Meta plans thousands more layoffs as soon as this week • Hacker News Board

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

#181

Post by ulfw » Tue, Mar 07, 2023, 2:05 PM UTC

super256 wrote: post #94

zmmmmm wrote: post #88

Two rounds of layoffs seems to say something that one round doesn't. You would expect that all things being equal there is never a scenario where it is better to do two cuts instead of just one. So why? a) things were much worse than realised. Maybe but it would have to be a big shock coming because Meta's general performance has held up OK, certainly nothing that would warrant this. b) HR reasons? some sort of requi…

b) and c) It is exactly Mark’s plan. He called 2023 “the year of efficiency”, meaning that he wants to flatten the whole organization and get closer to startup velocity (and cost). He communicated this theme during performance reviews, as suggested by the article.

Then why did he hire so many people if he wants to run a flat org at "closer to startup velocity (and cost)"? Wasn't he the one in charge since oh... I dunno... Day 1?

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

#182

Post by notacoward » Tue, Mar 07, 2023, 2:06 PM UTC

engmgrmgr wrote: post #65

jackblemming wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OP didn't go into detail about the problem, so we have no idea what the actual problem or solution was. Empirical research has found many people don't do well in high stakes problem solving situations while being watched (shocking).

Many people also don’t do well in high stakes problem solving situations even when not being watched. I’m not suggesting OP is dumb, but if someone is setting hiring criteria and thinks they need X skillset judged by Y, I think there’s a good chance they’re directionally correct. I get it, I’ve bombed interviews I was excited about and rationalized it anywhere and everywhere. Once I started hiring folks, my opinions…

What if there's solid evidence (e.g. visible work in open source) that all ten can code? The problem is not that coding interviews exist at all but that they're mandatory for all levels and roles. At L5+ coding isn't even the most important skill, so LC-style coding interviews introduce a risk of false negatives without providing any actually useful information. BTW those false negatives occur disproportionately for some demographics, and it only takes a single mention of "culture fit" to make one wonder if that's the whole point.

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

#183

Post by dangwhy » Tue, Mar 07, 2023, 2:11 PM UTC

nequo wrote: post #178

b112 wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has nothing to do with interest rates, none of these companies are borrowing to hire. And Meta, Amazon, Salesforce etc are only shedding excess pandemic hires. If you look at a graph of hires over a decade, the pandemic shows a huge blip up, and these layoffs correct that.

It does if they use their stock price as a benchmark, which they do if it is a part of their compensation. Higher interest rates push investors to sell their Facebook shares and buy bonds instead. This means that Facebook needs to earn higher profits in order to pull its stock price upwards. Low-IRR projects are eliminated and with them the people who worked on them.

> interest rates push investors to sell their Facebook shares and buy bonds instead.

Wouldnt the stock price drop with people selling the stock. That didn't happen with meta with interest rate hikes.

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

#184

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Mar 07, 2023, 2:11 PM UTC

gymbeaux wrote: post #87

saagarjha wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Watching a grown man beg Elon musk for his job on a social media platform is not something I expected to ever see. It's been two weeks- if his paycheck didn't come through, he has his answer. Obviously a s-show led by Elon, but on LinkedIn especially I am seeing a lot of posts where these ex-FAANG employees, who usually score severance measured in months rather than days or weeks, and who were already raking in a $25…

[deleted]

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

#185

Post by dboreham » Tue, Mar 07, 2023, 2:14 PM UTC

b112 wrote: post #160

senttoschool wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like many tech companies during zero interest rates, they over hired and did not anticipate interest rates going up so fast. At least these employees probably made a ton of money.

This has nothing to do with interest rates, none of these companies are borrowing to hire. And Meta, Amazon, Salesforce etc are only shedding excess pandemic hires. If you look at a graph of hires over a decade, the pandemic shows a huge blip up, and these layoffs correct that.

> This has nothing to do with interest rates, none of these companies are borrowing to hire.

