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> The scale of absurdity was difficult to measure with that one. I have been told that one FANG which recently underwent a firing round barely took a break fro

> The scale of absurdity was difficult to measure with that one. I have been told that one FANG which recently underwent a firing round barely took a break from their hiring rounds, and already started sending emails asking for volunteers for interviews even to teams which have just been decimated. One more story for the absurdity bucket.

duxup 4y ago
Not too surprising as the hiring people industrial complex that exists some places seem to exist / operate for it's own purposes sometimes. It's not that way everywhere but man when you run into it, crazy.
- roguas 4y ago
  They did that to me themselves. They have festered the "hiring industrial complex" to outcompete for talent. Now this whole thing has to stay alive. They have to fire. Maybe the news about it will be enough, cause we also plan on hiring back.
  - eastbound 4y ago
    Can you just be on “fired leave”? Seems unnecessary to deprovision all the systems. I’m sure SAP can create a workflow for that and upsell it to the hiring industrial complex.
giraffe_lady 4y ago
It makes sense when you view it not as a strict immediate cost cutting measure but just a way to scare & threaten workers.
hzay 4y ago
It makes sense if you think of this as pruning dead weight while also getting in fresh inflow of talented people (some of whom will inevitably not work out later).
- snozolli 4y ago
  Why is management hiring people who turn out to be "dead weight"? Particularly with the ludicrous interview cycle employed by big tech companies these days? It's a failure of management to hire correctly and/or manage and develop people. Management is broken and incompetent and relentlessly scapegoats those below them.
  - skeeter2020 4y ago
    Hiring is really hard. I try to be very selective, use work-like assessments and wait until it's painful to add headcount, but I also need to go fast enough to keep devs interested and not waste their time, and interviews at best are only a very rough proxy-indicator of what the future looks like. Firing is even harder.
  - cpitman 4y ago
    If you have a method for hiring exactly the right people, that those people will put up with (ie a process that filters out "dead weight" but does not filter out high performers), then that is a startup right there. But overall, no one has magical hiring process that doesn't involve finding out actual performance after they start.
    - narwally 4y ago
      Yep, google published a bunch of research about their hiring processes and it basically said "we've tried everything and nothing works... anybody else have any ideas?"
      - midoridensha 4y ago
        Yet they continue their leetcode interview process...
    - snozolli 4y ago
      If you have a method for hiring exactly the right people, that those people will put up with Yeah, hire and then show actual managerial skill. If you still can't get the performance you need, then fire them. Tech hiring culture has become completely bananas and it wastes insane amounts of resources. Tech management in the US 1) can't hire competently, 2) can't lead, 3) can't develop those under them and 4) can't man up and fire the employees they mistakenly hired and failed to lead.
TheBozzCL 4y ago
Last week, I was contacted by recruiters from two separate high-profile companies that have recently fired people. Like I would even entertain joining them only to be first in line to the chopping block.
- omoikane 4y ago
  Maybe the thinking is "they just got rid of a bunch of people, so they are not going to do that again soon." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambler%27s_fallacy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambler%27s_fallacy
- cortoreblore 4y ago
  What makes you believe you’re not 1st on the chopping block at your existing company? There are no guarantees either way.
  - i-use-nixos-btw 4y ago
    No guarantees, but the chances are different. Say you’ve been working somewhere for 5 years and have the opportunity to move to a company - and you know both companies are laying people off at some point soon. In your current company, maintaining your position requires no training and negligible HR resource. The question of your capability to perform the job you’re given would hopefully not be under question (otherwise good going for keeping that gig up for 5 years). Your team is not a blue sky project (otherwise shame on management for keeping that gig up for 5 years). Making you redundant will cost the company severance, and if it’s a structural issue you could be moved into another team. Dropping you would be a genuinely hard decision. The new company barely know you and have to expend resources just to integrate you, and expend nothing to drop you. I know which one I’d pick. Granted, it’s a false premise: perhaps the new company is more resilient than your current company, for example. However, if the odds are unknown - and in most cases they aren’t known in any reliable way - then I may as well treat them as if the odds are balanced.
kamaal 4y ago
If the firing was on the basis of cutting out top paid employees, it absolutely makes sense to now fill those positions with newer ones whom you can pay less. Nothing absurd here.
- cutemonster 4y ago
  Does such things happen? Thinking about all knowledge that is lost Maybe top paid management is simpler to replace? I wonder if the managers who will become individual contributors again, will be paid the same or less
isakkeyten 4y ago
I was once contacted for an interview by the company I was leaving during my notice period :)

duxup 4y ago

Not too surprising as the hiring people industrial complex that exists some places seem to exist / operate for it's own purposes sometimes. It's not that way everywhere but man when you run into it, crazy.

