Live data from Hacker News

Facebook reportedly laying off thousands of employees

futurism.com

391–400 of 403 posts

Re: Facebook reportedly laying off thousands of employees

#391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a minor anecdote, I'm a FAANG SWE and if I was told I wouldn't be receiving a raise OR bonus this year, I'd absolutely start looking for other work. Most FAANG employees get recruiters reaching out daily, the thought of greener pastures is always on their mind.

Don't flatter yourself. We're all getting recruiters reaching out daily. They're mostly ignored because 99.999% of the time it's a lateral move - doing the same thing at a different place. Not interested. If anything, being a FAANG SWE puts you at a disadvantage for ever having stability. Financially risky startups would love to have you, but a lot of industry verticals simply won't take a look at you because they fi…

Unless you think it's flattering to have recruiters reaching out, I don't see when I was flattering myself.

Based on your understanding, if other companies perceived me as being a flight risk because I'd worked in FAANG (?) I probably wouldn't be interested in them either, so it sounds like the system's working as expected.

Re: Facebook reportedly laying off thousands of employees

#392

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm still working 20-something hours at pushing 40 precisely because that stock had been the retirement plan. I don't regret it, it was the wrong place to be at the time for me after thinking deeply on it. And people with more knowledge throwing up a caution flag when people with less knowledge go all 1-bit is a pretty core value on the site. It's not a high horse, I get out of line on here more often than I'd like,…

Well then, let us all break out our extra small violins, and play a somber tune, for the person in their late 30s who still has to work 20 hours a week.

A violin small enough to be played for me is shorter than h bar: no Silicon Valley engineer deserves anyones sympathy in a world where people are getting evicted from their homes via mortar fire. We all have it way too fucking good.

It’s more like 80-100 hours a week, which would put a strain on anybody: but I made my decisions and I’m living with them. I didn’t bring up the details in some lane bud for pity: I brought them up to establish my credentials on knowing my ass from my elbow on what happens at FB, which I do and most on HN don’t.

Re: Facebook reportedly laying off thousands of employees

#393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It could also mean creating an inhospitable environment for work, like demotion, allocating drudge work, removing responsibilities, etc. Right - it's actually far worse than outright firing or laying off people. As in, genuinely harmful to people from a psychological (and hence physical) point of view. All so the company can save a few dollars, and hit certain quarterly targets a bit sooner. That's why there's a name…

Being psychologically stressed out at work is not in and of itself hostile work environment. Read the US law section in the link you posted. The employee actions have to violate preestablished rights or part of thr employee's contract. Not merely ramping up work expectations and duties to keep your job.

There's a difference between "being" stressed out -- and your employer taking specific actions to make you stressed out so that you quit.

Ramping up work expectations

With the specific intent of causing the employee to quit, you meant to say. This in fact fits precisely with the language of the California Supreme Court in the section you referred to.

Re: Facebook reportedly laying off thousands of employees

#394
post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not parent but can confirm vpc dataplane team is pretty good. Wouldn't want to work on control plane stuff though.

Maybe things changed in the last 3-6 months? But from what I have gathered, from people just talking in slack channels, Blind, and friends who work there, is not good at all. People have received emails from L4s having nervous breakdowns after being bullied by managers and peers. If you want , you can search your mailbox.

I haven't seen any such email. It definitely can be a lot of work at times, esp around re:invent, and I'm sure there are those with bad experience.

I'm just saying, it's worth giving a shot. You might like it. If you don't, switch orgs/teams. You can switch just a couple months after joining if it doesn't work out for you. I switched from my last org quite quickly cause while I had good work life balance, the work was just so boring.

Re: Facebook reportedly laying off thousands of employees

#395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Name one new product that Facebook built from scratch (did not acquire), launched, and made a sustained success of since their original social network. The company cannot innovate and has bet the farm on their ability to innovate. I’ve said it before: Facebook should monetise WhatsApp via payments (real payments, not crypto) and other services. That’s something within their capability and very much within their reach…

> Name one new product that Facebook built from scratch (did not acquire), launched, and made a sustained success of since their original social network. Marketplace?

