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Cloudflare to cut about 20% of its workforce

reuters.com

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Re: Cloudflare to cut about 20% of its workforce

#31

Post by ok_dad »

benmusch wrote: post #15
prymitive wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not like this is a factory floor where you process something coming in and AI suddenly makes the process more efficient and people are idle. Every team in tech world has infinite backlog, you don’t fire 20% the minute someone manages to close a few tickets.

why not? isn't the implication of your point that companies should just hire infinitely so long as there's work to be done?

Companies never want to reduce productivity unless they need to cut spending or increase profits. In other words, if AI increases productivity that’s a direct win they can use to beat their competitors. You can’t spend money you don’t have, but you want to spend the money you do have as point at there work to do, which there always is.

Re: Cloudflare to cut about 20% of its workforce

#32

Post by stego-tech »

I'm going to start calling these "Canary" moments.

Assuming we take everything at face value for these sorts of cuts, it creates the following scenario:

A company finds itself with surplus labor capacity due to the efficiencies in AI while also posting substantial profit or revenue growth. The company could downsize the workforce to capitalize on short-term efficiencies and increase margins, though this will come at the cost of long-term reputational harm due to posted profits/health as well as burning out staff who must do the same (or increasingly, more) work with less headcount, leading to attrition when the market shifts in their favor. Alternatively, it could leverage this surplus labor for a period of moonshot R&D or paying down technical/process debts while they have the capacity and the profit to pay for it, which harms short-term share price relative to their competitors slashing jobs, while improving the company's capabilities in the marketplace in the long-run, potentially through mastery of these AI tools or the creation of new product lines.

The fact so many orgs opt for immediate greed over long-term growth really is its own canary that leadership and governance both has failed the marshmallow test.

Re: Cloudflare to cut about 20% of its workforce

#34

Post by everfrustrated »

doggo_mate wrote: post #25
ggoo wrote: post #18

> The packages for departing employees will include the equivalent of their full base pay through the end of 2026. Healthcare coverage is different across the globe, and if you’re in the United States, we’ll continue to provide support through the end of the year. We are also vesting equity for departing team members through August 15th, so they receive stock beyond their departure date. And, if departing team member…

In Europe they’re pretty much obligated to provide this package

Complete fiction. Over covid it was common in big tech layoffs to get much less severance in Europe than US.

Re: Cloudflare to cut about 20% of its workforce

#35

Post by stego-tech »

piperswe wrote: post #7

Welp, looks like I’m affected. If anyone is looking to hire a systems engineer with distributed systems and load balancing experience, shoot me an email at @piperswe.me :/ I’ll update this with a resume link tonight…

That sucks, and the market is too bleak for empty platitudes.

This just sucks, period.

Take care of yourself until you land something. I'll keep this in mind if anything comes through my grapevine.

Re: Cloudflare to cut about 20% of its workforce

#36

Post by jwpapi »

Havoc wrote: post #21
blingbot9 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whenever someone brings up ZIRP, especially someone with a username like yours, it's an indicator that they have no clue what they are talking about and like to regurgitate things they read on the internet. > Also the US economy is collapsing, that probably has some relevance. Right...wait, what?

>especially someone with a username like yours, > -- blingbot9 2026

a new level of ad hominem

Re: Cloudflare to cut about 20% of its workforce

#40

Post by treexs »

With the hiring 1111 interns thing, I think these companies (amazon as well) need to realize this is doing anything but inspiring confidence in those interns. Instead of being excited about going there, more of them would opt to go elsewhere instead of returning full time, or if they do return full time they'd be in fear of being let go next.
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