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Meta plans thousands more layoffs as soon as this week

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Re: Meta plans thousands more layoffs as soon as this week

#71

Post by vasco »

spaceman_2020 wrote: post #20

I tried the new PS5 VR2. It’s definitely better than Oculus Quest. Makes you wonder what Facebook has been doing with all those billions spent on VR when Sony is able to produce a better product with a fraction of the investment.

> Makes you wonder what Facebook has been doing with all those billions spent on VR

Patents.

When AR/VR Renaissance happens in like 10 years, Facebook will be to it what nokia was to the smartphone wave. That's the best case scenario, the worst case scenario is they'll milk some patents with industrial applications.

Re: Meta plans thousands more layoffs as soon as this week

#72

Post by vasco »

PheonixPharts wrote: post #12
green-eclipse wrote: post #9

Wall Street rewarded Meta with a massive jump in share price (+15% in one day) when Zuck stated on an earnings call that he was all now about efficiency (and therefore a tacit admission that he won't just throw the entire company off the VR cliff into the abyss). Zuck probably thinks more of the same will buy additional good will from Wall St.

And don't forget that Meta just did a massive stock buyback, so this isn't just about investors out there in the world, this is about Meta itself. I've started to pay a bit more attention and noticed that there do seem to be a fair number of major investors buying up more shares of a down company before layoffs are announced. I like to imagine that what we're seeing is a healthy correction and move towards more profi…

There's no health anything. Interest rates go up, some of this money goes out of the stock market and into other things. When they come back down, the companies will operate in the same way again. Everyone is just responding to financial incentives, nobody is trying to run anything in a "healthy" way, as if there was a margin which the universe defined as healthy.

They know this and could've underhired as this was always a possibility but the game rewards having the pedal to the metal when it's going up, and that's what they will do next time again.

Re: Meta plans thousands more layoffs as soon as this week

#73

Post by oxfordmale »

Panini_Jones wrote: post #49
discordance wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've noticed more uncertainty, less comradery, a general malaise, lack of motivation and a lot less trust in the organization. A very very different feeling to a year ago.

Have we seen this happen in the past? Did Microsoft go through a general sense of despondency when it cut people in 2009? Did it recover?

This was how Microsoft was seen in 2013 as Ballmer stepped down:

"Slumping stock price and unimaginative vision has left Microsoft marooned between a fading past and an uncertain future"

An unimaginative vision is a common result of mass lay-offs. The ones that stay behind do not dare to take risks and prefer to stick to the status quo. Only after Satya Nadella took over, did Microsoft start to recover.

Re: Meta plans thousands more layoffs as soon as this week

#74

Post by neilv »

suresk wrote: post #68
jillesvangurp wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes they do. The trick is not throwing out the baby with the bath water. Elon Musk got a lot of criticism for how he handled layoffs at Twitter. But he did provide clarity and then ripped off the band aid. Notice how things have gone quiet around Twitter lately. IMHO, it wasn't nice but what remains is probably a healthier organization and a fairly stable team. A lot of people left in the process and that was always…

Huh? Twitter has had almost monthly rounds of layoffs, including one a few weeks ago that took out some fairly high profile employees. They also have arbitrary firings and people being let go without being told [1]. I'm certainly not going to argue that Meta is going about this in a good way at all, but it is hard to think of a worse example of doing it "well" than Twitter under Elon. 1. https://twitter.com/iamharald…

Twitter kinda looks like a billionaire decided to pay a ridiculous amount of money for a company, just so he could destroy the livelihoods of thousands of people less fortunate.

Re: Meta plans thousands more layoffs as soon as this week

#75

Post by saiya-jin »

discordance wrote: post #40
Panini_Jones wrote: post #25

I wonder what effects this uncertainty will have on an organizational system. With multiple rounds of layoffs, talks of 'flattening', projects being cancelled, internal transfers being frozen, hiring being frozen, when does an organization finally become 'healthy' again? When are the right people in the right places making the right decisions again? Does an organization that has so much capital need to even care abou…

I've noticed more uncertainty, less comradery, a general malaise, lack of motivation and a lot less trust in the organization. A very very different feeling to a year ago.

