Folks are treating the recent tech layoffs as something spontaneous. They were not. Apparently the current layoffs were orchestrated by hedge funds.
This hedge fund demanded that the big tech companies lay people off because they were being paid too much. Let that one sink in: a hedge fund manager saying that you're being paid too much.
Note that TCI is demanding that Google lay off more people.
@fuzzychef @sue "Looking at anything on #Twitter is a mistake."
O/T: I'd been leaving my account dormant, but what you said is why I finally reposted my "most important" #OldTwitterPosts here, before pulling the plug & leaving only a redirect.
(Yes, I did grab my archive first.)
The sociopathic billionaire running the fowl site's free-speech-for-me-but-not-for-thee shitshow shouldn't profit from further engagement with the content I shared *for free*.
Lol, yeah, that's true :-( this "Engagement" thing sucks.
(and that modern sites are trying to suck you into using mobile app instead)
@sue
@fuzzychef Well they are "right", in that narrow sense "we only care about money".(*)
But, "money", "economy", "companies", etc. those are supposed to be tools. In democratic country, tools for better life of whole society.
So, we need to fix that "narrow mindedness".
One way would be to remember who those employers are and then either do not work for them or work, but as a member of union. Etc. 1/2
@sue
@fuzzychef 2/2 And reg. "we only care about money": Publicly traded companies are also (among other things) used by us (workers/citizens) to save some money for retirement. E.g. they have to make money. But:
1) are they?
2) also for us?
3) are we OK with *how* they are making that money?
4) …
Built in to this whole letter are unstated assumptions about anticipated growth and how stock price is evaluated.
The "he's right" camp of people want an optimum valuation today. They want optimal rent collection now. More revenue without more people.
It's short sighted, but hedge funds get paid on annual performance. So they're inherently short sighted machines.
@gatesvp @phanecak @sue @fuzzychef exactly.
I'm thinking of the sales and marketing folk they dumped in the middle of client visits
Sure they'll save some short term expenses. Maybe.
But what about the customers who just had a meeting cancelled because Google just arbitrarily wiped out the entire department that was about to meet with them?
Insane mismanagement
Well, I can't say they are wrong either. Company can decide to shorten workforce anytime. Especially during economic turmoils. And looking at this letter it doesn't sound so bad. It's just 1/3 of new hires from 2022.
I actually hope that would eventually lead to more healthy situation in Google, where employees are working only for promotions and abandon projects as soon as they got promoted. I'm not saying that it would fix google instantly, but it can happen eventually.
Yes, it would be painful for employees.
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