4 ms·

It would be cool if we could have a dedicated section of hacker news or something for these announcements? Like, who cares? What about a weekly "Who's firing"

It would be cool if we could have a dedicated section of hacker news or something for these announcements? Like, who cares? What about a weekly "Who's firing" thread instead ? Edit: I'm actually sorry for people who've lost their jobs and are negatively impacted by this, but HN is going to get pretty lame if it's just page after page of layoff announcements for the entire recession period.

drstewart 4y ago
Yeah, this is getting a bit fearpornish. Shunt it off to somewhere else at this point.
- mynameisvlad 4y ago
  "Sucks that you got let go, but I don't like reading about these things so let's throw your misery and sorrow into an incinerator so I don't have to see it"
  - drstewart 4y ago
    I bet approximately 0 people are using whether links to their company's layoffs have been posted on HN as a coping mechanism.
    - mynameisvlad 4y ago
      I'm sure that people who have been affected, whether by a specific company mentioned or otherwise, will appreciate reading the comments in the layoff threads such as those talking about employee's worth. What they probably don't appreciate reading is people moaning about having to spend a second reading about yet another layoff. To say that nobody who has ever been laid off has gotten some amount of coping value from the threads is as asinine as declaring they need to be abolished to the deep dark pits of HN. These are people's lives we're talking about. Any amount of positive energy is going to be immediately taken when your life has been upended.
      - A4ET8a8uTh0 4y ago
        I think the parent may be missing the trees for the forest here. I am not going to dismiss 'misery loves company' take, because there is a solid psychological basis for it. I certainly would not put it at zero. Still, I think one somewhat unspoken reason for some of those posts is to indicate something along the lines of: 'hey. i was affected. i am available for x if you need me' I am not going to give any specifics, but I know when me and my colleagues went through rounds of layoffs and this kind of informal job search helps to help one gain ground.
      - drstewart 4y ago
        So by the same token, there are people without jobs that get anxiety by seeing additional layoffs and getting concerned about their prospects. Do they not deserve sympathy?
        mynameisvlad 4y ago
        You didn't really show concern for them the last two comments. I might believe it were genuine had it been the argument you led with instead of complaining about it being "fearpornish". And if anything, they'd be the most emphatic towards those laid off.
oneeyedpigeon 4y ago
If there are really going to be that many layoffs, then it seems like an important thing to be covering. Maybe with a weekly roundup, though, like you suggest.
- xnorswap 4y ago
  Is it important? It's news, but as the guidelines suggest, "If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic". The earliest and biggest lay-offs fall under the criteria of "new phenomenon", but posting every company stretches that credibility. "Hacker news" is different to "Tech news", and hopefully the voting will reflect that difference and these
otoburb 4y ago
>>Like, who cares? The HN voting mechanism suggests that some HNers care enough to upvote these types of announcements to the front page.
FlyingSnake 4y ago
There's https://layoffs.fyi https://layoffs.fyi which tracks these layoffs. Edit: corrected the link
- rr808 4y ago
  https://layoffs.fyi/ https://layoffs.fyi/
  - fullshark 4y ago
    Also this is a good link https://www.trueup.io/layoffs https://www.trueup.io/layoffs
locopati 4y ago
Nobody's forcing you to read them. Or... is someone forcing you to read them? Are you in need of help? Reply with an innocuous emoji if it's not safe to be direct.
- bamboozled 4y ago
  Well, no one is forcing people to post this on HN either. If people posted well written articles backed by solid journalism and presented statistics and analysis about the cause of the majority of these lays offs then it would be interesting to read and intellectual, IMO it would fit in better with the "theme" of HN. I don't think these articles have a place on the "Hacker news", maybe in the financial review? Honestly, what's the motive for posting these things one after the other? Is it to help signal some type of financial meltdown, so we feel sympathetic and know "company x" is bad, I just don't really understand why it's interesting to read about or relevant to this community. Wayfair, like many of these firms, aggressively added staff during the pandemic to expand its warehouse operations and customer-service teams. It had 16,681 full-time equivalent employees as of the end of 2021, up from 12,100 at the end of 2018. Its customer-service staff roughly doubled over that period to about 4,900 people, according to company filings. So it's pretty clear to see what happened here, a furniture company hired like crazy to meet the surge in demand for WFH furniture and now, demand has slowed and doesn't really need so many people, is that a surprise ? I feel people must enjoy upvoting these titles because it's a bit dramatic, else there is nothing else interesting to read in that article.
  - ethanbond 4y ago
    Usually people who are on an industry news site are trying to keep a pulse on the industry. Mass layoffs are an important part of that pulse and layoff after layoff after layoff makes it a bigger part of the story, not a smaller one. Downvote it and move on if you don’t like it.
    - bamboozled 4y ago
      Wayfair is a furniture reseller, what industry are you referring too?
acheron 4y ago
I'm pretty sure I've seen a Who's Firing thread before. Agree a regular one like that would be better.
- kyleee 4y ago
  Interesting; there could be a standardized format for the terms of the layoff too similar to the hiring threads
tryagainynot 4y ago
Considering that currently Hacker News is page after page of ChatGPT, I think this is an improvement.
- bamboozled 4y ago
  Very true.
- forgotusername6 4y ago
  For a moment I thought you were referring to the comments being AI generated. Who knows, perhaps many of them are.

