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Google's once happy offices feel the chill of layoffs

nytimes.com

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Re: Google's once happy offices feel the chill of layoffs

#81

Post by wg0 »

scarface_74 wrote: post #44
laidoffamazon wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actual defense contracting (Boeing/Lockheed, not Palantir) are hugely societally positive in defending the homeland. Unfortunately, Google engineers likely think of these companies as employing lesser people, mostly because they genuinely do pay very poorly.

Not really, the way that Congress allocates defense spending is based on funneling money to their donors and their districts and often not what is best for the military or even what the military is asking for. For at least the last 30 years there have been times where military leaders wanted to close bases but Congress wouldn’t allow them because of the civilians in their districts who would lose jobs. Not to mention…

Have they? Just curious. Fed Chair has raised this concern as lately as few weeks ago probably [0]

[0]. https://youtu.be/ImrKxlLJCEY

Re: Google's once happy offices feel the chill of layoffs

#82

Post by 0xedd »

onetimeuse92304 wrote: post #45
scarface_74 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or able to spend six months studying for coding interviews…

If you mean to actually learn to code for a job that obviously requires coding skills... While we are at it, also spend another year learning technology and design patterns to prep for a design interview. Listen, nobody gets a job at Google because they studied for coding interview. Coding is a precondition of getting the job, but it is far from enough to secure it.

Wrong and wrong.

That's exactly what my wife did. She solved coding challenges for a few weeks before interviewing at Google. Got an offer but turned it down because of the people she met.

Getting fired where we live (not US) is very hard.

Re: Google's once happy offices feel the chill of layoffs

#83

Post by lapcat »

saalweachter wrote: post #75
lapcat wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it's still a whole thing, a stressful transformation that takes a large investment of time and energy to achieve. Unless you're born with a silver spoon in your mouth, I wouldn't call it a "transformation". I would call it "normal". If there's a transformation, it's from a person who has to be concerned about budgets to a person who makes so much money that they don't need to care. I guess I'm just "lucky" that I'v…

What, you think having experienced the stress of having to work multiple jobs or barely getting paid enough to survive or having an employer who looks at you as a subhuman cog makes someone more willing to leave the comfort of being given enough money you don't have to care about it while having a decent work/life balance and an employer who at least pretends to care about you? We're not playing "who has it worse" he…

> having an employer who looks at you as a subhuman cog

The big tech companies do that too, which is kind of the point of the submitted article.

> We're not playing "who has it worse" here

That wasn't my point. My dispute was with "I also see it as the only logical outcome" and "In a country with not much of a social safety net and runaway medical/elder care costs is there really another option?"

> very few people are going to chose even more stress by moving houses or cities

It should be noted that living in Silicon Valley is obscenely expensive, and you could buy a much bigger and better house for much less money in most other areas of the country. And lately I've heard constant complaints about San Francisco going downhill, yadda yadda. (This is also related to the issue of WFH vs. RTO.)

> over just getting another soulless corporate job that pays well enough to make everything go back to normal

You're conflating two different issues here. One, which you explicitly mention, is changing jobs, but the other, left implicit, is getting the soulless corporate job in the first place.

Of course I'd acknowledge that someone who strove to obtain and took a soulless corporate job is likely to take another one. But I think it says something about their personal values that they voluntarily entered that category of business, knowing what we know about it, and given other options. Did they not already "sell out"?

Re: Google's once happy offices feel the chill of layoffs

#84

Post by giraffe_lady »

laidoffamazon wrote: post #72
giraffe_lady wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which homeland? My view of society extends beyond american borders, and it is not improved by the US drone bombing teenagers a world away.

The United States is the sole superpower and the only bulwark against illiberalism and authoritarianism so that one

Have you considered the possibility that your fifth grade social studies teacher was not explaining the entire situation to you?

Re: Google's once happy offices feel the chill of layoffs

#85

Post by laidoffamazon »

giraffe_lady wrote: post #84
laidoffamazon wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The United States is the sole superpower and the only bulwark against illiberalism and authoritarianism so that one

Have you considered the possibility that your fifth grade social studies teacher was not explaining the entire situation to you?

Yes, I was far more anti-America when I was in fifth grade. Thankfully I grew out of that after traveling and realizing it doesn’t get better than this.

Re: Google's once happy offices feel the chill of layoffs

#86

Post by [deleted] »

giraffe_lady wrote: post #84
laidoffamazon wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The United States is the sole superpower and the only bulwark against illiberalism and authoritarianism so that one

Have you considered the possibility that your fifth grade social studies teacher was not explaining the entire situation to you?

[deleted]

Re: Google's once happy offices feel the chill of layoffs

#87

Post by Sirizarry »

nytesky wrote: post #18
Sirizarry wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Programmers in my experience are some of the least risky people I know. The majority will absolutely take their talents to the next highest bidder regardless of moral or ethical scruples. I don’t blame em, personally, I also see it as the only logical outcome

That’s an interesting change, from when I graduated two decades ago. I remember I did not want to work for defense contractor and wanted to work on worthwhile work like NASA or something. Course is early-Internet, and I had no idea how expensive life was going to be. But a lot of people did not want to work for a big company, like Microsoft, and open source was a much more heralded movement.

I think that attitude is definitely still around with hackers and enthusiasts but tech and programming as a job has expanded so much that it’s picked up anyone who wants a high paying job with little/less qualification. It’s become a means of rising out of poverty without having to spend thousands on school. I had a solid 7 year run as (mostly) a web dev and I was fully self taught so it was definitely the case for me

Re: Google's once happy offices feel the chill of layoffs

#88

Post by giraffe_lady »

laidoffamazon wrote: post #85
giraffe_lady wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you considered the possibility that your fifth grade social studies teacher was not explaining the entire situation to you?

Yes, I was far more anti-America when I was in fifth grade. Thankfully I grew out of that after traveling and realizing it doesn’t get better than this.

Yeah man, the countries getting couped and bombed are going to be worse places to be than the ones doing the couping and bombing. It doesn't get better than this because we don't allow it to.

The US using global violence to serve its own interests is effective! You may selfishly and amorally support this because of its benefits to you. It's not consistent to claim that this opposes "illiberalism and authoritarianism" when during the last century the US has overthrown more liberal democracies in favor of despots than everyone else combined.

Re: Google's once happy offices feel the chill of layoffs

#89

Post by dekhn »

They should just shutter Google News. The product quality is abysmal. I get shown articles about astrology because I have shown an interest in astronomy. I often see recommended articles about the "Bay Area" which turns out to be the Chesapeake (or any number of other) Bay Area. It's clear whoever is working on recommendation quality has been asleep at the switch (or fired, or working to make money for crappy clickbait news sites like iflscience).

I'd like to see Sundar gone too but I don't know who they could find to replace him.

Re: Google's once happy offices feel the chill of layoffs

#90

Post by laidoffamazon »

giraffe_lady wrote: post #88
laidoffamazon wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I was far more anti-America when I was in fifth grade. Thankfully I grew out of that after traveling and realizing it doesn’t get better than this.

Yeah man, the countries getting couped and bombed are going to be worse places to be than the ones doing the couping and bombing. It doesn't get better than this because we don't allow it to. The US using global violence to serve its own interests is effective! You may selfishly and amorally support this because of its benefits to you. It's not consistent to claim that this opposes "illiberalism and authoritarianism"…

Yeah, ok, I went through my Zinn/Chomsky phase too, it's fine, we all get through it. For me it took seeing a President that hated America (#45) to really understand why this line of thinking was so flawed.
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