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Damn. And instead of reinvesting and furthering R&D, product lines, and more - they're just chopping 10% (or 450 people). That's a hell of a lot of institution

Damn. And instead of reinvesting and furthering R&D, product lines, and more - they're just chopping 10% (or 450 people). That's a hell of a lot of institutional knowledge just gone. It also goes to show that when I automate, I should keep it hidden. That's because I do not receive the gains of automation. Instead, I receive more work or get laid off.

dswalter 4y ago
It's also an indicator that quality of maps isn't necessarily viewed as a differentiator by the TomTom organization. If I suddenly had a sufficiently-good automated product and hundreds of domain experts, I'd work to have the domain experts refine the automated product, hopefully turning my (just pulling numbers out of thin air) 97% quality automated solution to a 99% quality solution. Those incremental gains on the tail are often tremendously valuable for customers.
myst1 4y ago
Most company's right now want to automate all skilled labor away as quickly as possible. CEOs don't want innovation, they want a saleable product with the highest profit margin and the least risk. Removing people was always the goal. I've worked at two jobs were in the first week I was told my goal was to automate myself so I could progress my career... Yup okay then...
- ben_w 4y ago
  I remember hearing much the same words (cf. “My job is to make myself redundant”) in 2004. I’m fairly sure this was the goal at least as far back as when ship builders switched from high-skilled artisans to carve each pulley for the sails individually and by hand, to using jigs so that low-skilled carpenters could make a lot that were almost as good for a fraction of the price.
  - jopsen 4y ago
    > when ship builders switched from high-skilled artisans to carve each pulley for the sails individually and by hand, to using jigs so that low-skilled carpenters could make a lot... Sounds like an interesting story, do you have a link :D
    - ben_w 4y ago
      Sadly not, it was from a TV documentary
    - hef19898 4y ago
      I can recommend the book "Better, faster, cheaper - history of manufavturing" which covers this topic among basically manufacturing going to the, literally, stone age.
- cwilkes 4y ago
  Isn’t automation an innovation?
  - nerdponx 4y ago
    It is, but the gains to this innovation are captured almost entirely by your employer and not by you. Maybe if you're lucky you have a tiny ownership stake in the company, which if you are very lucky maybe entitles you to a tiny percentage of those gains.
honkler 4y ago
yup. This is why I never tell anyone that I use Copilot.
- Tarucho 4y ago
  What´s the difference? You are already training your replacement.
justapassenger 4y ago
This sounds like they’re firing people who manually edit and fix maps. While it’s job that requires quite a bit of skill (my family member used to do that for other companies), those aren’t people you can redirect to R&D, at least not without heavy retraining. Real reason behind it, is IMO, preparing for recession and finding nice sounding reason for layoffs.
- racl101 4y ago
  Yeah, they're probably keeping the people who allow them to automate and are laying off the people who, otherwise, need to do the work manually / semi-manually when there is no automation. Anytime you automate something that someone is doing manually, and you're automating it so well, there's a good chance what you build might replace the people doing it.
helsinkiandrew 4y ago
It's not clear from the article what the 500 people are doing - they could be doing manual data entry or map validation tasks which are made redundant by the new "automated mapmaking platform" built by others (developers/engineers etc). The saving from those roles could well be going to be reinvested in R&D and product lines.
- alaricus 4y ago
  It's probably better to outsource manual map updates to OpenStreetMap
topaz0 4y ago
What they should really do is take those productivity gains and use them to allow the same number of workers to do less work each, for the same pay.
- s1artibartfast 4y ago
  What productivity gains? The company makes less and less money every year. Revenue per employee is trending down, not up.

dswalter 4y ago

It's also an indicator that quality of maps isn't necessarily viewed as a differentiator by the TomTom organization. If I suddenly had a sufficiently-good automated product and hundreds of domain experts, I'd work to have the domain experts refine the automated product, hopefully turning my (just pulling numbers out of thin air) 97% quality automated solution to a 99% quality solution. Those incremental gains on the tail are often tremendously valuable for customers.

myst1 4y ago

Most company's right now want to automate all skilled labor away as quickly as possible. CEOs don't want innovation, they want a saleable product with the highest profit margin and the least risk. Removing people was always the goal. I've worked at two jobs were in the first week I was told my goal was to automate myself so I could progress my career... Yup okay then...

ben_w 4y ago
I remember hearing much the same words (cf. “My job is to make myself redundant”) in 2004. I’m fairly sure this was the goal at least as far back as when ship builders switched from high-skilled artisans to carve each pulley for the sails individually and by hand, to using jigs so that low-skilled carpenters could make a lot that were almost as good for a fraction of the price.
- jopsen 4y ago
  > when ship builders switched from high-skilled artisans to carve each pulley for the sails individually and by hand, to using jigs so that low-skilled carpenters could make a lot... Sounds like an interesting story, do you have a link :D
  - ben_w 4y ago
    Sadly not, it was from a TV documentary
  - hef19898 4y ago
    I can recommend the book "Better, faster, cheaper - history of manufavturing" which covers this topic among basically manufacturing going to the, literally, stone age.
cwilkes 4y ago
Isn’t automation an innovation?
- nerdponx 4y ago
  It is, but the gains to this innovation are captured almost entirely by your employer and not by you. Maybe if you're lucky you have a tiny ownership stake in the company, which if you are very lucky maybe entitles you to a tiny percentage of those gains.

honkler 4y ago

yup. This is why I never tell anyone that I use Copilot.

Tarucho 4y ago
What´s the difference? You are already training your replacement.

justapassenger 4y ago

This sounds like they’re firing people who manually edit and fix maps. While it’s job that requires quite a bit of skill (my family member used to do that for other companies), those aren’t people you can redirect to R&D, at least not without heavy retraining. Real reason behind it, is IMO, preparing for recession and finding nice sounding reason for layoffs.

racl101 4y ago
Yeah, they're probably keeping the people who allow them to automate and are laying off the people who, otherwise, need to do the work manually / semi-manually when there is no automation. Anytime you automate something that someone is doing manually, and you're automating it so well, there's a good chance what you build might replace the people doing it.

helsinkiandrew 4y ago

It's not clear from the article what the 500 people are doing - they could be doing manual data entry or map validation tasks which are made redundant by the new "automated mapmaking platform" built by others (developers/engineers etc). The saving from those roles could well be going to be reinvested in R&D and product lines.

alaricus 4y ago
It's probably better to outsource manual map updates to OpenStreetMap

topaz0 4y ago

What they should really do is take those productivity gains and use them to allow the same number of workers to do less work each, for the same pay.

s1artibartfast 4y ago
What productivity gains? The company makes less and less money every year. Revenue per employee is trending down, not up.