Live data from Hacker News

Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics

news.shopify.com

71–80 of 531 posts

Re: Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics

#71

What is an healthy manager-to-ic ratio?

Regardless of what the healthy ratio is, managers are typically incentivized to add more managers between themselves and their reports. This creates the illusion that they are more senior and worth of a promotion to senior manager, director, VP, etc. so even if your company has a healthy ratio, there needs to be a force counteracting the natural desire of managers to grow their ranks.

Re: Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics

#73
> The balance of crafter to manager numbers is a tricky one to strike. Too few and you risk misalignment on the most important things, too many and you add heavy layers of process, approvals, meetings and… side quests. Our numbers were unhealthy, just like it is in much of the tech industry. One of the insidious consequences of this is that it leads to the company increasingly celebrating activities rather than crafter driven outcomes. With the right numbers we’ll fully focus on outcomes and impact.

Am I reading this right that they decided they had too many managers, and are laying off some? They don't say it clearly in which direction they thought they were unbalanced, but I think that's the implication of "activities rather than crafter-driven outcomes", or just what is supposed to be the obvious answer when anyone says this is unbalanced?

Re: Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics

#74

Seems like a huge miscalculation by management if their abandoning their expansion into logistics so quickly. Tobi should step down.

Quickly? They acquired 6 River Systems and announced the Shopify Fulfillment Network back in 2019. The were some pivots along the way (using 3rd party vs building out own warehouses) but it seems to me they've been at it for some time.

Re: Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics

#75
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I can pay hundreds of people to mow my lawn using scissors, and they will be employed as landscapers. Or I can pay one guy with a lawnmower. Right, but that's not the actual dichotomy. First, if Shopify can deliver its software with less people, then with the same number of people they could deliver more. Second, realistically the dichotomy, in the short to medium term, is will these people be employed in a skilled…

the unemployment rate is 3.5% > then with the same number of people they could deliver more. this is not true to begin with. classic engineering fallacy

> this is not true to begin with. classic engineering fallacy

Are you assuming they'd be put onto the existing projects (which may slow down delivery, yes) rather than doing new projects in parallel (which will not and will in fact let them deliver more because there are more projects)?

Re: Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics

#76
post #7
post #4

> We legally need the work laptop back, but we’ll help pay for a new one to replace it. What law? I’m not criticizing Spotify at all for this decision, I’m just genuinely curious. A few other companies recently are giving away the laptops so I’m wondering what is different here.

They're likely speaking of their liability should a employee's laptop, containing sensitive information, ever be stolen or re-sold (or simply, left in the hands of an ex-employee with a grudge.) It would be difficult for a IT department to guarantee, for sure without replacing the internals of the device, that the device doesn't contain sensitive information. Probably easier from an inventory and IT security perspect…

I think it's actually a really easy guarantee on modern laptops from a technical standpoint, but that doesn't matter if there's a compliance requirement or contract they signed with major customers.

Re: Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics

#77

I was unfortunately affected by this (in the Data Organization). Shame - Shopify is a fun place where I've learned a ton. We were just getting a cool Data product off the ground. Well, if anybody's got a need for a Staff/Lead Data Engineer (Remote EST) with experience in Scala (+cats/fs2), Python, go who has spent the last 10+ years building Data Products on BI, then Hadoop, then GCP (+ the Apache Zoo, lately namely…

Glad to see another BigCo still on the Scala train.

Re: Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics

#79
post #3

Well yeah, cutting workforce seems like it only has upside to these companies. Expenses go down, profit margin and share price go up. What're the workers gonna do? Protest? Strike? Hah. No, the remaining employees will pick up the extra responsibility and thank the employer for continuing to employ them.

Workers can leave…

Know of a relatively well known brand that laid off a large chunk of it's tech staff and most / all the others are looking for routes out the door

Chunk of the tech leadership that took over after the original tech leadership was laid off have already found new roles

Re: Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics

#80
post #58

I was unfortunately affected by this (in the Data Organization). Shame - Shopify is a fun place where I've learned a ton. We were just getting a cool Data product off the ground. Well, if anybody's got a need for a Staff/Lead Data Engineer (Remote EST) with experience in Scala (+cats/fs2), Python, go who has spent the last 10+ years building Data Products on BI, then Hadoop, then GCP (+ the Apache Zoo, lately namely…

Hey, I just found your LinkedIn Profile and noticed that we studied at the same university - even the same degree! I've send you a request on LinkedIn, so maybe we could connect and have a chat? Have a great day!

offtopic, but it sounds you where trying to reach them as their car's extended warranty is about to expire ...
Post reply on HN