Earlier quoted context omitted.
How does at will employment work without an organized mafia to negotiate those terms?
It seems like it works quite well for tech.
In what ways?
GitHub to lay off 10% and close all offices
741–750 of 907 posts
Re: GitHub to lay off 10% and close all offices
#742Closing all offices, I have to say, makes it way easier to do more layoffs. Having been through layoffs in semiconductor manufacturing in the 90's, when you had to, you know, get the people from work and take them to a place and all that, it involved paying a lot of money for extra security and such. With no offices, it's a lot easier, and you never have to meet the person face to face. Five years from now, I think w…
Look, you can't have it both ways. People on HN are always talking badly about companies that don't allow work from home, or require at least a couple days in the office. Then a company says it's going entirely remote (not including the layoff context) and people shit on that. Which is it? As for the layoffs, I don't have anything to add to that. There a Microsoft decision.
There are different people on hackernews though.
Re: GitHub to lay off 10% and close all offices
#743Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Which is it? I think it's fair to say that people would like to work remotely while also not being converted into a commoditized faceless resource; and I think that it's clear to anyone at the moment that we haven't quite worked all the kinks out of total remote work , yet. An ideal remote environment would be one where the human at the other end of the line is still remembered as being a human and cherished rather…
That's never going to happen. Most people (maybe not you, you savant) need someone's physical presence to see them as a real person. The phrase "Out of sight, out of mind" did not become irrelevant just because I can email someone across the world.
For the older generation, maybe. For the generation that grew up with online friends who they rarely or never met physically, it's completely normal. Sadly we'll have to wait a while for that generation to reach management age.
Re: GitHub to lay off 10% and close all offices
#744Earlier quoted context omitted.
Closing all offices enables GitHub to hire in cheaper geographies. Seems that the San Francisco headquarter was their only real office anyway,and I estimate approx 400 GitHubbers were working from there (55000 sqft office space, tech typically uses 150 sqft per employee). Gradually re-hiring those in cheaper geographies plus reduction of perks can mean quite significant savings and is another stab at Silicon Valley.
This is exactly right. All the people clamoring for remote work are asking for us all to get paid less, or nothing at all because the job went to Europe or Asia.
>This is exactly right. All the people clamoring for remote work are asking for us all to get paid less, or nothing at all because the job went to Europe or Asia.
This wont happen in the united states because of timezones. UK time is 8 hours off PST Indian is 13 off.
SA is really the only viable alternative.
Re: GitHub to lay off 10% and close all offices
#745I really liked Shopify's remote model of not closing offices, but turning them into "ports" for teams in major cities to get together throughout the year for planning, team building, and retreats. You had an official place to get together, enjoy the perks of tech company offices, but with the intention of deep short bursts of interaction rather than focused work.
There’s actually a word for that: Decentralized decision making.
Where you don’t need to physically be in the same room or even in the same country to have a fruitful discussion
Re: GitHub to lay off 10% and close all offices
#746Earlier quoted context omitted.
Look, you can't have it both ways. People on HN are always talking badly about companies that don't allow work from home, or require at least a couple days in the office. Then a company says it's going entirely remote (not including the layoff context) and people shit on that. Which is it? As for the layoffs, I don't have anything to add to that. There a Microsoft decision.
I'll contend that while I've been fully taken advantage of remote work (and probably want my next job to be remote too), I still fully believe it's a long term "leading lambs to the slaughter" type of plan. Companies save big on remote in so many ways. No more offices. No more weekly happy hours (just do a company retreat every 6 months). They can now depress salaries even further because they have a wider pool from…
Twitter still makes all employees work at the office….
:)
Re: GitHub to lay off 10% and close all offices
#747Earlier quoted context omitted.
I do think there's a big cultural difference. I've worked over a decade each in the UK, Australia, and now the US. In the UK and Australia, it was very common to hang out with colleagues socially, but I see it rarely in the US. Maybe it has to do with the "pub culture" in the UK and Aus, and a few beers after work being common, which it doesn't seem to be in the US (at least where I've lived - places with a 'bar scen…
When I was younger at my second job between 25-34, we all had more money than sense (not anywhere near what we can make today) and it was a combination of men and women. We were all single, hung out at each others house, went to strip clubs together (yes the women too) went on overnight trips at cabins together. But as we got older, and settle down, we became more of “coworkers”. I keep in touch with a couple of them…
Going to brothels with coworkers at the end of the day was a common thing regardless of marital status back in the day here (before my time).
Not sure what happened
Re: GitHub to lay off 10% and close all offices
#748Earlier quoted context omitted.
Teams is the result of Microsoft taking a look at Slack and saying, how can we make this feel more like Excel?
I wish I could believe that Microsoft appreciates Excel that much. Excel is one of the most empowering applications ever written and the single greatest thing Microsoft has ever been involved with.
Mmm, SQL Server and, to a lesser extent, C# would like to have a word.
Re: GitHub to lay off 10% and close all offices
#749I really liked Shopify's remote model of not closing offices, but turning them into "ports" for teams in major cities to get together throughout the year for planning, team building, and retreats. You had an official place to get together, enjoy the perks of tech company offices, but with the intention of deep short bursts of interaction rather than focused work.
Sure. Sounds nice. Wonder why they dont open more of them.
Re: GitHub to lay off 10% and close all offices
#750These layoffs are not part of the Microsoft's layoffs? It's in addition to the Microsoft layoffs announced last month?