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Elastic lays off 7% of employees

elastic.co

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Re: Elastic lays off 7% of employees

#51

Post by vanrysss »

torben-friis wrote: post #32
tracerbulletx wrote: post #22

Before the 1980s layoffs were seen as a massive failure of the company and almost never happened to tenured employees unless the company was collapsing. Before we are all made to think this is normal and unavoidable behavior.

I know HN is mostly against regulation, but I'm very glad my country restricts mass firings, and particular stricter rules apply for companies that turn a profit. If you're generating benefits, there should be very few reasons you need to let go people massively.

I have a cousin in Belgium who was laid off following some restructuring and her severance was 52 weeks. Not out of the goodness of the company's hearts, but mandated by law since they gave no notice and she had accrued seniority. US labor laws are a joke in comparison.

Re: Elastic lays off 7% of employees

#52

Post by maxloh »

I wonder how much of the layoffs were caused by their license change in 2021.

They lost a lot of goodwill back then. Some of their potential customers migrated to OpenSearch and never looked back, even after they backed down and went open-source again under AGPL.

Re: Elastic lays off 7% of employees

#53

Post by para_parolu »

vanrysss wrote: post #51
torben-friis wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know HN is mostly against regulation, but I'm very glad my country restricts mass firings, and particular stricter rules apply for companies that turn a profit. If you're generating benefits, there should be very few reasons you need to let go people massively.

I have a cousin in Belgium who was laid off following some restructuring and her severance was 52 weeks. Not out of the goodness of the company's hearts, but mandated by law since they gave no notice and she had accrued seniority. US labor laws are a joke in comparison.

This also a reason why starting a business in USA is usually better.

Re: Elastic lays off 7% of employees

#54

Post by rconti »

georgemcbay wrote: post #41
Legend2440 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your best employees are the most likely to leave via attrition, because they have the most opportunity elsewhere. In theory, a small layoff can target the least productive employees.

> Your best employees are the most likely to leave via attrition, because they have the most opportunity elsewhere. But this remains true after a layoff and the layoff often acts a motivator for your best employees to start looking even if they weren't previously. Usually they aren't thinking "well, glad I survived that layoff and now my job is safe forever", they are thinking "huh, is this a sinking ship? Maybe I sh…

yeah, it seems like it would have to be accompanied by a pay bump for the ones you really want to retain... which is challenging from an optics perspective.

Re: Elastic lays off 7% of employees

#55

Post by Matticus_Rex »

vanrysss wrote: post #51
torben-friis wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know HN is mostly against regulation, but I'm very glad my country restricts mass firings, and particular stricter rules apply for companies that turn a profit. If you're generating benefits, there should be very few reasons you need to let go people massively.

I have a cousin in Belgium who was laid off following some restructuring and her severance was 52 weeks. Not out of the goodness of the company's hearts, but mandated by law since they gave no notice and she had accrued seniority. US labor laws are a joke in comparison.

I'm sure that level of overhead has nothing to do with the reason Belgian incomes, standards of living, and business outcomes are worse.

Re: Elastic lays off 7% of employees

#56

Post by sergiotapia »

> this requires us to move faster and operate leaner than we have before

:laughing:

> To do it, we're shifting our pace of innovation, simplifying how we operate, and investing in new skills. That's what this reorganization is for: a simpler structure, with fewer layers, less complexity, and less friction.

Translation: We're going to run the remaining people ragged.

> That means fewer layers, broader ownership, clearer accountability, and a sharper focus on the skills we believe matter most for what's ahead.

Yeah the people remaining are cooked.

It's never "we're going to hire more people to build lots of cool stuff" it's always giving fewer people quadruple the responsibility expectation.

Re: Elastic lays off 7% of employees

#57

Post by jknoepfler »

Avicebron wrote: post #30
tracerbulletx wrote: post #22

Before the 1980s layoffs were seen as a massive failure of the company and almost never happened to tenured employees unless the company was collapsing. Before we are all made to think this is normal and unavoidable behavior.

I don't know how the social contract between employees/employers gets rebuilt..feels like it needs to though

I don't think it's rational to rely on relationship with a business, especially and in particular a publicly traded business.

Change starts with regulation. That's how every other advanced economy handles it.

It's really not that complicated. It's the same situation as healthcare. You shouldn't rely on the free market to do anything other than maximize short term profits.

Re: Elastic lays off 7% of employees

#58

Post by robwwilliams »

wolvoleo wrote: post #16
keithnz wrote: post #9

This just reaffirms my view is that big companies will lose headcount because of AI, but small and medium companies will (or at least have the potential to) leverage AI to do bigger and better things. This is because big companies could always spend big money on getting what they want made while small companies always have to tradeoff what they can realistically do with the resources they have.

Also big companies spend tons and tons of time and money on useless busy work. I work in IT and when we needed something new we'd just implement or build it. Now we have long certification processes for anything new, checking if it complies with hundreds of pages of policies. A lifecycle management program which we constantly have to keep updated. Governance teams that are constantly looking over our shoulders. All s…

In academic research I have seen this same trend, particularly intensely in IT and security. Lock it down, lock it up, and slow down research. A hierarchy of admins and techs taught to cover their asses.

Re: Elastic lays off 7% of employees

#59

Post by Wolfbeta »

eli_gottlieb wrote: post #49
sandeepkd wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do not want to sound like as if I am taking their side but the reality is that all these decisions are mandated by some subset of investors in one way or another. These executives are replaceable, and they would be replaced if they do not toe the line. In other words these executives happen to choose a easy and beneficial path rather than standing up for the long term right thing for the company.

Ok so get rid of the investors then.

That's what the pollution is for.

Re: Elastic lays off 7% of employees

#60

Post by callc »

gaiagraphia wrote: post #44
puszczyk wrote: post #2

Makes me sad to read it as an ex-Elastic employee. AI is used to justify the redundancies, and the company still expects to grow in this fiscal year. In the SEC filling the specifically mention more “head count” in “go-to-market” roles [1]. > a reduction of approximately 7% of our workforce > Advances in AI, automation, and technology are reshaping how work gets done, and we're changing with them. (…) That's what thi…

[flagged]

Please write nicer comments.

Everyone has their own problems and their own feelings. Their socioeconomic conditions do not invalidate them.

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