Mastodawn

I’m having trouble understanding the reason for these massive tech layoffs. Twitter—sure. Meta? OK, bad bet on “metaverse” and social network in decline. But what has suddenly changed for Google and Amazon?

One possible explanation here: https://news.stanford.edu/2022/12/05/explains-recent-tech-layoffs-worried/

What explains recent tech layoffs, and why should we be worried? | Stanford News

As layoffs in the tech sector mount, Stanford Graduate School of Business Professor Jeffrey Pfeffer is worried. Research – by him, and others – has shown that the stress layoffs create takes a devastating toll on behavioral and physical health and increases mortality and morbidity substantially. Layoffs literally kill people, he said.

Stanford News

Kay Jan 21, 2023

@JamesGleick Competing for shareholder confidence, but in a race-to-the-bottom kind of way.

Average Joe Jan 21, 2023

@k_theory @JamesGleick What I hear from corporate leadership tells me you're right.

Thomas Vander Wal Jan 21, 2023

@JamesGleick One of the Google areas cut was ad sales, which was a sizable group that had difficulty hiring enough people in, so moving out outsoursing that opperation. Another area cut was many experimental projects and support related to them.

The cross company cuts beyond that are more troubling as that often is cutting just to cut, which is most disruptive.

Paranoid Factoid Jan 21, 2023

@vanderwal @JamesGleick

Google is no longer fit to provide service anyway. Let the company die.

Tamreen Khan Jan 21, 2023

@JamesGleick couple factors. Tech did well during the height of the pandemic and hired a ton, then as places reopened a lot of that revenue subsided. Less e-commerce is a big part of that

Also with a possible recession looming a lot of marketing and advertising budgets are being cut. This hurts the adtech giants like facebook and google

Jesús Nieto Jan 21, 2023

@JamesGleick Spoiler: "companies almost mindlessly copy what others are doing." 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

Michael Sokolov Jan 21, 2023

@JamesGleick I see it as a cyclical culling of the herd. A blood sacrifice to the billionaire overlords and attendant monied interests. This assuages the occasional regret they feel for the prevailing gluttony.

Thomas Vander Wal Jan 21, 2023

@JamesGleick Looking at Microsoft they had 220k people, which is up 40k over two years ago and nearly 60k over three years ago.

Groups that took hits seem to be related to the Nokia group, which has sold off much of that that group did and products from that group are now just support mostly. The other groups hit seem to be related to contracts (government(s) and commercial) that they no longer have.

author_is_ShrikeTron🔠💉x5 Jan 21, 2023

@JamesGleick My co's CEO told us earlier in the year word of a "recession" coming was in the corporate "winds"; mini-dotcom crash again. One of the factors was "inflation".

Then Meta…

Unknown if "recession" is still realistic with inflation now slowly dropping.

Companies however are battening down their hatches while using it as an excuse to purge workers.

One company to watch is Disney. Iger is brutal on purging a la 2008. Though he may just purge Chapek's era.

Lenore Blum Jan 21, 2023

@JamesGleick
Very interesting perspective.

Osma A 🇫🇮🇺🇦Jan 21, 2023

@JamesGleick I can sort of get the action, even if some of the reasons are kinda BS. The part that I have trouble understanding, if I'm reading my social network correctly, is how haphazard the execution seems to be. I mean, today I've seen several Googlers say that suddenly their accounts are closed, but they've not heard anything, and they just have to assume having been laid off. Ok, we can expect that from the man-baby. But Google, too?

Spicewalla Jan 21, 2023

@osma @JamesGleick

Perhaps the lesson is that meritocracy is a fraud, that the system optimizes for manbabies and some just have better PR teams than others.

Christopher Masto Jan 21, 2023

@osma @JamesGleick This is not me defending anything (disclaimer: I stilll work there), but I'm genuinely curious what the alternatives are. This seems like a hard problem. When employment is terminated, access to employee resources goes with it. My understanding is that communication was sent to personal e-mails, and there was some kind of redirect set up to send people to an informational site. But those addresses might not be up to date or get filtered, so what can you do?

Christopher Masto Jan 21, 2023

@osma @JamesGleick From a UX standpoint, "you can still log in but with access to some subset of things that aren't confidential or a security risk" could be better, but the engineering effort required to build and maintain that seems substantial, and who vets and keeps the access lists up to date? Also, suddenly pulling together a team to do that would have made it fairly obvious what was about to happen. Google has never needed that before, so.. build it now for next time? Awkward.

Willem Atsma Jan 21, 2023

@masto
That's bs. You call them in, let them know in a human conversation, and either let them work off their time
or send them on forced vacation.

