5 ms·

If you'd have told me that Okta has 540 employees, I would believe you. Even double that seems plausible. But damn, 5400 is a lot.

by glonq 3y ago

Raed667 3y ago
can we not do this comment in every. single. layoff. thread ?
- bluefirebrand 3y ago
  I think its an interesting discussion to have personally. I don't tend to think about the scale of companies in terms of number of employees. I'm often very surprised at how big or small a company is, especially based on their perceived size. I also think this is a good forum to have those discussions on. Many people here either work in tech, have worked in tech before, and maybe have solved similar problems at similar scales to other companies before. It's only natural to look at a company that seems to employ 10x more people than you expect and wonder "what the heck are all those people doing"
  - goles 3y ago
    There are interesting discussions that could happen on the topic. I think P's frustration is that saying "Wow, $Companys head count is high" on every thread is not an interesting, insightful, or discussion driving comment. Why is the headcount high (outside the obvious)? How could it be prevented in the future? What are the ramifications of this in the future? Even as you suggest, why not respond to "What the heck are all these people doing?" Not "Wow, headcount high!"
- galactus 3y ago
  But I does sound like a lot of people for something like Okta. I think any comment explaining why it isn't would be interesting.
John23832 3y ago
I hear this in every layoff thread. The reality is that while there obviously was overhiring, (the generic) you do not have a true understanding of the totality of Okta's (or any of the other companies') businesses. You know what is public/user facing. That is it. Companies scale/sprawl because running a large publicly traded company is actually very complex. Hell, run a startup and you'll understand the complexity. It's not just ship code, get paid. Shipping is often the simplest/most straight forward part.
- glonq 3y ago
  I've worked at nothing but small start-ups/re-starts for most of my career. I do get how/why headcount needs to balloon; thankfully I've mostly worked at places where we kept things lean and mean. For me, things stop being fun once head count gets into the hundreds!
  - technion 3y ago
    The last place I worked with Okta, Okta routinely sent sales people onsite to meet and hang out with executives. Make this a common occurrence across a client base and your head count balloons pretty quickly.

If you'd have told me that Okta has 540 employees, I would believe you. Even double that seems plausible. But damn, 5400 is a lot.

by glonq 3y ago

If you'd have told me that Okta has 540 employees, I would believe you. Even double that seems plausible. But damn, 5400 is a lot.

Raed667 3y ago

can we not do this comment in every. single. layoff. thread ?

bluefirebrand 3y ago
I think its an interesting discussion to have personally. I don't tend to think about the scale of companies in terms of number of employees. I'm often very surprised at how big or small a company is, especially based on their perceived size. I also think this is a good forum to have those discussions on. Many people here either work in tech, have worked in tech before, and maybe have solved similar problems at similar scales to other companies before. It's only natural to look at a company that seems to employ 10x more people than you expect and wonder "what the heck are all those people doing"
- goles 3y ago
  There are interesting discussions that could happen on the topic. I think P's frustration is that saying "Wow, $Companys head count is high" on every thread is not an interesting, insightful, or discussion driving comment. Why is the headcount high (outside the obvious)? How could it be prevented in the future? What are the ramifications of this in the future? Even as you suggest, why not respond to "What the heck are all these people doing?" Not "Wow, headcount high!"
galactus 3y ago
But I does sound like a lot of people for something like Okta. I think any comment explaining why it isn't would be interesting.

John23832 3y ago

I hear this in every layoff thread. The reality is that while there obviously was overhiring, (the generic) you do not have a true understanding of the totality of Okta's (or any of the other companies') businesses. You know what is public/user facing. That is it. Companies scale/sprawl because running a large publicly traded company is actually very complex. Hell, run a startup and you'll understand the complexity. It's not just ship code, get paid. Shipping is often the simplest/most straight forward part.

glonq 3y ago
I've worked at nothing but small start-ups/re-starts for most of my career. I do get how/why headcount needs to balloon; thankfully I've mostly worked at places where we kept things lean and mean. For me, things stop being fun once head count gets into the hundreds!
- technion 3y ago
  The last place I worked with Okta, Okta routinely sent sales people onsite to meet and hang out with executives. Make this a common occurrence across a client base and your head count balloons pretty quickly.