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LinkedIn laying off nearly 700, mostly from core engineering teams

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Re: LinkedIn laying off nearly 700, mostly from core engineering teams

#91
post #65
post #57

> “As we continue to execute on our FY24 plan, we need to also evolve how we work and what we prioritize so we can deliver on the key initiatives we’ve identified that will have an outsized impact in achieving our business goals,” LinkedIn executives Mohak Shroff and Tomer Cohen wrote in the memo. Is this standard business communication lingo for layoffs?

This is one of the worst examples of 'biz-speak' I've ever come across adding insult to injury for those 700 workers being let go.

This seems like corp-speak 101.

You aren't doing layoffs.

You're adjusting to a new market to maximize current opportunities.

You have to always look at the bright side.

Re: LinkedIn laying off nearly 700, mostly from core engineering teams

#92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A union would have done nothing other than accelerate the process. We need laws that if a job is off-shored the company is penalized heavily, where it makes it painful and unbearable.

Meddle with the free market? INCONCIEVABLE!

A free market is one that is protected. Unfortunately nothing in the USA is protected. Our borders, our jobs, our votes. Those in control only care about themselves.

Re: LinkedIn laying off nearly 700, mostly from core engineering teams

#93
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When my father was pushed into early requirement, he got a full years severance and has his pension was topped up to 100%. Do you think the LinkedIn people will get their pensions fully paid out?

Companies like Google & Salesforce paid out 6-8 months of severance (more depending on tenure) and accelerated remaining stock vests, so not all that different.

First waves of layoffs are famously more generous with their severance agreements than the following ones.

They are already not as generous as they could be (for example, Google on January 20th boasted about accelerated vesting for the notice period of US employees that would be laid off... But employees in other regions didn't get the same terms)

...and they are going to get worse and worse, with future layoffs

Re: LinkedIn laying off nearly 700, mostly from core engineering teams

#94
post #57

> “As we continue to execute on our FY24 plan, we need to also evolve how we work and what we prioritize so we can deliver on the key initiatives we’ve identified that will have an outsized impact in achieving our business goals,” LinkedIn executives Mohak Shroff and Tomer Cohen wrote in the memo. Is this standard business communication lingo for layoffs?

Is that language actually useful to anyone? Don't you always need to evolve and prioritize, or is that a brand new concept to LinkedIn?

Re: LinkedIn laying off nearly 700, mostly from core engineering teams

#95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OP is talking about the terms of layoffs (as in the severance package) rather than about layoffs in general.

Unions probably have better severance packages but how many times is a typical worker laid off in their life? There are costs to increasing the cost of a layoff. It means corporations will rely on credentialism more, and take fewer risks. I'd rather live in a world where you can jump into software without a college degree, but maybe have to save a little money at your very well paying job than one that only hires col…

I worked for 5 jobs or so in my decade of experience. Every single one had layoffs (usually 10%+). Layoffs aren’t that common in tech until now but were always prevalent in the “industry”.

Re: LinkedIn laying off nearly 700, mostly from core engineering teams

#96
post #60
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdotally, in my circles, most truly thought that this won't have an impact in the compensation levels. Always struck me as incredibly short-sighted and your comment is actually the first I see that explicitly states what I thought as well. There is still an argument that, if you truly want top talent, then that top talent might actually want to live in high COL locations like NY or whatever.

In the US maybe, but there is plenty of top talent in Hyderabad, Bangalore, Pune etc. A couple decades ago they would have all been lining up to immigrate to the US, but with the impossible visa situation and a thriving local startup scene no one really wants to leave anymore.

There are a lot of great labor in India, but great does not come cheap. Cheaper than the bay area, or even the midwest, but still not cheap by world standards. You can pay engineers in Germany for similar or less in total compensation. (but good luck finding them)

Re: LinkedIn laying off nearly 700, mostly from core engineering teams

#97
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google is doing the same thing. Same as my own employer. Funny that some people think "if we work in the office more, companies won't outsource jobs as much".

Maybe not, but from the company’s perspective if you’re not in the office then it doesn’t matter how far away you are (with some time zone restrictions maybe, but remote work heavily relies on async communication anyway). So they’ll look for the cheapest labor they can get away with. I guess you can now have RTO in India though?

> they’ll look for the cheapest labor they can get away with

Don't you look for the best deal when you buy things?

That's how markets work.

Re: LinkedIn laying off nearly 700, mostly from core engineering teams

#98
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps a newly-formed modern day union would strive to improve upon the problems of past unions with the benefit of historical hindsight.

Maybe, but it is likely that you will not be able to form a new union and instead be forced to join with an existing one. As soon as a big union hears of your efforts they will step in and demand to be the ones to represent you then they only need a couple people to scream we need to join the big union and they can fight your efforts to be independent in court.

It’s more of the principle of the thing. We work in an industry that aspires to disrupt everything from human relations (social media), to commerce (Amazon, the sharing economy), to biology, nutrition, and the very laws of physics (or at least material science.) Even if a lot of this is just marketing hype, there is still ambition required to come up with such utopian grandiose goals. But whenever the idea of a union is discussed it’s “no, we’ve tried it already, that’s impossible, everyone knows that.” What hypocritical defeatism!

Re: LinkedIn laying off nearly 700, mostly from core engineering teams

#99
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who says the overseas positions are going to be remote?

There would be communication overhead between teams. If companies are willing to take that, then they shouldn't have any argument against remote work irrespective of location and timezones.

Communication overhead between teams is very different from communication overhead between individual people on a team.

Re: LinkedIn laying off nearly 700, mostly from core engineering teams

#100

Damn. The market is already so tough for software engineers right now and the supply of engineers is going to increase again. I don't see how wages can drop lower than they are now. I think some engineers may have to consider a career in construction, plumbing, retail or other. Software development is just not worth the hassle and strain. Not to mention that it has become laborious, repetitive and inefficient without…

This is one of the more perplexing takes I've seen, assuming this isn't satire
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