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At ~1% is this more “psy-ops” than an economic measure? In other words, no one is safe, stay on your toes. Don’t be complacent. Presumably these are/were pro
by mc32 4y ago
At ~1% is this more “psy-ops” than an economic measure? In other words, no one is safe, stay on your toes. Don’t be complacent. Presumably these are/were productive people and could be reassigned and retained for when the economy recovers.
- MontyCarloHall 4y ago>At ~1% is this more “psy-ops” than an economic measure? In other words, no one is safe, stay on your toes Probably. 1000 layoffs amount to 0.45% of the total workforce. >Presumably these are/were productive people and could be reassigned Maybe not. I reckon at least 1% of the workforce gets PIP’d each year. This year, it’s being loudly announced (and skipping the PIP formality) to scare people, as you noted above.
- sokoloff 4y ago0.45% (1 in 221, not 0.045% [1 in 2210])
- MontyCarloHall 4y agoOops, edited my post to remove that extra zero that snuck in.
- fatbird 4y agoOne of the people laid off yesterday (along with his whole team) had been a candidate to lead development of the Xbox 720. This was definitely not a very public PIP ejection. It looks more like a spreadsheet driven culling of the product lines.
- nerdix 4y agoWhats the rationale of cutting a guy like that? He was probably on the phone with Sony or Nintendo before his desk was cleaned out. He's probably value to Sony (maybe not so much Nintendo) just for the intel alone.
- fatbird 4y agoI'm guessing the project got cut, so the team went, so the guy went. You're right, he can have almost any job he wants with a phone call. Given his history, he'd survived quite happily in much more difficult, demanding environments, so I can't imagine he was targetted. It wasn't personal, it was a spreadsheet decision.
- MontyCarloHall 4y agoTo play Devil’s advocate, perhaps that team never delivered anything, despite consisting of (presumably) talented engineers. I’ve seen several “brilliant but unaccomplished” teams that never actually ship anything but nonetheless manage to hang around due to the raw intelligence of their team members. It can be hard to let someone go who talks like an accomplished CS professor at every meeting, but does little besides that. >It looks more like a spreadsheet driven culling of the product lines. You’d think a company as successful as Microsoft would be above such ineffective, morale-crushing moves (also profit-crushing, assuming the people being fired were actually productive), but then again, if this article [0] (and associated HN comments) are to be believed, Microsoft isn’t exactly optimizing [fh]iring decisions based on performance. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33165844 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33165844
- reissbaker 4y agoThe Xbox 720? I haven't heard that name in something like a decade. Are you referring to the console that eventually became the Xbox One?
- fatbird 4y agoYes.
- drewcoo 4y ago> very public PIP ejection A layoff and PIP (performance improvement plan) are very different things. Nobody thinks that lots of people were being PIPped and suddenly MSFT decided to cut and run. https://www.indeed.com/hire/c/info/pip-meaning https://www.indeed.com/hire/c/info/pip-meaning
- MontyCarloHall 4y agoAt most companies, for all intents and purposes, getting PIP’d is equivalent to getting laid off. It’s basically a formality HR makes you jump through before firing an underperforming employee to avoid lawsuits for wrongful dismissal.
- mc32 4y agoAgreed. If someone goes on a PIP it’s rather unlikely they are kept after plan is complete. They will be under a microscope where every single thing is scrutinized.
- reisse 4y agoXbox One was a fiasco. I wonder if it is a good characteristic for a person.
- fatbird 4y agoFortunately, he was only a candidate, and decided against it.
- wollsmoth 4y agoEvery team wants to pick their people. They might have some ability to apply for other roles in the company but if hiring is slowed already there might not be a lot of other places to go. They definitely aren't going to randomly assign employees to different departments.
- sokoloff 4y agoThe flip side of that "it's only ~1%" argument is "in any large company, several percent of employees aren't pulling much weight [either personally or because they're assigned to work on something of low value to the company]".
- bugbuddy 4y agoMethinks more is coming because the economy is slowing for real.
- UnpossibleJim 4y agoNo no, didn't you hear? All of this is just to "tackle inflation".
- gruez 4y agoI don't get it, are you trying to imply that's not the case? Tacking inflation involves raising interest rates, which causes a pullback on the economy.
- BitwiseFool 4y agoThe only confirmation that the economy is slowing will come months from now when a bureaucratic council finally declares that it feels like there is indeed a recession - probably after the midterms. Until then, we can't say anything with confidence. /s
- twelve40 4y ago"Our economy is strong as hell." - Joe Biden, Oct 16 2022
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- colinmhayes 4y agoCompared to pretty much every other country it is.
- mc32 4y agoSo back in the '30s our economy was strong as hell too, by that measure.
- Ekaros 4y agoI think market expectations and presenting like company is doing something is even more important. The laid off people are just pieces in this, like they were when they were hired.