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Seems technology sparing. One of the big things that this crisis has made me realize about uber/lyft/airbnb and other disruptive entrants in regulated spaces is

Seems technology sparing. One of the big things that this crisis has made me realize about uber/lyft/airbnb and other disruptive entrants in regulated spaces is that they have to have footprint in pretty much every market they operate in - their staff scales more w/ use than a pure software operation. Explains their "bloated" staff counts better than just "oh they're venture backed and blitzscaling" imo.

sida 6y ago
Eng layoff is also coming. This looks to be just for service workers and contractors (like recruiters)
- luckylion 6y ago
  Engineering will likely be hit on the team/project-level, I suppose? If you need some amount of tech people to run your operation, it's hard to say "well, we're doing fewer rides, we can now fire 50% of tech". But they may well be cutting back the side-projects and exploratory R&D.
  - trollski 6y ago
    say bye bye to next years refreshers
- blaser-waffle 6y ago
  Core product will probably be alright, though there may be some trimming. Secondary stuff like internal tool teams, BIs, etc. will probably catch the brunt of it. If you're an under-performer or on a PIP and didn't get cut already I'd start looking. Uber was already a long-term market capture play. They were losing money but grabbing the market with the hope that they'd be able to get automated cars on the road in time. That was kind of sustainable (for a while, anyway), but now they're getting even less cash and will likely have to cut back to the must-haves.
- bsimpson 6y ago
  Why would you stagger them like that? Layoffs have got to be terrible for morale. I'd expect you'd want to minimize the anxiety by getting all the uncertainty out of the way.
  - 1MoreThing 6y ago
    They have an earnings call tomorrow. Have to show something before the call.
  - foobiekr 6y ago
    Friends at Uber have many positive things to say about the company, but all of them have been very clear that a lot of the management layers are populated by people with limited experience. Most likely the engineering lay-off couldn’t get done in time for earnings.
  - sida 6y ago
    You would not stagger it like that. My suspicion is that the lay off got leaked and it forced the company’s hand. They are probably scrambling to get everything finalized ASAP. And eng lay-off requires more planning than customer support lay-off
duxup 6y ago
I wish there was a rundown on what everyone does / what all those folks do at those companies. Not saying they don't need them, it's just that there are a lot of "Wait that needs X people?" situations and I wish I knew what they did for a given use case. Accounting? Does uber need a lot of local reps for regulatory requirements? I think a lot of "omg what do they do?" is actually curiosity.
- ghostpepper 6y ago
  It was interesting that recruitment was called out specifically. If 3700 people make up only 14% of the workforce that puts their pre-layoff total around 26k. I wonder how many recruiters a company of that size needs.
- this_user 6y ago
  Uber is pretty bloated in the engineering department, because they are suffering from NIH syndrome, and had to implement custom solutions for everything. They could certainly be much leaner in that regard.
  - duxup 6y ago
    NIH is such a disease. I work on a SaaS product, we have a really small team. Accordingly we can't afford a lot of NIH when it can be avoided. I talked to a semi-competitor and they noted they built a thing, we have that thing too ... 24 different devs on that project and they do have some extra features ... but it took them 9 months of 24 devs (not all full time granted) and my boss and I hammered it out in a week. Our customers are using it, meanwhile they haven't sold it to anyone. Now I'm sure there are advantages to their work but as far as what it does ... pretty much the same thing as far as core functionality goes :O The amount of cycles NIH can scoop up is astounding.
- asdff 6y ago
  Uber has a physical building in my neighborhood and I have absolutely no clue what possibly happens in there. I've never seen activity. It's not even an office buiding, looks like an old Karate gym or something.

sida 6y ago

Eng layoff is also coming. This looks to be just for service workers and contractors (like recruiters)

luckylion 6y ago
Engineering will likely be hit on the team/project-level, I suppose? If you need some amount of tech people to run your operation, it's hard to say "well, we're doing fewer rides, we can now fire 50% of tech". But they may well be cutting back the side-projects and exploratory R&D.
- trollski 6y ago
  say bye bye to next years refreshers
blaser-waffle 6y ago
Core product will probably be alright, though there may be some trimming. Secondary stuff like internal tool teams, BIs, etc. will probably catch the brunt of it. If you're an under-performer or on a PIP and didn't get cut already I'd start looking. Uber was already a long-term market capture play. They were losing money but grabbing the market with the hope that they'd be able to get automated cars on the road in time. That was kind of sustainable (for a while, anyway), but now they're getting even less cash and will likely have to cut back to the must-haves.
bsimpson 6y ago
Why would you stagger them like that? Layoffs have got to be terrible for morale. I'd expect you'd want to minimize the anxiety by getting all the uncertainty out of the way.
- 1MoreThing 6y ago
  They have an earnings call tomorrow. Have to show something before the call.
- foobiekr 6y ago
  Friends at Uber have many positive things to say about the company, but all of them have been very clear that a lot of the management layers are populated by people with limited experience. Most likely the engineering lay-off couldn’t get done in time for earnings.
- sida 6y ago
  You would not stagger it like that. My suspicion is that the lay off got leaked and it forced the company’s hand. They are probably scrambling to get everything finalized ASAP. And eng lay-off requires more planning than customer support lay-off

duxup 6y ago

I wish there was a rundown on what everyone does / what all those folks do at those companies. Not saying they don't need them, it's just that there are a lot of "Wait that needs X people?" situations and I wish I knew what they did for a given use case. Accounting? Does uber need a lot of local reps for regulatory requirements? I think a lot of "omg what do they do?" is actually curiosity.

ghostpepper 6y ago
It was interesting that recruitment was called out specifically. If 3700 people make up only 14% of the workforce that puts their pre-layoff total around 26k. I wonder how many recruiters a company of that size needs.
this_user 6y ago
Uber is pretty bloated in the engineering department, because they are suffering from NIH syndrome, and had to implement custom solutions for everything. They could certainly be much leaner in that regard.
- duxup 6y ago
  NIH is such a disease. I work on a SaaS product, we have a really small team. Accordingly we can't afford a lot of NIH when it can be avoided. I talked to a semi-competitor and they noted they built a thing, we have that thing too ... 24 different devs on that project and they do have some extra features ... but it took them 9 months of 24 devs (not all full time granted) and my boss and I hammered it out in a week. Our customers are using it, meanwhile they haven't sold it to anyone. Now I'm sure there are advantages to their work but as far as what it does ... pretty much the same thing as far as core functionality goes :O The amount of cycles NIH can scoop up is astounding.
asdff 6y ago
Uber has a physical building in my neighborhood and I have absolutely no clue what possibly happens in there. I've never seen activity. It's not even an office buiding, looks like an old Karate gym or something.