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Elastic lays off 7% of employees

elastic.co

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Re: Elastic lays off 7% of employees

#91

Post by monksy »

darth_avocado wrote: post #65
tracerbulletx wrote: post #22

Before the 1980s layoffs were seen as a massive failure of the company and almost never happened to tenured employees unless the company was collapsing. Before we are all made to think this is normal and unavoidable behavior.

When Elon fired 80% of the company, I remember a lot of celebration on HN. Some of it was the perceived political bias within the employees and some of it was “The app works fine what were all those employees doing? They probably deserved it.” At the time I remember talking about this becoming a norm as CEOs follow the lead and getting downvoted heavily. Its unfortunate that we are here, but also not surprising, give…

That's not from what I remember. I'm sure there was some skepticism about some of the roles that were there. But I do remember Ian Brown just completely dunking on that triobyte on Twitter Spaces. (Ian Brown is an ex-Twitter performance engineer, he pushed Musk on "what is non-performant, and you explicitly define it".. suffice to say gehot and Musk got a little embarassed and kicked him off the stream).

Re: Elastic lays off 7% of employees

#92

Post by confidantlake »

msteffen wrote: post #6

I wonder if some of these CEOs are anticipating a big crash and trying to lay people off now, so that (1) they can raise/hoard cash while the money-go-round is spinning and (2) their eng organization is already lean and used to it if/when the money-go-round stops. “Because of AI” indeed.

Nah they are just following the herd. When everyone was hiring they hired, when everyone was firing they fired. Go along to get along.

Re: Elastic lays off 7% of employees

#93

Post by christophilus »

puszczyk wrote: post #2

Makes me sad to read it as an ex-Elastic employee. AI is used to justify the redundancies, and the company still expects to grow in this fiscal year. In the SEC filling the specifically mention more “head count” in “go-to-market” roles [1]. > a reduction of approximately 7% of our workforce > Advances in AI, automation, and technology are reshaping how work gets done, and we're changing with them. (…) That's what thi…

ex-Elastic here, too. It was a great place to work pre-IPO. It seems the culture has shifted a lot since the IPO, though.

Re: Elastic lays off 7% of employees

#94

Post by bluecheese452 »

qwertyuiop_ wrote: post #28

We're in an outstanding position and well-equipped for the future. I'm excited about the opportunities ahead and focused on making sure Elastic is positioned to lead in this next phase of innovation. - Ash Kulkarni" If they are in an outstanding position why did he make 7% of the employees lives miserable with a stroke of a pen.

[flagged]

Re: Elastic lays off 7% of employees

#95

Post by FireBeyond »

Matticus_Rex wrote: post #55
vanrysss wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a cousin in Belgium who was laid off following some restructuring and her severance was 52 weeks. Not out of the goodness of the company's hearts, but mandated by law since they gave no notice and she had accrued seniority. US labor laws are a joke in comparison.

I'm sure that level of overhead has nothing to do with the reason Belgian incomes, standards of living, and business outcomes are worse.

> standards of living

As measured by ... purchasing power.

Let's take a look, Safety Index - US 50.8, Belgium 50.6. Health care index - Belgium 75.9, US 67.8, Pollution Index - US 36.7, Belgium 49.2, Climate index - Belgium 86, US 78.5.

As it stands US standard of living is better really only in "you can buy a larger house" (shocking, giving the relative size), and "it'll be slightly cheaper".

Not by any other metric.

Re: Elastic lays off 7% of employees

#96

Post by jimt1234 »

mik3y wrote: post #24
nozzlegear wrote: post #3

This announcement spends remarkably few words talking about the what (7% of the company's workforce was laid off), and a great deal of words talking about how bright the future of the company is and how they're going to hire more people.

Layoff announcements are this kinda tricky class of corporate comms where you need to speak to at least 3 different constituents, with 3 different messages, which are often in conflict. It's something like: (A) To the public (e.g. prospects, customers, investors): "This is a good thing and we're going to be an even better bet!" (B) To the remaining team: "This is tough and I feel your pain and will do better." (C) To…

And all 3 messages have to be delivered within very strict legal guidelines, because someone's always gonna sue.

Re: Elastic lays off 7% of employees

#98

Post by nosioptar »

Avicebron wrote: post #30
tracerbulletx wrote: post #22

Before the 1980s layoffs were seen as a massive failure of the company and almost never happened to tenured employees unless the company was collapsing. Before we are all made to think this is normal and unavoidable behavior.

I don't know how the social contract between employees/employers gets rebuilt..feels like it needs to though

Employers will only do the right thing in two cases: they're afraid of stiff government penalties or they're afraid their workers are going to cut their heads off.

Personally, I'm in favor of regulations and stiff penalties for employers who break them.

Re: Elastic lays off 7% of employees

#99

Post by gaiagraphia »

puszczyk wrote: post #2

Makes me sad to read it as an ex-Elastic employee. AI is used to justify the redundancies, and the company still expects to grow in this fiscal year. In the SEC filling the specifically mention more “head count” in “go-to-market” roles [1]. > a reduction of approximately 7% of our workforce > Advances in AI, automation, and technology are reshaping how work gets done, and we're changing with them. (…) That's what thi…

[flagged]

Re: Elastic lays off 7% of employees

#100

Post by brianwawok »

jimt1234 wrote: post #81
zamadatix wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't have nearly as many complaints about this mindset change if ones life (e.g. insurance) weren't still so deeply tied to who your current employer is.

I'm aware that HN frowns on "THIS", but...THIS!!! I don't know what the best solution for the current healthcare clusterfuck in the US is, but I think disassociating health insurance from employer/employment is a great first step.

As a business owner yes please! Charge me a flat insurance tax. And then give everyone insurance. It’s such a cluster.
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