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Layoffs Don't Work

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Re: Layoffs Don't Work

#411

Post by stalfosknight »

deviantbit wrote: post #334

This is a terrible opinion piece. Layoffs do work. Cutting hours does not work. I am always amazed how few people understand how a business operates. They think its a community organized event where there is unlimited revenue. There are a few basic accounting principles employees need to understand. It all revolves around Assets = Liabilities + Owner’s Equity. If you think otherwise, take a "Cost Accounting" course.…

Why can’t the outrageously overpaid leadership who made the mistakes be the ones who are punished instead of the individual contributors who are just trying to survive?

Re: Layoffs Don't Work

#412

Post by samuelson »

WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #290
giantg2 wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't ask for your sympathy. I'm merely responding to someone who doesn't understand that others have factors that affect how hard it is to change jobs.

On a side note, I'm getting whiplash by how fast we go from It's your fault for having children [overpop, resource exhaustion] to It's your fault for not having children [low-birthrates] back to It's your fault for having children [whatever this is]

FWIW: https://www.usaforunfpa.org/are-we-overpopulated-are-birth-r...

I think a lot of the "low-birthrate" fearmongering is just a way to distract people.

Overpopulation was projected to be an issue, but we actually addressed it pretty well over the last 50-75 years and global average birth rates are in a pretty good place now.

Re: Layoffs Don't Work

#413

Post by lazyasciiart »

deviantbit wrote: post #376
yodsanklai wrote: post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If a company is bleeding revenue Not what happened with some of the recent layoffs. Some big tech companies generate huge revenues, laid off 5-10% of people (sometimes with false pretext of performance), and do keep hiring at the same time or soon after. This happens not to reduce cost but to stress out remaining employees.

[flagged]

This is not what happened in recent layoffs where I am familiar with the company. Perhaps you would like to make the argument that in theory, lay-offs can be done that way.

Re: Layoffs Don't Work

#414

Post by grandempire »

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…

Different groups of people. Some confidently job hop, others live in fear of losing a comfortable job.

There are deep differences in expectations and attitudes in these areas, driven by family, culture, and upbringing.

Re: Layoffs Don't Work

#415

Post by asveikau »

I feel that companies just repeat discredited strategies because they are conventional wisdom, and no amount of explaining why layoffs don't make sense will stop them from laying off.

It's mostly about conformity. They heard that all the serious companies are laying off. So they've got to lay off too. Can't be seen breaking convention.

With big tech, a few years back when over-hiring was the conventional wisdom they were for that too.

Re: Layoffs Don't Work

#416

Post by grandempire »

yodsanklai wrote: post #405
ryandrake wrote: post #358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does this work, though? Every company I've worked for has an HR system, and resumes flow through it, and there's a set process. If I have worked with a candidate in the past and highly recommend them, all I can do is submit their resume into the great void and check a box "Recommend". I don't have any other power. There is no "Skip the interview, I vouch for him!" button that I can push.

That's how it works in my company too. The recruitment teams barely work with the engineering teams themselves. You may know a very good fit for the team, possibly even a previous member/intern of that team, and you won't be sure you can put the person into the recruitment loop. And then they'll need to pass the interviews...

And at the end of the day the HR work for your VP. And your VP needs people to do things, and if he hears you are a good person and you are available it will happen. HR is just a layer of process. Make them happy in regards to the things they care about.

Re: Layoffs Don't Work

#417

Post by 3vidence »

__turbobrew__ wrote: post #354
throwaway151883 wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 qui…

I run coding interviews at BIGCO. Half of the candidate success relies on the skills of the interviewer. A bad interviewer can bomb the best candidates. Something I have changed my stance on a bit is automated coding interviews. I used to be adamantly against a company giving candidates automated code tests, but I see now that it takes the interviewer out of the equation.

As an interviewer at Google, we arent given an exact list of questions to ask or what to evaluate (there are broad categories).

It is really entirely up to each interviewer how the interview goes and they are usually scheduled between 2 other meetings so often the interviewer is distracted.

Very strange system imo, lots of randomness

Re: Layoffs Don't Work

#418

Post by yodsanklai »

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #187
filoleg wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I cannot speak for layoffs in all industries ever, but I agree with your assessment of layoffs in big tech from personal experiences. I have way too many “lifer” friends in big tech who are deadly scared of layoffs and job hopping. They are also the ones who rarely got promoted and havent had a significant pay bump pretty much ever. On another hand, half my team at a big tech company got laid off back at the start of…

This story is changing. There is now an oversaturation of us ex-BigCo people in the market. I quit Google before the layoffs, after being there for 10 years and sick of it. The first year was serious ego boost, having Google on the resume opened doors all over the place. Then my ex-coworkers started getting laid off and things began to shift. Now I know people I used to work with who have been without work for many m…

> The first year was serious ego boost, having Google on the resume opened doors all over the place.

Before I worked in FAANG, My subjective view of big tech SWEs was they were very skilled, in a different league.

My current view is that it "just" takes very good preparation and a decent resume to get in. And they've hired so many people that it's not so special anymore to be an "ex-Google". There are just a lot of them.

That being said, I think someone who gets hired in such a company, and manage to stay for many years has to be quite productive and competent. Especially if they reached higher levels.

Re: Layoffs Don't Work

#419

Post by al_borland »

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…

I’ve been at my company working in tech for 19 years and I hate the pushing of job hopping as a norm. Job hoppers have no skin in the game. They don’t need support what they build, they don’t get to see where it fell short… they really can’t learn from their experiences and mistakes. What they do isn’t in the best interest of the company, it’s just enough (an MVP if you will) to add to the resume so they can leverage it for a bump in pay on their next job.

I see wave after wave of job hoppers hired to “transform” the organization and all they ever do is repeat the same old mistakes, which we could tell them if they weren’t too arrogant to listen.

Every job hopper I’ve worked with has simply been a distraction to the greater goals of the organization to serve the customer. I’ve lost all patience and respect for the people who practice it, and the companies that set themselves up in a way which encourages it.

I don’t know how we find our way back, but I think companies and employees would all be better off with some stability and more long term thinking.

Re: Layoffs Don't Work

#420

Post by grandempire »

ryandrake wrote: post #369
deviantbit wrote: post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's not a choice we made as a society. It was a choice the shareholders made. You didn't make that choice, you were not part of it.

That's a good point! I never got the chance to vote on whether or not shareholders should get all the votes.

Why do you feel entitled to something someone else built?
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