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> “With so much technical achievement over the last 12 months and so much tech debt behind us, we now are obliged to take a close look at roles, skills, teams,

> “With so much technical achievement over the last 12 months and so much tech debt behind us, we now are obliged to take a close look at roles, skills, teams, and locations to ensure that our resources are focused in the right areas,” Kern wrote in the memo This is such a tone deaf statement. "Thanks for all your hard work! As a reward, you are now fired!" How could Expedia's PR department let this through?

xeromal 3y ago
It really is. It's like "Hey, thanks for picking up a bucket and scooping water out of the ship. Now that we've been saved, we're gonna need you to jump overboard because we want bigger rations."
- quatrefoil 3y ago
  Missed opportunity for a metaphor... "we're gonna need you to walk the plank". But fundamentally, I don't think this is an indefensible stance. There are many industries that hire seasonally or for specific projects, and where the expectation is that you will need another job when the season is over / the task is done. Tech is actually pretty "seasonal", going through cycles of manic, excessive hiring and then belt-tightening and layoffs at the first sign of any headwinds. It's been like that for 30+ years. The problem is that nobody is going to be honest with you. In fact, in the fat years, tech workers are coddled and told they're family. I can't really see the industry changing any time soon, so if you want to stay sane, just don't fall for the lies. By the end of the day, you're just a delivery guy for a very posh version of UPS.
  - xeromal 3y ago
    I agree that there are plenty of seasonal roles, but you'd hope they'd leverage contract positions for that.
    - earthwalker99 3y ago
      Hope all you'd like but that doesn't change the fact that they'll do whatever they want because you have no power.
  - ysavir 3y ago
    > The problem is that nobody is going to be honest with you. Isn't that what makes it indefensible?
- vizzier 3y ago
  We need to unionize and get residuals. 0.0001 cent each time a line of our code execute might be a good start.
  - simonziguana 3y ago
    Because SWE are famously underpaid. I'm much more concerned about less privileged staff and their work being properly valued
    - ryandrake 3y ago
      So group X should not fight for better pay because somewhere there exist groups Y and Z who are more underpaid?
    - malfist 3y ago
      You can care about more than one thing at once
    - earthwalker99 3y ago
      I hope you get your medal!
  - renewiltord 3y ago
    Never thought I'd see the day when software engineers would argue that sloccount is a good productivity metric. Loving it.
nxm 3y ago
If folks were higher to fix the problems, what are they supposed to be doing once they’re fixed though? Be paid indefinitely for the work done X years ago?
- supriyo-biswas 3y ago
  You’d assume they’d have other projects to move their employees to, or alternatively, use contract work to temporarily employ people meant for time bound tasks of this kind.
  - thoughtpeddler 3y ago
    Exactly! Couldn't have said this better myself. Contract work was one of my first thoughts after I read that first line. There is nothing wrong with short or medium-term work that requires more flexible employment arrangements, as long as that's understood by both parties. Hiring full-time then letting go "once the work is done" is something else altogether.
geodel 3y ago
I mean what is supposed to happen here. They may now have gotten handle on previous architecture astronautery after spending ton of money of tech resources. Should they just jump on some CloudNative Microservice NextGen 2.0 or whatever to keep people who have no work employed?
crazygringo 3y ago
What do you want them to say? Isn't it kind of refreshingly honest? I mean, once people finish the work that needs to be done, and if there isn't any more work to be done... those people get let go. Not sure what you think the alternative is? Or how else to word it? People generally prefer honesty.
- thoughtpeddler 3y ago
  Refer to another reply comment on this chain by supriyo-biswas: > You’d assume they’d have other projects to move their employees to, or alternatively, use contract work to temporarily employ people meant for time bound tasks of this kind.
- vmurthy 3y ago
  > I mean, once people finish the work that needs to be done, and if there isn't any more work to be done... those people get let go Except , companies tend to hire and fire rather periodically which is a huge waste in terms of "lead time" (it takes an employee x months to be productive) not to mention demoralizing to employees. The alternative seems to be to have better planning or a decent enough roadmap rather than cater to the whims of Wall St ?
earthwalker99 3y ago
>How could Expedia's PR department let this through? It's for shareholders. Who cares about anyone else?
mgh2 3y ago
"Use and toss" culture: https://medium.com/@trendguardian/why-we-are-dispensable-7a577eba4f3e https://medium.com/@trendguardian/why-we-are-dispensable-7a5...

