9 ms·

Meta to unveil fresh round of job cuts among highly skilled staff

87 points by zymhan 4y ago

moneywoes 4y ago
This different than the managers round?
- shagie 4y ago
  https://wapo.st/3oqAkS7 https://wapo.st/3oqAkS7 > In an internal memo obtained by The Washington Post, Meta’s head of human resources, Lori Goler, wrote Tuesday evening that the company will begin notifying employees on its technical teams whose jobs are being cut. > Divisions that will face cuts include teams working on Facebook, WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram and the virtual-reality division Reality Labs among others, according to Goler. She advised some employees to not go into the office if it wasn’t critical for their role, according to the memo. > ... > The company is expected to lay off what probably will be thousands of highly skilled employees — such as engineers and other technical staffers — who help build the company’s products, according to people familiar with the matter. The cuts are a rare moment of vulnerability for engineers at Meta who have long enjoyed job security, high salaries, autonomy and freedom to work on their desired projects, amid stiff competition for talent in Silicon Valley.
  - nullfield 4y ago
    So, ah… HR is getting cuts too, right?
    - shagie 4y ago
      Those were presumably more of them in the earlier round of layoffs back in November. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/09/meta-to-lay-off-more-than-11000-thousand-employees.html https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/09/meta-to-lay-off-more-than-11... and https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/nov/08/meta-layoffs-facebook-mark-zuckerberg https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/nov/08/meta-layo... Blind: Meta's office to be closed on Wed – 15% layoff (5% Eng 50% recruiting) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33525782 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33525782 -
- cmckn 4y ago
  Yes, this is the SWE round. > Divisions that will face cuts include teams working on Facebook, WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram and the virtual reality division Reality Labs among others
mark_l_watson 4y ago
I think having some top talent moving to non Silicon Valley companies is a good thing. Computer science and engineering is a driver for our economy and I like the idea of making companies and our infrastructure as strong and as robust as we can. As much as I appreciate different cultures in different countries around the world and I wish all people peace and a comfortable life spurred by global trade, I would like to see all countries have more robustness and resilience in the face of occasional supply chain problems, world level political strife, etc.
- JumpCrisscross 4y ago
  > top talent moving to non Silicon Valley companies is a good thing Actual top talent can move anywhere it wants, and always could. This is managerial top talent. Nobody needs more of that right now.
  - pempem 4y ago
    Yeah but top talent had no reason to move before. Actual and otherwise. Now it does and it might.
- tshaddox 4y ago
  Good for whom? Presumably not for those employees, who will undoubtedly be taking big pay cuts and/or competing more for roles. Good for the non-SV companies? That’s more likely.
  - tarsinge 4y ago
    Good for everyone except maybe advertisers, because these talents will maybe serve something useful instead.
obblekk 4y ago
It’s interesting the difference in trajectory between Facebook and Google right now and the impact of being founder led. Zuckerberg made a weird bet on metaverse… but also drove a real change in staffing levels unlike Google who has sat absolutely still at the worst time. Short term, Facebook engineers are more worried about their jobs. Long term, it’s gotta be worse for Google who is resisting change while talking up a buzzword storm.
- xigency 4y ago
  Not sure it really makes a difference. I guess it’s part of the business cycle to over-hire and over-fire, rinse, and repeat. But I think if a CEO’s best accomplishment is laying off a bunch of workers, that’s a pretty poor endorsement. Neither company has meaningfully changed or reinvented their product in the last decade. Still they’re making money hand over fist. In many ways these companies succeed despite their leadership’s best intentions, rather than because of them.
  - andsoitis 4y ago
    > Neither company has meaningfully changed or reinvented their product in the last decade. Come on.
    - reureu 4y ago
      agreed, that's an unfair statement. Facebook added reactions in 2015.
- srj 4y ago
  Google did reduce staffing levels, there was a layoff in January. One of the best engineers I've ever worked with was let go as part of it.
- anothernewdude 4y ago
  Reducing staffing levels is brinksmanship. The company that does it the least wins.
sprobertson 4y ago
"unveil" and "fresh" are such strange words in this headline about a bunch of people being fired, as if it was a new product launch.
- princevegeta89 4y ago
  For the upper management at Meta it would be just as exciting as a new product launch, sadly.
- tribby 4y ago
  I agree. for some reason I don’t think they’d use this language reporting on amazon…
  - ShamelessC 4y ago
    So you’re implying they _would_ use harsher language against Amazon, thus maintaining their claims of editorial independence from mutual owner Bezos? Not to suggest the Washington Post doesn’t have clear conflicts of interest. Just not sure how your comment adds up.
    - Incipient 4y ago
      I'm not sure why any company, as large as these, gives two hoots about stories like these. Published one day for clicks, forgotten the next. Absolutely zero reputation damage.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
droopyEyelids 4y ago
I wonder if big tech is learning from Elon Musk’s example. I shudder to think it, but maybe they see twitter is still relatively functional with a fraction of the staff
- DoreenMichele 4y ago
  And hoping to charge people $42,000/month for full access to the API. I am laughing up my sleeve here and wondering if they will have any takers. That's, let's call it, well above average. https://nordicapis.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-pricing-your-api/#:~:text=While%20every%20API%20is%20different%2C%20these%20benchmarks%20are,%24100%20Enterprise%3A%20%24150%20or%20more%20but%20varies%20widely https://nordicapis.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-pricing-your-ap...
  - antibasilisk 4y ago
    >I am laughing up my sleeve here and wondering if they will have any takers. Considering the number of huge finance firms who use Twitter for sentiment analysis, they will absolutely have takers, since it's still cheaper than paying someone to write a scraper.
    - DoreenMichele 4y ago
      How many would you guesstimate? And can you suggest a few names? Can anyone supply me with ballpark figures on prices to write a scraper? (And anything else folks can think of to give me a better picture here.)
      - whatisthishn 4y ago
        [flagged]
      - _blz2 4y ago
        how would a scraper work for free if access is rate limited?
greenyoda 4y ago
Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35620407 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35620407

