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Ask HN: Netflix doing mass layoffs today?
Just heard word from a friend who has a connection there that got the axe. 2 weeks before Christmas. Classy..
EDIT: changed the title to a question and make it an Ask HN instead of a Tell HN. My source told me it was a mass layoff but it might be smaller in scope than I was lead to believe. Apologies for the FUD here if so.
- chillben 3y agoMy friend at Netflix didn't hear anything, though. Are you sure it is a "mass" layoff and the folks getting let go aren't contractors or let go due to perf?
- _bhqp 3y agoNo these were definitely employees. I know one of them personally and their whole team got let go. I will give you that "mass" might be apocryphal given that the person telling me was affected.
- jeanloolz 3y agoI hope they get a good deal.
- mcraiha 3y agoDid every employee receive statistics about how much they were watched in the first half of this year?
- meltyness 3y agothis is what a fully employed america looks like, huh
- dvngnt_ 3y agohopefully severance is good. hard to find positions at the end of the year and health insurance
- John23832 3y agoNetflix severance is phenomenal.
- hnthrowaway0328 3y agoWe are also doing mass layoff in Jan, TBH would rather have it in Dec to have peace of mind.
- withinboredom 3y agoIt would be helpful to at least know the size of the company. Just a random comment is useless.
- Espressosaurus 3y agoI would rather have the income and not have the holidays ruined by being laid off two weeks before Christmas.
- Tao3300 3y agoTonight you will be visited by three spirits, Ebenezer!
- kypro 3y agoEtsy too: https://www.morningstar.com/news/marketwatch/20231213380/etsy-to-cut-11-of-staff-as-ceo-says-company-is-on-unsustainable-trajectory https://www.morningstar.com/news/marketwatch/20231213380/ets...
- janjones 3y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38629814 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38629814
- surge 3y agoRight before the holidays...wow.
- brianwawok 3y agoIts very common. I wonder if Dec is actually the highest odds month to do a layoff.. but no idea where to pull those stats.
- Espressosaurus 3y agohttps://layoffs.fyi/ https://layoffs.fyi/ In this most recent set of layoffs (which I'm defining as starting in 2022 since that's the dataset they have available) January is the worst month for layoffs.
- surge 3y agoYeah, that's what I was thinking, most companies at least wait until after the holidays to serve the bad news.
- brianwawok 3y agoAs an evil corp thought experiment - Dec is normally low productivity.. lots of vacations ,etc. If you are going to lay someone off in Jan, why not lay off in Dec and avoid paying for paid holidays?
- surge 3y agoOr paying out bonuses for the prior year since you don't let them finish the year that makes them entitled to the bonus.
- surge 3y agoI know my company is hinting at layoffs in Q1, well hinting, they've literally said they've budgeted money as an expense in Q4 to pay out severance packages in Q1. So they're at least waiting until after to give people their walking papers. That said, I'm not sure if the anxiety of not knowing if you're in a future layoff is maybe worse since now everyone is concerned, but then again, at least you can act accordingly, maybe layoff the credit cards.
- John23832 3y agoTech or Production?
- egberts1 3y agoNeither are the majority , is my bet.
- textadventure 3y agoWord from a friend of a friend. Solid source.
- cableshaft 3y agoWell if it's true we should be getting something to collaborate on it shortly. Plenty of people at Netflix on this site.
- iowemoretohim 3y agoI would prefer if he posted it on X and then posted the link here. I like my hearsay to at least have a link attached to it.
- Panini_Jones 3y agoI don’t know of any mass layoffs at Netflix today.
- weej 3y agoNetflix employee here, there are no "mass layoffs" that I'm aware of (would also have WARN act require issue of notice >75 employees). We have involuntary attrition when people do not meet "the keepers test" in performance/impact and are exited from the company with severance. This is a regular part of the business and explicitly called out in the company's culture memo (see the top of the HN comments). Perhaps, the friend of a friend falls within this category, or just hearsay.