roguas 4y ago
They did that to me themselves. They have festered the "hiring industrial complex" to outcompete for talent. Now this whole thing has to stay alive. They have to fire. Maybe the news about it will be enough, cause we also plan on hiring back.
- eastbound 4y ago
  Can you just be on “fired leave”? Seems unnecessary to deprovision all the systems. I’m sure SAP can create a workflow for that and upsell it to the hiring industrial complex.

giraffe_lady 4y ago

It makes sense when you view it not as a strict immediate cost cutting measure but just a way to scare & threaten workers.

hzay 4y ago

It makes sense if you think of this as pruning dead weight while also getting in fresh inflow of talented people (some of whom will inevitably not work out later).

snozolli 4y ago
Why is management hiring people who turn out to be "dead weight"? Particularly with the ludicrous interview cycle employed by big tech companies these days? It's a failure of management to hire correctly and/or manage and develop people. Management is broken and incompetent and relentlessly scapegoats those below them.
- skeeter2020 4y ago
  Hiring is really hard. I try to be very selective, use work-like assessments and wait until it's painful to add headcount, but I also need to go fast enough to keep devs interested and not waste their time, and interviews at best are only a very rough proxy-indicator of what the future looks like. Firing is even harder.
- cpitman 4y ago
  If you have a method for hiring exactly the right people, that those people will put up with (ie a process that filters out "dead weight" but does not filter out high performers), then that is a startup right there. But overall, no one has magical hiring process that doesn't involve finding out actual performance after they start.
  - narwally 4y ago
    Yep, google published a bunch of research about their hiring processes and it basically said "we've tried everything and nothing works... anybody else have any ideas?"
    - midoridensha 4y ago
      Yet they continue their leetcode interview process...
  - snozolli 4y ago
    If you have a method for hiring exactly the right people, that those people will put up with Yeah, hire and then show actual managerial skill. If you still can't get the performance you need, then fire them. Tech hiring culture has become completely bananas and it wastes insane amounts of resources. Tech management in the US 1) can't hire competently, 2) can't lead, 3) can't develop those under them and 4) can't man up and fire the employees they mistakenly hired and failed to lead.

TheBozzCL 4y ago

Last week, I was contacted by recruiters from two separate high-profile companies that have recently fired people. Like I would even entertain joining them only to be first in line to the chopping block.

omoikane 4y ago
Maybe the thinking is "they just got rid of a bunch of people, so they are not going to do that again soon." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambler%27s_fallacy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambler%27s_fallacy
cortoreblore 4y ago
What makes you believe you’re not 1st on the chopping block at your existing company? There are no guarantees either way.
- i-use-nixos-btw 4y ago
  No guarantees, but the chances are different. Say you’ve been working somewhere for 5 years and have the opportunity to move to a company - and you know both companies are laying people off at some point soon. In your current company, maintaining your position requires no training and negligible HR resource. The question of your capability to perform the job you’re given would hopefully not be under question (otherwise good going for keeping that gig up for 5 years). Your team is not a blue sky project (otherwise shame on management for keeping that gig up for 5 years). Making you redundant will cost the company severance, and if it’s a structural issue you could be moved into another team. Dropping you would be a genuinely hard decision. The new company barely know you and have to expend resources just to integrate you, and expend nothing to drop you. I know which one I’d pick. Granted, it’s a false premise: perhaps the new company is more resilient than your current company, for example. However, if the odds are unknown - and in most cases they aren’t known in any reliable way - then I may as well treat them as if the odds are balanced.

kamaal 4y ago

If the firing was on the basis of cutting out top paid employees, it absolutely makes sense to now fill those positions with newer ones whom you can pay less. Nothing absurd here.

cutemonster 4y ago
Does such things happen? Thinking about all knowledge that is lost Maybe top paid management is simpler to replace? I wonder if the managers who will become individual contributors again, will be paid the same or less

isakkeyten 4y ago

I was once contacted for an interview by the company I was leaving during my notice period :)