4 ms·

Wow... What is going on it tech? We are just 10 days in the new year and every day there has been surprise layoffs! Unity Twitch Several startups And now..

Wow... What is going on it tech? We are just 10 days in the new year and every day there has been surprise layoffs! Unity Twitch Several startups And now.. Google! This is at the same time when stocks are almost all time high :).

lgleason 3y ago
Employees are a companies most valuable assets. All that a company has to do is to lay off a bunch of them and it realizes that value with a higher stock price :). Edit: in case anybody missed the nuance, this comment is meant as satire.
- CrimsonChapulin 3y ago
  By that logic monetary value is a company’s most valuable asset. Edit: I understand it was satire.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
- jrockway 3y ago
  I do always laugh a little about these things. "Safety is our top priority." It can't be, or you wouldn't be in the business of drilling mines or whatever. Safety is the second priority.
matrix_overload 3y ago
High interest rates. If Fed dropped them to 0 overnight, everyone on the list would have happily hired everyone back. But then the grocery prices would start growing faster than SPX.
- rsanek 3y ago
  The timing is surprising if this was the main motivation. Rates have been flat for nearly a half year and are projected to come down later in 2024 -- https://www.cmegroup.com/markets/interest-rates/cme-fedwatch-tool.html https://www.cmegroup.com/markets/interest-rates/cme-fedwatch...
  - ZoomerCretin 3y ago
    Loans and bonds are typically at fixed rates and have months or years-long terms. As you reissue bonds and take out new loans, your overall interest rate on debt approaches the much higher market rate. It doesn't happen immediately. Expecting interest rates to drop later this year is big for the stock market, which runs on expectations, but doesn't matter to people borrowing money and issuing debt before then, since you cannot attract lenders at rates below the US treasury yield.
  - trashtester 3y ago
    Rough guess is that these companies saw the need to downsize in Q3, but didn't want the optics of doing it directly before the holiday season.
  - baq 3y ago
    rates market only somewhat accurately prices the next fed meeting, after that it's anyone's guess and the far out rates are priced to basically fed inflation target anyway. that doesn't mean the price isn't accurate now, it's just not necessarily what it'll be when the fed meets.
- oldpersonintx 3y ago
  [dead]
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
mustacheemperor 3y ago
About twelve months ago professional tax doing people advised me to wait and see what would happen with section 941 long term with the expectation there was a good chance Congress would revise the rules again in 2023. That didn’t happen, and if anyone was waiting to gauge the long term impact of the r&d credit rule changes they may be making cuts accordingly now.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
bogomipz 3y ago
Also Amazon Prime Video. https://www.reuters.com/technology/amazon-lay-off-employees-prime-video-studios-divisions-information-2024-01-10/ https://www.reuters.com/technology/amazon-lay-off-employees-...
stock_toaster 3y ago
Section-174[1] maybe? [1]: https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/section-174/ https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/section-174/
everfrustrated 3y ago
Possibly these companies decided to make redundancies late in 2023 but deferred announcements until after Christmas
danjac 3y ago
It's the end of an industry as we knew it. There will be demand for developers in some very specific sectors and specialities, and some legacy code support for a while, but likely most of us will be out of work within the next few years. Some people are claiming "things will pick up again Real Soon Now, you'll see" but they are whistling in the dark.
- ChatGTP 3y ago
  This comment won’t age well.
  - danjac 3y ago
    I would be happy to be proven wrong.
    - ChatGTP 3y ago
      Do you have any idea how much software there is in the world? What would you think it's just going to stop being produced and maintained tomorrow? Do you have any idea what the societal costs of such a change would be? Even if it was due to "AI", hundreds of thousands of AI augmented developers are going to be off launching new startups writing more and more software, hacking stuff, it's not just going to end tomorrow because there is value in software and software solutions.
      - danjac 3y ago
        Yep, like I said, whistling in the dark.
        theshackleford 3y ago
        So basically you have nothing. Thanks for confirming I guess.
        danjac 3y ago
scrollaway 3y ago
Companies have started to understand that tech workers are overpaid and now that it’s no longer a workers market, they can lay off people in large numbers, rehire later at far lower prices.

lgleason 3y ago

Employees are a companies most valuable assets. All that a company has to do is to lay off a bunch of them and it realizes that value with a higher stock price :). Edit: in case anybody missed the nuance, this comment is meant as satire.

