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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

#221

Post by myspy »

lgkk wrote: post #202
sinuhe69 wrote: post #127

Seriously, why people in tech are opposed to unions? In Europe, unions and Betriebsrat (works committee) are the norm. Why not in the US?

Unions kill innovation, at least in US. And 10-20% of people do the actual work so 80-90% can have the time to complain nonstop while making 400k plus. As an American I don’t really use that many cutting edge tools from Europe on a daily basis. Maybe my Miele vac. On the other hand almost everyone in the world uses something made by American corporations.

Maybe in the US, but that's a problem how you unionize.

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#222

Post by oaiey »

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…

It is not the individual layoff which is the issue for the people. It is the general feeling that the little man get squeezed under the argument of cost savings and the rich man takes out even more than the year before, independent of the market and company performance. In the past the entrepreneur took the yearly risks and was rewarded or not for it.

The variation / risk on the (unrealistic) return is now managed on the backs of the employees. These layoffs are often bound to the goal to have a return like Apple and not like General Electric (company examples are educated guesses).

In the end, the employees have a miserable life and products of the company are a shit show.

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#223

Post by flawn »

JonChesterfield wrote: post #193
DrBazza wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are often non-compete clauses in employment contracts. Depending on the country, they're not worth the paper they're written on sometimes. In others, legally binding.

I don't think you get to non-compete people you fire. That's an on-resignation constraint.

I'd be genuinely interested what the legal situation here would be, if that's true...

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#224

Post by s_dev »

RayVR wrote: post #119

It seems Google cut several hundred roles…out of how many? Don’t they employ more than 25k engineers? I don’t want to make light of anyone losing their job, but this just doesn’t seem meaningful at this scale

It's news because it's been repeated ad nauseam only recruitment, HR, sales and other non tech roles will be affected by layoffs in big tech companies. The numbers aren't important just that there are numbers because it relates to engineering and it's something the tech community didn't expect.

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#226

Post by gorbachev »

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…

This is why I don't work for publicly traded companies. It's like this every goddamn three months in a lot of them.

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#227

Post by oblio »

teitoklien wrote: post #145
sinuhe69 wrote: post #127

Seriously, why people in tech are opposed to unions? In Europe, unions and Betriebsrat (works committee) are the norm. Why not in the US?

You add unions in tech, and then wonder why dev salaries in EU and the UK are so abysmally low.

There are basically no unions in tech in Europe. The countries where tech workers are dominated by tech unions can be counted on one hand, and they're probably the Nordic ones.

Germany doesn't really have tech unions and for sure they don't dominate the tech scene. France, neither, Eastern Europe (all of them), don't, Southern Europe, not that I know of.

Salaries are still low.

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#228

Post by akdor1154 »

azangru wrote: post #117
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 m…

Honestly that sounds fine and quite honest to have such a policy. I think in my career I've met like 2 or 3 engineers who would have been at one place longer than that.

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#230

Post by HlessClaudesman »

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…

Ossified tech companies who fire their talent are quite literally sewing the seeds of their own destruction.

I expect in the next 2-5 years to see a dynamic flourising of innovative companies started by these unshackled workers.

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