Gitlab foundation established to increase people’s lifetime earnings

Post by leereeves » Tue, Apr 04, 2023, 4:20 AM UTC

ojosilva wrote: post #24

leereeves wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If an engineer in Kenya for $50k does the same work and output as you, a $200k engineer in SF, can we now say you're being overpaid 4x what you're actually worth? No. If GitLab thought the work was only worth $50k, they wouldn't pay anyone anywhere $200k for the job. If they do pay $200k for the job anywhere, they must expect to receive more than $200k in return, and pocket the difference.

It doesn't work like that. It's more like: there's a 250k budget. We got an ex-googler-ex-meta-kid for 200k, so that leaves us 50k for a... Kenya engineer. Then, once both are on-boarded, gee, the Kenya engineer is twice as productive as the googler kid. Jackpot!

Post by wellthisisgreat » Tue, Apr 04, 2023, 6:58 AM UTC

sosodev wrote: post #5

rcme wrote: post #2

If Gitlab wants to increase peoples' lifetime earning, why not start with its own employees? Didn't they layoff hundreds of people?

Yes, they let go 130 employees a couple of months ago. They're also a company whose remote pay is dependent on location. So they're unwilling to pay people what they're actually worth.

Post by phailhaus » Tue, Apr 04, 2023, 1:53 PM UTC

rcme wrote: post #30

phailhaus wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Increasing people's lifetime earnings != "you shouldn't be allowed to fire anyone, ever." I mean come on.

I understand your point, but Gitlab is a productivity company. They increase peoples' lifetime earnings by making them more productive, allowing them to increase their economic output and demand more compensation for their labor. Laying off people is an admission that Gitlab isn't able to deploy additional capital towards making people more productive anymore. So to then announce that Gitlab is establishing this foun…

Post by phailhaus » Tue, Apr 04, 2023, 2:06 PM UTC

rcme wrote: post #36

phailhaus wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't follow. Laying off people is an admission that they hired more people than they need, that's it. It's like saying "wow Red Cross, why not just invest in your own employees before you talk about improving other people's lives????"

> That doesn't follow. Laying off people is an admission that they hired more people than they need, that's it. Yes, exactly. Gitlab reached their ability to deploy capital and need to scale back head count. Using your Red Cross example, it's like the Red Cross announcing a new initiative outside of their area of expertise to help people while actively scaling back programs they had in place to help people.

Post by phailhaus » Tue, Apr 04, 2023, 6:16 PM UTC

rcme wrote: post #38

phailhaus wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, and that would be valid if the new initiative is intended to help more people . That should be obvious! GitLab laid off 120 employees. 120 people, that's it. Don't you think that this new initiative is meant to help more than that?

Gitlab is a productivity company. People use productivity products because it increases their lifetime earnings, e.g. this product will allow me to do more work and doing more work will allow me to earn more money. The layoffs aren’t just about the 120 employees. The layoffs show that Gitlab is out of ideas about how to make its users more productive. As a company, Gitlab is clearly falling behind GitHub. So this fou…