Meta announces 5% cuts in preparation for 'intense year' • Hacker News Board

Re: Meta announces 5% cuts in preparation for 'intense year'

#271

Post by downrightmike » Tue, Jan 14, 2025, 9:33 PM UTC

leidenfrost wrote: post #258

bee_rider wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think most people in the US are, on some practical level, actual liberals. We can’t see it in the way a fish doesn’t see water. But I think mostly people think of themselves as accepting of others (while not wanting their own freedom of association impinged on). I think a lot of political disagreement shows up where liberal principles collide, like two people’s freedom of expression bumping into each other. Then it…

If people on the US were really liberal (in the original "capitalism of the free" sense), racism wouldn't even be an issue. People wouldn't care so much about race, and your genetics would be more as a "fun fact" rather than some central piece of your identity. Also, they wouldn't care about atheists so much. Liberals may not be atheists themselves but they would be very detached from religion and "who whorships who"…

Which is why we say that we hope you get everything you voted for. Because it will back fire on you first. It always has, and it always will, not our fault you can't learn from your mistakes.

Re: Meta announces 5% cuts in preparation for 'intense year'

#272

Post by aithrowawaycomm » Tue, Jan 14, 2025, 9:34 PM UTC

blsapologist42 wrote: post #206

psunavy03 wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firing an arbitrary percentage as opposed to grading to a standard is not.

You're absolutely right. However, 5% is so low that it's hard to believe that there isn't at least that many underperoformers.

Underperforming relative to what? If they're doing their job in good faith and overall making money for the company, is it "underperforming" if they're less productive than 95% of their peers? This notion of underperformance leaves no room for adequate performance.

I am sure there are some people getting laid off who genuinely don't do any work, though not 5% of the company - and certainly not the bottom 5% according to Meta's metrics! A lot of "mid-range" performers probably get by with pure schmoozing and mooching. And in more general sense, I don't think it's okay - either morally or strategically - to lay people off simply because you want to roll the dice on hiring more productive workers. (For a company of Meta's size this doesn't even make sense; clearly this move is about cracking the whip for the remaining 95%.)

Re: Meta announces 5% cuts in preparation for 'intense year'

#273

Post by bradlys » Tue, Jan 14, 2025, 9:39 PM UTC

yodsanklai wrote: post #230

whynotmaybe wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't this quite paradoxical that those kind of companies have hard interviews where you have to almost prove that P=NP in front of 5 people that judges everything you do, yet they fire engineer because "ratio"? Could this lead to a manager that tries to have the best team for himself will always include average employees that they can easily fire?

> Isn't this quite paradoxical that those kind of companies have hard interviews where you have to almost prove that P=NP in front of 5 people that judges everything you do Interview process at Meta isn't that hard. Mostly medium leetcode questions (in front of single interviewer), not particularly tricky. With enough preparation, it's doable by any reasonably good undergrad. Google was slightly harder though. Simila…

> With enough preparation

That's quite the qualifier. I could not regularly pass these interviews when I had done 200+ LC problems. It's only when I got to 1000+ LC problems and had done hundreds of technical interviews that I was able to regularly pass a lot of these interviews. Even now, it still requires me to prepare a lot because how often am I really thinking about suffix tries? It's an arms race. It has happened in universities as well. An arms race between the professors trying to make sure a lot of students still fail their classes while every student needs a 4.0 to get an internship/job now.

It will get higher and higher as time goes on because we're mostly focused on H1B candidates who come from a similarly culture of grinding for exams. You can see this lifestyle is very normalized on the LC, 1point3acres, etc. Cheating is also seen as completely fine too. At this point, I feel like it's almost unfair to not be cheating due to how many people are. Your competition doesn't care about some sense of ethics (nor does the hiring manager - they cheated to get in too!).

I've met with multiple folks at FAANG and such where these practices of grinding + a little "magic" get you in. You talk to someone and they'll say, "oh yeah, I have like three guys I went to high school with in [country] in my house. Once one of us got accepted, it was easy for the rest of us."

Re: Meta announces 5% cuts in preparation for 'intense year'

#274

Post by mempko » Tue, Jan 14, 2025, 9:40 PM UTC

dgrin91 wrote: post #74

crowcroft wrote: post #56

This is your regular reminder that tech is essentially a fiefdom. Just because you aren't a serf doesn't mean you aren't a peasant.

Ah yes, the peasants who are free to leave at any time, get nice salaries and a nice severance at the end, plus a ton of benefits. Oh and at FB many can still WFH. Big tech has problems, but lets not exaggerate - that undermines progress.

This argument was used by southern slave holders to argue their system treated people better than the north. That their workers were treated better because they were property while the north could cast people aside and replace them once they were done with them.