Sounds like faangs are becoming more like banking environment where few % layoffs are often happening few times a year. It still sucks to be the one affected and over time it sucks out a lot of positive energy

Re: Meta plans thousands more layoffs as soon as this week

#76

Post by arda_demirtas »

saagarjha wrote: post #60
jillesvangurp wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes they do. The trick is not throwing out the baby with the bath water. Elon Musk got a lot of criticism for how he handled layoffs at Twitter. But he did provide clarity and then ripped off the band aid. Notice how things have gone quiet around Twitter lately. IMHO, it wasn't nice but what remains is probably a healthier organization and a fairly stable team. A lot of people left in the process and that was always…

> Notice how things have gone quiet around Twitter lately. This was today: https://twitter.com/iamharaldur/status/1632843191773716481

I hate the attitude, the language and the fact that these people are running this world.

"Approved, you go ahead"

Just drains my energy and hope for the future.

Re: Meta plans thousands more layoffs as soon as this week

#77

Post by oxfordmale »

hnav wrote: post #56
BoorishBears wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except Meta also filtered with the same filters they used to form an engineering org around serving ads. I have pretty extensive experience in the embedded Android space and have worked on products everyone here knows, Meta reached out to me very excitedly, and when I let the recruiter know I don't do Leetcode they assured me the coding phone screen was a merely a formality and I'd do great. It took all my willpower…

merging sorted lists is not a leetcode nightmare interview question though, if you can't manage it in an interview, chances are you can't program very well IMO

Normal programmers call the sort() method in their language of choice.

Re: Meta plans thousands more layoffs as soon as this week

#78

Post by x0x0 »

suresk wrote: post #68
jillesvangurp wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes they do. The trick is not throwing out the baby with the bath water. Elon Musk got a lot of criticism for how he handled layoffs at Twitter. But he did provide clarity and then ripped off the band aid. Notice how things have gone quiet around Twitter lately. IMHO, it wasn't nice but what remains is probably a healthier organization and a fairly stable team. A lot of people left in the process and that was always…

Huh? Twitter has had almost monthly rounds of layoffs, including one a few weeks ago that took out some fairly high profile employees. They also have arbitrary firings and people being let go without being told [1]. I'm certainly not going to argue that Meta is going about this in a good way at all, but it is hard to think of a worse example of doing it "well" than Twitter under Elon. 1. https://twitter.com/iamharald…

Someone counted 3 or 4 -- I forget -- separate rounds of layoffs after Musk said Twitter was done with layoffs. That's many things, but "providing [sic] clarity" it ain't.

edit:

> Musk has done at least three rounds of layoffs since his promise to stop doing them in November. [1]

[1] https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/21/23609522/elon-musk-more-t...

Re: Meta plans thousands more layoffs as soon as this week

#79

Post by suresk »

x0x0 wrote: post #78
suresk wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh? Twitter has had almost monthly rounds of layoffs, including one a few weeks ago that took out some fairly high profile employees. They also have arbitrary firings and people being let go without being told [1]. I'm certainly not going to argue that Meta is going about this in a good way at all, but it is hard to think of a worse example of doing it "well" than Twitter under Elon. 1. https://twitter.com/iamharald…

Someone counted 3 or 4 -- I forget -- separate rounds of layoffs after Musk said Twitter was done with layoffs. That's many things, but "providing [sic] clarity" it ain't. edit: > Musk has done at least three rounds of layoffs since his promise to stop doing them in November. [1] [1] https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/21/23609522/elon-musk-more-t...

I guess, in its own way, knowing that there will be constant layoffs is a form of clarity?

Re: Meta plans thousands more layoffs as soon as this week

#80

Post by ithkuil »

Panini_Jones wrote: post #25

I wonder what effects this uncertainty will have on an organizational system. With multiple rounds of layoffs, talks of 'flattening', projects being cancelled, internal transfers being frozen, hiring being frozen, when does an organization finally become 'healthy' again? When are the right people in the right places making the right decisions again? Does an organization that has so much capital need to even care abou…

> hiring being frozen

I don't know when they made that decision but a recruiter contacted me from meta last week. I wonder how far do people go through the hiring pipeline before the "stop the engines" signal arrives. Hopefully not after the offer has been accepted.

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