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Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices

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Re: Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices

#41

Post by WWLink »

boolcow wrote: post #30
asciident wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with equating ethical with generous. Basically it turns ethics into money, with the idea you can buy ethicalness.

Yeah, not sure why you would equate those two. Providing a former spouse with alimony money is not generosity. Neither is providing a former employee with severance money generosity. In both cases, the ethics are incredibly obvious. The fact that alimony is required and severance is not is simply a matter of a corrupt (US) political system. This system leaves it to individual CEOs to act ethically (or not) and the pu…

A lot of companies don't have a public image because nobody knows or cares what they do. So they have nothing to fear from a few bad glassdoor reviews.

Re: Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices

#42

Post by ra7 »

theredbox wrote: post #40
vishnugupta wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My educated guess is India. They have a reasonably big development center in Bangalore and Hyderabad, besides operating rides business there.

This must feel really bad. 200k engineers replaced by 30k indians.

Where did you get those numbers? And how did you conclude engineers worldwide are being "replaced by" Indians from a statement which says they're moving APAC hub from Singapore?

Re: Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices

#44

Post by draw_down »

tuyguntn wrote: post #7

Anyone working at Uber, can you share how is morale in Uber at this moment? How might this affect hiring in the future when they need more people, but people don't want to go there? Honestly, in the beginning of 2020, I was too optimistic and planning to apply to Uber around June, thinking that corona will go away

It's a lot easier to find such things on Blind, FWIW

Re: Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices

#45

Post by rwc »

spyspy wrote: post #31
nulptr wrote: post #29

Can someone explain why Uber stock is up 7% today then? Is it because Uber's expenditure will decrease because of the layoffs?

The entire market is up on Powell’s positive remarks on the economy’s recovery.

And the Moderna vaccine progress announcement this morning

Re: Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices

#46

Post by nostrademons »

setgree wrote: post #28
ganstyles wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Geez, this is incredibly callous. These are real people who are losing their livelihoods.

It's gauche to say it on the day a bunch of people lost their jobs (and there's no need for the schadenfraude) but I think the underlying point is sane. Uber's business model is replacing FTEs in a a hidebound, regulated industry with gig workers (& good UX!). If you were forecasting how this company in particular would deal with a downturn, it's a reasonable guess that they'll try to do the same thing to their own w…

The reason why software companies don't generally hire contract software developers rather than bringing them on as FTEs is that they're less effective. Software development is a high-communication, high-trust activity; it's very helpful to be able to explicitly direct and manage the activities of your workforce, because otherwise they don't produce anything useful. For specific tasks that don't need to be high-trust and high-communication (eg. writing an iOS app for a non-critical part of the business that uses a public API), companies are already inclined to hire contractors.

The bigger risk with getting a job at Uber is "will they be in business in 2 years?" Tech company success tends to be binary: either you're growing and on top of the world, or you'll be out of business in a couple years. Just ask DEC, Symbolics, SGI, Sun, Yahoo, AOL, Netscape, etc.

Re: Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices

#47

Post by rantwasp »

saisundar wrote: post #43

I am wondering why there are two separate rounds of layoffs. Isn't it better for morale to just have the band aid ripped quick, once and for all? What context does Uber have now, that they did not when the initial layoff wave happened?

uber never seemed like a rational company that thinks of the good of its employees (i know it’s a business, but still).

the cut deep, cut once method for layoffs is doing business 101, but still there are 2 rounds of layoffs at uber

Re: Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices

#48

Post by theredbox »

ra7 wrote: post #42
theredbox wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This must feel really bad. 200k engineers replaced by 30k indians.

Where did you get those numbers? And how did you conclude engineers worldwide are being "replaced by" Indians from a statement which says they're moving APAC hub from Singapore?

I am replying to a comment that is speculating they are going for India.

Re: Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices

#49

Post by sbuccini »

saisundar wrote: post #43

I am wondering why there are two separate rounds of layoffs. Isn't it better for morale to just have the band aid ripped quick, once and for all? What context does Uber have now, that they did not when the initial layoff wave happened?

As I understand it, the first was for comms, operations, and support roles. This layoff was more product-related (so engineering, design, and product roles) and required more thought around how they were going to position themselves strategically going forward.

Re: Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices

#50

Post by macksd »

nulptr wrote: post #29

Can someone explain why Uber stock is up 7% today then? Is it because Uber's expenditure will decrease because of the layoffs?

It's not unusual for stocks to go up on layoffs, but as others have commented there isn't always a simple explanation either. But it wasn't a secret that Uber was going to be getting hit hard by quarantine - it would probably already be priced into the stock by the point. The news today is that Uber's leadership is recognizing that and aggressively taking action to protect the bottom line - sucks in the short-term for employees, especially those directly affected, but that's great news for investors.
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