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Ask HN: 20% of LinkedIn's recent layoffs were managers

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Re: Ask HN: 20% of LinkedIn's recent layoffs were managers

#271

Post by gilbetron »

psunavy03 wrote: post #178
LarsDu88 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I moved over to Silicon Valley fairly late (in 2018), and I was immediately shocked at how frowned upon... even disincentivized technical knowledge was at the management level. To the extent that people started removing hard numbers from their presentations and replacing them with smiley faces. Needless to say, I left and that company TANKED. I think Steve Jobs said something about A people versus C people... well he…

A teams will crush A people every day and twice on Sundays. The lone wolf 10x dev myth needs to die. This is not 1994.

The A/B/C quote isn't about lone wolf devs, but is "A players hire A players, B players hire C players". Meaning really good devs want to work with other really good devs, but mediocre devs want to work with crappy devs to make themselves look better.

I still think it is kind of full of bunk, although it has some truth. A players do typically want to work with A players, but a lot of "B" players just want to have a mildly interesting job where they don't kill themselves and are happy to hire and be around other B players with the same attitude.

Re: Ask HN: 20% of LinkedIn's recent layoffs were managers

#272

Post by darth_avocado »

The_Colonel wrote: post #227
darth_avocado wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

20:1 is terrible. You may not have managers but other ICs then need to burden themselves with management duties. Even if you have 1:1 for half an hour every week, that’s 10 hours of just 1:1s. There is no reasonable way to keep track of it. It’s bad for the manager, it’s bad for the IC. Anything more than 10 is bad, ideal would be 7-8 reportees.

My manager has a bit more than 20 direct reports, and it works well in my experience. We have 1:1 every two weeks, but often there's not much to say. The manager can manage that many people because he's not involved with our day-to-day work. We have a Scrum Master and Product Owner who handle their "management" parts. If there's some problem which needs manager's attention it's typically SM who communicates that. The…

So you do have managers, just different titles.

Re: Ask HN: 20% of LinkedIn's recent layoffs were managers

#273

Post by The_Colonel »

darth_avocado wrote: post #272
The_Colonel wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My manager has a bit more than 20 direct reports, and it works well in my experience. We have 1:1 every two weeks, but often there's not much to say. The manager can manage that many people because he's not involved with our day-to-day work. We have a Scrum Master and Product Owner who handle their "management" parts. If there's some problem which needs manager's attention it's typically SM who communicates that. The…

So you do have managers, just different titles.

The difference is that they are not managing me, they "manage" their area of expertise. Better than an "all-rounder" who is doing PO, SM, HR, approving vacations and doing 1 on 1s ...

Re: Ask HN: 20% of LinkedIn's recent layoffs were managers

#274

Post by screwturner68 »

killjoywashere wrote: post #60
kubrickslair wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, at least among my colleagues - both in the US and India offices.

> India Ok, so, I have a friend who works big tech and he has no chill for Indians (SWEs, PMs, etc). Is there a grain of truth to the “lazy Indian” trope? I always assumed, especially first generation immigrants, would be working balls-to-the-wall. Am I wrong? Is there some sort of incentive misalignment in the H1B program? Is it cultural (e.g. like “island time”, which I’ve learned is at least partially attributable…

I have no issue with my Indian coworkers but my company has all but said they are trying to replace me with off shore workers. I do a lot of quotes for services and while the off shore guys are much cheaper they pad the crap out of their bids, where they will take 250 hours, we'll do it in under 100h, that difference makes us almost the same price. So then it's up to the to decide do they want it cheap or fast. But I can see the clock on the wall ticking.

Re: Ask HN: 20% of LinkedIn's recent layoffs were managers

#275

Post by VirusNewbie »

dna_polymerase wrote: post #129
jwond wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am reminded of this video of a young woman showing a "day in the life" of a LinkedIn employee https://youtu.be/X5TZVhKDwpk

There were a lot of videos in this style from the twitter people. Turns out they run fine on 20 % remaining workforce.

I mean, they're making a lot less money, so I dunno. It's easy to run a company with a skeleton crew if you run it at a loss. it's the cost efficiency that makes it harder.

Re: Ask HN: 20% of LinkedIn's recent layoffs were managers

#276

Post by raydev »

j7ake wrote: post #172
raydev wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This person is incentivized to show off how glamourous and laid back it is rather than the actual work they are doing in the 8 hours around this 2 minute video, so I'm not sure why you'd be reminded of it.

What’s the incentive to show how laid back they are? I imagine a significant population of tech workers would want to show off how much they work.

The audience on TikTok is not just tech workers.

Re: Ask HN: 20% of LinkedIn's recent layoffs were managers

#277

Post by kuchenbecker »

Fatnino wrote: post #269
water-your-self wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no point in protecting your employer

I was just keeping the joke rolling. I don't work for Google or anyone else on Stierlin Ct.

I used to work at Big Tech Company and would need to bike through Sterlin court to get to my office in building campus.

Re: Ask HN: 20% of LinkedIn's recent layoffs were managers

#278

Post by kuchenbecker »

raydev wrote: post #144
jwond wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am reminded of this video of a young woman showing a "day in the life" of a LinkedIn employee https://youtu.be/X5TZVhKDwpk

This person is incentivized to show off how glamourous and laid back it is rather than the actual work they are doing in the 8 hours around this 2 minute video, so I'm not sure why you'd be reminded of it.

Free/cheap food, enough meeting rooms, and a place to walk.

You don't need a giant amount of amenities and every company I've worked at hasn't had enough meeting rooms.

If I'm adding to my wish list it's a shower so you can bike to work and rinse off. It's the daily conveniences rather than the crazy atypically perks I never use that I value.

Re: Ask HN: 20% of LinkedIn's recent layoffs were managers

#279

Post by kuchenbecker »

baby wrote: post #139
gruez wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>LI has a distinctive lack of chill right now contrary to the company image I don't get it. Did linkedin have an image of being a chill place to work?

That’s what I heard from someone who worked there

The chill is gone, there is pip quota, aggressive deadlines, layoffs, and reorgs.

That being said, the amount of things happening is crazy compared to two years ago and generally pretty happy day-to-day and genuinely excited to go to work in the morning

Re: Ask HN: 20% of LinkedIn's recent layoffs were managers

#280

Post by moneywoes »

TylerE wrote: post #112
alisson_dover wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, for sure. Don't know if being acquired by MS resulted in this reputation (MS has had the same reputation for decades) but they are well known as a chill workplace.

Did MS have that reputation? All I remember are endless posts bitching about stack ranking... and that was 20 years ago.

I think it depends on the team
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