- lern_too_spel 3y agoThe WARN act requires an announcement 60 days before the workers stop being paid. Tech companies typically offer more than two months of severance, so this announcement can happen after people are notified they've been laid off. This late into the workday, the fact that there's no news about layoffs at Netflix makes me suspect there isn't a large layoff.
- _bhqp 3y agoHeh yeah thats fair.
- jessehorne 3y agoFeels bad. Good luck to everyone. This job market is bad enough as it is. I'll see ya'll in retail or woodworking. o7
- robofanatic 3y agothats a big leap backwards. from minimum quarter million to minimum wage?
- autoexec 3y agoThat would be pretty dramatic but everybody is going backwards by some amount. The median household income in America has been declining and the poverty rate is soaring at a rate not seen in more than 50 years. I saw JPMorgan predicting that in the next year 99% of Americans will be worse off financially than they were in 2019. It's a race to the bottom.
- robofanatic 3y agowages going down and cost of living going up, somebody is making profit in between!
- mcntsh 3y agoI feel like there used to be somewhat of an unwritten social contract about things like layoffs before the holidays. Seems exceptionally cruel. Honestly I feel sick to my stomach when I think about it.
- happytoexplain 3y agoThe imbalance of power is simply too great. Even for high-value positions, and even in times of high job availability, employers can always afford (by every conceivable definition of "afford") to harm employees more than employees can afford to harm employers. Edit: A healthy society is a high-trust society where the employee-employer relationship is more balanced due to the regular old humanity that you would expect by default from humans, rather than pure economics. You can't regulate the fundamentals of societal health. When people have less and less cultural attachment to each other and to the societies in which they operate; and less and less respect for the idea of plain humanity; this is the result. The US seems to have been historically above average in this regard, but is coming down fast. A few European countries seem to be at the top of this (highly subjective) ranking.
- lukev 3y agoUnless employees unionize.
- withinboredom 3y agoExactly. Unions exist for exactly this purpose and have legal powers no employee will ever have.
- happytoexplain 3y agoYes, though it really only helps so much with the broader problem.
- OkayPhysicist 3y agoIt's the main building block of any broader solution. You need to have large, pro-worker organizations in play in order to fight for large scale change, whether that's in a figurative sense in the courts and legislature, or in a literal sense, in the streets of Krakow or Barcelona.
- macinjosh 3y agoHappy Holidays /s
- nicup12345689 3y agoDamn, even for run of the mill, retail labor I've seen courtesy extended as wait until January
- xmprt 3y agoTo be fair, holiday season is the busiest time for retail labor so it makes sense to keep employees around until after. Netflix (and other tech companies) usually don't get much work done during December so it makes the most sense for the company to do layoffs in December. It's incredibly brutal though. I wonder if there are any tax implications for doing it this quarter vs waiting till next year/quarter.
- giantg2 3y agoInflation is easing, market is going up. But more fucking layoffs... great.
- sneak 3y agoInflation isn’t easing. The rate of inflation’s increase is reducing. Inflation is still inflating, and it’s still a lot more than in the past. We’re also still dealing with the effects of the inflation of the last few years. For that to be “easing”, we would have to see negative inflation for a bit to counteract some of that. We’re not. Things are just getting worse a bit more slowly.
- losteric 3y agoJust to add specifics, the cumulative inflation since September 2019 is over 20% and it's still growing. All that's changed is the year-over-year velocity has decreased. But! US average hourly income is also up about 20%. Granted, that's an average - US tech income (upper-middle class) is probably flat, as is the minimum wage-bottom.
- matthewmacleod 3y agoAll that's changed is the year-over-year velocity has decreased This is literally inflation – the rate of change of prices.
- losteric 3y agoI know. There's a gap between common language and technical definitions. Most people use "inflation" to baseline current prices against recent memory (ie cumulative change over multiple years). I opt against the quixotic battle for language, people typically skim such pedantry. Also... one could argue the YoY definition is "wrong" if consumers are thinking and planning based on a longer time period. Why report YoY instead of a rolling 2 years? 5? Or perhaps different windows for specific items within the basket?