Slavery is still slavery no matter how nice you arrange their conditions. Serfs are still serfs if they sit in bean bag chairs.

Re: Meta announces 5% cuts in preparation for 'intense year'

#275

Post by leidenfrost » Tue, Jan 14, 2025, 9:51 PM UTC

downrightmike wrote: post #271

leidenfrost wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If people on the US were really liberal (in the original "capitalism of the free" sense), racism wouldn't even be an issue. People wouldn't care so much about race, and your genetics would be more as a "fun fact" rather than some central piece of your identity. Also, they wouldn't care about atheists so much. Liberals may not be atheists themselves but they would be very detached from religion and "who whorships who"…

Which is why we say that we hope you get everything you voted for. Because it will back fire on you first. It always has, and it always will, not our fault you can't learn from your mistakes.

Is that a quote? I'm not American.

Re: Meta announces 5% cuts in preparation for 'intense year'

#276

Post by iLoveOncall » Tue, Jan 14, 2025, 9:51 PM UTC

sefrost wrote: post #248

iLoveOncall wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has been in progress for around a year, long before there was any indication that Trump would win the election, or even be out of jail for it.

Do you happen to know why? The other replies are all providing a narrative that it is related to the new US administration, but as you say it wasn't very clear who would win until the results were counted. So if it's been happening for a year it couldn't be related to that.

I only have second hand accounts but I've heard the Instagram CEO just hated having employees in London (/ outside of the US) and therefore started with closing Instagram positions there. Then the rest is following.

And to be clear I'm not sure a UK employee is that much cheaper than a US one. The salary is not THAT far off between the two, especially when converting from GBP to USD, and employers have a lot more social charges to pay on top of salaries in the UK and Europe.

If you add the cost of collaborating across very spread timezones, I really don't think hiring outside of the US is that much cheaper.

Re: Meta announces 5% cuts in preparation for 'intense year'

#277

Post by Perceval » Tue, Jan 14, 2025, 9:54 PM UTC

yodsanklai wrote: post #246

paxys wrote: post #217

So in the first two weeks of the year Zuck has announced: - Replacing their global policy chief with the company's highest ranking Republican. - Appointing Dana White to the company's board. - Changing content policies to be aligned with the incoming administration. - Elimination of DEI programs in hiring. - Removing tampons from men's restrooms. - Defending all this in a 3 hour Joe Rogan interview. Ranting about the…

I know Zuck wasn't super popular on HN, but until these recent events, I saw him as someone generally reasonable and pragmatic. I can understand that he had to compromise with Trump in order to protect his wealth and company. But it's clearly more than that. I wonder, does he even have values on his owns? will he reinstate the tampons if democrats win in 4 years? My guess is that he's slowing been adhering to the Tru…

I think once he started working out and getting strong, he looked less like an android and more like a human male. His politics may have shifted as a result of building muscle:

* https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S01918...

* https://hbr.org/2013/07/mens-arm-strength-affects-thei

* https://www.psypost.org/strong-men-come-across-as-more-conse...

Re: Meta announces 5% cuts in preparation for 'intense year'

#278

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jan 14, 2025, 9:55 PM UTC

paxys wrote: post #217

So in the first two weeks of the year Zuck has announced: - Replacing their global policy chief with the company's highest ranking Republican. - Appointing Dana White to the company's board. - Changing content policies to be aligned with the incoming administration. - Elimination of DEI programs in hiring. - Removing tampons from men's restrooms. - Defending all this in a 3 hour Joe Rogan interview. Ranting about the…

[deleted]

Re: Meta announces 5% cuts in preparation for 'intense year'

#279

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jan 14, 2025, 9:59 PM UTC

paxys wrote: post #217

So in the first two weeks of the year Zuck has announced: - Replacing their global policy chief with the company's highest ranking Republican. - Appointing Dana White to the company's board. - Changing content policies to be aligned with the incoming administration. - Elimination of DEI programs in hiring. - Removing tampons from men's restrooms. - Defending all this in a 3 hour Joe Rogan interview. Ranting about the…

[deleted]

Re: Meta announces 5% cuts in preparation for 'intense year'

#280

Post by kingbiz » Tue, Jan 14, 2025, 10:00 PM UTC

lacker wrote: post #73

When I was an engineering manager there, engineering leadership described performance reviews as, in a large well run engineering organization, you'll probably be firing 5-10% of your employees every year for low performance. (Well, "non regrettable attrition", which includes people who quit when they get pipped.) Lower than 5% at scale would be a red flag, not necessarily wrong, you don't want to "stack rank" with a…

So as a manager you get to fire 5% without you being affected then in turn the other 95% work harder to make you look better. Sounds like a win win. I can see why you are in favor of this insane policy.