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ASML staffing changes could result in a net reduction of around 1700 positions

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Re: ASML staffing changes could result in a net reduction of around 1700 positions

#41

Post by skrebbel »

renewiltord wrote: post #27
skrebbel wrote: post #13

The press release ( https://www.asml.com/en/news/press-releases/2026/strengtheni... ) seems remarkably to the point, for CEO press release standards. I'm impressed by their ambition to fire 1700 managers (!) That's a lot of managers! I interviewed with ASML a decade and a half ago and while there was plenty to complain about (eg their tens of millions of lines of absolutely unmaintainable C code), I didn't feel at th…

Mark Zuckerberg’s Great Manager Flattening has definitely spread down the chain to other organizations. Irrespective of the difference between organizations they hired after Meta hired and they fired in the same way as Meta after Meta fired. The children did not know that they were following the piper. The piper knew. Everyone thinks themselves unique and historic. e.g. Balenciaga will say their new logo is inspired…

I'm not convinced ASML leadership is very focused on what's going on at Meta. The organizations are incomparable, except if you zoom out so far that all you see is "big" and "tech" (plus I'd wager that the average ASML'er would chuckle at calling Meta a technology company at all).

Re: ASML staffing changes could result in a net reduction of around 1700 positions

#42

Post by petters »

noosphr wrote: post #7

> ASML also announced a new share buyback programme of up to €12 billion, to be executed by 31 December 2028. Oh boy. This fills me with dread. I've never seen a company that starts doing buybacks not become a financialized hollow shell within a decade. Being an irreplaceable monopoly on the commanding heights of the digital economy makes this even worse.

This makes no sense. Buybacks and dividends are how companies give money to investors

Re: ASML staffing changes could result in a net reduction of around 1700 positions

#43

Post by burnt-resistor »

noosphr wrote: post #7

> ASML also announced a new share buyback programme of up to €12 billion, to be executed by 31 December 2028. Oh boy. This fills me with dread. I've never seen a company that starts doing buybacks not become a financialized hollow shell within a decade. Being an irreplaceable monopoly on the commanding heights of the digital economy makes this even worse.

Yup. If CEO and C-suite TC go up, then it's a lawn dart screaming towards Earth.

Re: ASML staffing changes could result in a net reduction of around 1700 positions

#44

Post by microtonal »

dep_b wrote: post #3
dep_b wrote: post #2

Apologies for the Dutch source, but I couldn’t find any source in English yet. “ ASML plans to eliminate approximately 3,000 of its 4,500 management positions in engineering. The expectation is that approximately 1,400 people will be able to move into new engineering roles.”

Bloomberg also has a link, but doesn’t mention ASML is actually adding 1400 engineers while cutting 4500 managers: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-01-28/asml-plan...

I (native speaker) read it as cutting 3000 of the 4500 managers (keeping 1500) of the engineering arm. Of those 3000, ~1400 will move to an engineering position (probably because they are actual engineers promoted to management) and the rest is let go.

ASML wil zo’n 3000 van de 4500 banen van managers in de engineeringtak laten vervallen. De verwachting is dat ongeveer 1400 mensen een nieuwe functie als engineer kunnen gaan vervullen. „Van ongeveer 1700 mensen verwachten we afscheid te moeten nemen”, stelt financieel topman Roger Dassen in een toelichting.

Re: ASML staffing changes could result in a net reduction of around 1700 positions

#45

Post by Cthulhu_ »

skrebbel wrote: post #13

The press release ( https://www.asml.com/en/news/press-releases/2026/strengtheni... ) seems remarkably to the point, for CEO press release standards. I'm impressed by their ambition to fire 1700 managers (!) That's a lot of managers! I interviewed with ASML a decade and a half ago and while there was plenty to complain about (eg their tens of millions of lines of absolutely unmaintainable C code), I didn't feel at th…

I want to say "it's because they're Dutch lol" but it's signed by Cristophe (Fouquet), who is French.

1700 managers is a lot, but also, it's a huge multinational so I'm not surprised they have that many. They will be alright I'm sure - one, if there's any forced firings they will be well taken care of under Dutch labour laws, and two, ASML will look very good on a CV.

Re: ASML staffing changes could result in a net reduction of around 1700 positions

#46

Post by [deleted] »

joe_mamba wrote: post #21
skrebbel wrote: post #13

The press release ( https://www.asml.com/en/news/press-releases/2026/strengtheni... ) seems remarkably to the point, for CEO press release standards. I'm impressed by their ambition to fire 1700 managers (!) That's a lot of managers! I interviewed with ASML a decade and a half ago and while there was plenty to complain about (eg their tens of millions of lines of absolutely unmaintainable C code), I didn't feel at th…

>I interviewed with ASML a decade and a half ago and [...] I didn't feel at the time feel like it was a very top-heavy organization True, but here's the real kicker: when you add almost 15 years of ZIRP hyper growth since when you applied, you'll then see the same pattern in most big tech companies: overhiring, empire building and management bloat with no proportional increase in innovation or productivity, just hiri…

[deleted]

Re: ASML staffing changes could result in a net reduction of around 1700 positions

#47

Post by Cthulhu_ »

tehmillhouse wrote: post #38
stingraycharles wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a signal that the finance people are becoming more important to the company, but not necessarily a bad thing; it's effectively a more (tax) efficient form of dividends, which isn't very controversial. ASML is a fairly old company (40+ years), and they have been doing share buybacks since 2006: https://www.asml.com/en/investors/why-invest-in-asml/share-b...

Every time I can remember that the finance people have become more important to a company, it has led to the disappearance of the internal culture geared towards excellence that got a company to that point in the first place.

That's what they're afraid of, and that's one of the reasons why they're doing the big management reorganization - too many managers leads to lots of overhead instead of excellence.

Re: ASML staffing changes could result in a net reduction of around 1700 positions

#49

Post by burnt-resistor »

maciejzj wrote: post #28

Guys, is the current narrative that, due to AI, pure engineering is gone and we’re all supposed to be “managers”, or is it the other way around? I kinda lost the plot here.

Magically, spending money on datacenters and gear makes working code fantastically appear from the aether and so engineers can be paid the same as janitors. That's what the suits believe now.
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