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I hope that tech industry employees do not feel immune to this. I encourage you to take a look at your customer base and think very critically about where that

I hope that tech industry employees do not feel immune to this. I encourage you to take a look at your customer base and think very critically about where that money is actually coming from.

itgoon 7y ago
Yep, our business requires other business. Without users, servers are complicated heaters that require cooling.
baron_harkonnen 7y ago
I think there's a lot of cognitive dissonance for tech employees partially because tech thrived in the 2008 crisis. Investors looking to make high risk/reward investments had no where else to go but SV. If you aren't old enough to remember the dot-com boom it's understandable you might feel tech is invincible. Tech will not be insulated from this and in general I think we'll see a major contraction of the tech labour force. There are so many non-tech companies that want in on the VC and other investor money so they are rapidly building out expensive tech teams to create illusion that they are the next tech giant. Not to mention the other weakness in tech: RSUs as the main factor of total comp. If the market continues to drop, especially if it hits hards, a huge number of SV workers will be getting automatic pay cuts due to rapidly decreased values in RSU. A lot of expensive real estate in SV is paid for by RSUs. This crisis is going to be insane.
- robszumski 7y ago
  VCs, possibly. The larger tech companies are selling 1 and 3 year deals for software, which will see some impact, but largely distance them from the deep V because of the length of the terms.
  - redisman 7y ago
    Sure, but what if you sold your 3 year deal to an airline that is now effectively stuck in bankruptcy for the next 10 years. Or any of the 100 other industries/sub-industries that are completely shut down right now. If I can't afford to pay rent on my office I sure as heck am not paying Microsoft either.
    - generalpass 7y ago
      > Sure, but what if you sold your 3 year deal to an airline that is now effectively stuck in bankruptcy for the next 10 years. Or any of the 100 other industries/sub-industries that are completely shut down right now. If I can't afford to pay rent on my office I sure as heck am not paying Microsoft either. I'm not clear such contracts make it through bankruptcy court.
Loughla 7y ago
As leadership at my institution meets to discuss long-term impacts of other people not spending money on us, the first items on the chopping blocks are the super-convenient, but not super-mission critical SaaS that can be replaced by slower, but still effective processes. The first items. Really, the only items right now. We're 100% not looking at cutting the people working here. This is new and different. 2011 was the last reduction in our labor force, and we only considered human cuts at that time.
OrangeMango 7y ago
> I hope that tech industry employees do not feel immune to this. Our client services team is in overdrive making sure all our customers are as happy as possible. This is something every company should be doing right now.
rimliu 7y ago
I also encourage to look at all the business rushing to have online presence/sales. When online suddenly becomes the only way to sell your stuff… When online suddenly become the only way for you to teach new skills...
- generalpass 7y ago
  > I also encourage to look at all the business rushing to have online presence/sales. When online suddenly becomes the only way to sell your stuff… When online suddenly become the only way for you to teach new skills... True, but selling implies buying...
SketchySeaBeast 7y ago
We're down to a one income household now and my company has already let people go. I've been foolish with my money and kept it all liquid until now so the market drop didn't hurt my reserves, but I'm painfully aware I'm one job loss away from slowly going destitue and homeless.
- jackcosgrove 7y ago
  You have been very wise with your money. The stock market has been over-valued for years and now you have a safety net.
  - SketchySeaBeast 7y ago
    Thank you. I hope so.
godtoldmetodoit 7y ago
I work at a MSP that specializes in large enterprise workloads (SAP, Hyperion etc). I just don't know what the future holds for us, I'm sure the company will survive in some form due to our hospital, pharma and defense clients. But we also have a ton of clients in manufacturing, and I have no idea how they are going to manage this. The thing we have going for us is we run workloads that they absolutely need to run to exist as a business, but if they go completely under there is no avoiding the pain. So far I feel relatively secure, and they are even cutting us a bonus next week which shocked me. Scary times though, really makes you realize how little you actually control - you just gotta let go and deal with what hits you.

