4 ms·
I personally doubt the mimetic explanation is the explanation they gave to themselves, which is the one I'm more interested in (even if the mimetic explanation
by gen220 4y ago
I personally doubt the mimetic explanation is the explanation they gave to themselves, which is the one I'm more interested in (even if the mimetic explanation is the most likely root cause).
Reflecting on it, maybe one explanation is that the alternative to a layoff would have been slamming the breaks on their (very complicated!) hiring apparatus so hard, and for so long, that it had the potential of grinding to a halt and rusting.
Maybe, they judged that the long-term cost of a layoff was less than the long-term cost of a completely impotent hiring system. IDK.
- lokar 4y agoThey pulled waaay back on hiring in 2008/9 (let go all the contract sourcers, etc). They were able to start up again.
- gen220 4y agoThat's good context! Perhaps there's some institutional memory from that, i.e. that they regretted that trade-off, in retrospect.
- hgsgm 4y agoNobody in charge now was involved then. The people in charge now are carpetbaggers.
- gen220 4y agoFor the context of this decision, this is strictly false: Larry and Sergey are on the board and on the executive committee. If it wasn't a board decision, it was at least an executive committee decision.
- alfalfasprout 4y agoYeah but they were smaller then. Google's hiring aparatus is massive now. It's clearly far too tricky to surgically change hiring. They struggled as is with the hiring freezes.
- hgsgm 4y agoIn what world is the VP not signing offer letters harder than firing staff already at work?
- alfalfasprout 4y agoSure, that's basically a hiring freeze or slowdown. They did that. What they clearly suck at (btw I'm not defending them, just pointing out the reality) is refocusing hiring priorities. There are tons of candidates already in pipelines, etc. so that seems to be somewhat complex.
- kccqzy 4y agoMiddle management convincing the VP that this candidate super-aligns with company strategy (AI or whatever) and said VP must create an exception for the hiring freeze.
- Swenrekcah 4y agoI had never before considered the possibility that for these gigantic companies the hiring process is like a huge independent machine full of moving parts that can’t easily be stopped. That’s an interesting thought and I can also believe it’s true. I also think that perhaps a part of the reason for layoffs at companies like Google in these times is simply because they can easily do it now without people reading much into it.
- mc32 4y agoDo they solely rely on FTE talent acquisition teams or do they also lean on partners --which they could presumably pull back on.
- gen220 4y agoIt's a mix of both. But there's also the IC-led interviewing component, as well as the regular hiring committee meetings. There's deep norms in those rituals that disappear/diverge if they stop meeting regularly.