87 points by zymhan 4y ago

moneywoes 4y ago

This different than the managers round?

shagie 4y ago
https://wapo.st/3oqAkS7 https://wapo.st/3oqAkS7 > In an internal memo obtained by The Washington Post, Meta’s head of human resources, Lori Goler, wrote Tuesday evening that the company will begin notifying employees on its technical teams whose jobs are being cut. > Divisions that will face cuts include teams working on Facebook, WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram and the virtual-reality division Reality Labs among others, according to Goler. She advised some employees to not go into the office if it wasn’t critical for their role, according to the memo. > ... > The company is expected to lay off what probably will be thousands of highly skilled employees — such as engineers and other technical staffers — who help build the company’s products, according to people familiar with the matter. The cuts are a rare moment of vulnerability for engineers at Meta who have long enjoyed job security, high salaries, autonomy and freedom to work on their desired projects, amid stiff competition for talent in Silicon Valley.
- nullfield 4y ago
  So, ah… HR is getting cuts too, right?
  - shagie 4y ago
    Those were presumably more of them in the earlier round of layoffs back in November. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/09/meta-to-lay-off-more-than-11000-thousand-employees.html https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/09/meta-to-lay-off-more-than-11... and https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/nov/08/meta-layoffs-facebook-mark-zuckerberg https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/nov/08/meta-layo... Blind: Meta's office to be closed on Wed – 15% layoff (5% Eng 50% recruiting) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33525782 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33525782 -
cmckn 4y ago
Yes, this is the SWE round. > Divisions that will face cuts include teams working on Facebook, WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram and the virtual reality division Reality Labs among others

mark_l_watson 4y ago

I think having some top talent moving to non Silicon Valley companies is a good thing. Computer science and engineering is a driver for our economy and I like the idea of making companies and our infrastructure as strong and as robust as we can. As much as I appreciate different cultures in different countries around the world and I wish all people peace and a comfortable life spurred by global trade, I would like to see all countries have more robustness and resilience in the face of occasional supply chain problems, world level political strife, etc.

