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The Broken Microsoft Pact: Layoffs and Performance Management

danielsada.tech

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Re: The Broken Microsoft Pact: Layoffs and Performance Management

#81

Post by cactusfrog »

Arainach wrote: post #39
cactusfrog wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The amount of unioned workers keep decreasing because the firms with unioned workers fail or the work is outsourced. I think open source software is the best protection against abuses because workers can take the means of production elsewhere if a company becomes dysfunctional or greedy. The consolidation of patents in other engineering fields has killed the industry in the US.

>because the firms with unioned workers fail or the work is outsourced Sorry, you misspelled "decades of Republicans disassembling labor protections and enacting garbage like right to work laws, corporations hiring thugs like the Pinkertons to break up and discourage them, and conservative media spewing lies to discourage membership".

I don’t think there is a contradiction here. Cheap, un-unionized labor has put many unionized firms out of business. It is extremely rare for a firm to be “de-unionized”.

Re: The Broken Microsoft Pact: Layoffs and Performance Management

#82

Post by wenc »

aitchnyu wrote: post #59
wenc wrote: post #21

Most financial advisors tell you to keep a rainy day fund with a 3-6 month runway. Given what's been happening in the tech industry and the economy at large, I now keep a 1-year emergency fund in a money-market fund at 4% (Fidelity SPAXX). I'm probably losing out on some growth (SP500 grew 11% over the past year, despite the massive drop in April 2025), but at least I have liquidity in case I get laid off. That's the…

Umm, my search engine says US inflation was 4.7 percent in 2021, 8 in 2022, 4.12 in 2023, 2.9 in 2024, 2.4 this year. Will you choose this in the 4+ percent years too?

Did you also check 7 day yields (interest) in those years? SPAXX is currently 4%. But was 5% in previous years (it holds US treasuries and has a very low expense ratio and holds its NAV)

https://fundresearch.fidelity.com/mutual-funds/summary/31617...

Re: The Broken Microsoft Pact: Layoffs and Performance Management

#83

Post by cactusfrog »

drewcoo wrote: post #54
cactusfrog wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The amount of unioned workers keep decreasing because the firms with unioned workers fail or the work is outsourced. I think open source software is the best protection against abuses because workers can take the means of production elsewhere if a company becomes dysfunctional or greedy. The consolidation of patents in other engineering fields has killed the industry in the US.

> I think open source software is the best protection against abuses because workers can take the means of production elsewhere if a company becomes dysfunctional or greedy. OSS? You mean copyleft? Who does that? Who would use that?

OSS, even MIT licensed, embodies an radical idea that is counter to how most other engineering fields operate. The software required to design a chemical plant can cost 60K+ per year, per license, which locks in engineers and drives down their wages.

Re: The Broken Microsoft Pact: Layoffs and Performance Management

#84

Post by pjmlp »

hackthemack wrote: post #24

I wish people were not so adverse to unions. The company will never be your friend. You will almost never have much leverage over what the company wants to do. The information you have will most likely be very asymmetrical to what the company has insight into, putting you at a disadvantage. Unions are imperfect. Unions will have its own inside politics. You will pay a union fee. I think humans are fundamentally flawe…

In Europe though, usually European unions apply to everyone on a specific sector, regardless of what they do in the building.

I enjoyed many years the agreements of IG Metal in the telecommunications and life sciences sectors, as software engineer.

Re: The Broken Microsoft Pact: Layoffs and Performance Management

#85

Post by pjmlp »

armada651 wrote: post #29
hackthemack wrote: post #24

I wish people were not so adverse to unions. The company will never be your friend. You will almost never have much leverage over what the company wants to do. The information you have will most likely be very asymmetrical to what the company has insight into, putting you at a disadvantage. Unions are imperfect. Unions will have its own inside politics. You will pay a union fee. I think humans are fundamentally flawe…

Software developers have enjoyed decades of high demand for their skills and the companies that hired them have enjoyed decades of an abundance of capital against a low interest rate. You didn't need a union because you had leverage due to the demand for your skills and companies didn't need to be particularly efficient. This was a time where companies were hiring talented developers just to deny them to their compet…

As I write on a sibling comment, in many European countries, unions are by industry sector, not specific professionals, so everyone on the sector is able to enjoy being part of union agreements, regardless of their roles.

Re: The Broken Microsoft Pact: Layoffs and Performance Management

#86

Post by Arainach »

red-iron-pine wrote: post #74
Arainach wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need a union when there's demand precisely because there will be down times.

and we're hitting that point. now. but the gist of the parent's arguement is that we didn't before. also keep in mind that unions first popped up in places were people were, like, dying, or getting maimed: trains, mines, electrical, gasfitters, ironworkers. up until now programming has been easy money sitting indoors while sipping lattes.

You form the union while you have leverage, not in the down times.

The first unions aren't the only kind. Unions benefit all sorts of fields. They continue to fight on behalf of labor. In all fields, management and labor are at odds and management has a collective bargaining voice so labor needs one too.

Re: The Broken Microsoft Pact: Layoffs and Performance Management

#87

Post by mathiaspoint »

hackthemack wrote: post #24

I wish people were not so adverse to unions. The company will never be your friend. You will almost never have much leverage over what the company wants to do. The information you have will most likely be very asymmetrical to what the company has insight into, putting you at a disadvantage. Unions are imperfect. Unions will have its own inside politics. You will pay a union fee. I think humans are fundamentally flawe…

There is not a single problem competent developers have that unions would solve and in many cases they would exacerbate the ones we do have.

Most of the issue is that there's too much administrative policy (whether the imposition is internal or external doesn't matter) for us to effectively communicate and collaborate. Unions would only add to that while collecting fees from us. Most of us are intelligent enough to know this which is why we never form them.

Re: The Broken Microsoft Pact: Layoffs and Performance Management

#88

Post by mathiaspoint »

cactusfrog wrote: post #33
hackthemack wrote: post #24

I wish people were not so adverse to unions. The company will never be your friend. You will almost never have much leverage over what the company wants to do. The information you have will most likely be very asymmetrical to what the company has insight into, putting you at a disadvantage. Unions are imperfect. Unions will have its own inside politics. You will pay a union fee. I think humans are fundamentally flawe…

The amount of unioned workers keep decreasing because the firms with unioned workers fail or the work is outsourced. I think open source software is the best protection against abuses because workers can take the means of production elsewhere if a company becomes dysfunctional or greedy. The consolidation of patents in other engineering fields has killed the industry in the US.

Yup. The GPL is the software version of a union. You know it works because of how aggressively companies like Apple avoid and hate it.

Re: The Broken Microsoft Pact: Layoffs and Performance Management

#89

Post by beisner »

wenc wrote: post #80
sarchertech wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you only have a little more than a year in total assets that probably makes sense. But if you have much more than that, there’s no reason to keep an entire year in such a low return investment. Money in say an S&P500 ETF can be liquid in 1-3 days.

SP500 can go down a lot and stay down for a long time. We went through this in 2022 when most stocks were down 20% for a year. SP500 is not a low risk short term investment. How would you feel if your rainy day fund lost 20% of its value?

I think OP is speaking about people who have 5x or more than their current salary in equities, where even a 50% temporary drop in assets will have no meaningful effect in lifestyle (and a long-term 50% drop in S&P would be apocalyptic, bigger fish to fry).
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