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GM self-driving tech unit Cruise laying off about 8% of staff

reuters.com

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Re: GM self-driving tech unit Cruise laying off about 8% of staff

#61

Post by cbanek »

baddox wrote: post #54
FreedomToCreate wrote: post #26

Just a note, but this is a perfect time for companies to lay off low performers without getting a lot of flak. This is usually the case when you see companies lay off people while continuing to hire as well.

Comments like this show up on all stories about layoffs. I don’t really understand your point. There’s never any reason to have layoffs unless the company deems it a good financial decision, right? And surely all layoffs would hit the lowest performers (by the company’s estimation of performance, which obviously might be flawed), right? So what is the difference between “the company did layoffs of its lowest performe…

Well I think in good times, it's trickier to do a layoff. Like you said, it can appear like it's related to financial pressure. In good times, if you do a layoff, investors/shareholders will worry that you are doing it due to financial pressure or limited opportunities to use those employees to make money (growth). The way to say it isn't about financial pressure is to take the PR hit and say these are low performers. Which kind of implies you messed up by hiring them. So either way, it hurts you in good times.

Now in bad times, it's considered "prudent," because everyone is under financial pressure. Laying off people preemptively wins in both ways in that in can look like you're eliminating financial pressure when everyone is worried about it (as opposed to the good times, where you will be singled out), as well as being able to get rid of the lowest performers and reducing pay of everyone else while avoiding bad PR, and even being considered good because you're still employing the rest. As long as the business remains solvent it's a win-win for the company.

Not saying this is good or bad for the economy or the employees, but just reflecting on some of the game theory of this.

Re: GM self-driving tech unit Cruise laying off about 8% of staff

#62

Post by sulam »

thoraway1010 wrote: post #2

"doubling down on our engineering work and engineering talent,” Cruise spokesperson Milin Mehta told Reuters. Do these folks even try to hide their lies? Doubling down = 2x the engineering staff. This is as they lay off in their lidar team. Can companies be sued for these types of basically false claims or are we just stuck commenting on what lies they seem come up with. Can you imagine if your day to day life involv…

One thing you also have to understand here (other than the replies I've read) is that you can in fact lay off people and yet increase the percentage investment you are making in something.

You have to cut your budget by 30% -- you can do this as a haircut everyone takes, or you can be selective, and ask one group to take less of a cut and other groups to take more. Your overall spend will be more heavily weighted towards groups that take less of a cut, obviously.

You can also leave your overall budget for one team unchanged, or even grow it, and simply change your focus by putting more emphasis (and budget) on one set of activities vs another.

In the Cruise case either scenario is possible. They can have decided that 3rd party LIDAR is good enough, and not strategic enough, that they should cut there. That could be the sum of it, while other groups like HR, Marketing, etc takes bigger cuts. Alternatively they could use the same logic to cut the LIDAR team and then take the savings generated to invest more heavily in (made up example) route planning or something.

Re: GM self-driving tech unit Cruise laying off about 8% of staff

#63

Post by curiousllama »

baddox wrote: post #54
FreedomToCreate wrote: post #26

Just a note, but this is a perfect time for companies to lay off low performers without getting a lot of flak. This is usually the case when you see companies lay off people while continuing to hire as well.

Comments like this show up on all stories about layoffs. I don’t really understand your point. There’s never any reason to have layoffs unless the company deems it a good financial decision, right? And surely all layoffs would hit the lowest performers (by the company’s estimation of performance, which obviously might be flawed), right? So what is the difference between “the company did layoffs of its lowest performe…

When I see a layoff story, I think two things: 1. Those poor folks losing their jobs... 2. That company must be under a lot of financial pressure

The comment above yours is basically saying: #2 might not be the case, especially with only 8% being laid off"

Re: GM self-driving tech unit Cruise laying off about 8% of staff

#64

Post by paxys »

ISL wrote: post #51
paxys wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow that is ridiculous. There is absolutely no way to have those numbers without a major compromise in the quality of hires.

There are 7,500,000,000 people in the world. A lot more than 800 of them are good at their jobs.

800 hires a year means ~15 people starting every week. Every one of those 800 positions likely received hundreds of resumes, which needed to be sifted through. Then you need to have calls with each candidate, narrow down the pool further. Then all the onsite rounds. For an initial team of 200 that is an impossible task.

