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Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics

news.shopify.com

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Re: Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics

#91

Post by duxup »

curiousllama wrote: post #48
marcinzm wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my observation absolute statements about no layoffs are a strong indication of future layoffs in this economy. It's impossible to be certain in this economy so giving an absolute statement is basically a lie. Someone who is so brazen about lying to/deceiving their employees will have no qualms with doing layoffs. On the other hand someone who uses more careful language even if it costs them in the short term is so…

In sports this is the "absolute vote of confidence" Once a coach has to say "[player] has my absolute confidence in their success," you know the player is ~2 weeks from being benched.

I agree, but I think the sports analogy is even more on point when it comes to sports management giving a vote of confidence to coaches. You only ever have to say anything like that when there are questions.

Coaches and players... they talk about each other a lot.

Re: Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics

#92

Post by bwestergard »

monero-xmr wrote: post #47
orra wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I can pay hundreds of people to mow my lawn using scissors, and they will be employed as landscapers. Or I can pay one guy with a lawnmower. Right, but that's not the actual dichotomy. First, if Shopify can deliver its software with less people, then with the same number of people they could deliver more. Second, realistically the dichotomy, in the short to medium term, is will these people be employed in a skilled…

You are assuming that there is an infinite number of people that can be added to Shopify’s payroll that will increase the product’s usefulness and increase revenue enough to justify their hiring. The company leadership doesn’t believe that. There is a line where adding more people will not justify enough revenue increase, and that’s up to the company leaders to decide. It’s worse for the people laid off, but ultimate…

To put it another way, you believe that a welfare maximizing equilibrium can not only be achieved in principle, but is routinely achieved in practice with minimal friction?

This is difficult to believe. I think everyone sees signs all around them of foolish decisions by firm principals that hamper consumer and worker welfare even in the short term, to say nothing of the effect of various kinds of hysteresis on the long term development path of economies (e.g. detaching people from the labor market in a manner that undermines their health, currency of their skills, etc.)

Re: Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics

#93

Post by kodah »

cde-v wrote: post #89
AndrewKemendo wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a fundraising advertisement, not for you. The headline is to pitch possible future investors that Shopify will prioritize investor returns over anything else (as ordained by the Prophets of capitalism)

Almost no one is going to agree with you here. Hacker News is filled with “temporarily embarrassed billionaires” who all think their shitty little app or the fact that they know some obscure useless programming language think will make them rich one day.

and yet people agree with them.

Re: Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics

#94

Post by differentView »

curiousllama wrote: post #48
marcinzm wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my observation absolute statements about no layoffs are a strong indication of future layoffs in this economy. It's impossible to be certain in this economy so giving an absolute statement is basically a lie. Someone who is so brazen about lying to/deceiving their employees will have no qualms with doing layoffs. On the other hand someone who uses more careful language even if it costs them in the short term is so…

In sports this is the "absolute vote of confidence" Once a coach has to say "[player] has my absolute confidence in their success," you know the player is ~2 weeks from being benched.

I've heard it called the Kiss of Death when general managers or owners publicly say similar things about their coaches.

Re: Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics

#95

Post by boringg »

lechacker wrote: post #87
gurchik wrote: post #4

> We legally need the work laptop back, but we’ll help pay for a new one to replace it. What law? I’m not criticizing Spotify at all for this decision, I’m just genuinely curious. A few other companies recently are giving away the laptops so I’m wondering what is different here.

I don't know why people even care about that. I go out of my way to not use my work laptop for personal work/projects/etc. Especially considering the amount they value the laptop at (which may be inflated) is deducted from your severance payment

I think a lot of people dont bother getting their own laptop and are then in a bad spot. That said thats their own bed made.

Re: Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics

#96

Post by icegreentea2 »

jrochkind1 wrote: post #73

> The balance of crafter to manager numbers is a tricky one to strike. Too few and you risk misalignment on the most important things, too many and you add heavy layers of process, approvals, meetings and… side quests. Our numbers were unhealthy, just like it is in much of the tech industry. One of the insidious consequences of this is that it leads to the company increasingly celebrating activities rather than craft…

Yes, I read the statement as Shopify having too many managers and is weighting their layoffs to address that ratio (as well as generally pruning "side quests").

> too many and you add heavy layers of process, approvals, meetings and… side quests (emphasis mine)

and

> A more fit for purpose Shopify centered on its main quest has less scope creep, fewer meetings, and more shipping great features for our merchants. (emphasis mine)

Re: Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics

#97

Post by dangus »

alanfranz wrote: post #25

What is an healthy manager-to-ic ratio?

I don't know about a minimum but I think 10 is a good upper limit.

Unrelated, I think that we should stop calling workers individual contributors. I think "workers" is a more fitting description.

"Individual contributor" makes the worker seem smaller and less impactful, as if management is contributing in a way that's superior and bigger than the individual. In reality, only the workers work, and managers manage, doing less work the higher up on the ladder they go.

Don't believe me? Here's a list of CEOs that somehow managed to be CEO of multiple companies at once.

- Jack Dorsey

- Jeff Bezos

- Elon Musk

- Carlos Ghosn

And yet, my employer forbids me from having more than one day job.

Re: Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics

#98

Post by kalleboo »

FredPret wrote: post #32
nus07 wrote: post #9

Last time I read a very reassuring and cogent letter by the CEO of Shopify about the layoffs . But at no point did the letter hint at further layoffs no less 20% which is huge. Wondering what the explanation is this time. I understand everyone has their worth and price but I fail to see how management and leadership at companies still have jobs and huge bonuses. Reaganomics has had 35 years. Maybe we need a new visio…

The CEO's job is to deliver results, not maintain full employment. Companies exist, and have always existed, to be temporary money-making enterprises. Acting like they are civil institutions tasked with upholding the social fabric is absurd.

But why did the CEO hire all these useless people in the first place if they are so competent? Why did it take until now to fire them?

Re: Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics

#99

Post by swexbe »

wincy wrote: post #56
rqtwteye wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Maybe we need a new vision for our society" If AI really kills as many jobs as predicted, we will definitely have to rethink society. It doesn't really make sense that a technology that improves overall productivity of society ends up making large segments of the population suffer. We need to find a way to have everybody benefit from progress and not just a few at the top.

Unemployed disenfranchised highly intelligent highly motivated people is going to be very different than a bunch of unemployed McDonald’s workers. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens if nothing else.

Yep, kind of hard to keep up the facade when you can ”do everything right” and still be unemployed and poor.

Re: Shopify will be smaller by about 20% and Flexport will buy Shopify Logistics

#100

Post by SilverBirch »

Once again a company that prides itself on being a follower rather than a leader. It drives me insane

>Our numbers were unhealthy, just like it is in much of the tech industry.

Ok, can we consider this in your compensation discussions this year? That you mindlessly followed the crowd and left your company structurally weak? Or do we think you're going to shoot for record compensation this year?

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