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Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics

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Re: Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics

#181

Post by revelio »

IMTDb wrote: post #82
orra wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I can pay hundreds of people to mow my lawn using scissors, and they will be employed as landscapers. Or I can pay one guy with a lawnmower. Right, but that's not the actual dichotomy. First, if Shopify can deliver its software with less people, then with the same number of people they could deliver more. Second, realistically the dichotomy, in the short to medium term, is will these people be employed in a skilled…

> if Shopify can deliver its software with less people, then with the same number of people they could deliver more That is assuming everyone contributes in a meaningful way. That might not be the case for various reasons: - Incompetence / lazyness - You feel productive, but you impact is actually really low ("I am preparing an alignment meeting") - You are working on a product / component that generates little to no…

I thought 37signals is privately owned. How do you know how much revenue they have?

Re: Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics

#182

Post by stickfigure »

Graziano_M wrote: post #111

I love how they don't want to bury the lede, but they also will use the passive voice: "after today Shopify will be smaller by about 20%". "some of you will leave Shopify today". It's not at all that those people are being laid off!

That isn't what passive voice means. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_voice:

For example, in the passive sentence "The tree was pulled down", the subject (the tree) denotes the patient rather than the agent of the action. In contrast, the sentences "Someone pulled down the tree" and "The tree is down" are active sentences.

Re: Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics

#183

Post by hotpotamus »

osigurdson wrote: post #113
hotpotamus wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> that’s better for society Increasingly I wonder what this means. What KPIs are you evaluating to determine if society is getting better or worse? And is it?

Economic growth would certainly suffer if we insisted that no one could ever be let go.

In context, I understand that you mean let go from jobs, but it doesn't seem like we have much trouble letting people go from society either.

Re: Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics

#184

Post by boringg »

differentView wrote: post #94
curiousllama wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In sports this is the "absolute vote of confidence" Once a coach has to say "[player] has my absolute confidence in their success," you know the player is ~2 weeks from being benched.

I've heard it called the Kiss of Death when general managers or owners publicly say similar things about their coaches.

If you have to ask the question ...

Re: Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics

#185

Post by skizm »

Arubis wrote: post #155

“We will also keep Slack and internal email open today for everyone so we can share farewells.” That’s drastically different. Most orgs that’ve run layoffs over the last few years have terminated access immediately, or even before informing those losing jobs. This feels more human, and I hope it goes well for them.

Most of the tech layoffs this cycle have done the same. Meta and Google left open coms access (email and chat) for at least the one day, pulling other more sensitive access. Definitely a positive change, but if I were a big tech lawyer I'd probably still be nervous lol.

Re: Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics

#186

Post by samstave »

brotoss wrote: post #141

Referring to "main quests" and "side quests" in a mass layoff notice is extremely cringeworthy

"haha! You're employment here was just a game to us!"

Yeah, not as bad as the CEO laying off 900 people via zoom, and then plying for sympathies at how hard this decision is for him to do.

our entire economy is out of whack in so many areas.

Re: Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics

#187

Post by BoxFour »

curiousllama wrote: post #48
marcinzm wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my observation absolute statements about no layoffs are a strong indication of future layoffs in this economy. It's impossible to be certain in this economy so giving an absolute statement is basically a lie. Someone who is so brazen about lying to/deceiving their employees will have no qualms with doing layoffs. On the other hand someone who uses more careful language even if it costs them in the short term is so…

In sports this is the "absolute vote of confidence" Once a coach has to say "[player] has my absolute confidence in their success," you know the player is ~2 weeks from being benched.

I think this is actually a more astute analogy than you realize, because the only reason a coach would be asked that question in the first place is because there are questions about the player’s ability to perform—-as the sibling comment here notes.

Similarly, you don’t ask tech companies if they’re doing layoffs when the sector is booming.

That the question is even asked probably shoots the probability of benching/layoffs up to some ridiculous amount to begin with.

Re: Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics

#188

Post by samstave »

cxf12 wrote: post #148
neom wrote: post #131

Does anyone have a sense of how bad things really are for the US economy and what the next 12/18 months are going to look like? Seems like every day all I see is doom and gloom, I've not seen a bright spot in quite some time... it's becoming increasingly difficult for me to get a sense of where things are. People keep saying things are going to get worse, I keep reading things are going to get worse, friends are lite…

I'm in the BI space. I'll answer anecdotally since I pay attention to the job boards in the US quite a bit. I've got no hard data for my assertion full disclosure. For the last 3 months entry level work has dried up. I'm seeing very few postings for underling positions. Mid level 4-7 years jobs have markedly declined as I'm seeing fewer postings across this same time span month over month. 7+ years experience seems t…

DO you publish any of this info anyplace?

Re: Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics

#189

Post by MuffinFlavored »

DelaneyM wrote: post #2

I know the reality is more complicated, but it's always jarring to read a "company X had a great! quarter, is firing 20% of employees" headline. Very dystopian. It seems like these two facts should at least go out in different press releases on different days. For Shopify, does anyone know whether the 20% figure includes the people leaving with the sale of SFN to Flexport? Edit: just heard in the earnings call that t…

What if the headline read like this?

> Shopify to cut 20% of its workforce, beats an already/comparatively-to-history reduced/calibrated quarterly revenue estimates for the current economic landscape

Re: Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics

#190

Post by dalyons »

pastor_bob wrote: post #156

>Logistics was clearly a worthwhile side quest for us, and started to create the conditions for our main quest to succeed. From the beginning, we worked with lots of partners on all aspects of this same problem: warehouses, robotics, transportation, crossdock, freight. We iteratively built a solution, step by step, through software, leases, and M&A deals, that could be an independent company one day. Shopify was the…

They’re not though, they’re selling it? To a company that presumably wants it and intends to grow it
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