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Gitlab to lay off 7% of staff

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Re: Gitlab to lay off 7% of staff

#231

Post by grey-area »

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…

The cost of money went up dramatically last year, and businesses which relied on very cheap (almost free) money for the last decade now need to make a profit or die.

They are therefore panicking about the near future (and rightly so), this is what they mean by 'The current macroeconomic environment is tough'.

Re: Gitlab to lay off 7% of staff

#232

Post by sidibe »

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.

There are always some measurements by which the economy is currently a disaster, and you are definitely going to hear those from companies that need to or want to lay off employees or from opposition politicians. A lot of other measures are solid now, the main thing is rising rates will hurt companies that aren't very solid financially and give everyone else a nice excuse to let go of employees.

Re: Gitlab to lay off 7% of staff

#234

Post by IshKebab »

Alesiono wrote: post #226
gregors wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

And how is Disney related to gitlab?!

It's a similar example of a company justifying layoffs with "difficult macroeconomic conditions" which actually doing very well. (Well I don't know if Gitlab are doing well but there are plenty of more examples like Disney.)

Re: Gitlab to lay off 7% of staff

#235

Post by piva00 »

teeray wrote: post #118
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…

> they make shareholders rich In that regard, I wonder if it becomes a Wall Street meme--layoffs for the sake of doing layoffs. Companies that performed layoffs made shareholders rich, so therefore if your company isn't doing layoffs in a layoff climate it's assumed that shareholders are better off putting their dollars somewhere else.

That's the gist I get from currently working in a company that did layoffs, the affected number of employees will not impact OPEX in any meaningful way if the issue is cash got more expensive, even less compared to pre-2020/21 levels.

But if they didn't do layoffs when earnings showed an increase in OPEX the shareholders would see it as a bad sign, so to signal to those that this is a serious-business™ the layoffs happen.

Crisis of confidence are pretty well known/studied, this seems to be a flavour of trying to avoid a crisis of confidence if the herd mentality isn't followed.

It all just sounds stupid, and like higher management aren't too far away from behaving like children and not responsible adults.

Re: Gitlab to lay off 7% of staff

#237

Post by jayd16 »

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…

As layoffs echo through tech and belts are tightened, rightfully so or not, don't you think that would effect a SAAS like gitlab?

Re: Gitlab to lay off 7% of staff

#238

Post by andsoitis »

iamflimflam1 wrote: post #156
iends wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

None of these massive FAANG companies are anywhere near crashing.

Exactly this - if you're still making massive profits then layoffs are unnecessary. You could just instigate a hiring freeze and let natural attrition run its course. But that would involve having some balls and managing a business in a way that is good for everyone.

typically a company also refocuses where they spend effort or make changes how they operate and that leaves a lot of people without meaningful work that matters. not only will those people be demoralized, but those around them too, together with continue collaboration and communication complexity. waiting for that to organically resolve it self would be terrible leadership.

Re: Gitlab to lay off 7% of staff

#239

Post by joegahona »

perrygeo wrote: post #147

General question about this wave of tech layoffs: Has anyone done a breakdown of what roles have been cut? Is it management or product or engineering? Senior or junior? My general sense is that every company is rushing to trim some fat while it's socially acceptable to do so. But where are they making cuts?

No one has done this analysis -- I keep wondering the same thing. I'm sure it's insanely difficult to get accurate data. If (e.g.) the majority of cuts are in HR/recruiting, that's more of a signal of tightening up hiring for the foreseeable future.

Re: Gitlab to lay off 7% of staff

#240

Post by gregors »

Alesiono wrote: post #226
gregors wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

And how is Disney related to gitlab?!

I mean it as a response that I feel the macroeconomic environment for companies are amazing and not tough.
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