Ask HN: 20% of LinkedIn's recent layoffs were managers • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: 20% of LinkedIn's recent layoffs were managers

#261

Post by datadrivenangel » Tue, Oct 17, 2023, 4:10 PM UTC

nostrademons wrote: post #194

myself248 wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously. The most effective teams I've ever worked in, had 3-5 people under a manager. The manager occasionally got their hands dirty when they could spare the time, but in general, "getting every roadblock out of 5 people's way" is a lot of work, and combined with all the non-delegatable stuff, would keep them pretty busy. When a team grows much beyond that, the manager is no longer removing all the roadblocks. Th…

Was thinking about this in mathematical terms recently, in terms of what's efficient vs. what can scale . In general, managers can't do things for reports that don't scale fairly across their whole team, because otherwise it'll give the appearance of favoritism for those reports who get favors and demotivate the rest. So to a first approximation, a manager with N reports can devote at most 1/N of their time to making…

The goal of a manager ought to be to maximize the effectiveness of a team, which does not directly mean fully utilizing time, especially in a software development context.

Often some slack in a team results in the team as a whole being more effective.

Re: Ask HN: 20% of LinkedIn's recent layoffs were managers

#262

Post by djohnston » Tue, Oct 17, 2023, 4:10 PM UTC

baby wrote: post #257

djohnston wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can say confidently that <5% of my time as an EM has anything to do with HR.

That still doesn’t answer the question

Conflict resolution, planning, escalations, engineering work, performance evaluations, morale, career growth. I'd say most of the work I deal with is managing escalations from senior ICs of varying technical and organisational natures.

Re: Ask HN: 20% of LinkedIn's recent layoffs were managers

#263

Post by Fatnino » Tue, Oct 17, 2023, 4:56 PM UTC

SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #130

gruez wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>LI has a distinctive lack of chill right now contrary to the company image I don't get it. Did linkedin have an image of being a chill place to work?

I used to work for Large Tech Company and I would pretty frequently fly out to San Francisco Suburb for work. One of the more interesting time periods of that phase was when the office building I worked at for Large Tech Company was across the parking lot from LinkedIn in San Francisco Suburb . We frequently played a largesse game of hangman with the LinkedIn employees drawn on the windows across our parking lot. Lin…

I don't think linedin has those office buildings anymore. They did a land swap with Large Tech Company for some buildings Large Tech Company owned elsewhere.

Re: Ask HN: 20% of LinkedIn's recent layoffs were managers

#264

Post by Fatnino » Tue, Oct 17, 2023, 4:58 PM UTC

baq wrote: post #231

kchandra wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, absolutely. I worked there about 7-8 years ago and at the time it was considered a "retirement home" in Silicon Valley.

I heard "adult daycare" also

That's what Google was

Re: Ask HN: 20% of LinkedIn's recent layoffs were managers

#265

Post by tiznow » Tue, Oct 17, 2023, 5:24 PM UTC

arein2 wrote: post #192

hnaccount_rng wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or, you know, the people dealing with the advertisers ("partners") are gone and no money is coming in. But sure the servers are still running ;)

no idea why you need a dedicated person for dealing with the advertisers. it seemed to be just pressure from adl to scare the advertisers away, or otherwise adl will generate controversy a very slimy and backwards model

because advertising and marketing are still very much industries where your "face card" matters and where companies will spend millions of dollars elsewhere if Chet from Advertising gets laid off.

Re: Ask HN: 20% of LinkedIn's recent layoffs were managers

#266

Post by doc_gunthrop » Tue, Oct 17, 2023, 5:43 PM UTC

dna_polymerase wrote: post #129

jwond wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am reminded of this video of a young woman showing a "day in the life" of a LinkedIn employee https://youtu.be/X5TZVhKDwpk

There were a lot of videos in this style from the twitter people. Turns out they run fine on 20 % remaining workforce.

Pareto principle in full effect

Re: Ask HN: 20% of LinkedIn's recent layoffs were managers

#267

Post by water-your-self » Tue, Oct 17, 2023, 6:53 PM UTC

Fatnino wrote: post #263

SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to work for Large Tech Company and I would pretty frequently fly out to San Francisco Suburb for work. One of the more interesting time periods of that phase was when the office building I worked at for Large Tech Company was across the parking lot from LinkedIn in San Francisco Suburb . We frequently played a largesse game of hangman with the LinkedIn employees drawn on the windows across our parking lot. Lin…

I don't think linedin has those office buildings anymore. They did a land swap with Large Tech Company for some buildings Large Tech Company owned elsewhere.

There is no point in protecting your employer

Re: Ask HN: 20% of LinkedIn's recent layoffs were managers

#268

Post by alephnerd » Tue, Oct 17, 2023, 6:55 PM UTC

outsomnia wrote: post #214

alephnerd wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A good engineering manager is worth their weight in gold. Sadly, a good engineering manager is hard to find.

That may be related to the fact they are not paid their weight in gold.

We try, but Compensation Committees tie our hands (99% of the time it's for good reasons, but it's not fluid enough to help that 1% outlier you REALLY NEED).

Re: Ask HN: 20% of LinkedIn's recent layoffs were managers

#269

Post by Fatnino » Tue, Oct 17, 2023, 7:12 PM UTC

water-your-self wrote: post #267

Fatnino wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think linedin has those office buildings anymore. They did a land swap with Large Tech Company for some buildings Large Tech Company owned elsewhere.

There is no point in protecting your employer

I was just keeping the joke rolling.

I don't work for Google or anyone else on Stierlin Ct.

Re: Ask HN: 20% of LinkedIn's recent layoffs were managers

#270

Post by robertlagrant » Tue, Oct 17, 2023, 7:42 PM UTC

quadrifoliate wrote: post #80

killjoywashere wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> India Ok, so, I have a friend who works big tech and he has no chill for Indians (SWEs, PMs, etc). Is there a grain of truth to the “lazy Indian” trope? I always assumed, especially first generation immigrants, would be working balls-to-the-wall. Am I wrong? Is there some sort of incentive misalignment in the H1B program? Is it cultural (e.g. like “island time”, which I’ve learned is at least partially attributable…

> Ok, so, I have a friend who works big tech and he has no chill for Indians (SWEs, PMs, etc). Is there a grain of truth to the “lazy Indian” trope? Indian here. First generation, naturalized American, et cetera. I'll be honest and say that my initial response was, “Ugh! Your friend is a big old racist”. Moving on from that reflexive thought, I'll attempt to answer your question of: > I’m asking is there a perceptual…

> The H1B program is terrible in that it ties your immigration status to your current employer

I thought it was a temporary working visa more than a route to immigration? I understand the temptation to go for it (I did something not entirely dissimilar working in another country for a few years under temporary visas) but not the mindset that doesn't take into account the reality of the arrangement, which is well known up front.