Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Microsoft to lay off 11k employees

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

251–260 of 481 posts

Re: Microsoft to lay off 11k employees

#251

Post by _zzaw »

adam_arthur wrote: post #196
pwinnski wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is "obviously" based on... no communication whatsoever from the company yet. Another comment of yours says "quite obvious" about advertising, which doesn't seem to be an industry segment in which you work. It seems your observations are right in line with Twitter's new owner, to whom everything that's happened over the last few months has also been "obvious," and mostly wrong.

Yes, Elon who made Tesla and SpaceX some of the largest companies in the world in just a few years, and likely many more over the next two decades is a totally incompetent buffoon. I’d rather take his side than the small minded and intellectually weak detractors. Just because things tend to be a certain way, doesn’t make it optimal or right. Evidence, all of history where bad practices were pervasive and common and l…

The level of nastiness in your comments here makes it very hard to take you seriously as an "objective" observer. Considering that you're using your HN profile to attract clients—"Hire me for your development needs!"—you might want to tone that down. I wouldn't want to work with anyone who thought it was appropriate to behave that way.

(And I'll say your rosy impression of Twitter seems a little strange for a supposedly objective observer, given the recent outages/pervasive legal problems/chaotic feature rollouts/various fits and reversals/overall dysfunction that has characterized that company since it was acquired by Elon Musk.)

Re: Microsoft to lay off 11k employees

#253

Post by o_m »

lazypenguin wrote: post #2

> The company had 221,000 full-time employees, including 122,000 in the United States and 99,000 internationally, as of June 30, according to filings. The size of these organizations always catch me off guard. 11,000 is a huge number but 221,000 is even more staggering!

Between 2020 and 2021 they grew by 40k. 11k doesn't seem that much considering.

Re: Microsoft to lay off 11k employees

#254

Post by kube-system »

throwawaysleep wrote: post #102
foogazi wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We don’t do it expecting love in return - we get a paycheck every two weeks

I get my paycheque for showing up. For dedicated work rather than mediocrity, I need extra.

You can get people to "show up" for far less than MSFT salaries.

Re: Microsoft to lay off 11k employees

#255

Post by cmorgan31 »

adam_arthur wrote: post #196
pwinnski wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is "obviously" based on... no communication whatsoever from the company yet. Another comment of yours says "quite obvious" about advertising, which doesn't seem to be an industry segment in which you work. It seems your observations are right in line with Twitter's new owner, to whom everything that's happened over the last few months has also been "obvious," and mostly wrong.

Yes, Elon who made Tesla and SpaceX some of the largest companies in the world in just a few years, and likely many more over the next two decades is a totally incompetent buffoon. I’d rather take his side than the small minded and intellectually weak detractors. Just because things tend to be a certain way, doesn’t make it optimal or right. Evidence, all of history where bad practices were pervasive and common and l…

You just used an appeal to Elons other companies while telling others to not use credentialism?

Re: Microsoft to lay off 11k employees

#256

Post by rossdavidh »

havblue wrote: post #142

This isn't a moral justification, but isn't laying off workers when other companies have layoffs a simple supply and demand response? That is, the demand curve is the same for these workers but the supply curve shifts to the right and prices for the same job drops. They're betting that the people hired in a recession will perform better per dollar than the people let go.

A layoff of ~5%, especially if it is the first one in a while, is usually (at large corporations) just a way to get rid of (perceived to be) non-performing staff without having to do as much paperwork as actually firing someone. This isn't to say they are correct about those 5% not performing, and even if they are it may not have been that person's fault, but the real motivation for a layoff of this type (first one in a while, less than 1 in 10) is usually just to get rid of people it would otherwise be too stressful/legally fraught to get rid of.

Re: Microsoft to lay off 11k employees

#257

Post by dh2022 »

paxys wrote: post #173
jimbok wrote: post #80

Just last week MSFT nixed the accrual PTO benefit employees enjoyed and opted for the rouse of 'unlimited' PTO. Effectively, ending a liability/cash outlay they would pay when folks quit, or get fired. I hope those who were affected today receive severance that makes up for them losing this benefit. -James

All accrued vacation balance got paid out when Microsoft made the switch.

payout will be in April's paycheck. I was a little surprised about the difference on when the accrual stops (mid Jan) and when balance will be paid out - in April. Laying off people before April payout explains some of this difference (maybe all?).

Re: Microsoft to lay off 11k employees

#258

Post by zdbrandon »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #242
hirsin wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's fantastic debt though, at presumably low interest rates. A dollar in my pocket today is worth way more than a dollar in debt at 3.0% interest or less. You can't subtract debt from cash on hand and get a usable value, they're different types.

[flagged]

It's "MBA circle jerk" to understand that taking out debt at a lower rate than the ROI you use the debt for is advantageous?

Re: Microsoft to lay off 11k employees

#260

Post by yieldcrv »

mgkimsal wrote: post #34

11,000 people - let's say an average loaded cost of $250k/yr. That's... ~$3b/yr these folks cost MSFT. Granted, it's per year, but ... keeping these people on for another 3 years would cost ~$10b. MSFT currently have $100b cash on hand. It's gotta be a little... frustrating to get be part of a 5% cut when there's so much free cash sitting around. I know, it's a narrow view of corporate finance, and I don't have the '…

> frustrating to get be part of a 5% cut when there's so much free cash sitting around. I know, it's a narrow view of corporate finance, and I don't have the 'big picture', but... still doesn't sit right with me.

nobody is entitled to be an employee, the purpose of corporations isn't to print employment numbers, these observations you made should be unrelated

Post reply on HN