drstewart 4y ago

Yeah, this is getting a bit fearpornish. Shunt it off to somewhere else at this point.

mynameisvlad 4y ago
"Sucks that you got let go, but I don't like reading about these things so let's throw your misery and sorrow into an incinerator so I don't have to see it"
- drstewart 4y ago
  I bet approximately 0 people are using whether links to their company's layoffs have been posted on HN as a coping mechanism.
  - mynameisvlad 4y ago
    I'm sure that people who have been affected, whether by a specific company mentioned or otherwise, will appreciate reading the comments in the layoff threads such as those talking about employee's worth. What they probably don't appreciate reading is people moaning about having to spend a second reading about yet another layoff. To say that nobody who has ever been laid off has gotten some amount of coping value from the threads is as asinine as declaring they need to be abolished to the deep dark pits of HN. These are people's lives we're talking about. Any amount of positive energy is going to be immediately taken when your life has been upended.
    - A4ET8a8uTh0 4y ago
      I think the parent may be missing the trees for the forest here. I am not going to dismiss 'misery loves company' take, because there is a solid psychological basis for it. I certainly would not put it at zero. Still, I think one somewhat unspoken reason for some of those posts is to indicate something along the lines of: 'hey. i was affected. i am available for x if you need me' I am not going to give any specifics, but I know when me and my colleagues went through rounds of layoffs and this kind of informal job search helps to help one gain ground.
    - drstewart 4y ago
      So by the same token, there are people without jobs that get anxiety by seeing additional layoffs and getting concerned about their prospects. Do they not deserve sympathy?
      - mynameisvlad 4y ago
        You didn't really show concern for them the last two comments. I might believe it were genuine had it been the argument you led with instead of complaining about it being "fearpornish". And if anything, they'd be the most emphatic towards those laid off.

oneeyedpigeon 4y ago

If there are really going to be that many layoffs, then it seems like an important thing to be covering. Maybe with a weekly roundup, though, like you suggest.

xnorswap 4y ago
Is it important? It's news, but as the guidelines suggest, "If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic". The earliest and biggest lay-offs fall under the criteria of "new phenomenon", but posting every company stretches that credibility. "Hacker news" is different to "Tech news", and hopefully the voting will reflect that difference and these

otoburb 4y ago

>>Like, who cares? The HN voting mechanism suggests that some HNers care enough to upvote these types of announcements to the front page.

FlyingSnake 4y ago

There's https://layoffs.fyi https://layoffs.fyi which tracks these layoffs. Edit: corrected the link

rr808 4y ago
https://layoffs.fyi/ https://layoffs.fyi/
- fullshark 4y ago
  Also this is a good link https://www.trueup.io/layoffs https://www.trueup.io/layoffs

locopati 4y ago

Nobody's forcing you to read them. Or... is someone forcing you to read them? Are you in need of help? Reply with an innocuous emoji if it's not safe to be direct.

bamboozled 4y ago
Well, no one is forcing people to post this on HN either. If people posted well written articles backed by solid journalism and presented statistics and analysis about the cause of the majority of these lays offs then it would be interesting to read and intellectual, IMO it would fit in better with the "theme" of HN. I don't think these articles have a place on the "Hacker news", maybe in the financial review? Honestly, what's the motive for posting these things one after the other? Is it to help signal some type of financial meltdown, so we feel sympathetic and know "company x" is bad, I just don't really understand why it's interesting to read about or relevant to this community. Wayfair, like many of these firms, aggressively added staff during the pandemic to expand its warehouse operations and customer-service teams. It had 16,681 full-time equivalent employees as of the end of 2021, up from 12,100 at the end of 2018. Its customer-service staff roughly doubled over that period to about 4,900 people, according to company filings. So it's pretty clear to see what happened here, a furniture company hired like crazy to meet the surge in demand for WFH furniture and now, demand has slowed and doesn't really need so many people, is that a surprise ? I feel people must enjoy upvoting these titles because it's a bit dramatic, else there is nothing else interesting to read in that article.
- ethanbond 4y ago
  Usually people who are on an industry news site are trying to keep a pulse on the industry. Mass layoffs are an important part of that pulse and layoff after layoff after layoff makes it a bigger part of the story, not a smaller one. Downvote it and move on if you don’t like it.
  - bamboozled 4y ago
    Wayfair is a furniture reseller, what industry are you referring too?

acheron 4y ago

I'm pretty sure I've seen a Who's Firing thread before. Agree a regular one like that would be better.

kyleee 4y ago
Interesting; there could be a standardized format for the terms of the layoff too similar to the hiring threads

tryagainynot 4y ago

Considering that currently Hacker News is page after page of ChatGPT, I think this is an improvement.

bamboozled 4y ago
Very true.
forgotusername6 4y ago
For a moment I thought you were referring to the comments being AI generated. Who knows, perhaps many of them are.