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Zoom lays off 15% of employees

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Re: Zoom lays off 15% of employees

#381

Post by s1artibartfast »

wheelinsupial wrote: post #378
s1artibartfast wrote: post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have never heard your definition. My connotation has always been ritual suicide. E.g. Seppuku in Japan, captains going down with the ship, ect. The origin of the phrase in the west stems from the roman practice of military ritual suicide following defeat. It was more a matter of honor than seeking victimhood. A captured general represented an embarrassment to the empire, provides the enemy with a hostage, and would…

Are you talking about "accountability" or "falling on your sword?"

I'm talking about the meaning and entomology of falling on your sword.

That said, I think it is a huge stretch to translate this history to the context of CEO accountability.

Re: Zoom lays off 15% of employees

#382

Post by ryanSrich »

Quikinterp wrote: post #355
boring_twenties wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jobs are plentiful. Jobs that pay $400k+ ... less so.

Jobs that hire new grads or juniors in general seem to be a lot harder to find as well

Oversaturation to some degree. The same thing happened in the legal field. Becoming a lawyer used to be a one way ticket to the upper middle class. Not so much anymore. The same thing is happening with CS and SWE degrees. They're still great degrees, and probably still worth the money. But much less so than they were even a few years ago.

Re: Zoom lays off 15% of employees

#383

Post by wheelinsupial »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #381
wheelinsupial wrote: post #378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you talking about "accountability" or "falling on your sword?"

I'm talking about the meaning and entomology of falling on your sword. That said, I think it is a huge stretch to translate this history to the context of CEO accountability.

Thanks for clarifying. I was having a really tough time understanding your response. I thought you were saying you hadn't heard the dictionary definition that lazide was quoting, and were saying lazide made that definition up and you had a different definition you made up that doesn't match.

Re: Zoom lays off 15% of employees

#384

Post by lamontcg »

A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote: post #368
lamontcg wrote: post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because Millennials eat up cheesy tribalistic terms to wrap their sense of identity around and corporations exploit that.

FWIW, we all do that to an extent. Pick a label and make it good or bad, but something you can use as a yard stick. You are on the money, but oddly fall into the same trap by using label 'millenials' in a tribalistic manner ( the term has been largely made up to describe a giant cohort, and as most giant population terms, it shares the same flaws ). I do not think you are wrong in general. I am not sure, however, if…

Qualitatively I think there's something different about the way that people under-40 tend to think about identity, particularly the people working in tech that we're discussing here. We used to have thirtysomethings and yuppies and other groups like that. But it hadn't infested everything the same way that Zoomies and Googlers and Pythonistas/Rubyists/Rustaceans has.

Re: Zoom lays off 15% of employees

#385

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

haswell wrote: post #8

> As the CEO and founder of Zoom, I am accountable for these mistakes and the actions we take today– and I want to show accountability not just in words but in my own actions. To that end, I am reducing my salary for the coming fiscal year by 98% and foregoing my FY23 corporate bonus. Members of my executive leadership team will reduce their base salaries by 20% for the coming fiscal year while also forfeiting their…

> When you’re making CEO salary, no amount of salary reduction will have a day to day impact, but this seems strongly symbolic at least.

If I remember correctly, Steve Jobs had a $1 salary.

And a Learjet.

A lot of these folks don't make most of their money from salary. If his main income is from stocks, then he may actually be doing fairly well.

Re: Zoom lays off 15% of employees

#386

Post by givemeethekeys »

dymk wrote: post #302
givemeethekeys wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Zoomies", "Googlers", "Softies" As part of their compensation package, they receive a diminutive pet name, like a child would.

I'll let you call me a lot of things for $50k

I bet I could get much more out of you by treating you like an adult.

Re: Zoom lays off 15% of employees

#387

Post by autoexec »

phtrivier wrote: post #181
credit_guy wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Goalpost moving. The people who complain that CEO's don't show any accountability, will then complain that whatever consequences the CEO's face (or self impose) are insignificant. Would you like this guy to commit hara-kiri?

Of course no ! We want him to resign. (I meant some people will, I personally don't expect anything, and don't really care - none of this is in my power in any way, shape or form.) Or at least, to give the rough date at which he will resign, so that someone more competent will run the company, avoiding the mistakes that brought it so bad that it has to lay off 15%. There are mistakes that you can recover from, and yo…

> There are mistakes that you can recover from, and you don't fire an exec (or anyone) at the first blunder.

Their first "blunder" would have been lying about their security and sending encryption keys and private data to china (https://citizenlab.ca/2020/04/move-fast-roll-your-own-crypto...)

Even the most generous and forgiving view of Zoom makes them look completely incompetent and unfit for anything you want secure/private. A less generous view would see Zoom as a deceitful and malicious tool for data collection.

At this point, after so many lies and security issues I honestly can't believe anyone trusts Zoom for anything even remotely sensitive, but I'd think even the most trusting people would agree the company has a history of terrible actions/choices and the CEO is the person who is ultimately responsible.

I hope the employees who were laid off find satisfying work with a much better employer.

Re: Zoom lays off 15% of employees

#388

Post by 908B64B197 »

saos wrote: post #109
coolbreezetft22 wrote: post #77

How quickly times can change. A few years ago a CS degree and software job seemed like the most secure and easy way to a guaranteed high paying job while everything else was harder. Now it seems every software company is laying people off while the overall job market outside of tech is stronger than ever. Sucks to be a new CS grad this summer

Its the bootcamps that worry me and the endless YouTubers preaching how they became a so and so after 3 months. But yeah nothing is secure.

> Its the bootcamps that worry me and the endless YouTubers preaching how they became a so and so after 3 months.

At one point we broadened our hiring pipeline to grads of a local bootcamp (their sales rep were apparently very convincing).

About two thirds of the candidates couldn't write three lines of code on a whiteboard.

Re: Zoom lays off 15% of employees

#389

Post by robertlagrant »

georgeg23 wrote: post #342
s1artibartfast wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is all in the noise financially. Mr. Yuan owns 22% of the company. He owns 22% of the salary savings on the balance sheet.

Given the stock went up 9% on this announcement, he just made $500M.

The phrase "net worth" claims another victim's mind.

Re: Zoom lays off 15% of employees

#390

Post by speby »

vsareto wrote: post #119
haswell wrote: post #8

> As the CEO and founder of Zoom, I am accountable for these mistakes and the actions we take today– and I want to show accountability not just in words but in my own actions. To that end, I am reducing my salary for the coming fiscal year by 98% and foregoing my FY23 corporate bonus. Members of my executive leadership team will reduce their base salaries by 20% for the coming fiscal year while also forfeiting their…

This is probably the best you can hope for in terms of fairness right now. You'll never see executives put themselves financially in the same situation as the lowest level people they are letting go. This is actually a pretty big step, but the move will need some benefit to the company for it to become more common-place. They might roll these bonuses into subsequent bonuses, but that may actually end up being a motiv…

Seriously? What 'fairness' exactly is it people want when companies do layoffs?

"Hey, we are laying off 3,000 people. Because of that, I am firing myself and the company will no longer have a CEO and will have to find someone else, starting immediately. In addition, I plan to donate all of my life's savings and file for unemployment like everyone else and, if needed, live in my van down by the river. I hope this makes everyone feel vindicated and that the scales of justice remain balanced. God Bless."

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