CrimsonChapulin 3y ago
By that logic monetary value is a company’s most valuable asset. Edit: I understand it was satire.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
jrockway 3y ago
I do always laugh a little about these things. "Safety is our top priority." It can't be, or you wouldn't be in the business of drilling mines or whatever. Safety is the second priority.

matrix_overload 3y ago

High interest rates. If Fed dropped them to 0 overnight, everyone on the list would have happily hired everyone back. But then the grocery prices would start growing faster than SPX.

rsanek 3y ago
The timing is surprising if this was the main motivation. Rates have been flat for nearly a half year and are projected to come down later in 2024 -- https://www.cmegroup.com/markets/interest-rates/cme-fedwatch-tool.html https://www.cmegroup.com/markets/interest-rates/cme-fedwatch...
- ZoomerCretin 3y ago
  Loans and bonds are typically at fixed rates and have months or years-long terms. As you reissue bonds and take out new loans, your overall interest rate on debt approaches the much higher market rate. It doesn't happen immediately. Expecting interest rates to drop later this year is big for the stock market, which runs on expectations, but doesn't matter to people borrowing money and issuing debt before then, since you cannot attract lenders at rates below the US treasury yield.
- trashtester 3y ago
  Rough guess is that these companies saw the need to downsize in Q3, but didn't want the optics of doing it directly before the holiday season.
- baq 3y ago
  rates market only somewhat accurately prices the next fed meeting, after that it's anyone's guess and the far out rates are priced to basically fed inflation target anyway. that doesn't mean the price isn't accurate now, it's just not necessarily what it'll be when the fed meets.
oldpersonintx 3y ago
[dead]

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

mustacheemperor 3y ago

About twelve months ago professional tax doing people advised me to wait and see what would happen with section 941 long term with the expectation there was a good chance Congress would revise the rules again in 2023. That didn’t happen, and if anyone was waiting to gauge the long term impact of the r&d credit rule changes they may be making cuts accordingly now.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

bogomipz 3y ago

Also Amazon Prime Video. https://www.reuters.com/technology/amazon-lay-off-employees-prime-video-studios-divisions-information-2024-01-10/ https://www.reuters.com/technology/amazon-lay-off-employees-...

stock_toaster 3y ago

Section-174[1] maybe? [1]: https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/section-174/ https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/section-174/

everfrustrated 3y ago

Possibly these companies decided to make redundancies late in 2023 but deferred announcements until after Christmas

danjac 3y ago

It's the end of an industry as we knew it. There will be demand for developers in some very specific sectors and specialities, and some legacy code support for a while, but likely most of us will be out of work within the next few years. Some people are claiming "things will pick up again Real Soon Now, you'll see" but they are whistling in the dark.

ChatGTP 3y ago
This comment won’t age well.
- danjac 3y ago
  I would be happy to be proven wrong.
  - ChatGTP 3y ago
    Do you have any idea how much software there is in the world? What would you think it's just going to stop being produced and maintained tomorrow? Do you have any idea what the societal costs of such a change would be? Even if it was due to "AI", hundreds of thousands of AI augmented developers are going to be off launching new startups writing more and more software, hacking stuff, it's not just going to end tomorrow because there is value in software and software solutions.
    - danjac 3y ago
      Yep, like I said, whistling in the dark.
      - theshackleford 3y ago
        So basically you have nothing. Thanks for confirming I guess.
        danjac 3y ago

scrollaway 3y ago

Companies have started to understand that tech workers are overpaid and now that it’s no longer a workers market, they can lay off people in large numbers, rehire later at far lower prices.