- 3y ago
- ldjkfkdsjnv 3y agoOne last flush before inflation disappears and tech booms, plausible deniability is still available. In six months, things will have recovered too much to allow for the optics of big layoffs. Edit: for the doubters, the stock market is clearly pricing in inflation dropping, your current analysis doesnt take into account any data that hedge funds and investors are trading on
- dpflan 3y agoYou're looking at FOMC and interest rates changes in 6-month will change the picture?
- oceanplexian 3y agoInflation is trending down, the entire mandate of the Fed is to achieve maximum employment and keep prices stable. There's also some data coming out that a lot of the inflation wasn't real, and corporations were using it as a cover to price gouge.
- oldpersonintx 3y agocontrary to what you read on CNBC, not every decision is based on inflation lots of tech companies just have too many employees it takes fewer people to maintain something than to build it...and arguably Netflix has saturated its markets
- dpflan 3y agoYes, aware of the flaunted price increases. So inflation going down means the companies balked and have to back down and drop prices? I guess they are keeping the prices as high as possible, but how does the FED influence the company's decision to lower prices (and hence inflation)? Is the incentive to not get sued?
- ska 3y ago> So inflation going down means the companies balked and have to back down and drop prices? No, it means that the rate of price increases has slowed.
- ilrwbwrkhv 3y agoOf course they are. All those pointless microservices crap will not lose time and money themselves.
- neogodless 3y agoSorry everyone. After about 15 years of giving Netflix money every month, I canceled last week. Must have really hurt their bottom line.
- chubot 3y agoHm I also cancelled about a month ago, after more than 10 years. I noticed there was good quality content on YouTube I was watching more. I think the tipping point was that I got sucked into quite a few low quality crime documentaries, which were not doing anything for me, and probably hurting. The Madoff one was actually good, but there were 10 others that in retrospect I regret watching. Even Tiger King was like that. It's more colorful, but ultimately a waste of time ... If you look into it, basically all the characters there are very bad people (i.e. they abuse both animals and people). IMO it's kinda poisonous to watch too much of that stuff. To take it lightly and brush off other people's misfortunes as entertainment.
- allenu 3y agoI wonder if more people are realizing this and tuning out of those shows, too. I noticed I was watching a bunch of true crime stuff and after a while realized I was really just wasting my time since I didn't really learn anything new and I was just introducing "bad people" into my life in some ways. There was no net gain for me, other than feeling smug that there are bad and dumb people out there doing bad, evil things and that I don't interact with them, thankfully.
- paulddraper 3y agohope you can sleep at night
- chihuahua 3y agoI also just cancelled, I guess you and me cancelling at the same time was too much. I was amazed by how bad their Web UI is. After I've watched a movie, if I want to remove it from "My List", I have to go to the list and find the movie in it (it's randomly re-ordered every day), before I can click the "remove from my list" button. Even Amazon Prime Video lets me remove a movie from my list right after I've finished watching it. And I can't change the order of titles on my list. Why does it get randomly re-ordered repeatedly? And the thumbnails change occasionally, which makes it even harder to find what I'm looking at. What's the point, other than being gratuitously hostile to the user? The other thing is that most of the content is just filler. Whenever a show or movie is marked with the red Netflix logo, to me it means "this probably sucks". Netflix probably thinks its something for their customers to get excited about "Ooh, produced by Netflix!" but it's the opposite.
- d4mi3n 3y agoWouldn’t we be seeing some kind of press release if a mass layoff was underway? If it is and no statements have been made, they’d be opening themselves up to all kinds of trouble with their investors and the SEC.
- rickreynoldssf 3y agoThis really shouldn't be a shock for Netflix employees. According to Netflix's culture page (https://jobs.netflix.com/culture https://jobs.netflix.com/culture) They are a team, not a family. When you're on a team you know you can be cut at any moment. It's ruthless over there and the recruiters will make sure you're aware of that early in the interview process. Netflix was never known as a good place to work which is why they pay outrageous salaries and the average employment length is a little over a year.