The interest rate connection is that investors buy the company stock (driving the price up beyond what's reasonable given the underlying business health), because the alternative fix rate instruments offer negative return.

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

#186

Post by brokencode » Tue, Mar 07, 2023, 2:16 PM UTC

4gotunameagain wrote: post #152

shapefrog wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It takes a certain kind of cold detatchment to hire 5,000-10,000 people to r&d and build the foundation of your next big thing - drain every ounce of life out of them then discard them on the heap a couple of years later.

[flagged]

HN is probably not the best audience for this message. But I obviously disagree.

People don’t become doctors because it’s insanely hard, stressful, time-consuming, and expensive. What we need there is not more money, as doctors also have high salaries already, but a reform in the system to make it more appealing to do the work.

I’m not sure what you mean by “more engineers, more visionaries”. Are workers at big tech companies not engineers? And how does reducing somebody’s salary make them a visionary?

More likely is that somebody makes a lot of money in a big tech company then can afford to quit their job and start their own company. Aka, they can become a “visionary”, like you suggest.

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

#187

Post by red-iron-pine » Tue, Mar 07, 2023, 2:17 PM UTC

mupuff1234 wrote: post #169

N19PEDL2 wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It should also be said, however, that banning TikTok would set a dangerous precedent for Meta's business outside the US.

Isn't Instagram already blocked in China?

on top of plenty of other apps blocked, banned, or forced to restrict results or behavior?

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

#188

Post by pelagicAustral » Tue, Mar 07, 2023, 2:19 PM UTC

jackmott42 wrote: post #159

Back in ~2016 I deleted my Facebook account, because it was a horrible place that brought out the worst in people. A few days ago someone alerted me that my account was live again and posting weight loss scams. So I logged in and changed my password and deleted my account again. Facebook tells you that it will take 30 days to delete your account. This is obviously user hostile bullshit. Meanwhile somehow the scammer…

I deleted my account circa 2016 as well... Far as I can remember, they force you to suspend your own account for 30 days before being able to apply for a full deletion, but that takes 90 days, if at any point you log back in within the 90 days, the whole process is restarted. And this bullshit was only after you went through a squid game tier UI Olympics just to find the place where to kick off the process.

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

#189

Post by nequo » Tue, Mar 07, 2023, 2:21 PM UTC

dangwhy wrote: post #183

nequo wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does if they use their stock price as a benchmark, which they do if it is a part of their compensation. Higher interest rates push investors to sell their Facebook shares and buy bonds instead. This means that Facebook needs to earn higher profits in order to pull its stock price upwards. Low-IRR projects are eliminated and with them the people who worked on them.

> interest rates push investors to sell their Facebook shares and buy bonds instead. Wouldnt the stock price drop with people selling the stock. That didn't happen with meta with interest rate hikes.

You’re right, it should, unless Facebook counterbalanced the hikes with positive news during those days/weeks.

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

#190

Post by red-iron-pine » Tue, Mar 07, 2023, 2:23 PM UTC

Traubenfuchs wrote: post #123

rob74 wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Done right, we could have ended up in a sci-fi future strapped to our VR headsets all day long When I read this phrase, the spaceship from Wall-E comes to mind. But in reality, it would probably look a little bit more dystopian than what Pixar imagined...

Most people would say they HATE this future, but most people would LOVE this future. As passive infotainment consumers, stereotypical scroolers, they are already glued to TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, reddit and whatever other digital dopamine dispenser and skinner box there. Significantly improve on that with pleasant, increased or even full immersion and you got the next big thing.

...they say, posting on HN, a slightly watered down dopamine dispenser brought to you by the people that made Reddit happen.

I still think VR might be a hard sell for most people. As dumb as large groups of people may be, it's clear that people are ditching FB and slowly backing away from a lot of social media. It's tricking out that it's not always a great thing, and there is legit buy-in from huge chunks of the Left and Right to restrict what social media does.