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Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices

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Re: Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices

#81

Post by lhorie »

whymauri wrote: post #63
lhorie wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, everyone knew it was coming. Dara has been pretty transparent about the timelines, plus there were a ton of leaks in the news about details over the course of the last few weeks. It looks like everyone in eng got an email this morning that stated in bold italics whether they are affected or not. Gotta say I appreciated that clarity. But the day's just starting so I don't really have a grasp on what teams are st…

I don't understand why the firings are waves. Is this a logistics thing, or a morale thing somehow? Because it seems like it would negatively impact morale, more than anything. In either case, don't feel obligated to answer given the current circumstances. I'm sorry this is happening to you and your company. I'm sending you and the other workers good wishes.

The leadership team has repeatedly said they acknowledge it sucks to leave people hanging for weeks on end since it obviously drags morale through the mud, but that the logistics are complicated, due to the sheer number of people involved, local laws, etc. The leaks have just made it all the more stressful.

Re: Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices

#82

Post by SeanAnderson »

travisl12 wrote: post #52

I was let go today from Uber. If anyone is looking for a Frontend/Fullstack with 7yoe. I'm here :) Find me on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/travis-lawrence-b77400b8/

Sorry you were let go - especially in the current situation. Feel free to look through our listings and, if anything is interesting to you, shoot us a message.

https://www.collage.com/careers

Re: Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices

#83

Post by criddell »

seibelj wrote: post #21
tyingq wrote: post #5

"Khosrowshahi said the company is winding down its product incubator and artificial-intelligence lab" Does that mean they are officially out of the self-driving car business? Wouldn't you need your AI lab if you were still pursuing that? Also, if you're hitting the paywall: https://outline.com/VL6xaR

AI engineers cost an absurd amount of money for dubious ROI in the self-driving car space.

Isn't just a classic risk-vs-reward bet for a company like Uber?

Re: Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices

#84

Post by AndrewUnmuted »

jonluca wrote: post #9

Dara's email was really well written, and felt as compassionate as one can for a letter from a CEO announcing job cuts. The full email: Team Uber: These have been unprecedented and challenging times for everyone—our societies, our governments, our families, our economies, all around the world. They’ve also been challenging for Uber, and many of you, as you’ve waited for us to define the road ahead. I’ve said clearly…

> I am incredibly thankful to everyone reading this email, because

I'm just curious, did you take the time to add the emphasis here, or did the original email have the word "everyone" surrounded by asterisk characters?

Re: Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices

#85

Post by raiyu »

deminature wrote: post #73
rvz wrote: post #62

I can't imagine how companies like Uber, Lyft and WeWork could be sustainable in the long term with huge costs and a high burn rate, but this action is definitely in addressing the future Q2 results in the summer which is the actual results including the impact on the coronavirus outbreak. Essentially for companies like Uber and Lyft who don't focus on fast growth, VC cash raising and generating little money with hug…

Uber and Lyft are public, they haven't relied on VC cash for over a year.

Going public is still a fundraising event that puts cash on the balance sheet of the company.

So whether they are funded by VC's or large institutional buyers who are the majority traders on the public market, there is no difference and the companies continue to lost money.

The issue for Uber is that they need to change the narrative. They don't have the story that Amazon did, that they are losing money because they are reinvesting it back into tremendous infrastructure which will give them scale.

Uber is losing money because they grew very quickly so there were a lot of innate inefficiencies because of that. So these firings are a chance to right size the company and see if the new trimmed down Uber will now be profitable when eventually ridership returns to normal.

Re: Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices

#86

Post by libria »

kylec wrote: post #26
asciident wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with equating ethical with generous. Basically it turns ethics into money, with the idea you can buy ethicalness.

If you’re cutting off someone’s source of income, giving them extra money gives them extra time to land on their feet. I’d say that’s pretty ethical.

Is shorter or zero severance unethical? We all enter into this employment contract knowing it could end abruptly from either party. If money is tight, they could afford longer severances for all if they cut 4000 instead. Does that not seem unethical toward the extra 1000 cut?

Re: Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices

#88

Post by amznthrowaway5 »

seibelj wrote: post #21
tyingq wrote: post #5

"Khosrowshahi said the company is winding down its product incubator and artificial-intelligence lab" Does that mean they are officially out of the self-driving car business? Wouldn't you need your AI lab if you were still pursuing that? Also, if you're hitting the paywall: https://outline.com/VL6xaR

AI engineers cost an absurd amount of money for dubious ROI in the self-driving car space.

That's true in more than just in the self-driving car space. Even at companies like AAPL and AMZN where ML focused researchers/engineers work on production related tasks, I've seen their value production is dubious at best.

Re: Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices

#89

Post by vishnugupta »

whymauri wrote: post #63
lhorie wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, everyone knew it was coming. Dara has been pretty transparent about the timelines, plus there were a ton of leaks in the news about details over the course of the last few weeks. It looks like everyone in eng got an email this morning that stated in bold italics whether they are affected or not. Gotta say I appreciated that clarity. But the day's just starting so I don't really have a grasp on what teams are st…

I don't understand why the firings are waves. Is this a logistics thing, or a morale thing somehow? Because it seems like it would negatively impact morale, more than anything. In either case, don't feel obligated to answer given the current circumstances. I'm sorry this is happening to you and your company. I'm sending you and the other workers good wishes.

The logistics. In the best of times it takes at least a week to let go a few thousand employees. I can think of about ten things to take care of. Now multiply that with number of countries, the local laws to be handled. Add another multiplier or two for being a public company. The PR angle. And finally the unprecedented COVID-19 situation we are in, which compounds by adding a few more variables, the least of which is remote coordination.

All said and done, I’m actually impressed they got through this in under a month.

Re: Uber cuts 3000 more jobs, closes 45 offices

#90

Post by vishnugupta »

theredbox wrote: post #48
ra7 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where did you get those numbers? And how did you conclude engineers worldwide are being "replaced by" Indians from a statement which says they're moving APAC hub from Singapore?

I am replying to a comment that is speculating they are going for India.

The speculation was in response to question about “moving Singapore to APAC”. Sorry if that wasn’t clear from the context.
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