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Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

nytimes.com

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Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#111

Post by offices »

mindwok wrote: post #98

I'm surprised to see so many comments here taking layoffs personally, or talking about how layoffs are stupid. Layoffs are not personal, and the corollary to that is that you should never treat your company as a friend. It's a company trying to maximize value. Also, layoffs do work. Almost every large, successful company has done them at some stage. They are an expected, and necessary, part of operating a company and…

When a company has embedded itself so deeply in public life - globally - it's reasonable to have strong feelings about its actions.

When we say layoffs work, are we considering the way the same companies overhired just a few years ago, harming the rest of the employment market? Do we remember this in later discussions when we treat these companies as prescient hiveminds, in spite of them using overtuned bang-bang control for their hiring? Do we remember it in discussions about workers rights and the things we tie to employment in the naive assumption that only those who deserve it lose their jobs?

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#112

Post by benreesman »

I refuse to hoist the guillotine when the time (seems sooner every day) arrives. But I also refuse to stand in the way either, or at least more than I'm already doing by incessantly badgering the kleptoclass that they will get tennis court-ed if they keep this shit up.

Posting beat after beat and carpet bombing Sunnyvale like fucking Curtis LeMay at the same time is offensive to everything about being an American, and a hacker, and really just a human.

https://finviz.com/quote.ashx?t=GOOG&p=d

Layoffs happen, markets go dry, the world moves on. But stuffing your pockets until it's spilling out while walking around the Bay Area with a Samurai Sword drunk from Fucki Sushi?

I won't help them drag you out of your Tesla and beat them to death with your own iPhone. But let's quit while we're ahead assholes?

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#113

Post by freetinker »

wayfinder wrote: post #89
HackerThemAll wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pixel is not officially sold and supported in a substantial number of countries. It results in many issues, such as 5G not working when traveling from country to country. Or in case of Chromecast dongle, 5GHz Wi-Fi not working. Which makes my head explode, considering that they employ only "top talent" and has considerable resources to properly catalogue and implement all radio frequencies of the world. Google cannot…

Google is good at making algorithms and tech but product development and long term vision have never been its strong points.

Institutionally, Google has the attention span of a Goldfish. Apple will continue to entrench their position as a leader in edge computing. Apple deserve their success; I hope they don’t get complacent once the Pixel division implodes.

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#114

Post by karmarepellent »

prox wrote: post #110
Galanwe wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should add more nuance I think. While this is a respectable way to see employer / employee relationships, it does not apply to every company / employee out there. In particular, I think this is very true for BigCo, where most people are seen as fungible cogs. The smaller the company, the better.

Honestly the size really doesn’t matter that much. As soon as it’s favorable you are out in ANY company. In my observational experience it’s only 10 to 20% companies who have heart and where they do actually try to maintain talent and foster good working relationships.

I think the size definitely matters, but I am not sure about the extent to which it matters.

I work at a company of roughly over 200 employees that is part of a much bigger org. Layoffs never happen where I am working. And one factor may be that HR has a different, in some cases personal relationship with their employees. That is certainly not the case in the parent org where large-scale layoffs happen every few years.

Edit: And I would not even attest that my company is one of those with a "heart", as you say.

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#115

Post by Leo_Germond »

Galanwe wrote: post #96
jillesvangurp wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Better put, the relationship you have with your employer is a business relation ship. It's not personal. They are not your friends, nor your enemies. It's simply a convenient arrangement between the two of you for as long as that lasts. And it might become convenient for either side to change that arrangement at any point. The more you earn, the higher the risk that at some point somebody decides that they want to sp…

You should add more nuance I think. While this is a respectable way to see employer / employee relationships, it does not apply to every company / employee out there. In particular, I think this is very true for BigCo, where most people are seen as fungible cogs. The smaller the company, the better.

The worse relationship I've had were in small companies. "Oh but we're so small we cannot afford raises" coming from the same people that are selling it millions later in the year.

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#116

Post by prox »

medo-bear wrote: post #79
nly wrote: post #35

My firm made billions last year too and just laid off hundreds of engineers (a decent %) Some of the best engineers, those that I respected the most, went. People who make no sense. After last year's layoffs they told us they were "done" and it was "all behind us". Last year then turned out to a better year financially than 2022 (we have access to the top line numbers) You can't trust anything anyone above you in the…

Hopefully cyberpunk will get an inflow out of this situation. Don't ever trust corporations, even if they promise not to be evil, Lol

Cyberpunk is hypercapitalism with less ethics and even more survival of the fittest, plus cybernetics… and apart from the cybernetics part is actually not that far from some societies already.

Social resilience and social welfare have been vilified enough that I see just enough blanket downvotes in some social fora, as if its an icky subject or an allergy. Those who are at the top benefit from it, as long as as they have enough lackeys to do their bidding.

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#117

Post by azangru »

nly wrote: post #35

My firm made billions last year too and just laid off hundreds of engineers (a decent %) Some of the best engineers, those that I respected the most, went. People who make no sense. After last year's layoffs they told us they were "done" and it was "all behind us". Last year then turned out to a better year financially than 2022 (we have access to the top line numbers) You can't trust anything anyone above you in the…

> You can be somewhere for 10 years

Our organization has a policy that it hires developers on 3-year contracts, and renews them no more than two times. So when you have reached 9 years in the org; when you have become intimately familiar with the domain, and the codebase, and the way the org works etc., you are out.

I am still incredulous that someone has thought that yes, this is exactly how an organization should manage its software engineers.

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#118

Post by layer8 »

nly wrote: post #35

My firm made billions last year too and just laid off hundreds of engineers (a decent %) Some of the best engineers, those that I respected the most, went. People who make no sense. After last year's layoffs they told us they were "done" and it was "all behind us". Last year then turned out to a better year financially than 2022 (we have access to the top line numbers) You can't trust anything anyone above you in the…

> SWEs in particularly no longer live in a world where you can expect to have a rewarding career working for >=5 years at any given firm.

You can in SMEs. Avoid VC-owned or public companies. Of course, there are no guarantees.

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#120

Post by abirch »

goodpoint wrote: post #93
vincnetas wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And you know what happens with the money that you take, save and invest? They go in to public companies, they hire MBA's, and they try to improve profitability of company by letting engineers go. Your money have come a full cycle :)

> Your money have come a full cycle :) Until the huge bubble around tech companies explodes.

Tech (Meta, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Alphabet) is pretty profitable with reasonable P/Es.
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