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Facebook reportedly laying off thousands of employees

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Re: Facebook reportedly laying off thousands of employees

#141

Post by votepaunchy »

SilverBirch wrote: post #132
rusk wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Manage out” sounds suspiciously like “constructive dismissal” to me. Not only unethical but illegal to varying degrees across many jurisdictions. Could get pricey!

There's a massive difference between constructive dismissal and managing out. Managing out can often be as simple as a manager saying "Hey, your performance isn't great your not on course to get any bonus or raise this year" and the employee deciding "Fuck this, I'm off". Instead of in normal times, where you're trying to retain people and the conversation is often "Hey, you're making really good progress but there's…

Do I understand correctly, you are saying that 5-20% of your employees will quit after having a conversation simply noting that he or she will not be receiving a bonus or raise this year, or similar? That’s really quite tenuous, especially in this economy.

Re: Facebook reportedly laying off thousands of employees

#142

Post by netheril96 »

thejosh wrote: post #82
technion wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On that issue I've never seen a LinkedIn message from a Tiktok recruiter, or heard messages about mass hiring. Anyone know if they operating on a much lower staff count?

Isn't tiktok owned by ByteDance, which is a Chinese company (with an ownership percent by the Gov), so they would be hiring in CN? :-)

Tiktok hires a lot outside China. They want to appease the customers and investors who want to distance themselves from China.

Re: Facebook reportedly laying off thousands of employees

#143

Post by bryanrasmussen »

bayraktar wrote: post #109
gamjQZnHT53AMa wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like you're suggesting to him that he gets himself put on the "managed out" list. I get your point completely, and agree with it to an extent. But if I put myself in that position, what would I do? I'd like to think I'd take the honorable approach you suggested, but I've also got bills to pay, kids to support, plans I want to achieve. Getting myself "managed out" at the expense of all of those things would be…

Getting myself "managed out" at the expense of all of those things would be hugely problematic. Agreed - and corporate life often gets that way. But another way of looking at the payoff matrix might be: "I've got kids to support - and that means having parents they can trust, and look up to in this chaotic and morally ambivalent world. Even if it means we might have to work a year or two more before being able to ret…

>I've got kids to support - and that means having parents they can trust, and look up to in this chaotic and morally ambivalent world.

that's a high level of Maslow's hierarchy there, especially in the U.S with few support nets heading into what will probably be a really bad recession.

Re: Facebook reportedly laying off thousands of employees

#144

Post by bradleyjg »

sverhagen wrote: post #137
benreesman wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who quit FB with a great deal of unvested stock, I've got more skin in the game than most as to the complex question of FB's culture, management, and impact in the world. I paid a lot of fucking money for a very nuanced answer to a very complex question about whether or not I felt I wanted to be there at that time. So, from a position of vastly superior knowledge to the typical HN peanut gallery, I agree t…

You seem to be suggesting that we're not entitled to opine about Facebook since we don't know the detailed internals or can't grasp the complexity, but I think that OP captures a broadly carried sentiment that Facebook's impact on society, on balance, is negative. And one internal I'll comment on, regardless of not being an insider: the downsizing through performance reviews feels very dishonest.

It’s just less interesting. If I want to see random people navel gaze about Facebook’s general impact on society there are lots and lots of places for that. HN is one of the few where I’m likely to hear from people that spent a decade there. Also interesting would be someone that studied the impact deeply from the outside. But a thread started with a slightly wordier version of “F Facebook” is just not likely to be very good.

Re: Facebook reportedly laying off thousands of employees

#145

Post by mFixman »

martin_a wrote: post #43
username_my1 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meta verse could be the next big thing and the long shot facebook needs. It just happened that out of their control 1. Apple squeezed them out of ads revenue 2. Market went to shit I hate Facebook as a company but I don’t see them making strategic mistakes…. Everyone is getting fired everywhere

> Metaverse could be the next big thing and the long shot facebook needs. I'm skeptical. With all their money and knowledge and whatnot, they've only managed to create something that looks like a dated console party game but not more. I don't see how that's the future. Furthermore, do they expect everyone to buy a... say... $400 headset to use the Metaverse? The low entry barrier was probably one of the biggest reaso…

The headset is the reason why they are doing this in the first place. Nobody expected people to buy a $300 iPhone in 2007 or a $500 iPad in 2011, but when they did they gave Apple money-printing machine that can also bankrupt competitors.

Meta just needs a killer feature for the Metaverse. During the pandemic they bet hard on office-by-VR, but they moved too slowly missed the pandemic and many other deadlines before making a good product.

Re: Facebook reportedly laying off thousands of employees

#146

Post by nullc »

votepaunchy wrote: post #141
SilverBirch wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a massive difference between constructive dismissal and managing out. Managing out can often be as simple as a manager saying "Hey, your performance isn't great your not on course to get any bonus or raise this year" and the employee deciding "Fuck this, I'm off". Instead of in normal times, where you're trying to retain people and the conversation is often "Hey, you're making really good progress but there's…

Do I understand correctly, you are saying that 5-20% of your employees will quit after having a conversation simply noting that he or she will not be receiving a bonus or raise this year, or similar? That’s really quite tenuous, especially in this economy.

I believe with the way amazon comp in structured, not getting a bonus or a raise is actually a pay cut for many people, because they have vesting equity that is offset by front loaded cash bonuses.

Even small pay cuts are pretty good at getting people to quit. (uh particularly talented ones that have many options ...)

Re: Facebook reportedly laying off thousands of employees

#147

Post by netheril96 »

fortylove wrote: post #30

Seeing giants fall like this, where they achieve the highest peaks imaginable, but then struggle to find the next thing that is suitably big enough to satisfy expectations makes me never want to reach mega success status if I ever start a startup.

The fall is relative. Zuckerburg himself is still filthy rich. Only some of his employees suffer. So it is still worth to have a startup and make it mega, if you can pull it off.

Re: Facebook reportedly laying off thousands of employees

#149

Post by jevgeni »

fny wrote: post #23

Facebook employs over 58K people. This is not a big deal especially considering tech went on a * massive* hiring binge recently. [0] Facebook had a recruiting crisis in 2021: https://www.protocol.com/workplace/facebook-docs-hiring-recr... [1] Facebook aimed to hire 10K Europeans for metaverse in 2021: https://www.reuters.com/technology/facebook-plans-hire-10000... People underestimate just how much COVID and the rapi…

Laying off 15% of your staff is huge. If it's driven by a hire-and-fire approach, then that's even worse, because that shows Meta can't manage their way out of a paper bag.

Re: Facebook reportedly laying off thousands of employees

#150

Post by [deleted] »

randomsearch wrote: post #50
username_my1 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meta verse could be the next big thing and the long shot facebook needs. It just happened that out of their control 1. Apple squeezed them out of ads revenue 2. Market went to shit I hate Facebook as a company but I don’t see them making strategic mistakes…. Everyone is getting fired everywhere

Name one new product that Facebook built from scratch (did not acquire), launched, and made a sustained success of since their original social network. The company cannot innovate and has bet the farm on their ability to innovate. I’ve said it before: Facebook should monetise WhatsApp via payments (real payments, not crypto) and other services. That’s something within their capability and very much within their reach…

[deleted]
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