4 ms·

The recent layoff rush at big tech companies is going to be problematic in the long-term. Shutting down internal mobility, and randomly cutting groups means tha

by lumost 4y ago

The recent layoff rush at big tech companies is going to be problematic in the long-term. Shutting down internal mobility, and randomly cutting groups means that the value of sticking with a big tech has dropped significantly to the employee. It used to be that as an employee, you could switch groups to avoid bad team/product combinations. Once internal mobility opens up, it will be very difficult to convince engineers to move for new initiatives. I suspect many will depart for startups/smaller firms where they can own their own destiny.

908B64B197 4y ago
There's a lot of fear mongering among engineers that layoffs are bad and somewhat that the demand is lower and salaries will drop. But most "tech workers" laid offs were in non-technical positions as well (ie not engineers). HR, recruiting, DEI... The percentage of engineers impacted was minimal. Can't help but wonder who would benefit from this fear climate. https://interviewing.io/blog/2022-layoffs-engineers-vs-other-departments https://interviewing.io/blog/2022-layoffs-engineers-vs-other... https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-24/tech-layoffs-are-hitting-diversity-and-inclusion-jobs-hard https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-24/tech-layo... https://www.computerworld.com/article/3690309/about-those-tech-layoff-headlines-most-companies-arent-firing-it-workers.html https://www.computerworld.com/article/3690309/about-those-te... https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2023-03-07-do-recent-layoffs-mean-the-tech-talent-crunch-is-over https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2023-03-0... https://techreport.com/news/3493451/microsoft-layoffs-ethics-and-society-team-fired/ https://techreport.com/news/3493451/microsoft-layoffs-ethics...
adam_arthur 4y ago
Problematic for employees, yes. I wouldn't be surprised if productivity per employee has gone up dramatically now that the threat of cuts is looming. How many were coasting before? And where else are you going to go? Startup environment is totally different from big tech. More work for less pay. But rewarding in other ways. I don't see any negative for FAANGs in this. The unfortunate truth is that most big tech has been absurdly overstaffed relative to what the actual revenue generating (or future revenue generating) portions of the business are.

by lumost 4y ago

908B64B197 4y ago

There's a lot of fear mongering among engineers that layoffs are bad and somewhat that the demand is lower and salaries will drop. But most "tech workers" laid offs were in non-technical positions as well (ie not engineers). HR, recruiting, DEI... The percentage of engineers impacted was minimal. Can't help but wonder who would benefit from this fear climate. https://interviewing.io/blog/2022-layoffs-engineers-vs-other-departments https://interviewing.io/blog/2022-layoffs-engineers-vs-other... https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-24/tech-layoffs-are-hitting-diversity-and-inclusion-jobs-hard https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-24/tech-layo... https://www.computerworld.com/article/3690309/about-those-tech-layoff-headlines-most-companies-arent-firing-it-workers.html https://www.computerworld.com/article/3690309/about-those-te... https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2023-03-07-do-recent-layoffs-mean-the-tech-talent-crunch-is-over https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2023-03-0... https://techreport.com/news/3493451/microsoft-layoffs-ethics-and-society-team-fired/ https://techreport.com/news/3493451/microsoft-layoffs-ethics...

adam_arthur 4y ago

Problematic for employees, yes. I wouldn't be surprised if productivity per employee has gone up dramatically now that the threat of cuts is looming. How many were coasting before? And where else are you going to go? Startup environment is totally different from big tech. More work for less pay. But rewarding in other ways. I don't see any negative for FAANGs in this. The unfortunate truth is that most big tech has been absurdly overstaffed relative to what the actual revenue generating (or future revenue generating) portions of the business are.