hindsight bias - it was the topsy turvy world that bad…

If it was obvious, did you initiate any shorts while it was happening?

> If it was obvious, did you initiate any shorts while it was happening?

Hard to prove, but as a data point: I tried to.

I just couldn't figure out how, access to that kind of banking is more difficult in Sweden, especially if you don't speak Swedish.

I have IRC logs of that period though, since I asked around on how to do that.

Just to say: it was quite obvious in my circles.

Re: Tech CEOs Should Be Held Accountable, or Even Fired, Amid Layoffs

#163

Post by jonathankoren »

crazygringo wrote: post #128
automatic6131 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>when COVID hit and tech companies saw large surges because investors and CEOs saw industries leaping 5-10 years into the future overnight, they hired to support that growth Yes, they all egregiously failed. A massive, widespread, collective failure for which they should lose their jobs, as many other people do. On the face of it, it was obvious, that's not even hindsight bias - it was the topsy turvy world that bad…

> On the face of it, it was obvious If it was obvious, then the market would have priced it in. But it didn't. So the crowdsourced collective wisdom was indeed that industries were leaping 5-10 years into the future overnight. That was the thing that was "obvious" to most people. You may have disagreed at the time, and if you'd shorted stocks you could have made some money. But the idea that "on the face of it, it wa…

> If it was obvious, then the market would have priced it in.

Bubbles don’t exist? I’m sorry, but to paraphrase an old quote, the market’s can remain irrational, longer than your faith in a rational market.

Re: Tech CEOs Should Be Held Accountable, or Even Fired, Amid Layoffs

#164

Post by e_i_pi_2 »

hello_moto wrote: post #92
mabbo wrote: post #20

The goal of the CEO of a publicly traded company is to make the shareholders money. As much money as possible. If laying people off is the best way to do that, they'll do it. Blaming the CEO for doing the job they were hired to do seems short-sighted. Blame the broken system that incentivizes this, that makes doing it profitable. And then, let's change the system.

> And then, let's change the system. How about ... get ready for a taboo word in hi-tech: unionized? at a certain size, a hi-tech company must face labour union? Before anyone suggests that Union protect low performer and penalized high performer, keep in mind that right now, at this moment, high performers are culled left and right in FAANG because their salary is too high. High performers also gravitated towards "c…

I'm also a big fan of the model Germany uses where once a company reaches a certain size they're required to have employees on the board, who can then be accountable to their coworkers and make sure they have a say in major decisions that will affect them

Re: Tech CEOs Should Be Held Accountable, or Even Fired, Amid Layoffs

#165

Post by manuelabeledo »

legutierr wrote: post #125
manuelabeledo wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everything you say makes sense in theory , i.e. if we were in the early industrial world of Adam Smith. How do you define "demand" in the context of SaaS? How many engineers do you need to run Google Search? Or Facebook? Or Spotify? Did the demand increase in the past five years? Have it decreased in the last year or so? Here's the thing. None of these companies (Google, Meta, Spotify) have reported losses, not even…

> You are conflating several things here - unemployment, workers' rights, and economy of scale. They are not necessarily connected, e.g. lower unemployment and higher wages don't push managers to take risks on massive hirings. These things are connected, but you have it backwards. Managers' taking risks on massive hirings leads directly to lower unemployment and higher wages.

> Managers' taking risks on massive hirings leads directly to lower unemployment and higher wages.

That's also not true, because it excludes a myriad of parameters, some of which we are able to observe in current trends, like inflation and talent pool size.

Re: Tech CEOs Should Be Held Accountable, or Even Fired, Amid Layoffs

#166

Post by kodah »

colinmorelli wrote: post #86

Regardless of individual opinions on whether CEOs should be terminated for layoffs or not - there's a surprising amount of comments here that seem to not understand that growing companies don't hire for today, but for where they want to be tomorrow. Where you want to be tomorrow is based on where you and your investors believe the world is going. If the world materially changes enough to shift your expectations about…

> there's a surprising amount of comments here that seem to not understand that growing companies don't hire for today, but for where they want to be tomorrow

This can be simplified to market reading. People in finance get fired for getting this wrong all the time. Michael Burry was told investors lacked confidence in his ability to read markets and was on the brink of divestiture during his short.

I think it's fair to say that's what we pay CEOs the big bucks to do, and if they fail to do it it's fair we ask for ramifications. I'm more startled by the comments who would like to preserve someone who makes millions, is already set for life, and often displays an inability to relate to the front line workers they're supposed to represent.

Re: Tech CEOs Should Be Held Accountable, or Even Fired, Amid Layoffs

#167

Post by e_i_pi_2 »

XargonEnder wrote: post #41

Hate to say it but it seems rational to hire like crazy to hedge against a rocket hot economy increasing demand. Also seems rational to cut back when things cool. I certainly don't like it, but I do get it.

This makes sense, but I think we also need some of the protections other countries have, like if you're doing a mass layoff you need to cover wages for a month or two after, you need to prove you're not going to be rehiring for those same positions soon, etc

Re: Tech CEOs Should Be Held Accountable, or Even Fired, Amid Layoffs

#169

Post by xorcist »

crazygringo wrote: post #128
automatic6131 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>when COVID hit and tech companies saw large surges because investors and CEOs saw industries leaping 5-10 years into the future overnight, they hired to support that growth Yes, they all egregiously failed. A massive, widespread, collective failure for which they should lose their jobs, as many other people do. On the face of it, it was obvious, that's not even hindsight bias - it was the topsy turvy world that bad…

> On the face of it, it was obvious If it was obvious, then the market would have priced it in. But it didn't. So the crowdsourced collective wisdom was indeed that industries were leaping 5-10 years into the future overnight. That was the thing that was "obvious" to most people. You may have disagreed at the time, and if you'd shorted stocks you could have made some money. But the idea that "on the face of it, it wa…

A very famous investor once said: "When I see a market bubble forming I quickly rush towards it".
Post reply on HN