Re: GM self-driving tech unit Cruise laying off about 8% of staff

#65

Post by selimthegrim »

sida wrote: post #32
dragosmocrii wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sell the highs, buy the lows

Or you could see it as, they know who are the low performers. This is a good way to fire low performers in bulk without getting a lot of flak

I think high and low cost was what they meant

Re: GM self-driving tech unit Cruise laying off about 8% of staff

#66

Post by Animats »

thoraway1010 wrote: post #2

"doubling down on our engineering work and engineering talent,” Cruise spokesperson Milin Mehta told Reuters. Do these folks even try to hide their lies? Doubling down = 2x the engineering staff. This is as they lay off in their lidar team. Can companies be sued for these types of basically false claims or are we just stuck commenting on what lies they seem come up with. Can you imagine if your day to day life involv…

This is as they lay off in their lidar team.

There are too many LIDAR startups chasing too little market for LIDARs. The delay in self-driving cars reaching the market means automotive LIDARs are only selling in sample quantities. GM/Cruise may not need an in-house LIDAR unit.

Re: GM self-driving tech unit Cruise laying off about 8% of staff

#67

Post by squnch »

baddox wrote: post #54
FreedomToCreate wrote: post #26

Just a note, but this is a perfect time for companies to lay off low performers without getting a lot of flak. This is usually the case when you see companies lay off people while continuing to hire as well.

Comments like this show up on all stories about layoffs. I don’t really understand your point. There’s never any reason to have layoffs unless the company deems it a good financial decision, right? And surely all layoffs would hit the lowest performers (by the company’s estimation of performance, which obviously might be flawed), right? So what is the difference between “the company did layoffs of its lowest performe…

It affects the departing employees quite a bit. In an economic crisis, laid-off employees don't have a stigma associated with them. In good times, others think, "wow these guys must have been real stinkers." And layoffs don't always hit the low performers. If a company is shutting down entire businesses, like shutting down their operations in a certain country, top performers in an unneeded business unit can get laid off.

Re: GM self-driving tech unit Cruise laying off about 8% of staff

#68

Post by close04 »

baddox wrote: post #54
FreedomToCreate wrote: post #26

Just a note, but this is a perfect time for companies to lay off low performers without getting a lot of flak. This is usually the case when you see companies lay off people while continuing to hire as well.

Comments like this show up on all stories about layoffs. I don’t really understand your point. There’s never any reason to have layoffs unless the company deems it a good financial decision, right? And surely all layoffs would hit the lowest performers (by the company’s estimation of performance, which obviously might be flawed), right? So what is the difference between “the company did layoffs of its lowest performe…

In many countries proving someone is a low performer is a high bar. They certainly can't dump 10% of their workforce without a justification like restructuring or downsizing, something a company wouldn't go through just to replace some people. A fake restructuring might hurt the business even more than some lower performing employees. And if a company does go through this phase, legally it can't just turn around and upsize by hiring other people the next day (not that this would guarantee they end up in a better position than before).

Such a crisis is a good moment to slim down the workforce since it is a legitimate restructuring and it avoids any image harm. and it's not just low performers that suffer sometimes. An average performer might get caught in the net if the pay/performance ratio is not good. Many good performers also do just because the area they worked in is not deemed profitable or necessary anymore.

Re: GM self-driving tech unit Cruise laying off about 8% of staff

#69

Post by primrose »

thoraway1010 wrote: post #2

"doubling down on our engineering work and engineering talent,” Cruise spokesperson Milin Mehta told Reuters. Do these folks even try to hide their lies? Doubling down = 2x the engineering staff. This is as they lay off in their lidar team. Can companies be sued for these types of basically false claims or are we just stuck commenting on what lies they seem come up with. Can you imagine if your day to day life involv…

“Anyone using Lidar is doomed, DOOMED!”

Looks like GM is catching up to where the industry was a year ago, from A cofounder of Waymo.

https://youtu.be/0w1G2GyPTUM

Re: GM self-driving tech unit Cruise laying off about 8% of staff

#70

Post by ipsum2 »

Sort of off topic, I've noticed news articles have been very lax with basic editing:

"Thursday, the layoff includes staff at an engineering team in Padasedna, California"

The article says "Reporting By Jane Lanhee Lee and David Shepardson; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and David Gregorio". Two editors missed the typo.

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