xeromal 3y ago

It really is. It's like "Hey, thanks for picking up a bucket and scooping water out of the ship. Now that we've been saved, we're gonna need you to jump overboard because we want bigger rations."

quatrefoil 3y ago
Missed opportunity for a metaphor... "we're gonna need you to walk the plank". But fundamentally, I don't think this is an indefensible stance. There are many industries that hire seasonally or for specific projects, and where the expectation is that you will need another job when the season is over / the task is done. Tech is actually pretty "seasonal", going through cycles of manic, excessive hiring and then belt-tightening and layoffs at the first sign of any headwinds. It's been like that for 30+ years. The problem is that nobody is going to be honest with you. In fact, in the fat years, tech workers are coddled and told they're family. I can't really see the industry changing any time soon, so if you want to stay sane, just don't fall for the lies. By the end of the day, you're just a delivery guy for a very posh version of UPS.
- xeromal 3y ago
  I agree that there are plenty of seasonal roles, but you'd hope they'd leverage contract positions for that.
  - earthwalker99 3y ago
    Hope all you'd like but that doesn't change the fact that they'll do whatever they want because you have no power.
- ysavir 3y ago
  > The problem is that nobody is going to be honest with you. Isn't that what makes it indefensible?
vizzier 3y ago
We need to unionize and get residuals. 0.0001 cent each time a line of our code execute might be a good start.
- simonziguana 3y ago
  Because SWE are famously underpaid. I'm much more concerned about less privileged staff and their work being properly valued
  - ryandrake 3y ago
    So group X should not fight for better pay because somewhere there exist groups Y and Z who are more underpaid?
  - malfist 3y ago
    You can care about more than one thing at once
  - earthwalker99 3y ago
    I hope you get your medal!
- renewiltord 3y ago
  Never thought I'd see the day when software engineers would argue that sloccount is a good productivity metric. Loving it.

nxm 3y ago

If folks were higher to fix the problems, what are they supposed to be doing once they’re fixed though? Be paid indefinitely for the work done X years ago?

supriyo-biswas 3y ago
You’d assume they’d have other projects to move their employees to, or alternatively, use contract work to temporarily employ people meant for time bound tasks of this kind.
- thoughtpeddler 3y ago
  Exactly! Couldn't have said this better myself. Contract work was one of my first thoughts after I read that first line. There is nothing wrong with short or medium-term work that requires more flexible employment arrangements, as long as that's understood by both parties. Hiring full-time then letting go "once the work is done" is something else altogether.

geodel 3y ago

I mean what is supposed to happen here. They may now have gotten handle on previous architecture astronautery after spending ton of money of tech resources. Should they just jump on some CloudNative Microservice NextGen 2.0 or whatever to keep people who have no work employed?

crazygringo 3y ago

What do you want them to say? Isn't it kind of refreshingly honest? I mean, once people finish the work that needs to be done, and if there isn't any more work to be done... those people get let go. Not sure what you think the alternative is? Or how else to word it? People generally prefer honesty.

thoughtpeddler 3y ago
Refer to another reply comment on this chain by supriyo-biswas: > You’d assume they’d have other projects to move their employees to, or alternatively, use contract work to temporarily employ people meant for time bound tasks of this kind.
vmurthy 3y ago
> I mean, once people finish the work that needs to be done, and if there isn't any more work to be done... those people get let go Except , companies tend to hire and fire rather periodically which is a huge waste in terms of "lead time" (it takes an employee x months to be productive) not to mention demoralizing to employees. The alternative seems to be to have better planning or a decent enough roadmap rather than cater to the whims of Wall St ?

earthwalker99 3y ago

>How could Expedia's PR department let this through? It's for shareholders. Who cares about anyone else?

mgh2 3y ago

"Use and toss" culture: https://medium.com/@trendguardian/why-we-are-dispensable-7a577eba4f3e https://medium.com/@trendguardian/why-we-are-dispensable-7a5...