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Google workers in London stage walkout over job cuts

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Re: Google workers in London stage walkout over job cuts

#61
post #4

An effective strategy to avoid layoffs at European offices is to cause just enough friction to get HR to give up and divert the firing to lower-rights countries (i.e. USA).

There's a short-term effect there that might be positive, but a long-term effect that would be negative. There's a reason that a lot of companies won't hire in France or other specific locales where the difficulty in getting out of an employment relationship is so high that it makes it undesirable to get into that relationship in the first place.

Yes but you do actually want access to the French market so you will likely need employees in France.

Re: Google workers in London stage walkout over job cuts

#62
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There have been several layers to the criticism. The first is roughly why does a company with many billions in the bank need to lay off anyone. However, assuming that layoffs do need to happen, there has been a lot more criticism of how they were conducted. In the UK there is, in summary, a right to a fair process – where _roles_ are eliminated, not _people_. That when there aren't enough roles for the people left, t…

>The first is roughly why does a company with many billions in the bank need to lay off anyone. because it's a for-profit company, not a jobs program.

The entitlement is off the charts. People have completely lost perspective on how money is made and where they fit into the money making machine.

Re: Google workers in London stage walkout over job cuts

#63
post #31

Memories of working for Glu London after they got taken over by EA. We had the consultation process, of course it was a foregone conclusion. As others mentioned, in the UK (for now) you eliminate roles, not people - this means you can't just shift a role to another cheaper country. I was training someone to do exactly my job in China, but it somehow wasn't the same role. The team I was in wasn't treated as badly as s…

>I was training someone to do exactly my job in China, but it somehow wasn't the same role.

lol, yeah, I know such workarounds companies have at their disposal. For example, in my EU country, to hire people outside the EU is very difficult ... in theory. You must first prove you've exhausted the local and EU candidate pool, unless ... you create a new job opening with bullshit requirements that are hugely specific and rule out any local candidates, like the need to speak Hindi/Mandarin, and presto, you got a visa for that candidate.

Re: Google workers in London stage walkout over job cuts

#64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There have been several layers to the criticism. The first is roughly why does a company with many billions in the bank need to lay off anyone. However, assuming that layoffs do need to happen, there has been a lot more criticism of how they were conducted. In the UK there is, in summary, a right to a fair process – where _roles_ are eliminated, not _people_. That when there aren't enough roles for the people left, t…

You’re right. This should be a teaching moment for innovative tech companies, to avoid growing a physical presence in most of Europe as much as possible. These employees will rarely be a source of innovation or high performance for the company. And contrary to reason, all the advanced social benefits somehow end up being a vine strangling your ability to compete than the ideal that frees you from worrying about basic…

> And contrary to reason, all the advanced social benefits somehow end up being a vine strangling your ability to compete than the ideal that frees you from worrying about basic needs in pursuit of higher goals.

It's like the AI alignment problem, but between corporations and people.

Re: Google workers in London stage walkout over job cuts

#65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The first is roughly why does a company with many billions in the bank need to lay off anyone. This shows an utter misunderstanding of how businesses or finances of any kind work and would completely discredit anyone who tried to use it as an argument.

Can you elaborate on your statement for dummies? (Only if your argument isn't companies exist only to maximize profit, that one I understand and reject).

It doesn't matter what you accept of reject. The owners set the priorities not the workers or the general public.

Re: Google workers in London stage walkout over job cuts

#66

These people seem out of touch. > "It has been difficult for those involved. We have a redundancy process for a reason, so that employees can make their voice heard," they said. "But it feels as if our concerns have fallen on deaf ears." They’re doing layoffs. In what scenario does negative feedback from employees change the minds of management? “Oh shit we didn’t know this negatively impacted you all. My bad.”

There have been several layers to the criticism. The first is roughly why does a company with many billions in the bank need to lay off anyone. However, assuming that layoffs do need to happen, there has been a lot more criticism of how they were conducted. In the UK there is, in summary, a right to a fair process – where _roles_ are eliminated, not _people_. That when there aren't enough roles for the people left, t…

> why does a company with many billions in the bank need to lay off anyone

At big tech, efficiency matters more than people. It has always been the case, but it's more exacerbated lately. Google know they will probably never take Apple's #1 spot, but they want to get as close as possible.

Re: Google workers in London stage walkout over job cuts

#67
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It isn't negative feedback. It is an organized process established in the UK for handling layoffs. The UK workers didn't just say "don't fire us." They offered a ton of different options that, based on actual data, would have produced the same savings as the proposed layoffs. These included things like voluntary layoffs. All of these proposals were rejected. It sucks to have a corporation say "okay we'll have a discu…

>The UK workers didn't just say "don't fire us." They offered a ton of different options that, based on actual data, would have produced the same savings as the proposed layoffs. These included things like voluntary layoffs. All of these proposals were rejected. What were the specific list of proposals? The only one you mentioned (voluntary layoffs) is a bad idea because it leads the most talented people to leave.

It may be a worse idea for the company (though I'm not sure - the US layoffs weren't based on performance). But, as far as I can tell, the response has not been "these suggestions are unacceptable for reasons X, Y, and Z, please propose additional suggestions" but instead has been "nah, we are just gonna do what we want."

I am blending the Zurich case with the UK case in my mind, though. There's a lot to keep track of here.

Re: Google workers in London stage walkout over job cuts

#68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The first is roughly why does a company with many billions in the bank need to lay off anyone. This shows an utter misunderstanding of how businesses or finances of any kind work and would completely discredit anyone who tried to use it as an argument.

Can you elaborate on your statement for dummies? (Only if your argument isn't companies exist only to maximize profit, that one I understand and reject).

Even if they exist for the good of their employees, should they employ everyone until they run out of money, or should they operate competitively? Having billions of dollars, or even being profitable, has no relationship to sustainability of carrying extra employees in a competitive market. I don't expect you actually want to have a discussion though.

Re: Google workers in London stage walkout over job cuts

#69
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There have been several layers to the criticism. The first is roughly why does a company with many billions in the bank need to lay off anyone. However, assuming that layoffs do need to happen, there has been a lot more criticism of how they were conducted. In the UK there is, in summary, a right to a fair process – where _roles_ are eliminated, not _people_. That when there aren't enough roles for the people left, t…

>The first is roughly why does a company with many billions in the bank need to lay off anyone. because it's a for-profit company, not a jobs program.

I'm not sure the distinction here is all that useful. From the point-of-view of the UK government, employing people and paying taxes are important roles companies like Google need to play. It seems to me that the rules around redundancy have been put in place to discourage just the sort of layoffs Google is trying to put in place (i.e., lay off N% of everyone).

Re: Google workers in London stage walkout over job cuts

#70
post #4

An effective strategy to avoid layoffs at European offices is to cause just enough friction to get HR to give up and divert the firing to lower-rights countries (i.e. USA).

There's a short-term effect there that might be positive, but a long-term effect that would be negative. There's a reason that a lot of companies won't hire in France or other specific locales where the difficulty in getting out of an employment relationship is so high that it makes it undesirable to get into that relationship in the first place.

Bingo.

Google wasn’t able to layoff anyone in France. What a great win, right?

Well. Once they decide they need to close off a site, where do you think France will be on that list? Or if things are going good and they want to hire an additional 5K engineers, do you think France is a good candidate?

All of this ultimately leads to fewer jobs and lower wages. Just look at tech wages in France.

When you sabotage doing business in your country, you’re shooting yourself in the foot.

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