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Gitlab to lay off 7% of staff

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Re: Gitlab to lay off 7% of staff

#471

Post by cj »

sofixa wrote: post #270
xyzelement wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or, equivalently, "people like that are paid a lot and are engrossed in their careers." When someone makes $500k+, what does "unpaid overtime" even mean?

> When someone makes $500k+, what does "unpaid overtime" even mean? It means shit work/life balance, thus missing on a lot of people that would want to have it and results in worse productivity (people need time off or they break).

> It means shit work/life balance

Solution: take a job that doesn't pay $500k.

I hate this saying and rarely say it, but "you can't have your cake and eat it too"

No one should take a $500k job and expect the culture to be 9-5, clock in clock out.

It takes most people 10+ years to earn $500k (often still working their asses off overtime). $500k is a shit ton of money.

Re: Gitlab to lay off 7% of staff

#472

Post by Apocryphon »

FollowingTheDao wrote: post #434
Apocryphon wrote: post #402

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you feel about the figures brought up in the above posts? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34725407 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34727185 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34726977

I feel that people do not understand Macro economics and the complexities of this market with inflated asset prices from years of near zero interest rates. You cannot compare numbers Economic indicators may look solid, but why? I assert it is because the Fed rate is STILL below the inflation rate. This is why the housing market has not totally seized up yet. The next inflation numbers will be high and then you will s…

Well, we'll see if next Tuesday will be a Bloody Valentine.

Re: Gitlab to lay off 7% of staff

#473

Post by hagbarth »

isodev wrote: post #106

I don’t get this - did every single company hire hundreds of people for no good reason? A global event forcing folks to temporarily use more online services is, well, temporary. I just don’t get the mindset that triggered all these companies to mismanage their teams so badly.

20-22 there was basically infinite cash sloshing around the system. If your competitors takes advantage of that, hire like crazy to build out and innovate, what do you do?

Not saying it’s good management of a company, but that’s the mechanism driving this.

Re: Gitlab to lay off 7% of staff

#474

Post by 0xB31B1B »

mynameisvlad wrote: post #449
fshbbdssbbgdd wrote: post #431

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only things that ever gave me burnout were incompetent coworkers, and organizations that were doomed to fail.

Great anecdote, but burnout generally isn't caused by that for most people. At its core, it's because of stress. Incompetent coworkers and organizations may certainly cause stress, but rarely is it so bad that it causes burnout. https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/adult-health/in... https://www.helpguide.org/articles/stress/burnout-prevention...

The ambitious people who take 500k/year jobs at HFT firms are to top .25% of "workers" in some abstract measure, and have different expectations and causes of burnout relative to the median burnout experiencer who is for example a school teacher or administrative assistant in an office job. Some people have an addiction to the fast pace, feeling of being need, and stress.

Re: Gitlab to lay off 7% of staff

#475

Post by diggDed »

xyzelement wrote: post #168
pclmulqdq wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is the logic that can make a company like Citadel, which fires 10% of their staff per year, work out well. If you have no expectation of job safety, it attracts a certain kind of person, but there's also no love lost if a layoff round is a little bigger than normal.

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’d rather do actual work than generate signals for wealth managers to personally capitalize on in a government protected and policed fiat currency scam. It’s no different than a church deeming priests the most pious.

Fingers crossed white collar jobs are on the verge of being AI’d away.

Real logistics information should be made public and democratically planned online across the globe in an organized way, not micro managed by elites who spend a lot getting us to memorize and recite that they own imaginary things.

Re: Gitlab to lay off 7% of staff

#476

Post by 8note »

des429 wrote: post #177
Dalewyn wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Burning bridges who might have been references for subsequent employment is almost never a good idea. There is always a time and place, of course. But generally speaking, you don't speak ill of your (former) employer or even talk about it publically lest there be ramifications beyond your imaginations.

Speaking ill? He’s speaking literally about what THEY did lol. There’s nothing subjective about it.

Despite specifying what they did, it's still framed in a negative way

Re: Gitlab to lay off 7% of staff

#477

Post by bombcar »

bentlegen wrote: post #445
bombcar wrote: post #420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The quality of Pixar has certainly suffered - the movies have a “sequel direct to DVD” feel vs the amazing blockbuster of ancient days. But theater attendance is way down either way - and streaming make have cannibalized other revenue streams more than people think.

FWIW, Encanto (Disney Animation, 2021) and Turning Red (Pixar, 2022) were the most streamed movies on any platform for all of 2022 according to Nielsen. Moana (Disney Animation, 2016) was #4. It's debatable whether these films feel like "sequel direct to DVD" or not, but I don't think it's debatable that audiences are watching them. https://www.adweek.com/lostremote/nielsen-top-15-stranger-th...

Encanto was quite good, Turning Red was Disney quality, not Pixar (I feel).

The problem with streaming is that you can stream repeatedly (believe me I know that) without incurring anything additional to Disney but costs. In the "old days" going to see Encanto in theaters would have cost our family easily $80+ - now that's just the cost for Disney+. And we would have gone, but why bother when it's available to stream?

They also cannot milk for MORE than the streaming cost/yr. I've noticed a lot of Encanto merchandizing on the clearance aisle, but I don't really have a way to track that.

Re: Gitlab to lay off 7% of staff

#478

Post by waynesonfire »

whatever1 wrote: post #151
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).

It takes long time for the layoff effects to hit the company. The main effect is that you lose the trust of the top performers. These will be the in the lookout for new opportunities the day after the layoffs are done. If you cut 10%, expect 10% from the top to flee within a couple of years. The second effect is related to the fact that companies usually target older people with expensive jobs. In an a big org these…

> The main effect is that you lose the trust of the top performers.

Why? top-performers are most positioned to be aware of incompetence around them and may in fact welcome a housing cleaning. With that said, it's not always easy to identify who's who-- it's possible top-performs are affected or incompetence isn't, which can erode trust.

Re: Gitlab to lay off 7% of staff

#479

Post by postexitus »

pokstad wrote: post #396
postexitus wrote: post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If that value justifies the cost, there should not be a problem. Some of that value may move to low CoL areas and offer comparable value for much lower cost - then things will start to become complicated - this is totally based on the assumption that that value is only available in high CoL areas.

The problem is when you hire those high CoL areas, extract value by training others, and then discard them. This will make high CoL workers more hesitant to join a globalized employer.

And then what will happen?
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