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Gitlab to lay off 7% of staff

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Re: Gitlab to lay off 7% of staff

#211

Post by robertlagrant »

jlmorton wrote: post #190

> The current macroeconomic environment is tough No, it isn't, and it's embarrassing at this point to continue insisting this. The macroeconomic environment is good, particularly in the United States. Business investment is growing at 3% a quarter (annualized), which is better than the average over the past decade. Employment is growing rapidly. Inflation has been tame over the past six months. And wages are growing…

> Business investment is growing at 3% a quarter (annualized)

That's surprising given money is reportedly much less cheap now. Any citations?

Re: Gitlab to lay off 7% of staff

#212

Post by andsoitis »

todd3834 wrote: post #137
msm_ wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My issue with analyses like this is they argue that layoffs are a bad idea and it's just companies shooting themselves in a foot. That's what people want to hear, so it gets a lot of clicks and citations. But, this also means that all the big companies (and that's a lot of them) that just announced layoffs made a obviously bad move. Are they all stupid? I find it hard to believe. It's more plausible, that yeah, layof…

Most of them over hired like crazy during the pandemic bubble. I wouldn’t say they were stupid but collectively most of them made a massive mistake. So yeah it isn’t hard to believe for me. I don’t think the layoffs are a stupid decision but I do think the extreme over hiring as if the bubble was a new normal was. Between 2020-2022 I literally conducted over 200 interviews for my previous employer. It was like we cou…

> Between 2020-2022 I literally conducted over 200 interviews for my previous employer.

it sounds like you knew at the time that it was a mistake to hire this much and you were part of the interview processes.

did you ever speak up, tried to make a case that it is the wrong move?

Re: Gitlab to lay off 7% of staff

#213

Post by gregors »

jlmorton wrote: post #190

> The current macroeconomic environment is tough No, it isn't, and it's embarrassing at this point to continue insisting this. The macroeconomic environment is good, particularly in the United States. Business investment is growing at 3% a quarter (annualized), which is better than the average over the past decade. Employment is growing rapidly. Inflation has been tame over the past six months. And wages are growing…

Disney is laying off 7k workers...

>>> “While this is necessary to address the challenges we’re

>>> facing today, I do not make this decision lightly,” said

>>> CEO Bob Iger, "

From the same article

>>> ...the company released better than expected financial

>>> results for the fourth quarter of 2022. Disney revenue in

>>> the quarter rose 8% to $23.5 billion, edging past

>>> estimates of $23.4 billion

Truly they are facing major challenges /s

https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/08/business/disney-earnings/inde...

Re: Gitlab to lay off 7% of staff

#214

Post by tablespoon »

jlmorton wrote: post #190

> The current macroeconomic environment is tough No, it isn't, and it's embarrassing at this point to continue insisting this. The macroeconomic environment is good, particularly in the United States. Business investment is growing at 3% a quarter (annualized), which is better than the average over the past decade. Employment is growing rapidly. Inflation has been tame over the past six months. And wages are growing…

> No, it isn't, and it's embarrassing at this point to continue insisting this.

Yeah, it feels the most charitable interpretation for the companies that say that is their CEO read doom-and-gloom predictions last fall, and hasn't opened a newspaper since.

My employer just put out good numbers for 2022 and what look like positive growth predictions 2023 -- they're not laying anyone off, but they're cutting budgets and letting go of contractors (mostly very good ones), which will really hurt our ability to deliver and maybe even negatively impact stability. I've heard that meeting the budget is the priority, even if the actions needed to do that are illogical. It makes no sense.

Re: Gitlab to lay off 7% of staff

#215

Post by grey-area »

SantalBlush wrote: post #132
grey-area wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Employment usually peaks just before a recession, along with denial of course. The real economy is not doing well globally, inflation is a serious problem, and the impact of the rate hikes will take about 10 months to show up (so should hit this year).

I've been reading these predictions on HN for almost a year now, and so far they've been false. If people keep repeating them, eventually we'll witness a recession and they'll be right, but that doesn't make their analyses correct, it just makes them a broken clock.

So whatever the outcome, they are wrong and you are right?

