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Mark Zuckerberg explains why so many tech companies are doing layoffs

businessinsider.com

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Re: Mark Zuckerberg explains why so many tech companies are doing layoffs

#31

Post by akmarinov »

hiddencost wrote: post #20

Okay. I hate management more than your average person, but actually I think there's some truth here. There's a certain organization size at which coordination costs dwarf everything else. Suppose the following toy model: New Engineer is the Nth employee. They add Value of 2, and coordination costs of N^.06. There will come a point (around 100k employees) where each additional employee reduces productivity. Better to…

Didn’t Microsoft disprove that practically with all their divisions warring amongst themselves to the point it cost them the mobile trend?

Re: Mark Zuckerberg explains why so many tech companies are doing layoffs

#32

Post by ignoramous »

selfmodruntime wrote: post #21

In my (unpopular) opinion and experience, companies are realizing that workshop / course trained employees who were after tech industry salaries as well as middle management types can be largely trimmed off after post-pandemic growth. I guess you don‘t need as many unmotivated employees / management / DEI types as previously thought. All of my friends who feel real love for their work and live and breathe tech are st…

> I guess you don't need as many unmotivated employees / management / DEI types as previously thought. All of my friends who feel real love for their work and live and breathe tech are still employed or have no problem finding employment.

  In my circles, those who get offers and those who are still employed are artisans par excellence, of course. No exceptions. Luck and circumstances have nothing to do with it. Others must really be shit or DEI.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg explains why so many tech companies are doing layoffs

#33

Post by sitkack »

blitzar wrote: post #25
BMc2020 wrote: post #2

Zuckerberg said that companies are no longer shrinking their employee size simply because of overhiring — they're now realizing there can be benefits to being leaner. While a lot of tech companies were reluctant to make cuts at first, they realized it didn't spell the end, Zuckerberg said. Translation: They all saw Twitter cut 80% of its staff and yet is still online.

They all saw Twitter cut 80% of its staff and go from making money to losing money and their market cap slash by 50+%. If they saw that and thought they "we should do that too", they are idiots.

Being in business is about power and control, the money is a byproduct and a tool. The feds cut off funding and told the business world to sacrifice as much canon fodder as possible. “Leadership” loves cuts. They feel bold and dramatic, leaderly.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg explains why so many tech companies are doing layoffs

#34

Post by throw310822 »

blitzar wrote: post #25
BMc2020 wrote: post #2

Zuckerberg said that companies are no longer shrinking their employee size simply because of overhiring — they're now realizing there can be benefits to being leaner. While a lot of tech companies were reluctant to make cuts at first, they realized it didn't spell the end, Zuckerberg said. Translation: They all saw Twitter cut 80% of its staff and yet is still online.

They all saw Twitter cut 80% of its staff and go from making money to losing money and their market cap slash by 50+%. If they saw that and thought they "we should do that too", they are idiots.

Twitter losing money is a political decision by advertisers. I don't mean this is a negative way- it might be perfectly legitimate- but it still has nothing to do with the technical viability of the service.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg explains why so many tech companies are doing layoffs

#35

Post by catchnear4321 »

ignoramous wrote: post #6
BMc2020 wrote: post #2

Zuckerberg said that companies are no longer shrinking their employee size simply because of overhiring — they're now realizing there can be benefits to being leaner. While a lot of tech companies were reluctant to make cuts at first, they realized it didn't spell the end, Zuckerberg said. Translation: They all saw Twitter cut 80% of its staff and yet is still online.

For executives at companies with higher job security than God, they must spin laying off "talented people we care about" in some positive light like "year of efficiency". So, I wouldn't read too much into whatever they say really is the main driver for these cuts.

you don’t need to read anything into it. the intended outcome of an increase in efficiency is an increase in money. efficiency is a polite way to say “more money for me.”

the main driver is “more money for me,” meaning more money for zuck, more money for shareholders, more money for the employees that remain.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg explains why so many tech companies are doing layoffs

#36

Post by throw310822 »

hiddencost wrote: post #20

Okay. I hate management more than your average person, but actually I think there's some truth here. There's a certain organization size at which coordination costs dwarf everything else. Suppose the following toy model: New Engineer is the Nth employee. They add Value of 2, and coordination costs of N^.06. There will come a point (around 100k employees) where each additional employee reduces productivity. Better to…

More than this- people you employ will generate work for themselves. In the process, they will probably also generate work for everyone else, diminishing the total capacity of the company (and possibly, in turn, requiring even more hires).

Re: Mark Zuckerberg explains why so many tech companies are doing layoffs

#37

Post by croes »

Brigand wrote: post #30
croes wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If so, they missed the part of Twitter losing two thirds of its value.

It is not publicly traded, value estimates are more like political statements now. To the owner, getting running cost down may have made twitter long term viable.

>getting running cost down may have made twitter long term viable.

That may have worked, but Musk limited the reach of tweets by only allowing logged-in users to see the entire thread and comments.

Not to mention insulting advertisers.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg explains why so many tech companies are doing layoffs

#38

Post by greatgib »

Zanfa wrote: post #7
BMc2020 wrote: post #2

Zuckerberg said that companies are no longer shrinking their employee size simply because of overhiring — they're now realizing there can be benefits to being leaner. While a lot of tech companies were reluctant to make cuts at first, they realized it didn't spell the end, Zuckerberg said. Translation: They all saw Twitter cut 80% of its staff and yet is still online.

> Translation: They all saw Twitter cut 80% of its staff and yet is still online. Is it though? Any time there's a Twitter link, clicking on it has at least a 1/3 chance of seeing "Something went wrong. Try again?".

There are so many bugs now but we live with it as it is free.

Also, most of the time, video will not play if you open the post directly. The play button will have no effect.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg explains why so many tech companies are doing layoffs

#39

Post by yakito »

I'm a co-founder of a small startup, and my co-founder keeps telling me that we need to hire more people because (beyond helping with the company's tasks) "the more employees you have, the more valuable the company is" (in the eyes of investors).

I never believed that was the case, am I wrong?

Which is more valuable: a company with a thousand employees that generates 100 million in profit, or a company with 5 employees that generates the same amount? Beyond the question, I understand it's very simplistic and that the value of a company goes far beyond the number of employees, but I'd like to understand how investors view employees.

Re: Mark Zuckerberg explains why so many tech companies are doing layoffs

#40

Post by karlgkk »

Pmop wrote: post #9
Zanfa wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Translation: They all saw Twitter cut 80% of its staff and yet is still online. Is it though? Any time there's a Twitter link, clicking on it has at least a 1/3 chance of seeing "Something went wrong. Try again?".

Twitter as a non critical application can afford to malfunction for a couple of minutes or maybe hours even. I think they're not understaffed, for now. They're delivering new features and fixing most bugs. A understaffed engineering team usually struggles with that.

One of the orgs that Elon cut the hardest was the trust and safety and spam team. He had strong condemnation for their "suppression" of "free speech".

Maybe he had a point. Maybe he didn't. But what is clear is that spam and fraudulent traffic on Twitter has exploded in the past year, to the point where it's causing serious problems.

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