Yeah maybe I should have said “ideated and created from scratch” as directly cloning other products or features is something they’ve done a lot.

Re: Facebook reportedly laying off thousands of employees

#396
post #213
post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Adobe, on the other hand, with its ~26k headcount is juggling an astonishing range of products and services it seems.

Adobe's the most forgotten and ignored tech company that actually makes staple software products and services, I think. No matter how much people hate their price gouging :-)

Some call it price gouging and some call it a subscription to professional software that's constantly under significant development. Other professional tools in adjacent industries cost a LOT MORE. Nuke Studio, for example, costs 4k/quarter.

Sure Adobe should focus more on old usability issues in lieu of new features and many of their programs have such broad userbases that they couldn't possibly focus equally on everything their users want them to focus on, but when it comes down to it, people are mad because it's something they want, but not enough to pay for. Looking at their uservoice forums for 5 minutes dispenses with the notion that they're just giving these apps the bare minimum amount of work and using them as cash cows.

There are cheaper or FOSS alternatives that suit most non-professional's needs but if you want Adobe's professional tools and have those tools keep up with our ever changing technical landscape, that costs money. I professionally use Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premier Pro, After Effects, Audition, Acrobat, Lightroom Classic and XD, so the CC subscription is an absolute bargain.

Re: Facebook reportedly laying off thousands of employees

#397

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe things changed in the last 3-6 months? But from what I have gathered, from people just talking in slack channels, Blind, and friends who work there, is not good at all. People have received emails from L4s having nervous breakdowns after being bullied by managers and peers. If you want , you can search your mailbox.

I haven't seen any such email. It definitely can be a lot of work at times, esp around re:invent, and I'm sure there are those with bad experience. I'm just saying, it's worth giving a shot. You might like it. If you don't, switch orgs/teams. You can switch just a couple months after joining if it doesn't work out for you. I switched from my last org quite quickly cause while I had good work life balance, the work wa…

The thing is , if you are on a visa the "you might as well give it a chance" doesn't work, does it? Because those people are usually the ones exploited by their managers, as they have leverage over them (when you are on a visa and get laid off , you only have 60 days to find another company that is willing to sponsor your visa). You are ignoring the pressure and mental burden that L4s on visas go through with unfair pivot processes, etc. I'm glad you liked your time there, but if you dive deeper, and ask around, you will see how many of these people are having a hard time.

Re: Facebook reportedly laying off thousands of employees

#398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And the app doesn't look like it changed that much... You didn't intend it, but that is a complement of the highest order. Thanks! Those who've worked on large systems over many years will understand what I mean.

I can see what you're getting at here but in this case, a lack of changes is NOT desired or virtuous. WA is being left in the dust by messaging platforms that actually care about shipping a quality product.

Oh hell no. I'm glad that Whatsapp is being mostly left alone, or at least that's what I see as a user. They ship some improvements and extraneous stuff (Whatsapp Status) from time to time, but the core of the app stays as it is.

Most people don't look forward to every time their app is redesigned starting from the icon up. It mostly doesn't get better, it gets worse to satisfy a Product Manager's CV checkbox.

Re: Facebook reportedly laying off thousands of employees

#399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here. I’m always shocked when I meet someone that doesn’t use WhatsApp

I'm always surprised when I meet someone who does. None of my friends (+their family) or my family have ever used it. Nobody I hang out with will even say they have whatsapp. Maybe it's because we're "desktop people", which doesn't explain the lack of participation by someone like my wife. She uses her phone almost exclusively. shrug

US vs ROTW

Re: Facebook reportedly laying off thousands of employees

#400
post #214
post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know it's grown since the acquisition, but how many people were involved in developing and running the service pre-Facebook?

Do you think a large entreprise that actually needs to follow legislation in 100+ countries can work the same way a startup can, though?

Do you think it grew as significantly as it's employees did? Whatsapp was already huge beyond measure when they bought it.
Post reply on HN