Re: Gitlab to lay off 7% of staff

#216

Post by noelsusman »

mberning wrote: post #198
jlmorton wrote: post #190

> The current macroeconomic environment is tough No, it isn't, and it's embarrassing at this point to continue insisting this. The macroeconomic environment is good, particularly in the United States. Business investment is growing at 3% a quarter (annualized), which is better than the average over the past decade. Employment is growing rapidly. Inflation has been tame over the past six months. And wages are growing…

Record high credit card balances, record low personal savings, 40 year high inflation, rising interest rates and no sign of the fed stopping. Housing affordability at its lowest point since the real estate bubble and crash of 07/08. You are on some very good copium if you believe the economy is in good shape.

The economy is humming along just fine despite all of that.

Re: Gitlab to lay off 7% of staff

#217

Post by Aperocky »

2-718-281-828 wrote: post #129

I'll have to find a new job in spring this year in IT after a one year break. I'm kind of worried considering all those lay offs I must say. I'm not a high profile candidate by any means.

I've always wondered if programming skill would be useful and transformative of traditional businesses internally (instead of a salesman pushing a B2B solution). But it's clear that traditional business have neither the know how or the money to hire software engineers in numbers that could actually affect such change.

I wonder if downturns like this offers them a chance.

Re: Gitlab to lay off 7% of staff

#218

Post by andsoitis »

msm_ wrote: post #98
softwaredoug wrote: post #63

Listened to a great podcast about layoffs yesterday ( https://hbr.org/podcast/2023/02/why-many-companies-get-layof... ) The takeaway is that layoffs are extremely trust destroying for employees NOT laid off, and in the end not clear they're a financial net positive. Both with direct and indirect costs (lack of engagement from employees, etc).

My issue with analyses like this is they argue that layoffs are a bad idea and it's just companies shooting themselves in a foot. That's what people want to hear, so it gets a lot of clicks and citations. But, this also means that all the big companies (and that's a lot of them) that just announced layoffs made a obviously bad move. Are they all stupid? I find it hard to believe. It's more plausible, that yeah, layof…

> they make shareholders rich

do you realize that for most software engineers at the hi-tech companies, the majority of their compensation is in the form of equity?

and at startups, reduced headcount cost gives more runway for the company and hence employment.

Re: Gitlab to lay off 7% of staff

#219

Post by mberning »

noelsusman wrote: post #216
mberning wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Record high credit card balances, record low personal savings, 40 year high inflation, rising interest rates and no sign of the fed stopping. Housing affordability at its lowest point since the real estate bubble and crash of 07/08. You are on some very good copium if you believe the economy is in good shape.

The economy is humming along just fine despite all of that.

Many people feel fine right up until the point they get diagnosed with a terminal illness. The point being, this would be like going to the doctor and having high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high blood sugar, etc. etc. The patient can be up, walking around, feeling OK, but in reality they are headed for a nightmare.

Re: Gitlab to lay off 7% of staff

#220

Post by ChuckNorris89 »

gregors wrote: post #213
jlmorton wrote: post #190

> The current macroeconomic environment is tough No, it isn't, and it's embarrassing at this point to continue insisting this. The macroeconomic environment is good, particularly in the United States. Business investment is growing at 3% a quarter (annualized), which is better than the average over the past decade. Employment is growing rapidly. Inflation has been tame over the past six months. And wages are growing…

Disney is laying off 7k workers... >>> “While this is necessary to address the challenges we’re >>> facing today, I do not make this decision lightly,” said >>> CEO Bob Iger, " From the same article >>> ...the company released better than expected financial >>> results for the fourth quarter of 2022. Disney revenue in >>> the quarter rose 8% to $23.5 billion, edging past >>> estimates of $23.4 billion Truly they are…

Disney is laying off people because their movies keep bombing in the theaters. All they do is remakes and spinoffs of the famous old IPs they devoured, but that gravy train is coming to a stop. After a while people get tired of watching more half-baked Star Wars and Marvel sequels of bootleg quality.

They're running out of franchises to milk, and making something new and original is not in their corporate culture.

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