4 ms·

> The video game industry (and the larger tech industry) say they over-hired in 2020 and 2021 to ride the increase in digital activity after social-distancing r

> The video game industry (and the larger tech industry) say they over-hired in 2020 and 2021 to ride the increase in digital activity after social-distancing rules went into effect around the world. Firstly, citation? Secondly, what does this actually mean? More people using existing online services means infrastructure scalability, surely, not generally "we need to hire more people across the board"? (edited to fix formatting)

_heimdall 3y ago
> More people using existing online services means infrastructure scalability, surely, not generally "we need to hire more people across the board"? From what I saw, the hiring was driven more by an influx of cash than an actual need to respond to business needs. Companies began hiring much too early during the pandemic response to have down it based on seeing an increase in use and analyzing where their resource bottlenecks were. The government dumped new money into the financial systems and investors moved funds to more heavily invest in tech assuming that the industry would be less effected by lockdowns and would see more benefit from work from home, distancing, etc. tl;dr; They did over hire, but for all the wrong reasons. Balance sheets and new money.
sokoloff 3y ago
Companies operate under a set of constraints. If your hiring is currently constrained by revenue (meaning “we have plans for what we could use more employees for, but can’t support hiring them”), an influx of sales could release that constraint and spur you to hire. Later, as constraints change, you might find that you have picked up a conflict between the constraints and your current business approach and need to make an adjustment (or delay a while and hope things improve). I think it’s not that different from people upgrading their house, car, and travel as they make more income (“lifestyle creep”). What you used to drive and where you used to live obviously sufficed, but was constrained by your income. When that constraint relaxed, you adjusted your consumption to reflect that.

_heimdall 3y ago

> More people using existing online services means infrastructure scalability, surely, not generally "we need to hire more people across the board"? From what I saw, the hiring was driven more by an influx of cash than an actual need to respond to business needs. Companies began hiring much too early during the pandemic response to have down it based on seeing an increase in use and analyzing where their resource bottlenecks were. The government dumped new money into the financial systems and investors moved funds to more heavily invest in tech assuming that the industry would be less effected by lockdowns and would see more benefit from work from home, distancing, etc. tl;dr; They did over hire, but for all the wrong reasons. Balance sheets and new money.

sokoloff 3y ago

Companies operate under a set of constraints. If your hiring is currently constrained by revenue (meaning “we have plans for what we could use more employees for, but can’t support hiring them”), an influx of sales could release that constraint and spur you to hire. Later, as constraints change, you might find that you have picked up a conflict between the constraints and your current business approach and need to make an adjustment (or delay a while and hope things improve). I think it’s not that different from people upgrading their house, car, and travel as they make more income (“lifestyle creep”). What you used to drive and where you used to live obviously sufficed, but was constrained by your income. When that constraint relaxed, you adjusted your consumption to reflect that.