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Tell HN: DigitalOcean is doing layoffs

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Re: Tell HN: DigitalOcean is doing layoffs

#11

Post by saos »

arcturus17 wrote: post #9
kmshultz wrote: post #3

Same here. Rolled over in bed to an email from Yancey to my personal email. Went to my laptop, can't log in, Slack is also dead. Early Spring Break!

Very sorry to hear that, though you seem to have a fairly good outlook about it. Excuse me if it's callous to ask this at this time, but as I've been observing layoffs and been hearing that people are immediately shut down from their systems, I'm wondering: how do they communicate it to you if you can't access your email? Do they reach out to your personal email, call you, send you a letter? I might understand revoki…

> Do they reach out to your personal email, call you, send you a letter?

Personal email, phone and letter.

Re: Tell HN: DigitalOcean is doing layoffs

#12

Post by kmshultz »

arcturus17 wrote: post #9
kmshultz wrote: post #3

Same here. Rolled over in bed to an email from Yancey to my personal email. Went to my laptop, can't log in, Slack is also dead. Early Spring Break!

Very sorry to hear that, though you seem to have a fairly good outlook about it. Excuse me if it's callous to ask this at this time, but as I've been observing layoffs and been hearing that people are immediately shut down from their systems, I'm wondering: how do they communicate it to you if you can't access your email? Do they reach out to your personal email, call you, send you a letter? I might understand revoki…

It was an email from the CEO to my personal email. By the time I received that email, all my IT access was already cut off: no Slack, no laptop login, no VPN, etc.

Re: Tell HN: DigitalOcean is doing layoffs

#13

Post by jalino23 »

saos wrote: post #10
monero-xmr wrote: post #8

When interest rates are 0%, any amount of growth compounded over years is attractive. When you can get a 5% risk-free return from treasuries, even 7% rate of return is unattractive when compared to the safest asset on earth returning 5%. My point is, layoffs will continue until companies are much more efficient, or interest rates go down.

> My point is, layoffs will continue until companies are much more efficient, or interest rates go down. Exactly what the FED wanted.

how does interest rate affects company layoffs and why is being more efficient affects that? and why would FED want this? - serious question

Re: Tell HN: DigitalOcean is doing layoffs

#15

Post by chasd00 »

jalino23 wrote: post #13
saos wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My point is, layoffs will continue until companies are much more efficient, or interest rates go down. Exactly what the FED wanted.

how does interest rate affects company layoffs and why is being more efficient affects that? and why would FED want this? - serious question

The FED wants unemployment to go up which will drive demand, and therefore prices, down. That will reduce inflation.

Re: Tell HN: DigitalOcean is doing layoffs

#16

Post by alephnerd »

jalino23 wrote: post #13
saos wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My point is, layoffs will continue until companies are much more efficient, or interest rates go down. Exactly what the FED wanted.

how does interest rate affects company layoffs and why is being more efficient affects that? and why would FED want this? - serious question

To combat inflation in the housing market. A subset of White collar professionals (such as those in Tech, Real Estate, Finance) ended up earning so much that housing became unaffordable as a small but significant minority began buying multiple investment properties

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/11/10/rent-inflation-bide...

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/12/31/labor-market-high-i...

“Tech and finance are taking the impact of rate hikes the hardest because they gorged the most on low rates,” said David Kotok, chief investment officer at Cumberland Advisors. “But if you are a carpenter or a retail worker right now you can still quit your job whenever you want and instantly go somewhere else and get paid more. This won’t continue to be true if we go into a real recession.”

Re: Tell HN: DigitalOcean is doing layoffs

#17

Post by sithlord »

jalino23 wrote: post #13
saos wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My point is, layoffs will continue until companies are much more efficient, or interest rates go down. Exactly what the FED wanted.

how does interest rate affects company layoffs and why is being more efficient affects that? and why would FED want this? - serious question

because if people don't have extra money to buy things, then merchandisers are forced to lower price to a point where people are willing to buy it.

it's supply and demand, Feds can't really impact supply - but they can impact the demand of it

Re: Tell HN: DigitalOcean is doing layoffs

#18

Post by sophacles »

jalino23 wrote: post #13
saos wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My point is, layoffs will continue until companies are much more efficient, or interest rates go down. Exactly what the FED wanted.

how does interest rate affects company layoffs and why is being more efficient affects that? and why would FED want this? - serious question

The best I've been able to determine is: we went through a period of very low unemployment, and as a result employee class people were able to do things like "ask for reasonable pay" and "switch jobs for more money".

Re: Tell HN: DigitalOcean is doing layoffs

#19

Post by schnitzelstoat »

monero-xmr wrote: post #8

When interest rates are 0%, any amount of growth compounded over years is attractive. When you can get a 5% risk-free return from treasuries, even 7% rate of return is unattractive when compared to the safest asset on earth returning 5%. My point is, layoffs will continue until companies are much more efficient, or interest rates go down.

But we aren't seeing major layoffs in other industries, unemployment is low and job growth is relatively high.

It seems like the low interest rates were helping sustain a bubble in tech and that bubble is now deflating.

Re: Tell HN: DigitalOcean is doing layoffs

#20

Post by JumpCrisscross »

chasd00 wrote: post #15
jalino23 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how does interest rate affects company layoffs and why is being more efficient affects that? and why would FED want this? - serious question

The FED wants unemployment to go up which will drive demand, and therefore prices, down. That will reduce inflation.

> FED wants unemployment to go up

This is wrong. The Fed doesn’t want higher unemployment. It isn’t even willing to tolerate it. That’s the whole “soft landing” conversation, and why hikes are so hesitant.

The ideal path would be labor market loosening with no more unemployment. Absent structural adjustments, that’s possible. But we need structural adjustments, so layoffs are necessary, which makes the closest to ideal layoffs and immediate reuptake, i.e. constant employment with less wage growth.

A single-mandate Fed would respond to last year’s inflation like Russia did: a sharp, steep rate hike.

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