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Layoffs at Block

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Re: Layoffs at Block

#731

Post by drstewart »

input_sh wrote: post #671
acchow wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you point to the laws in your country that would make this illegal? I’m skeptical

I can, easily. Speaking for my country and assuming you are not on a fixed-term contract, you can only get fired for one of the three reasons: 1. Company's in financial trouble and forced to downsize. 2. The position becomes obsolete and there's no option to transition you into some other role. In this case, the company can't hire anyone with a similar-enough skillset to yours for at least a year (or maybe even longe…

>Speaking for my country

I like how none of you ever reveal this mysterious country you're from, probably so you don't get called on the claims you're making.

Anyway, in my country unemployment is 0% and everyone is rich and there are no problems. Why can't your country achieve the same?

Re: Layoffs at Block

#732

Post by grey-area »

kortilla wrote: post #707
grey-area wrote: post #666

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apart from the bit where he lays 4000 people off, but himself is untouched. Oh and the bit where he claims AI efficiencies are the reason. If I had to do this to a company I’d built I’d fire myself too. It’s an admission of a massive failure of leadership.

Companies grow and shrink. That’s not “a massive failure”.

Cutting staff by half is an admission of massive management failure.

Their planning was terrible.

Their hiring was terrible.

They can’t think of any new projects to put these staff on.

Re: Layoffs at Block

#733

Post by lewispollard »

tomwphillips wrote: post #612
Swizec wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Nice severance; but in this job market, holy shit. I just talked to a bunch of recruiters (we're hiring) and their main piece of advice was: The market is crazy. Move fast . We're seeing people getting jobs within days of starting to look, bailing on offers after signing because they got a better offer somewhere else, etc. 24 hours is the longest you can leave a candidate waiting. You have been warned edit: I am in…

Also seeing this in the UK right now.

Yeah, mid-late last year was one of the worst markets I've seen in my career, but the last couple of months things have really seemed to pick up speed.

Re: Layoffs at Block

#734

Post by rsanek »

lucas_the_human wrote: post #631
tombert wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in NYC which I think has similar demographics to SF in this regard; I found my job in August of last year, after about five months of searching, and I found it because a friend of mine referred me. It's a good job, and I like it, I'm grateful for that friend. Regardless, it's not like that was the only job I applied to. I had a policy of applying to at least ten jobs a day, so I applied to about ~1500 jobs, and l…

I think it's starting to turn around. My sense is there's still a ton of devs on the market but there's a lot of jobs opening recently. Here's the data from the st luis fed: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/IHLIDXUSTPSOFTDEVE

Thanks for the link. Looks like it's the best it's been in ~2 years

Re: Layoffs at Block

#735

Post by poszlem »

lr4444lr wrote: post #561
taurath wrote: post #545

This reminds me of the meme of Margaret Thatcher: "And There is No Alternative" - a way to justify the policies she desired to implement and attempt to preempt any other view. We're supposed to believe Jack is a victim of circumstance. He hired all those people, and now he has no choice but to fire them - he wasn't clairvoyant to the future when he hired all those people, or else he'd known he would have had to fire…

I dislike Jack going back several years, but I think in this instance he's admitting that he's taking responsibility between weighing the risk of doing this vs. not doing this. Maybe morale will tank anyway and the company will hold on, but be out-innovated by competitors that invested in growth. There are future outcomes that could prove he made the wrong call, and I any time layoffs are announced, there is a tacit…

Insert Michael Scott shouting "I AM DECLARING BANKRUPTCY" meme. Change that to "I AM TAKING RESPONSIBILITY".

Re: Layoffs at Block

#736

Post by zkmon »

This will bite back. People being out of jobs means less spending by the public which affects all businesses, which then offsets the productivity gains given by AI.

In some cases, you have vast ability to produce and serve, but the buyers are gone.

Re: Layoffs at Block

#737

Post by zkmon »

AI increases productivityvastly, but it cuts down buyers also vastly, through removal of jobs etc. So deflation could result, exposeing the disparities even more.

Re: Layoffs at Block

#738

Post by AtNightWeCode »

In this market it is probably smarter to fire a large block of people. Chances are good that you can rehire some where you went too aggressive. Sucks for the people that got laid off though.

Re: Layoffs at Block

#739

Post by wraptile »

EZ-E wrote: post #690

> i had two options: cut gradually over months or years as this shift plays out, or be honest about where we are and act on it now. i chose the latter. repeated rounds of cuts are destructive to morale, to focus Being in a company that has done the gradual cuts, instead of one big cut, I unironically agree. I must have dodged like 15 staff reductions at this point. Company would be in a better state if the decision w…

I agree. I experienced both setups and the drag was awful for people's morale and internal politics and made the company do really shady things like letting people go before bonus milestones are reached eventhough they were key contributors.

Re: Layoffs at Block

#740

Post by oytis »

bairymr wrote: post #641
rappatic wrote: post #13

i'm gonna write this terrible news in all lowercase cause it's super aesthetic. maintain a bit of professionalism for the 4,000 people whose lives i'm throwing into turmoil? i don't think so, i have my shift key taped over so i don't accidentally show respect to anybody

Interestingly Jerry Yang's letter back in 2008 was also like this and someone pointed that out in HN : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=339513

They really called their employees yahoos?
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