4 ms·

Really? I thought it was fairly obvious from the beginning that this is hysteric copycat behavior. To me the smoking gun was how suddenly in a brief period of t

Really? I thought it was fairly obvious from the beginning that this is hysteric copycat behavior. To me the smoking gun was how suddenly in a brief period of time, every tech company CEO was making absolutely certain predictions about economic headwinds in 2023, up to 6 months before the end of 2022. Nothing qualifies them (or anybody for that matter) to assert that. It doesn't even make sense to do layoffs today when you expect trouble 6-12 months later. That and the panic from tech stock prices being decimated after 10+ years of growth. The layoffs felt like Boards and CEOs were smashing the controls until the numbers went back up again.

onlyrealcuzzo 4y ago
> It doesn't even make sense to do layoffs today when you expect trouble 6-12 months later. I hope you realize this is subjective, and the CEOs and boards obviously feel differently...
avgDev 4y ago
When you expect trouble in 6 months, you prepare TODAY, not in 6 months. The FED has spoken. The market has spoken. The inflation is high. It is a risky environment, layoffs are extremely reasonable after the hiring frenzy we experienced.
- TremendousJudge 4y ago
  I don't understand, are you saying that the layoffs are caused by the recent hiring frenzy or by the hypothetical trouble of 6 months from now?
  - avgDev 4y ago
    I am saying the article is awful. The layoffs are not caused by a "SIMPLE" single cause. There are several factors that caused the current layoffs.
- roncesvalles 4y ago
  When macroeconomic constants are moving, stock price movements are determined by voodoo magic not company performance.
lowercased 4y ago
> To me the smoking gun was how suddenly in a brief period of time, every tech company CEO was making absolutely certain predictions about economic headwinds in 2023, up to 6 months before the end of 2022. This has to have had a somewhat self-fulfilling prophecy effect. When you start predicting 'downturn' and your solution is "lay people off", then yes... economic activity will slow (from your former staff) and... that spreads around. It can't not be having some impact, and as more and more places do it, it compounds.
spacephysics 4y ago
An even more sophisticated yet still simple potential justification is simply the rule of 40 [0] is now not hit for many of these tech companies. So now they have to cut costs to be considered above this threshold, which makes shareholders happy among other benefits. Sure there will be copy cats, but this just seems like some correlation equals causation rationale. [0] https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/technology-media-and-telecommunications/our-insights/saas-and-the-rule-of-40-keys-to-the-critical-value-creation-metric https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/technology-media-and-tel...
yucky 4y ago
> It doesn't even make sense to do layoffs today when you expect trouble 6-12 months later. It makes perfect sense. In fact, it would be crazy to wait until a bad thing happens to prepare for it.

onlyrealcuzzo 4y ago

> It doesn't even make sense to do layoffs today when you expect trouble 6-12 months later. I hope you realize this is subjective, and the CEOs and boards obviously feel differently...

avgDev 4y ago

When you expect trouble in 6 months, you prepare TODAY, not in 6 months. The FED has spoken. The market has spoken. The inflation is high. It is a risky environment, layoffs are extremely reasonable after the hiring frenzy we experienced.

TremendousJudge 4y ago
I don't understand, are you saying that the layoffs are caused by the recent hiring frenzy or by the hypothetical trouble of 6 months from now?
- avgDev 4y ago
  I am saying the article is awful. The layoffs are not caused by a "SIMPLE" single cause. There are several factors that caused the current layoffs.
roncesvalles 4y ago
When macroeconomic constants are moving, stock price movements are determined by voodoo magic not company performance.

lowercased 4y ago

> To me the smoking gun was how suddenly in a brief period of time, every tech company CEO was making absolutely certain predictions about economic headwinds in 2023, up to 6 months before the end of 2022. This has to have had a somewhat self-fulfilling prophecy effect. When you start predicting 'downturn' and your solution is "lay people off", then yes... economic activity will slow (from your former staff) and... that spreads around. It can't not be having some impact, and as more and more places do it, it compounds.

spacephysics 4y ago

An even more sophisticated yet still simple potential justification is simply the rule of 40 [0] is now not hit for many of these tech companies. So now they have to cut costs to be considered above this threshold, which makes shareholders happy among other benefits. Sure there will be copy cats, but this just seems like some correlation equals causation rationale. [0] https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/technology-media-and-telecommunications/our-insights/saas-and-the-rule-of-40-keys-to-the-critical-value-creation-metric https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/technology-media-and-tel...

yucky 4y ago

> It doesn't even make sense to do layoffs today when you expect trouble 6-12 months later. It makes perfect sense. In fact, it would be crazy to wait until a bad thing happens to prepare for it.