291–300 of 622 posts
GitHub is also going fully remote (zero offices, current offices will close at end of lease) and reducing headcount by 10% :( Statement will be coming out shortly I guess. I wonder if they knew Gitlab were going to be doing layoffs too and so waited them out.
> 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…
Everywhere? Have you been down a grocery aisle? The Ukraine war is likely to continue disrupting global food, fertilizer, energy, and raw material supply for years.
Boomer retirement is crunching capital. Finding investment will likely only get harder for the next several years.
China may be on the verge of a demographic, manufacturing, and political collapse.
Stock your pantries.
At this point it's beginning to look like tech companies are doing this because it's the trendy thing to do, along with inserting a few words about AI in their websites and pitch decks.
I don't know how this has gone over everyone's heads here, because what's happening is extremely obvious. If you're a big FAANG-like company, you've seen workers make big gains in wages over the past year, and turnover rates have been increasing significantly during the great resignation. This isn't enough to sink you, but you don't like it, because it does eat into your margins a little. Of course you're still makin…
> 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.
Actually, those are all traditional signs that the economy is overheated. They're not signs that the economy is doing poorly, they're signs that the economy is doing too well.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Exactly. I worked at a Citadel like fund and that's the vibe. The calculus was like this - I'd rather risk being fired than work in a place where low performers are cozy. The reality is that working at a place like that or a FAANG for just a few years sets you up for a great career no matter what happens. So even if you get fired after a few years you are still better off. It's good to have coworkers who can think ra…
I bet people like that drift into voluntary unpaid overtime.
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 only economic conditions that matter to any company is whether they will be able to continue earning money the way they have been. Since most of the companies doing 6-8% layoffs are concurrently reporting revenue growth, it isn't clear why they feel their future revenue is going to suddenly decline. It also isn't clear why, if they truly expect a decline, they'd continue to buy back shares or issue dividends. See…
This is clearly not true, although it is probably the most important thing.
Interest rates matter if a company financed expansion using debt. Cost of capital matters if your plan is to grow through VC and you're not yet profitable. Changes in these areas can change a company whose books add up to one that doesn't.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The economy is humming along just fine despite all of that.
which says a lot if the economy is disconnected from the prosperity and economic outlook of the majority of people. In such a case, a "good economy" is just a synonym for "elite are still doing well."
Now, it is only anecdata. I am in IL. My household is above average in terms of income for US and my state. We are struggling ( not as much as so many other Americans, but I can't say I am comfortable say.. buying a new car or remodeling kitchen or even taking a vacation ) and it is not like we are throwing money at random indulgences and we did not even start school for our kid yet. By all metrics I should be in a comfortable enough position ( and I guess I am by comparison ), but to me outlook is choppy. And it is not just the boom/bust cycle. I am talking real systemic issues that will take both massive tax hikes and services reductions, but that would not be a popular message to take so no one talks about it.
I remember working sub $20k job. I remember being bumped to $30k ( ~US median? ) and I can't even begin to imagine anyone having to live on that today.
In short, I agree.
At this point it's beginning to look like tech companies are doing this because it's the trendy thing to do, along with inserting a few words about AI in their websites and pitch decks.
If this is an option you're considering, then it's a much easier message to sell if everyone is doing it. Otherwise you look like the bad performer and it'll hurt morale and stock price even more.
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…
There are notable exceptions. Apple rejected (thus far) all three of those trends and is weathering this period much better than most of the industry.