What it demonstrates is that these companies do not have a relationship of trust with their employees, do not care how the relationship ends, and calculated how much 12000 20 minute conversations cost.

@osma @JamesGleick

Christopher Masto Jan 21, 2023

@sn0wbl1nd @osma @JamesGleick I'll respond more politely than calling your opinion "bs", but I think you underestimated the logistics of 12,000 20-minute conversations. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of that either. I work remotely, so in that scenario I'd still find out about the layoffs through the news while waiting my turn in line to have a conversation I don't want to have where I already know what's going to be said. Not convinced that's an improvement.

Willem Atsma Jan 21, 2023

@masto
But that is kind of the point isn't it. I am part of a tiny startup and I care a great deal about employees leaving, even the ones that need to. If you can take time to invest in recruiting and onboarding, you can also take time to offramp. Doing it better should not be hard at all for a Google, even if they don't end up doing a great job at it. It is not hard, it is convenient, careless and rude.
@osma @JamesGleick

Karl Louis Jan 21, 2023

@JamesGleick It is long but worth it
https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/109727932676025175

Cory Doctorow's linkblog (@[email protected])

Attached: 1 image Here is how #platforms die: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die. If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog: https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys 1/

La Quadrature du Net - Mastodon - Media Fédéré

AmeriCanuck Jan 21, 2023

@JamesGleick Yep, they all copy each other. See my previous post on the subject.

Doing it because everyone else is.

AmeriCanuck Jan 21, 2023

@JamesGleick But how else can we pay for a huge party with Sting?

https://www.pcworld.com/article/1479735/microsoft-execs-partied-with-sting-hours-before-announcing-layoffs.html

Microsoft execs partied with Sting in Davos hours before announcing layoffs

Microsoft paid for a private Sting concert in Switzerland the day before announcing it will cut 10,000 jobs.

PCWorld

𝔼k 𝓋ℴ𝓃 𝕂𝔫ä𝔭𝔭𝔢𝔫𝔟𝔢𝔯g Jan 21, 2023

@JamesGleick they know that a chatbot can do a comparable job to most of their employees

Lisa Fast Jan 21, 2023

@JamesGleick wow that’s fascinating “Layoffs are contagious across industries and within industries. The logic driving this, which doesn’t sound like very sensible logic because it’s not, is people say, “Everybody else is doing it, why aren’t we?”

Extinction (our fate)Jan 21, 2023

@JamesGleick So then, 1) it's irrational, 2) it's immoral, and 3) it's transactional. Those are coincidentally three attributes of a fascistic, corrupt corporate elite. So it tracks.

Steve Jan 21, 2023

@JamesGleick great article and indicative of the fact that the ‘hatchet men’ of the world always leave chaos and weakened companies in their wake.

Stan Prager Jan 21, 2023

@JamesGleick Fascinating analysis. Makes you wonder

Jeff Grigg Jan 22, 2023

Most of our hires have been from referrals: The people we have talk with the good people they know.

Our management learned *the hard way*, several years ago, that layoffs cause current employees to *STOP* trying to pull others in. It's a *LONG* road to recover from that!

Adam Hall 🇳🇿🇺🇸

@JeffGrigg agree totally. My hot take is that we are going to see some skepticism when things “pick back up”. This one feels different for some reason, there’s a heightened awareness of what’s being done and why.

kbkorb Jan 22, 2023

@JeffGrigg @JamesGleick

Most managements have uncorrected myopia.

Fear and Tooting in Las Vegas Jan 22, 2023

@JamesGleick @JeffGrigg I wonder if the layoffs will damage these “brands” or if people will still be lining up to get their name on a resume.

Shriram Krishnamurthi Jan 22, 2023

@steevmi1 @JamesGleick @JeffGrigg People will naturally be lining up. Especially in this market (relatively speaking).

Victoria Jan 22, 2023

@JamesGleick
Tech skills are needed in every level of government. It needs both the tech and org/culture new blood will bring. Think about it.

Kate Branden Jan 22, 2023

@JamesGleick Another possible reason: They’re moving the work to more affordable countries. https://restofworld.org/2022/latin-america-startup-developer-scarcity/

“It’s a bloodbath”: U.S. companies are pillaging Latin America’s tech talent

As a hedge against American talent poachers, some exasperated founders are recruiting developers who can’t speak English.

Rest of World

Kate Branden Jan 22, 2023

@JamesGleick A third possible reason: https://equitablegrowth.org/monopsony-market-power-labor-market/

Monopsony and market power in the labor market - Equitable Growth

What is monopsony? Why should we care? And, what should we do about it?

Equitable Growth