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Google lays off its Python team

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Re: Google lays off its Python team

#361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gateway to cheap developers in Eastern Europe, Poland, Ukraine, etc

aren't all european countries cheaper than the USA in terms of salary, including Germany?

They are, but Germany has pesky expensive things like unions, employee contracts, and benefits. Keep heading east and it gets an order of magnitude cheaper than Germany.

Re: Google lays off its Python team

#362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This might be my prejudice but when someone talks about offshoring a role, moving it to Munich isn't the first thing that comes to mind. It may be slightly cheaper than California but not by so much that if expect it to be the main reason for doing so.

You might think twice if you looked at the figures; the numbers in this article comparing US and UK wages are astounding: https://www.wsj.com/finance/investing/britain-white-collar-j... (and this article goes into the rationale too. Basically the idea is you're paying more than you would in a developing economy, but you can trust the team with more autonomy and fewer cultural misunderstandings, so it's an option for…

> cultural misunderstandings

It's funny that you think that being located in Europe the positions will be stuffed with Europeans...

I'm in this exact situation: work for American company, while living in the EU. Am not a EU citizen (Eastern Europe / Middle East). More than half of those working with me are foreigners too. Eastern Europe, Middle East, Latin America and India would be the most common origin countries. Europe immigrates tech workers by a truckload.

To reflect on the original issue. I'd guess that some manager either hated some other manager, or was looking for a promotion or was just dumb and executed some instruction in the stupidest way possible... there doesn't seem to be any apparent reason to move a team like that. Even if the team was entirely rehired in the poorest place on Earth, we are still talking about ten people. Whatever difference Google makes from the move is not even peanuts. If there's a manager being rewarded for this stupid idea, their bonus will probably be more than whatever savings this move can possibly generate.

I don't believe there's any actual rational justification for this move. Just middle management being middle management.

Re: Google lays off its Python team

#363
post #359
post #246

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Because they still pay $500k cash.

What does "cash" mean in this context, as opposed to if the word wasn't included?

They famously don't pay you in equity at all. If you work at Netflix and want NFLX stock, you buy it yourself.

Re: Google lays off its Python team

#364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might think twice if you looked at the figures; the numbers in this article comparing US and UK wages are astounding: https://www.wsj.com/finance/investing/britain-white-collar-j... (and this article goes into the rationale too. Basically the idea is you're paying more than you would in a developing economy, but you can trust the team with more autonomy and fewer cultural misunderstandings, so it's an option for…

> cultural misunderstandings It's funny that you think that being located in Europe the positions will be stuffed with Europeans... I'm in this exact situation: work for American company, while living in the EU. Am not a EU citizen (Eastern Europe / Middle East). More than half of those working with me are foreigners too. Eastern Europe, Middle East, Latin America and India would be the most common origin countries.…

Whether they are or not they presumably speak English well and are familiar with anglophone culture if they’re living in the UK.

Re: Google lays off its Python team

#365
post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you do realise that ussr does not exist anymore (it's been replaced with a hyper-capitalist structure that mutated into a fascist dictatorship); and that the existence of people being highly paid does not disprove the fact tha the us-style capitalism is a terrible system for anyone but the highest echelons?

> you do realise that ussr does not exist anymore O RLY?! That fact totally changes my whole argument... unless it was an example of a non-capitalist society and I never claimed it currently exists and the point was the comparison of living in capitalist and non-capitalist system. > the existence of people being highly paid does not disprove the fact tha the us-style capitalism is a terrible system for anyone but the…

dude, i'm polish, and i know very well how dysfunctional ussr was. moreover, my father was from lviv; he repatriated to poland in 1956. members of my family enjoyed the hospitality of the siberian gulags for the reason of defending warsaw as a part of polish pre-war military, too.

however, i do not mistake capitalism with free markets; capitalism (in the stage where we are, ruled by rentiers and oligarchs that we call billionaires) needs to be reined in if we want to fucking survive.

Re: Google lays off its Python team

#366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In this tech job environment the US google employee is willing to do as many 11:30 nights as needed to keep his high paying tech job, and management knows it

Management is dumb if they think that. You can't announce year long continuous layoffs, and expect people to work hard. What will the hard working employees get in return if they get laid off? Most US Google Employees are smart people, they should know that now is the time to prepare to get off that tech island, and quiet quitting is the way.

RTO has been instituted and there not much you can do to prepare for a whole career change when in the office…

And esp for those with families they might be dependent on big tech comp to support their family in high CoL areas, else have to move their kids and school or make big lifestyle downgrades

Management holds the cards and they know it. Lesson for workers is to live way below your means while you still can

Re: Google lays off its Python team

#367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked at Amazon for almost 10 years and I hate, repeat hate working with India teams. Their quality is subpar, period. No other way to put it

Racist much? I work out of Europe and manage teams both in India and Europe. My experience have pleasantly gotten better with Indian teams. If the quality is sub-par then perhaps you're not a good manager? perhaps failing upwards?

There are cultural factors you need to overcome, and it's with every international team. I am not going to simplify this, because it's a multi-faceted thing, but focusing on a single thing, for instance, propagation of bad news, India is an intensely competitive market and I need to make it abundantly clear I want to hear the bad news as soon as possible, and that I don't care about blame, as long as we learn from mistakes. From the US, I often get bad news sandwiched between good ones, so I need to redouble attention.

This is a huge topic.

Re: Google lays off its Python team

#368

This is standard recent Google. A year or so ago, they laid off GCP upper tier support to replace them with cheaper workers. PS: I won't say which MAAN_, but the recruiters are half based in India now. Coincidentally, it's a MAAN_ that laid me off previously in a relatively recent timeframe rather than attempt to find me another home internally. Brain explodes. Perhaps MAANGs need to focus more on long-term sustainab…

the layoffs are to fearmonger employees to stop asking for more, duh

Re: Google lays off its Python team

#369
post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not convinced demoralization is undesired in all cases; certainly it seems like there was a lot of frustration about workers demanding more pay, remote work, stances on various social/political issues, and so on. Making people demoralized and afraid of losing their jobs is one possible answer to that.

Theoretically you have a point. On the other hand it’s so bad for recruiting. I view companies that do large layoffs the same way I view companies that do a lot of contract hiring. You clearly don’t care about employees and their wellbeing.

TF? since when do corporations give a shit about you?

Re: Google lays off its Python team

#370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Be real, it’s google. They could layoff 10k every month for another year and still have people lining up from around the world to get in

Seems like direct path to becoming IBM to be honest

IBM still makes cool things. Google serves ads.
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