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Google to reduce workforce by 12k

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Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#371

Post by tryagainynot »

jstx1 wrote: post #278
ergonaught wrote: post #234

I need to see these "I take full responsibility" people actually punished. At the very least, this sentence needs to be removed from their mouths. Alphabet had 116 billion USD "cash on hand" at the end of September 2022. Even if the full cost of each of those 12K employees is 500K per year, that's "only" 6 billion dollars to keep those "great" people that they "love" working with around. Net income for that quarter w…

> I need to see these "I take full responsibility" people actually punished. At the very least, this sentence needs to be removed from their mouths. There's some infantile obsession with this phrase in every layoff thread. "I take full responsibility" is partly a polite way to say that they aren't blaming anyone else for what's happening, it partly means "I'm the one making this decision" and it's partly ceremony for…

You're right, what they should say is, "Mea culpa! You just lost your house, your family will have to uproot its life, your credit rating is about to be ruined and we booted your ass out in the worst tech job market in a decade.

The good news is I can still afford two buy a new private G40 this year! Wahoo!"

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#372

Post by [deleted] »

netheril96 wrote: post #266
jensensbutton wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> diversity programs... Not even remotely comparable to the other things you listed. People such as yourself seemingly can't stop talking about it though, despite it having no effect on your life.

> despite it having no effect on your life. How could it have no effect on our lives? It has effect when you compete against a diversity hire, it has effect when you have to work with a diversity hire, it has effect when your manager has to decide who to lay off when your coworker is a diversity hire.

[deleted]

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#373

Post by bayindirh »

MonkeyClub wrote: post #92
eCa wrote: post #51

I guess someone has to write this comment: > I take full responsibility for the decisions that led us here As usual, he says nothing more what the consequences for him are. It seems like all of the FAANGs have made severe strategic cockups when it comes to hiring lately. I wonder if it will affect their longterm attraction as employers.

> It seems like all of the FAANGs have made severe strategic cockups I’m becoming more and more convinced that they’re preparing for a global recession. I posed such an Ask HN a while ago, before the Microsoft layoffs, where the general takeaway was that there’s no indication for a recession. However, after the 10+12K layoffs by the giants, and constant news about smaller layoffs by smaller companies (in the 100s per…

The biggest companies have some very strong analysis departments which warn them about these kinds of possible scenarios (recession, etc.), and the companies act with this information.

There were already signs of a global economic recession elsewhere (Asia, Europe to a lesser extent), with different signs (food and energy prices, even before the war). So the companies started to take defensive action before the downturn became visible on their side of the pond.

Now it's looming at the horizon, not like the dotcom bubble or the previous recession(s). I guess it'll be slower, hence it'll be longer and will cut slow and deep.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#374

Post by RGamma »

ergonaught wrote: post #234

I need to see these "I take full responsibility" people actually punished. At the very least, this sentence needs to be removed from their mouths. Alphabet had 116 billion USD "cash on hand" at the end of September 2022. Even if the full cost of each of those 12K employees is 500K per year, that's "only" 6 billion dollars to keep those "great" people that they "love" working with around. Net income for that quarter w…

Neoliberalism is a hell of a drug. Well put.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#375

Post by tryagainynot »

NewEntryHN wrote: post #285
ergonaught wrote: post #234

I need to see these "I take full responsibility" people actually punished. At the very least, this sentence needs to be removed from their mouths. Alphabet had 116 billion USD "cash on hand" at the end of September 2022. Even if the full cost of each of those 12K employees is 500K per year, that's "only" 6 billion dollars to keep those "great" people that they "love" working with around. Net income for that quarter w…

It's not a charity you know. If they fire those many people, it's because they're confident they can go on without them. There are countries in which the law is more protective of employees, and you can't fire them unless you have serious economic reasons, which is a good thing. But in a country like the US where this isn't the case, I wouldn't shift the moral responsibility to the company itself. Its goal is to make…

Cash Rules Everything Around Me

This is why I advise people to steal as much from their employers as possible. Last time I got laid off I stole 3 laptops, two company phones, and leaked some very embarrassing e-mails.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#376

Post by andyjohnson0 »

jstx1 wrote: post #278
ergonaught wrote: post #234

I need to see these "I take full responsibility" people actually punished. At the very least, this sentence needs to be removed from their mouths. Alphabet had 116 billion USD "cash on hand" at the end of September 2022. Even if the full cost of each of those 12K employees is 500K per year, that's "only" 6 billion dollars to keep those "great" people that they "love" working with around. Net income for that quarter w…

> I need to see these "I take full responsibility" people actually punished. At the very least, this sentence needs to be removed from their mouths. There's some infantile obsession with this phrase in every layoff thread. "I take full responsibility" is partly a polite way to say that they aren't blaming anyone else for what's happening, it partly means "I'm the one making this decision" and it's partly ceremony for…

> perfectly normal language for the situation and it's understandable to anyone who has developed the skill of not taking every word literally.

I think that depends on how you view the situation. If you see it as twelve thousand people have just had their personal and financial circumstances very significantly disrupted, then this choice of language is very much not normal. I suspect that most normal people would be of the view that taking personal responsibility for such a damaging act would normally be accompanied by actually demonstrating some personal contrition, or accepting a sanction of some kind. I don't think that this pov is infantile or indignant.

If you see it as an exercise in cost reduction then I guess the way it is expressed is pretty normal - but only because abstracting-out the human consequences of such business decisions has been intentionally normalised by corporations.

I suspect what Pichai is really saying here is that he accepts responsibility for the hiring decision because he is taking credit for the firing decision. It's as simple as that. For him, at least.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#377

Post by Mikeb85 »

You can blame companies all you want but it was governments who said the new normal was here to stay.

And then it was they who backtracked when they realised just what kind of social chaos they'd unleashed...

Companies only followed what was happening and statements by government officials.

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#378

Post by nness »

Aeolun wrote: post #76

I swear all these companies are just using the fact that everyone else is firing as an excuse to get rid of such a large part of their workforce.

Yes, my suspicion is that most were forced into that position by macro economic trends, i.e. Facebook and smaller start-ups. Where as Google's delay in announcing this helped distance themselves from being lumped into the financial woes/overvaluation concerns of "the tech industry."

That said, I thought they'd at least wait until Q2/Q3, but that's a whole quarter of money to save...

Re: Google to reduce workforce by 12k

#379

Post by kris_wayton »

roncesvalles wrote: post #316
ergonaught wrote: post #234

I need to see these "I take full responsibility" people actually punished. At the very least, this sentence needs to be removed from their mouths. Alphabet had 116 billion USD "cash on hand" at the end of September 2022. Even if the full cost of each of those 12K employees is 500K per year, that's "only" 6 billion dollars to keep those "great" people that they "love" working with around. Net income for that quarter w…

Layoffs are not about saving money. It's all theatre to appease the powers that be. "What explains why so many companies are laying large numbers of their workforce off? The answer is simple: copycat behavior."[1] [1] https://news.stanford.edu/2022/12/05/explains-recent-tech-la...

I think there's also some amount of "Other companies are laying off, and we secretly kind of like the idea of ranking and yanking, even if we don't need layoffs. So we'll use that already socialized economically driven layoff thing as cover."
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