- Toutouxc 3y agoWow, that culture page reads like something from Black Mirror. But I guess I'd also endure a lot of stuff for a year of outrageous salary, then peace out to a beach somewhere.
- popularrecluse 3y agoYeah guess they are self-selecting for the kind of person that will read through that drivel.
- 3D30497420 3y agoOh wow, yeah. I love this one: "Selflessness. You seek what is best for Netflix, not yourself or your team". Sounds like something a cult leader would have you commit to. Plus, that page is insanely long.
- saati 3y agoAfter all the times I saw office politics make the product much worse for our users, I see that as a good thing.
- cloverich 3y agoIts intended to be a statement against the self serving politics present at many companies; it doesnt mean be a slave to netflix and forgo self care or anything. Just a reasonable north star: You are employed by the company to act in its best interest.
- glintik 3y agoWhat is considered as mass? 10, 100, 1000, 10K? Number matters.
- _bhqp 3y agoI don't have this information. Was told second hand. I updated the title of this post to a question.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- iamleppert 3y agoThe only way you can act is with your money. If you disagree, cancel your Netflix account and torrent their content.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- znpy 3y agoNot sure if they’re based in california and (so) if what about to say applies, but: afaik there’s a labor law in california that mandates companies planning to do mass layoffs to announce that in advance. There might be a source of truth in there.
- aYsY4dDQ2NrcNzA 3y agohttps://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/Cal-WARNAct.html https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/Cal-WARNAct.html
- John23832 3y agoThe WARN act also applies to more than 100 person RIF.
- nameless912 3y ago"Mass Layoffs" seems...suspect. I haven't heard of a single person in my sphere of influence being hit by layoffs, and I work with a lot of folks. Where did you get your info OP?
- _bhqp 3y agoYeah fair enough. My friends partners whole team got let go. According to said friend they weren't the only team. Its admittedly shakey. They are definitely laying people off today though.
- nameless912 3y agoFrom where I sit in game platform tech, I didn't hear about a single layoff on the tech side of the company. Maybe a studio team got axed? That's a relatively regular occurrence and basically non-news in Hollywood.
- Panini_Jones 3y agoThis is false, as far as I can tell. I am currently in a Netflix office.
- _bhqp 3y agoMaybe its less extensive than I was led to believe from my source. I can definitely tell you they are laying people off. I personally know people affected.
- Panini_Jones 3y agoI am a Netflix employee currently at the HQ. No one is talking about layoffs. Was your friend fired?
- blindriver 3y agoI would be surprised if Netflix was doing "mass" layoffs, they keep a pretty lean ship compared to other companies from what I've heard.
- _bhqp 3y agoYeah I changed the title of this post to a question. I just heard from a single source and they might have been feeling bit spicy about it. They definitely laid some folks off today but the extent of it is TBD it seems.
- incomingpain 3y agoNetflix lost the love. https://bleedingcool.com/tv/netflix-love-is-sharing-a-password-and-paying-7-99-month-for-it/ https://bleedingcool.com/tv/netflix-love-is-sharing-a-passwo... They cracked down earlier this year on password sharing. I cancelled my account; been using disney and prime more. It was a dumb time for them to backtrack on password sharing. People were already feeling like they had too many streaming services.
- surge 3y agoThey also charge more for 4k and don't deliver on it. Most people who pay for 4k notice the piss poor quality of the stream. Don't charge for something you can't deliver. I personally enjoyed Netflix more when it was a back catalog of older quality shows, and not a glut of baking/crafting/reality competition shows. If you're going to give me the same things I can get on network television it's not worth paying for, especially if they now have an ad tier.
- chillben 3y agomy friend at netflix didn't hear anything though
- _bhqp 3y agoI changed the title of the post to a question. I know people personally affected but it may not be as extensive as I was led to believe. Apologies for the FUD if so.