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GitHub to lay off 10% and close all offices

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Re: GitHub to lay off 10% and close all offices

#421

Post by tracker1 »

chris222 wrote: post #372
Raed667 wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Officies, especially the great ones (as in also very expensive) create an irrational emotional attachment and are very hard to downsize on them without impacting morale.

Not true! I worked at what some would consider one of the top offices (Dropbox). They went remote and the polling was something like 70% support 30% oppose. There were some vocal supporters of in-office (mostly due to the perks like food) but they gave a generous stipend instead to satisfy most people.

I find I work better in an office myself... been remote for about 3 years now, and I've gotten used to it. I miss lunch with coworkers, etc... and some of the more spontaneous discussions don't happen nearly as much... Also, I like a relatively short commute (around 30m) long enough to clear the mind before/after work.

Re: GitHub to lay off 10% and close all offices

#422

Post by tpmx »

johnbellone wrote: post #413
tpmx wrote: post #272

Reminder: Nat Friedman is no longer the CEO of Github. https://techcrunch.com/2021/11/03/github-gets-a-new-ceo/ GitHub CEO Nat Friedman is stepping down from his role on November 15 to become the Chairman Emeritus of the Microsoft-owned service. Thomas Dohmke, who only recently became GitHub’s chief product officer, will step into the CEO role. With Friedman, who thanks to his developer and open source background bro…

I mean doesn’t the last sentence say it all?

He's a German automotive industry person (Robert Bosch, Mercedes-Benz). I guess that's the kind of customers they'll be going for now, having won most software companies already. He's got a PhD in mechanical engineering.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashtom

I was just in the process of trying to convince a customer company to migrate from Bitbucket to Github. This (the information about the new CEO) makes me uncertain.

I think it's safe to say there'll be an overwhelming "enterprise"/$LargeCo focus on their work, going forward.

We can only hope that the UX isn't dragged down to stereotypical Microsoft levels in the process.

Re: GitHub to lay off 10% and close all offices

#423

Post by TheRealDunkirk »

WorldMaker wrote: post #402
TheRealDunkirk wrote: post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that Teams is used by companies who have IT departments that do absolutely insane things like DELETE THE CHAT HISTORY AFTER 24 HOURS because of some sort of perverse, contrived "security" issue. These are the morons that Microsoft is selling to, and giving advice to as on how to configure it. So you wind up with a system that's almost worse than not having anything at all. Our Sharepoint installation w…

Companies love Microsoft because of how many footguns they have available in settings and in group policy configuration. The defaults for so many of the applications are actually remarkably nice, and then it is amazing how many IT departments see the massive list of settings and group policy configurations as a buffet of "security options" rather than a terrifying hall of footguns, because who needs feet or nice thin…

Well said.

Re: GitHub to lay off 10% and close all offices

#424

Post by WorldMaker »

relaxing wrote: post #308
brookst wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm also confused because almost all of my company's Teams usage happens in unthreaded chats.

The unthreaded chats are all private, no? If you want to use the group chat it forces you into threaded (or is there a way to switch out of that?)

It has "private" group chats in Chats tab and all meetings auto-create group chats. At various points I've tried to push conversations into a proper Team and threaded chat, but the "convenience" of just sending a chat message in last week's meeting chat or some hand-built group chat rather than just finding the right Team channel seems to keep winning out more often than not.

Re: GitHub to lay off 10% and close all offices

#425

Post by TheRealDunkirk »

twoodfin wrote: post #415
TheRealDunkirk wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Credit where due, spreadsheet applications were already established AND bundled into suites by the time Microsoft got around to leveraging their market position to make Office the de facto standard. But, yeah, I owe most of my career to making real web apps out of badly designed, hard to use, vile to share, yet somehow better than nothing Excel workbooks. Even with all the modern trappings, and besides specific appli…

That undersells the innovation of Excel, which started out as a Macintosh exclusive before being ported to Windows. It was the first major spreadsheet to be GUI-based from the ground up. It didn’t need Office bundling (which came much later) to dominate, it was by far the superior spreadsheet in the Windows 3.0/3.1 era.

> by far the superior spreadsheet in the Windows 3.0/3.1 era

Quattro Pro is waiting outside the door. He says he'd like to have a word. ;-)

Re: GitHub to lay off 10% and close all offices

#427

Post by elforce002 »

Well, by this time is clear that company loyalty doesn't exist anymore.

I think a new market will rise up from this debacle: companies selling good & services with strong employee loyalty values. These companies will use this as a marketing hack to get the public (mostly middle class)on their side, just like the concept of "parallel economy" is getting people to choose companies aligned with their values.

Re: GitHub to lay off 10% and close all offices

#428

Post by geuis »

rossdavidh wrote: post #420

Closing all offices, I have to say, makes it way easier to do more layoffs. Having been through layoffs in semiconductor manufacturing in the 90's, when you had to, you know, get the people from work and take them to a place and all that, it involved paying a lot of money for extra security and such. With no offices, it's a lot easier, and you never have to meet the person face to face. Five years from now, I think w…

Look, you can't have it both ways. People on HN are always talking badly about companies that don't allow work from home, or require at least a couple days in the office. Then a company says it's going entirely remote (not including the layoff context) and people shit on that.

Which is it?

As for the layoffs, I don't have anything to add to that. There a Microsoft decision.

Re: GitHub to lay off 10% and close all offices

#429

Post by mFixman »

LarryMullins wrote: post #279
bmy78 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Teams is the result of Microsoft taking a look at Slack and saying, how can we make this feel more like Excel?

I wish I could believe that Microsoft appreciates Excel that much. Excel is one of the most empowering applications ever written and the single greatest thing Microsoft has ever been involved with.

It's still a pretty awful tool, and anybody who wondered what the 109 means in `subtotal(109, A:A)` thinks the same.

Excel is so successful that competitors need to copy its bad parts.

Re: GitHub to lay off 10% and close all offices

#430

Post by brundolf »

geuis wrote: post #428
rossdavidh wrote: post #420

Closing all offices, I have to say, makes it way easier to do more layoffs. Having been through layoffs in semiconductor manufacturing in the 90's, when you had to, you know, get the people from work and take them to a place and all that, it involved paying a lot of money for extra security and such. With no offices, it's a lot easier, and you never have to meet the person face to face. Five years from now, I think w…

Look, you can't have it both ways. People on HN are always talking badly about companies that don't allow work from home, or require at least a couple days in the office. Then a company says it's going entirely remote (not including the layoff context) and people shit on that. Which is it? As for the layoffs, I don't have anything to add to that. There a Microsoft decision.

There are different people on this website and they can have different opinions about things
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