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LinkedIn to cut 960 jobs worldwide

bbc.com

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Re: LinkedIn to cut 960 jobs worldwide

#261

Post by 0xy »

prawn wrote: post #215
habosa wrote: post #214

I find it a little disappointing how when any large company reduces staffing it always makes the news. I'm not at all saying these people at LinkedIn deserve this, I bet they're smart people and I hope they find new employment very soon. But speaking generally ... many of us have worked at or worked with big bloated companies. We all know that many of them could be improved by slimming down. But we report on it like…

I always think "Those 960 people had jobs there for a while - that's a positive". I've worked for myself the last 20 years so I'm occasionally jealous of anyone who's had even a year of stable, predictable income.

A stable job invariably means you're underpaid -- usually substantially. I might get a 10% raise at a job if I'm amazing at my job, but if I left that job for a new company I might get 30%+ more.

Re: LinkedIn to cut 960 jobs worldwide

#262

Post by TulliusCicero »

12xo wrote: post #80
TulliusCicero wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This article is so damn useful: https://danluu.com/sounds-easy/ > I can't think of a single large software company that doesn't regularly draw internet comments of the form “What do all the employees do? I could build their product myself.” Benjamin Pollack and Jeff Atwood called out people who do that with Stack Overflow. But Stack Overflow is relatively obviously lean, so the general response is something like “oh,…

To me LI is a tower of Jenga. Years of growth, mutliple acquisitions, M&A and almost no downward market pressure put them into this position of bloat. But your points are good, very very good. It take a lot of people to run a large org. But that's not always the best way...

It's certainly still possible for big companies to be bloated. Sometimes they have both necessary headcount expansion and the unnecessary kind.

Re: LinkedIn to cut 960 jobs worldwide

#263

Post by simonebrunozzi »

OkGoDoIt wrote: post #192
pmiller2 wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the "turnaround effect"?

I assume they meant “turnover”. Amazon is notorious for burning through employees quickly. And if employees quit voluntarily, the company doesn’t need to pay severance, may reclaim hiring bonus or RSU’s, and it helps them politically/reputationally in aggregate (by being able to claim low lay-off numbers). Of course then you might wind up with those other than your worst performers leaving, so it’s not great in the l…

Correct, I meant turnover. My mistake.

Re: LinkedIn to cut 960 jobs worldwide

#264

Post by 0xy »

mavelikara wrote: post #198
jiofih wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That shift usually happens around year 1-2 for every software developer.

IME, you are over estimating how quickly this happens. For me, I was well past my 10th year into the profession when this realization struck. And now, as a hiring manager, I frequently interview senior developers who are not able to explain the business goals of their software. I consider it an important part of my job to coach engineers in my org to understand the business context of their work - a benefit I got onl…

Totally anecdotal, but the second I embraced business objectives and commercial thinking is when my career exploded. 3 jobs in 2 years, and my income grew over 110% in that timeframe.

A lot of my colleagues seem to get stuck in a position of being very tech focused where JIRA tickets go in, and code comes out (and not much else goes on).

I highly recommend other developers try to sharpen their business and commercial skills, even if you don't want to be a leader. You'll be able to sell your skills and influence technical decisions way easier.

Re: LinkedIn to cut 960 jobs worldwide

#265

Post by majormajor »

habosa wrote: post #214

I find it a little disappointing how when any large company reduces staffing it always makes the news. I'm not at all saying these people at LinkedIn deserve this, I bet they're smart people and I hope they find new employment very soon. But speaking generally ... many of us have worked at or worked with big bloated companies. We all know that many of them could be improved by slimming down. But we report on it like…

I'd ask "why did they decide to try to get more efficient now"?

And here the answer is: because there's a big overall downturn.

When things are going well, we generally try to find ways to grow. Find new things for people to do if they aren't needed in their current roles. When we have to focus on trimming costs instead, it's usually due to negative factors.

