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Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

nytimes.com

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Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#671

Post by roncesvalles »

mindwok wrote: post #98

I'm surprised to see so many comments here taking layoffs personally, or talking about how layoffs are stupid. Layoffs are not personal, and the corollary to that is that you should never treat your company as a friend. It's a company trying to maximize value. Also, layoffs do work. Almost every large, successful company has done them at some stage. They are an expected, and necessary, part of operating a company and…

I think you're arguing against a strawman. Nobody says layoffs are stupid because they're not a very "nice" thing to do. They say so because the statement "it's a company trying to maximize value" is contentious.

The long term objective of a company is not to save as much money as possible. It's to spend money toward endeavors that generate more money.

If the layoff is because of an efficiency improvement, that's justified - like a factory replacing labor with newer cheaper robots. However, that's not what the tech layoffs were about. Tech companies are basically saying we want to do less work. It's not an efficiency improvement, it's a downsizing of their business activities, and it's not clear-cut whether that's a good business strategy for companies that are wildly profitable and growing.

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#672

Post by trogdor »

pompino wrote: post #658
ken47 wrote: post #347

Google is overrated. It's been obvious for over a decade after they built an interview process that is heavily biased towards those who recently took an algorithms class. You had talking heads yammering about how hard it was to get into Google, which to be honest, made the company even less appealing. Is this a software engineering company or some kind of hyped up nightclub? Yeah, maybe it's a hard interview if you'v…

Ironically, many of their software products are bloated and slow as fuck. (There are some that are top class too, but just sayin.. )

>many of their software products are bloated and slow as fuck

Which? I regularly use Gmail, Maps, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Home, Voice, and Takeout. I don’t think any of those are bloated or slow, but maybe I’m missing something.

I’m also curious which you think are top class.

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#673

Post by climatekid »

shenberg wrote: post #624
happytiger wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s one metric: revenue per employee. In a more capital expensive market, such as our current one, this metric is the one corporate managers are focusing on. For example, Google: https://fourweekmba.com/google-revenue-per-employee/ Ultimately it’s about something called austerity, which is taught in mba-jargon filled economic theory as a way to keep the working classes inline. Since the 1920s, western countries have…

"since 2020, the US has printed nearly 80% of ALL US Dollars in circulation" - I've seen this notion repeated and I assume it's a reference to M1 as published by FRED: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M1SL The actual story, as far as I can tell, is that money that had previously been considered as M2 (=less liquid) is also counted as M1 due to rule changes regarding savings accounts. To see this is the case, you ca…

Wow this is very helpful. I'd heard that as well. Thanks for commenting this

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#674

Post by arwhatever »

nly wrote: post #35

My firm made billions last year too and just laid off hundreds of engineers (a decent %) Some of the best engineers, those that I respected the most, went. People who make no sense. After last year's layoffs they told us they were "done" and it was "all behind us". Last year then turned out to a better year financially than 2022 (we have access to the top line numbers) You can't trust anything anyone above you in the…

I have never been a cynic until recently.

"Maybe a recession is forthcoming?" Better 'can a bunch of people just in case it happens to be so.

"Maybe LLMs will reduce programming needs?" Better 'can a bunch of people just in case it happens to be so.

I can adapt to an increased level of cynicism, even to the point it informs my concrete career decisions.

But this level of bad faith itself must do some damage to the economy, mustn't it? There must be some concrete value that would be generated by increasing good faith between employers and employees, musn't there be?

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#675

Post by karaterobot »

hiq wrote: post #384
ken47 wrote: post #347

Google is overrated. It's been obvious for over a decade after they built an interview process that is heavily biased towards those who recently took an algorithms class. You had talking heads yammering about how hard it was to get into Google, which to be honest, made the company even less appealing. Is this a software engineering company or some kind of hyped up nightclub? Yeah, maybe it's a hard interview if you'v…

> It's been obvious for over a decade after they built an interview process that is heavily biased towards those who recently took an algorithms class. What would you do instead? Threads about tech interviews are always the same: we all complain about the process with no real alternative when you want to hire at that scale. In particular about: > Just about every other skill that is needed to be a good software engin…

"Yeah, it sucks for everybody and it doesn't work very well, but it scales!"

Not picking on you, this is a very common refrain. The apparent advantages of scalable processes seem to trump the demonstrable disadvantages, especially in hiring. The end result is a system most people acknowledge flat-out sucks, it just flat-out sucks in bulk. We say "hiring the right people is the most important thing we do, so let's mechanize it and spend as little time-per-unit as possible". I find it more sad than funny.

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#676

Post by agumonkey »

hotpotamus wrote: post #557
agumonkey wrote: post #554

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who else here feels that humans have an innate need to be emotionally invested in their daily lives ? - goal of your company / values - need to grow - need to perform and be seen as such - need to belong so often we can read warnings about not falling for this, but it's so common .. it's wired in us it seems

Well most humans do, but psychopaths (and I speak from personal experience) probably do not, and the smarter among them tend to do really well in the American corporate context.

that's true, the economy doesn't reward human needs and the bad ones bubble up above and end up controlling your life..

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#677

Post by aeyes »

laurels-marts wrote: post #206
sinuhe69 wrote: post #127

Seriously, why people in tech are opposed to unions? In Europe, unions and Betriebsrat (works committee) are the norm. Why not in the US?

As a European I'm curious which unions and industries are you talking about? I've been working tech or tech-adjacent jobs my entire life here and I've never been in a union nor do I know any friends (developers / designers) that are in a union. And I'm going to conferences and meetups on a regular. I'm not saying unions don't exist (probably more so in certain industries), but for devs to be in a union in Europe? Nev…

I worked in tech (DAX company) in Germany for almost a decade and we were unionized.

I'd say the union was one of the main reasons why we didn't have mass layoffs when the company was in a hard spot. Instead more acceptable options like part-time and voluntary resignation with exit packages were negotiated and still met similar cost saving goals.

In small shops you probably won't have a union but they don't tend to hire&fire like the big multinationals.

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#679

Post by devwastaken »

nly wrote: post #35

My firm made billions last year too and just laid off hundreds of engineers (a decent %) Some of the best engineers, those that I respected the most, went. People who make no sense. After last year's layoffs they told us they were "done" and it was "all behind us". Last year then turned out to a better year financially than 2022 (we have access to the top line numbers) You can't trust anything anyone above you in the…

Megacorps have international plans. Theyre eying the Asian market and surrounding areas planning to be an integral part of converting their society to modernism. Big tech is literally creating their customers via corporate imperialism.

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#680

Post by closeparen »

rvrs wrote: post #610
closeparen wrote: post #595

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By any reasonable metric, Google SWEs are "the rich man" in American society.

This isn't the right way to view it -- it's not necessarily about a dollar amount. People making 6 figures and people making 5 figures are not enemies. The segmentation is between those tho provide work and those who perform it, with the former profiting off the surplus value provided by the latter

Who do you think owns public companies?
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