Uber lays off 435 people • Hacker News Board

Re: Uber lays off 435 people

#31

Post by paxys » Tue, Sep 10, 2019, 7:06 PM UTC

dvt wrote: post #20

Uber was actively poaching from our team when I was at Edmunds.com a few years ago; hope my ex-teammates that jumped ship are doing alright. Uber is in a precarious position and I can't help but wonder what would be different if Travis Kalanick were still in charge. I know it might be an unpopular opinion, but I think his leadership and vision were really instrumental to Uber's early success.

Unless Travis could have pulled off a miracle with self driving cars, Uber would be in exactly the same place it is today. If anything the company is executing better than it did under his leadership. It just cannot win the battle against basic economics, which everyone saw coming.

Re: Uber lays off 435 people

#32

Post by SilasX » Tue, Sep 10, 2019, 7:07 PM UTC

Is this the same as the 400 from a month ago, or a new batch?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20558490

Edit: Guess not, that initial group was just marketing. From the article:

>These layoffs come shortly after Uber laid off 400 people from its marketing team.

Re: Uber lays off 435 people

#33

Post by paxys » Tue, Sep 10, 2019, 7:07 PM UTC

tempsy wrote: post #5

ssully wrote: post #2

Related, but Uber is said to be hiring 2,00 for it's new Chicago office next year [1]. A mix of engineering and operations. My understanding this would be under their freight team, which according to this Techcrunch article, was unaffected by this layoff. [1]: https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-uber-hiring-o...

Unless there was a performance issue then why not allow these employees to transfer if they want to?

Maybe they did? If you are an engineer in San Francisco, switching companies is trivial compared to relocating your life across the country to a place where you may not want to live.

Re: Uber lays off 435 people

#34

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Sep 10, 2019, 7:07 PM UTC

dvt wrote: post #28

paulddraper wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I know it might be an unpopular opinion, but I think his leadership and vision were really instrumental to Uber's early success. I don't think that's an unpopular opinion at all. Never heard someone say otherwise. EDIT: From the the downvotes I can tell I am wrong. Please help educate me: Honest question: Who or what was "really instrumental to Uber's early success"?

From my experience, singing Travis Kalanick's praises (at least on HN) has generally been met with resistance. I remember everyone piling on him about that (what I thought was a relatively innocuous) company retreat memo a few years ago.

[deleted]

Re: Uber lays off 435 people

#35

Post by TylerE » Tue, Sep 10, 2019, 7:08 PM UTC

notTyler wrote: post #19

I've always wondered if uber were to abandon their ongoing development efforts and focus on support and maintenance, would they would actually be profitable? It seems to me they would need a fraction of the tech workers they currently support.

No. Their quarterly losses are more than double their entire R&D spend.

Re: Uber lays off 435 people

#36

Post by MegaButts » Tue, Sep 10, 2019, 7:08 PM UTC

dvt wrote: post #28

paulddraper wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I know it might be an unpopular opinion, but I think his leadership and vision were really instrumental to Uber's early success. I don't think that's an unpopular opinion at all. Never heard someone say otherwise. EDIT: From the the downvotes I can tell I am wrong. Please help educate me: Honest question: Who or what was "really instrumental to Uber's early success"?

From my experience, singing Travis Kalanick's praises (at least on HN) has generally been met with resistance. I remember everyone piling on him about that (what I thought was a relatively innocuous) company retreat memo a few years ago.

There's a big difference between admiring Kalanick as a person, and admitting he created the über startup. (I think) most people on HN realize that questionable ethics are strongly correlated with success.

Re: Uber lays off 435 people

#37

Post by bduerst » Tue, Sep 10, 2019, 7:09 PM UTC

rubicon33 wrote: post #8

There's definitely a tightening of capital happening right now. Investors are pulling back as fear of recession grows. EDIT: Did I say I believe there's a recession coming? No. I said (accurately) that there are growing FEARS of one. There's definitely tightening of investments and capital happening.

Uber laying off several hundred people is not a signal for a market recession. How is your comment relevant?

Re: Uber lays off 435 people

#38

Post by AgloeDreams » Tue, Sep 10, 2019, 7:11 PM UTC

dvt wrote: post #20

Uber was actively poaching from our team when I was at Edmunds.com a few years ago; hope my ex-teammates that jumped ship are doing alright. Uber is in a precarious position and I can't help but wonder what would be different if Travis Kalanick were still in charge. I know it might be an unpopular opinion, but I think his leadership and vision were really instrumental to Uber's early success.

I mean resistance to his ideals and methods are based on his relative carelessness towards anything but his and the company's goals.

Incredible leader, amazing CEO with the raw ability to move mountains for the company's growth.

Remarkably bad at human and helping humankind.

If burning the Amazon rainforest helped Uber's goals he would have it torched in the most efficient and rapid method possible by morning light. Perfect CEO for the shareholders and maybe for keeping the lights on, not so much for the rest of us.

Re: Uber lays off 435 people

#39

Post by wutbrodo » Tue, Sep 10, 2019, 7:12 PM UTC

choppaface wrote: post #29

Google is pretty well-known for maintaining a very deep bench-- if an engineer isn't effective in some role, they'll just move them to some other team. Heck, a lot of hires (especially 3rd/last attempt) go directly to the bench. This strategy pays off well when a new competitor (like Facebook or Uber) comes along and snatches up people in the lead roles, or if the company feels the need to pivot to something really f…

Im not sure how much one can extrapolate from this. Google also has the massive scale, in terms of both headcount and profit, to smooth out things like this and hold onto talent for the longterm. As huge and well-capitalized as Uber is, Google really is on another level.

Re: Uber lays off 435 people

#40

Post by txsoftwaredev » Tue, Sep 10, 2019, 7:13 PM UTC

Uber is also planning to open an office for 3k employees in Dallas.

"...create 3,000 full-time jobs and pay employees an average salary of at least $100,000..."

Considering the lower cost to operate in TX it would make sense to move IT roles to that area.

https://www.dallasnews.com/business/technology/2019/08/09/ub...