Re: LinkedIn to cut 960 jobs worldwide

#266

Post by mlthoughts2018 »

habosa wrote: post #214

I find it a little disappointing how when any large company reduces staffing it always makes the news. I'm not at all saying these people at LinkedIn deserve this, I bet they're smart people and I hope they find new employment very soon. But speaking generally ... many of us have worked at or worked with big bloated companies. We all know that many of them could be improved by slimming down. But we report on it like…

I disagree pretty strongly. Rather than layoffs, most of these people could be retrained. Cutting costs of Probably most of the cuts are very political, with certain darlings being given freedom to restructure and layoff according to their whim.

I think the story that companies do this for efficiency is mostly bullshit. That’s just the excuse.

Re: LinkedIn to cut 960 jobs worldwide

#267

Post by projektfu »

habosa wrote: post #214

I find it a little disappointing how when any large company reduces staffing it always makes the news. I'm not at all saying these people at LinkedIn deserve this, I bet they're smart people and I hope they find new employment very soon. But speaking generally ... many of us have worked at or worked with big bloated companies. We all know that many of them could be improved by slimming down. But we report on it like…

If a company like LinkedIn is doing a lay-off, that’s different from business as usual. They’re supposed to be growing. When they grow they fire people along the way. But a lay-off means they have run out of work or can’t employ people profitably. This can mean:

1. LinkedIn has its own special problems. (Maybe I’ll sell and follow another company or sector).

2. The economy is in recession. (Should have gotten into bonds 3 months ago, oh well).

Companies often try to paint structural problems as competitive adjustments, but we know they rarely do real layoffs during flush times.

Re: LinkedIn to cut 960 jobs worldwide

#268

Post by projektfu »

Nextgrid wrote: post #16
LaundroMat wrote: post #4

960 is 6% of the global LinkedIn workforce. I am baffled by how many people work for LinkedIn.

I'm baffled by that number given how bad the product is. It has a lot of potential, but is completely ruined by the social media aspect and their attempt at making it yet another cesspool like Twitter or Instagram, all the way down to the algorithmic feed, likes and reactions. They should step away from the nonsense and make the tool (because yes it should be seen as a tool and not a lifestyle) easier to use, not har…

Please add your photo so creepy people can check you out and potential employers can determine if you are ugly, wrong color, wrong sex, uncool, or other discrimination.

Re: LinkedIn to cut 960 jobs worldwide

#269

Post by projektfu »

eldavido wrote: post #233
mathattack wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In this case, they make a disproportionate amount of their revenue on jobs postings and selling recruiters the right to spam us. With less jobs their revenue goes away. They don’t need as many salespeople and internal recruiters. Microsoft has historically been pretty ruthless about annual culls. It used to be in the GE mode of cutting the bottom 5-10% each year. More recently it’s more quiet. I don’t begrudge compan…

I feel like there are basically three ways to lose your job in tech. In one, the company cuts an entire business unit, or a company shuts down, or something else cataclysmic happens. This is where you have dozens/hundreds of people let go. Outside of small startups, this seems pretty rare. I think selling/divesting a failing business unit is more common than outright shutdown in tech. In the second, the employee does…

The fourth is the market is drying up and your line of management isn’t going to bat for you. Lots of reasons for this and many aren’t personal so no need to personalize it. Many companies try to let underperforming employees go for cause before starting a lay-off because they can avoid the repercussions in unemployment taxes.

Re: LinkedIn to cut 960 jobs worldwide

#270

Post by Guthur »

projektfu wrote: post #268
Nextgrid wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm baffled by that number given how bad the product is. It has a lot of potential, but is completely ruined by the social media aspect and their attempt at making it yet another cesspool like Twitter or Instagram, all the way down to the algorithmic feed, likes and reactions. They should step away from the nonsense and make the tool (because yes it should be seen as a tool and not a lifestyle) easier to use, not har…

Please add your photo so creepy people can check you out and potential employers can determine if you are ugly, wrong color, wrong sex, uncool, or other discrimination.

If you really believe it has that much impact get it photoshop'ed. Game the system if you think that you LinkedIn picture has an effect. Pick your preferred pronoun or what ever.
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