JumpCrisscross 4y ago
> top talent moving to non Silicon Valley companies is a good thing Actual top talent can move anywhere it wants, and always could. This is managerial top talent. Nobody needs more of that right now.
- pempem 4y ago
  Yeah but top talent had no reason to move before. Actual and otherwise. Now it does and it might.
tshaddox 4y ago
Good for whom? Presumably not for those employees, who will undoubtedly be taking big pay cuts and/or competing more for roles. Good for the non-SV companies? That’s more likely.
- tarsinge 4y ago
  Good for everyone except maybe advertisers, because these talents will maybe serve something useful instead.

obblekk 4y ago

It’s interesting the difference in trajectory between Facebook and Google right now and the impact of being founder led. Zuckerberg made a weird bet on metaverse… but also drove a real change in staffing levels unlike Google who has sat absolutely still at the worst time. Short term, Facebook engineers are more worried about their jobs. Long term, it’s gotta be worse for Google who is resisting change while talking up a buzzword storm.

xigency 4y ago
Not sure it really makes a difference. I guess it’s part of the business cycle to over-hire and over-fire, rinse, and repeat. But I think if a CEO’s best accomplishment is laying off a bunch of workers, that’s a pretty poor endorsement. Neither company has meaningfully changed or reinvented their product in the last decade. Still they’re making money hand over fist. In many ways these companies succeed despite their leadership’s best intentions, rather than because of them.
- andsoitis 4y ago
  > Neither company has meaningfully changed or reinvented their product in the last decade. Come on.
  - reureu 4y ago
    agreed, that's an unfair statement. Facebook added reactions in 2015.
srj 4y ago
Google did reduce staffing levels, there was a layoff in January. One of the best engineers I've ever worked with was let go as part of it.
anothernewdude 4y ago
Reducing staffing levels is brinksmanship. The company that does it the least wins.

sprobertson 4y ago

"unveil" and "fresh" are such strange words in this headline about a bunch of people being fired, as if it was a new product launch.

princevegeta89 4y ago
For the upper management at Meta it would be just as exciting as a new product launch, sadly.
tribby 4y ago
I agree. for some reason I don’t think they’d use this language reporting on amazon…
- ShamelessC 4y ago
  So you’re implying they _would_ use harsher language against Amazon, thus maintaining their claims of editorial independence from mutual owner Bezos? Not to suggest the Washington Post doesn’t have clear conflicts of interest. Just not sure how your comment adds up.
  - Incipient 4y ago
    I'm not sure why any company, as large as these, gives two hoots about stories like these. Published one day for clicks, forgotten the next. Absolutely zero reputation damage.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]

droopyEyelids 4y ago

I wonder if big tech is learning from Elon Musk’s example. I shudder to think it, but maybe they see twitter is still relatively functional with a fraction of the staff

DoreenMichele 4y ago
And hoping to charge people $42,000/month for full access to the API. I am laughing up my sleeve here and wondering if they will have any takers. That's, let's call it, well above average. https://nordicapis.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-pricing-your-api/#:~:text=While%20every%20API%20is%20different%2C%20these%20benchmarks%20are,%24100%20Enterprise%3A%20%24150%20or%20more%20but%20varies%20widely https://nordicapis.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-pricing-your-ap...
- antibasilisk 4y ago
  >I am laughing up my sleeve here and wondering if they will have any takers. Considering the number of huge finance firms who use Twitter for sentiment analysis, they will absolutely have takers, since it's still cheaper than paying someone to write a scraper.
  - DoreenMichele 4y ago
    How many would you guesstimate? And can you suggest a few names? Can anyone supply me with ballpark figures on prices to write a scraper? (And anything else folks can think of to give me a better picture here.)
    - whatisthishn 4y ago
      [flagged]
    - _blz2 4y ago
      how would a scraper work for free if access is rate limited?

greenyoda 4y ago

Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35620407 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35620407