Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Meta tells staff it will cut 10% of jobs

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

841–850 of 923 posts

Re: Meta tells staff it will cut 10% of jobs

#841

Post by autaut »

dcrazy wrote: post #833
autaut wrote: post #582

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are forgetting 20 years and billions of dollars developing, in collaboration with research institutes like IMEC and funding from chipmakers like Intel, Samsung, and TSMC. But it doesn’t fit your ideological narrative of how innovation functions so…

I am not the person you originally replied to. I have no ideological motivation here. I am merely pointing out ASML did not invent EUV, nor did they fund its initial development or the first decade or so of its productization. ASML employs plenty of scientists and engineers who did important work getting EUV to market, but your characterization implied that ASML single-handedly introduced a step-function increase in…

I believe that it's a bit more complicated than that especially if we look at the contributions of IMEC.

But irregardless I can hand you the point that you are making and then say that yours is a very tight standard that would not pass most of what passes for innovation in Silicon Valley.

The point I'm trying to make for the initial poster is that they are confusing "technological innovation" for money making. And yes you don't have a money printing machine in the EU, but you have A LOT of technological innovation that eventually goes to market through SV.

Re: Meta tells staff it will cut 10% of jobs

#842

Post by ergocoder »

NegativeK wrote: post #685
ergocoder wrote: post #536

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you hire a house cleaner, and the house cleaner doesn't do a good job, would you fire yourself from the house? What repercussions will you personally suffer?

If I had a roommate who spent huge swaths of our monthly budget on house cleaning we didn't need, I might tell them to go find another place to live. Or to stop stretching metaphors.. The investors should be mad that the layoffs were even necessary.

Yes, and being mad is not 0 or 1.

Investors are mad to a certain degree for a mishap, but then investors are also happy about something else.

To continue analogy, Zuck has made $10,000 for shareholders and had a mishap of $1000.

How much should Zuck be punished here? I don't have a good answer but it is certainly not firing himself for it.

Re: Meta tells staff it will cut 10% of jobs

#843

Post by ergocoder »

jastuk wrote: post #573
ergocoder wrote: post #536

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you hire a house cleaner, and the house cleaner doesn't do a good job, would you fire yourself from the house? What repercussions will you personally suffer?

Are you implying the 10% being fired are all bad workers? What if the house cleaner was not the problem here?

Ok, let's continue the analogy. The house cleaners weren't the problem. They are the best of the best at cleaning the pool.

You have the pool but now want to get rid of the pool.

You thought you liked the pool but you don't. It was your own mistake for wanting the pool and changing your mind.

Would you fire yourself from the house? You did make a mistake.

Re: Meta tells staff it will cut 10% of jobs

#844

Post by hackable_sand »

Oras wrote: post #830
weezing wrote: post #549

On the other hand 8000 people can potentially do some jobs meaningful to society.

The tech job market is in dark state now, really not much options to choose “meaningful”. I feel for the those who will hear the bad news, whether meta or other companies, and I hope they will cope and get other roles

There are plenty of jobs outside of software development.

Re: Meta tells staff it will cut 10% of jobs

#845

Post by shamoo »

malfist wrote: post #735
coredog64 wrote: post #699

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the principal/agent problem: The overhiring is incredibly difficult to unwind because it led to the creation of empires. Everyone who is not a founder has more incentive to keep the empire because it props up their comp.

How? In 2022, Meta laid off 11,000 (13%) In 2023, Meta did two layoffs, one of 10,000 (another 13.6%), one of 600 In 2024, Meta did a layoff (layoffs.fyi doesn't list the number) In 2025, Meta did three layoffs, one of 3,600 (5%), 100 and 600 people In 2026, Meta has done two layoffs, one of 200, and one of 8,000 (10%). If you can't correct overhiring in 4 years as a CEO, you've failed. If you repeatedly have to do >…

In 2012 meta had 4600 employees.

In 2018, 35,500.

From 2019 to 2022, 44k to 86k.

2026, as of now, 70k, 26k higher than 2019.

Using relative comparison is not appropriate for a software company, which is incredibly scalable by nature. Yoy is not the appropriate metric here. These are not workers on the line in a widget factory.

Re: Meta tells staff it will cut 10% of jobs

#846

Post by postexitus »

avgDev wrote: post #815
subpixel wrote: post #637

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you consider Marketplace its own product it’s a massive win but they haven’t monetized it beyond some very ineffective post boosting and advertising. I honestly think they could charge 10% of list price for items over $50, plus membership levels that reduce or remove listing fees. and make a significant amount of money.

I am so disappointed that Marketplace killed craigslist. Marketplace search is awful. It is probably the worst shopping I have experienced.

Did it though?

Re: Meta tells staff it will cut 10% of jobs

#847

Post by 1vuio0pswjnm7 »

bandrami wrote: post #458

This is interesting because it's a case of "AI taking jobs" but not in the way people normally mean; these massive layoffs are happening not because AI is doing the work they used to do but because capex is sucking all of the operating money out of everywhere. The companies may be forced to replace some of the laid-off employees with AI (as far as possible) but that's an effect not a cause.

There is only one reason to terminate large numbers of employees at the same time

1. Cut costs

There are multiple reasons companies may need to cut costs. Generally, historically, they are not positive

One of them is that, internally, the business is not doing well or the company believes there are problems on the horizon

Perhaps a company that is healthy and optimistic about the future could at the same time be conducting successive rounds of layoffs

But are there many examples of healthy, shrinking companies from history

Usually company growth is taken as a sign of prosperity. Multiple rounds of layoffs are not. More like survival mode

But of course this time it will be different and the remaining employees after the layoffs have nothing to worry about

Re: Meta tells staff it will cut 10% of jobs

#848

Post by avgDev »

subpixel wrote: post #820
avgDev wrote: post #815

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am so disappointed that Marketplace killed craigslist. Marketplace search is awful. It is probably the worst shopping I have experienced.

The disappointment needs to be directed at Craigslist, which sat on its hands and let FB eat their lunch. And while FB marketplace search kinda sucks the algorithm is supremely effective at surfacing listings based on your searches and activity.

I use marketplace to search for cars, and the algorithm is beyond frustrating. I just want some decent filters. How a company that big can create something so terrible is beyond me.

Re: Meta tells staff it will cut 10% of jobs

#849

Post by akdev1l »

Lammy wrote: post #320
rsanek wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meta has about 10% more employees now than they did at the end of 2021. They currently have less than half the employees of Google or Apple; only a third of Microsoft. If you're right, the rest of big tech is in a much worse position.

> If you're right, the rest of big tech is in a much worse position. Part of “Big Tech” hiring isn't just to have an important thing for everyone to do but also to keep competitors from having access to those people.

It was. Not anymore. See: layoffs.

Re: Meta tells staff it will cut 10% of jobs

#850

Post by sharadov »

benjaminoakes wrote: post #762
sharadov wrote: post #755

As much as I hate Zuck - he's a ballsy CEO, he makes big bets, some work and some don't. Instagram and Whatsapp did! Heck in Asia and Latin America entire economies use Whatsapp for transacting business.

I know you're right about Asia and Latin America, but should any one platform or person have that much power?

No I don't that's why I said I don't like him or the platform. But the products are great, and there is no competition. And neither India or Latin America built domestic products to rival Whatsapp/Insta/FB.
Post reply on HN