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Googler... ex-Googler

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Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#421

Post by JKCalhoun »

pjmlp wrote: post #47
ivraatiems wrote: post #9

The reality of one's lack of value to one's own employer is often baffling. It makes you wonder how anyone manages to stay employed at all, since apparently everyone is replicable and unimportant. I have been through layoffs where other people on my team, doing the same job I did approximately as well, got laid off. No explanation given for why them and not me. And it could happen to me at any time. It doesn't matter…

This is a lesson that all senior developers know pretty well, that is why companies rather hire naive juniors, instead folks that already mastered how the game gets played, and cannot be sold on company mission, values, or whatever snake oil gets talked about during interview process.

And while I was still employed as a seasoned developer (before recently retiring) I felt it was my role to pass along some of my cynicism to the new hires and younger devs. Some of them seemed a little surprised to see me call bullshit in a group meeting. (Good luck to you boys and girls.)

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#422

Post by Majestic121 »

anal_reactor wrote: post #358
intellectronica wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Through the entirety of human history you'd keep working for the same employer for your entire life Hardly. This type of arrangement was short-lived and anomalous. It was roughly true in rich economies during a few decades of the post-war era. Never before, and not for most people around the world. Relationships are worth cultivating any time, of course, but one shouldn't mistake a job for a life. The idea that a j…

> Never before, and not for most people around the world. Please tell me more about the gig economy of medieval peasants.

The english wikipedia is lacking on the historical side, but you can find out more with the French one : https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journalier

Google trad of a couple paragraphs :

> Most of the modest peasants, men or women, very often still small artisans, small weavers or textile workers, peddlers, boatmen or carriers in bad seasons, could become day laborers on nearby farms and estates, if they had the build and stamina, once their own work was done. Some were even regular day laborers, familiar to a domain steward or a village ploughman, present all year round or usually required for a certain number of tasks. Certain harvest tasks were sometimes carried out if possible part of the night, or continuously by successive teams[5].

> Day laborers, brewers or laborers, represented a significant part of the population and sometimes lived, in the absence of family support or a solidarity house, on the edge of begging[8]. In rural areas, they subsisted thanks to additional agricultural work with ploughmen or farm merchants but also thanks to wool spinning, crafts or transport. They also served as additional labor in construction, helped the lumberjacks, made bundles, etc. Women did laundry or took children in as wet nurses[9].

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#423

Post by slac »

Scandiravian wrote: post #229
apexalpha wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Weird, as someone from Europe I've never experience anything else. Layoffs here are always done in conjunction with the unions. People are moved to different jobs, helped with training etc... Only in very critical jobs they'd walk you out immediately but then you still get the pay.

Having experienced layoffs in both US and EU companies, the difference is massive. In my experience there is very little respect for "the human" being laid off in US companies People literally would just disappear day to day. I've had several instances where I only found out a colleague had been fired because I tried to write them on Slack only to find that their account had been deactivated Personally I felt constan…

The EU is not a country. Labor laws vary massively between countries.

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#424

Post by shermantanktop »

crossroadsguy wrote: post #279
abdj8 wrote: post #110

Layoffs are a difficult thing for employees and their managers. I have seen people (one was a VP of Engineering) escorted out of the building, sent in a cab to home along with a security guard (this was in India), not allowed access to computer or talk with other employees. But, recently have had a very different experience. The current company I work for announced 30% layoffs. The list was made public within one hou…

For anyone not from India — India does layoffs in every way. From “cut on zoom in 90 sec” to “please know that you have to resign and serve your two months notice and then go”; to also “if you want you can serve the notice period, or you can just leave today and still get the pay for two months”. I have experienced the first and last and in the case of last for some reason I had chosen to serve the notice.

My immediate reaction is “I probably would too.”

Working is often treated as transactional but it is about so much more. Self-worth, professional reputation, bonds with coworkers, ownership and stewardship of solutions. Even the simple everyday routine that a workplace drives is important.

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#425

Post by stunpix »

Why this site has such abnormally slow scrolling in Safari, but is smooth in Chrome? There's nothing special about this site. It's like going back in time when the internet was optimized only for a single browser. It's kind of like "I'm a Chrome dev and I don't care about other browsers"?

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#426

Post by wffurr »

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #384
kouteiheika wrote: post #257

Right, okay, let's look at their most recent SEC filling to see how much money they lost in 2024 to justify layoffs... right, they made 350 billion in revenue (the highest ever in their history from what I can see) with a 100 billion in net income. Yep, this checks out, they definitely need to lay off people, can't afford them.

Yes, and they're still hiring too, while doing this at the same time. As a person who worked there for a long time, I never thought it was a good idea how rapidly they hired and never felt they needed that many people. But the layoff process has been sadistic. And the people who made the decisions to hire like crazy are not paying the consequences. In fact it feels very much like they're using this as an opportunity…

>> the people who made the decisions to hire like crazy are not paying the consequences

They should have been first out the door, but Sundar is part of the problem.

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#427

Post by Y_Y »

bigfatkitten wrote: post #420
Scandiravian wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having experienced layoffs in both US and EU companies, the difference is massive. In my experience there is very little respect for "the human" being laid off in US companies People literally would just disappear day to day. I've had several instances where I only found out a colleague had been fired because I tried to write them on Slack only to find that their account had been deactivated Personally I felt constan…

Layoffs in US companies are a BCP event. It's like an earthquake or a tsunami. Weeks of chaos while you figure out who survived, and who's now doing the work previously done by a team that no longer exists. I watched a layoff take out half the security team during an incident. That was fun.

> A business continuity plan (BCP) is a system of prevention and recovery from potential threats to a company.

I feel like global acronym bankruptcy is overdue.

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#428

Post by varispeed »

AstralStorm wrote: post #295
331c8c71 wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Layoffs here are always done in conjunction with the unions. Europe is vastly diverse and your experience is not representative of all Europe.

That's true. But contracts here usually have a set termination time, with a minimum notice time typically required by law, dependent on how long you've been hired at the company. Tends to be one month for below a year, three months beyond a year. As in after a termination there's a period during which you're still supposed to work and collect the salary. Exceptions are B2B contracts (but they still often have one of…

> Exceptions are B2B contracts (but they still often have one of those) and some piece work contracts.

In the UK big corporations got a loophole where they can get employees without affording them any rights. It's called IR35 that Tory government amended to facilitate this, as Brexit benefit (the regulation would have been illegal otherwise if we were still in the EU).

It's totally legal to fire employee without any notice for any reason or even pay them below minimum wage.

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#429

Post by JKCalhoun »

swah wrote: post #412

Glad I have a chance to peek into his world, but should he have posted this?

I suppose you have to decide for yourself if you're going to spend the rest of your life trying to grovel (okay, a rather pointed word to choose) for future employers.

Re: Googler... ex-Googler

#430

Post by cjohnson318 »

It is a very, very hard thing to wrap your head around, and life doesn't always give you time to process it before your savings run out. I had a hard time finding work this year and I invested in a (tech) career coach, Larry Jacobson, and he was an immense help. He told me things that were very hard to hear, and helped immensely.
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