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Layoffs Don't Work

thehustle.co

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Re: Layoffs Don't Work

#321

Post by no_wizard »

ltbarcly3 wrote: post #228
no_wizard wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The tech industry also doesn’t reward loyalty, even at big tech. There’s a reason for the low tenure at most firms and it’s primarily due to the lack of rewarding experience and depth of field knowledge at most companies. When you have to get a new job just to get a salary increase that keeps up with inflation you are going to see a lot of job hopping when the skills of the workforce are generally in demand. How ofte…

Big tech employees have been abandoning companies the second they can get higher TC for decades, and as soon as the companies start firing a very small fraction (in a lot of cases people who were coasting or incompetent) its a problem of morality? You can really see what people are made of when they face adversity. Good luck.

Big tech employees are a fraction of all tech employers and employees. There’s problem so systematically pervasive that you see this across the board. Companies do not value long term retainment of employees up and down the size spectrum and it’s very clear in how they behave.

They don’t award experience and depth of knowledge in any way that is indicative of fostering retention

Re: Layoffs Don't Work

#322

Post by andrewlgood »

bbqfog wrote: post #292
andrewlgood wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is this different than the manager who has spent years developing an employee - making sure they are getting the experiences they need to build a better career, hiring the right people to complement the team, fighting for bonuses and pay raises - only to have them quit to join the next company for a 10% raise. It is difficult to build a long-term culture when society seems to expect job hopping to rapidly advance…

An experienced manager would know that is how the game is played and act accordingly. Don't get emotionally attached to any work relationships. It's transactional, keep that in mind.

Agreed. Shouldn’t employees behave/feel the same way?

Re: Layoffs Don't Work

#323

Post by mrmayhem »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #255
huang_chung wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, getting fucked out of your 401k money 6 months before it vests stings some.

Is that an average time given a 12 month vesting schedule? edit: Actually curious about the dead comment. What companies have multi year 401(k) vesting? Every company I have worked at or seen does a match on a 12 month schedule or less. Are they thinking of stock options?

[dead]

Re: Layoffs Don't Work

#324

Post by bbqfog »

andrewlgood wrote: post #322
bbqfog wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An experienced manager would know that is how the game is played and act accordingly. Don't get emotionally attached to any work relationships. It's transactional, keep that in mind.

Agreed. Shouldn’t employees behave/feel the same way?

Absolutely.

Re: Layoffs Don't Work

#325

Post by throwaway151883 »

ltbarcly3 wrote: post #200
WalterBright wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm unclear what employers are deriving from this exercise at this point It filters out the complete frauds. Yes, there are people who know all the right things to say in a job interview, but cannot code at all. If you hire one of them, it takes a bit to find out they cannot code, and a bit longer to fire them, so you're out $$$$ paying their salaries for nothing. For example, a recruiter I know will ask a tech can…

I have done probably 500 to 1000 tech screens for big tech companies (as the interviewer) and this is completely true. I have interviewed many people employed in tech as programmers for their entire career and they can't code. I don't meen leetcode, I mean they get confused trying to write brute force substring search. The nested for loop seems to be too complex for them to keep in their head all at once. I have had…

> check if text has mismatched parens

I always try to give everyone I’ve interviewed the benefit of the doubt. You never know what’s going on in their lives, and even if they fail a trivial question it doesn’t mean they are faking the ability to code.

I joined Facebook back in 2018. Didn’t study at all for the interview and passed somehow. Then I probably conducted 200-300 interviews in my time there, so I became quite familiar with the questions. My performance ratings were all exceeds or greatly exceeds. I voluntarily left on my own after four years to join a unicorn startup. I didn’t prep for that interview either but passed it too. Well, the startup failed and many people went back to Meta. So I actually prepared quite a bit this time and scheduled a mock interview with them. The mock interviewer said I did great and not to change a thing. When it came time for the real screening interview... I failed the matching parentheses question.

I generally try not to make excuses. Almost every interview I’ve failed has clearly been my own fault. But in this particular one the interviewer kept interrupting me every two seconds and I absolutely could not think. I had done matching parentheses many times before in practice, but the constant interrupting rattled me to the point where I totally lost focus and bombed it. Not a great experience.

So yeah, I’d just recommend giving people the benefit of the doubt. Everyone has difficult moments occasionally, but it doesn’t mean they’re stupid or can’t code.

Re: Layoffs Don't Work

#326

Post by mrmayhem »

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #269
Workaccount2 wrote: post #150

Real talk here, and I'm sorry for being "that guy" Why do tech workers get so wrapped around the axle of layoffs when most people are in a chronic state of tech job hopping? I know multiple people who have worked their entire career thus far without ever staying at a place for more than 3 or 4 years. Some no more than two. Tech job culture is practically a mono culture with "hop jobs" being a hallmark. From an employ…

> Why do tech workers get so wrapped around the axle of layoffs when most people are in a chronic state of tech job hopping? Most of us job-hop because we have to, not because we want to. There's a class of people in the tech industry who like to write blogs about how fun and fulfilling it is to constantly change jobs and roles. Those people are highly visible but not representative. Most humans find constant change…

[dead]

Re: Layoffs Don't Work

#327

Post by jpgvm »

I find layoffs very context sensitive.

Atleast 2 of the fast growing companies I have been a part of have had serious layoffs that were very successful in cutting dead weight that had accumulated because of fast and loose hiring and poor middle management. So it can be done well.

By and large though they are a sign to jump from the soon to be sinking ship... so it's very important to know what kind it is and act accordingly.

Re: Layoffs Don't Work

#328

Post by alabastervlog »

momocowcow wrote: post #263
ltbarcly3 wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have done probably 500 to 1000 tech screens for big tech companies (as the interviewer) and this is completely true. I have interviewed many people employed in tech as programmers for their entire career and they can't code. I don't meen leetcode, I mean they get confused trying to write brute force substring search. The nested for loop seems to be too complex for them to keep in their head all at once. I have had…

You are still not testing if they can code. But whether under the scrutiny of another person, they can code. Maybe this is important to you, maybe peer programming is important to you for example. I remember a young dev who couldn’t pass such tests, as he would get too nervous, yet he had written the core tech for many shipped products. The type of guy you would just stick in dark room. With age this type of stuff se…

“Scrutiny of another” who’s a peer or even a client is super different from an interview.

The latter has more in common with an open mic night, the prospect of which the vast majority of people are terrified and would break down if they attempted it.

Re: Layoffs Don't Work

#329

Post by warkdarrior »

giantg2 wrote: post #320
kbelder wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No sympathy from me either; instead, he gets appreciation. Thank you, OP, for bringing more life into the world. It's hard and (obviously) frequently thankless.

Thanks, but I'm not sure this deserves appreciation either. We already have plenty of life in this world. Perhaps so much so that the human life is negatively impacting other life, including other humans. I'd be much more appreciative of people making life better than making more of it.

[flagged]

Re: Layoffs Don't Work

#330

Post by [deleted] »

fifticon wrote: post #310
andrewlgood wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand the trade offs you mention. I do disagree with your assertion that “Life is much harder for some of us.” You have chosen a different payoff - your family, certainty of health insurance, etc. You get the benefits that children bring and the joy of being a parent. The “young, childless people” have made a different choice - more freedom in employment decisions but no joy from children. Everyone has their o…

your argument sounds like "some people choose to do the dishes, some of us choose to let other people do the dishes". Some of the "free choices" you claim people can make, will only be possible if some other people don't make those same choices.

[deleted]
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