I hope that tech industry employees do not feel immune to this. I encourage you to take a look at your customer base and think very critically about where that money is actually coming from.

itgoon 7y ago

Yep, our business requires other business. Without users, servers are complicated heaters that require cooling.

baron_harkonnen 7y ago

I think there's a lot of cognitive dissonance for tech employees partially because tech thrived in the 2008 crisis. Investors looking to make high risk/reward investments had no where else to go but SV. If you aren't old enough to remember the dot-com boom it's understandable you might feel tech is invincible. Tech will not be insulated from this and in general I think we'll see a major contraction of the tech labour force. There are so many non-tech companies that want in on the VC and other investor money so they are rapidly building out expensive tech teams to create illusion that they are the next tech giant. Not to mention the other weakness in tech: RSUs as the main factor of total comp. If the market continues to drop, especially if it hits hards, a huge number of SV workers will be getting automatic pay cuts due to rapidly decreased values in RSU. A lot of expensive real estate in SV is paid for by RSUs. This crisis is going to be insane.

robszumski 7y ago
VCs, possibly. The larger tech companies are selling 1 and 3 year deals for software, which will see some impact, but largely distance them from the deep V because of the length of the terms.
- redisman 7y ago
  Sure, but what if you sold your 3 year deal to an airline that is now effectively stuck in bankruptcy for the next 10 years. Or any of the 100 other industries/sub-industries that are completely shut down right now. If I can't afford to pay rent on my office I sure as heck am not paying Microsoft either.
  - generalpass 7y ago
    > Sure, but what if you sold your 3 year deal to an airline that is now effectively stuck in bankruptcy for the next 10 years. Or any of the 100 other industries/sub-industries that are completely shut down right now. If I can't afford to pay rent on my office I sure as heck am not paying Microsoft either. I'm not clear such contracts make it through bankruptcy court.

Loughla 7y ago

As leadership at my institution meets to discuss long-term impacts of other people not spending money on us, the first items on the chopping blocks are the super-convenient, but not super-mission critical SaaS that can be replaced by slower, but still effective processes. The first items. Really, the only items right now. We're 100% not looking at cutting the people working here. This is new and different. 2011 was the last reduction in our labor force, and we only considered human cuts at that time.

OrangeMango 7y ago

> I hope that tech industry employees do not feel immune to this. Our client services team is in overdrive making sure all our customers are as happy as possible. This is something every company should be doing right now.

rimliu 7y ago

I also encourage to look at all the business rushing to have online presence/sales. When online suddenly becomes the only way to sell your stuff… When online suddenly become the only way for you to teach new skills...

generalpass 7y ago
> I also encourage to look at all the business rushing to have online presence/sales. When online suddenly becomes the only way to sell your stuff… When online suddenly become the only way for you to teach new skills... True, but selling implies buying...

SketchySeaBeast 7y ago

We're down to a one income household now and my company has already let people go. I've been foolish with my money and kept it all liquid until now so the market drop didn't hurt my reserves, but I'm painfully aware I'm one job loss away from slowly going destitue and homeless.

jackcosgrove 7y ago
You have been very wise with your money. The stock market has been over-valued for years and now you have a safety net.
- SketchySeaBeast 7y ago
  Thank you. I hope so.

godtoldmetodoit 7y ago

I work at a MSP that specializes in large enterprise workloads (SAP, Hyperion etc). I just don't know what the future holds for us, I'm sure the company will survive in some form due to our hospital, pharma and defense clients. But we also have a ton of clients in manufacturing, and I have no idea how they are going to manage this. The thing we have going for us is we run workloads that they absolutely need to run to exist as a business, but if they go completely under there is no avoiding the pain. So far I feel relatively secure, and they are even cutting us a bonus next week which shocked me. Scary times though, really makes you realize how little you actually control - you just gotta let go and deal with what hits you.