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Tech historically has a chronic staffing shortage, which has been why it has paid so well. I would not be surprised if we later learn there's been a Signal cha

Tech historically has a chronic staffing shortage, which has been why it has paid so well. I would not be surprised if we later learn there's been a Signal chatroom with a cabal of Fortune 500[1] board members with a conversation that's going like this: > Hey folks, staffing is getting expensive. Competing for staff is hurting us all. What do you say we all coordinate and put our projects on ice for a while, do major layoffs for 18 months or so, and push wages back down to 2014 levels? (+237 thumbs up reactions) [1] https://theyrule.net/ https://theyrule.net/

sleight42 3y ago
In 2010, major players in the Valley were found guilty of colluding to keep salaries lower. It took a few years but salaries in Tech spiked enormously. See https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-requires-six-high-tech-companies-stop-entering-anticompetitive-employee https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-requires-s...
rvz 3y ago
> Tech historically has a chronic staffing shortage, which has been why it has paid so well. Companies really don't want more staff at these salaries if they are seen as a cost center in the billions each year, Twitter, Meta, Snap, Coinbase, Robinhood, etc are great examples that showed this in the past. They really are screaming for a staff shortage of people who want to accept their very low-ball offers. A decade ago, the amount of VC capital contributed to such inflated salaries as the standard to lure people working at banks, wall st, hedge funds or older established tech companies. As soon as those places started to lose staff to startups, they decided to raise their salaries and comp packages to discourage them from leaving, and those companines can afford to do such raises or bonuses. Startups? Not so much, unless they are immensely profitable. > Hey folks, staffing is getting expensive. Competing for staff is hurting us all. What do you say we all coordinate and put our projects on ice for a while, do major layoffs for 18 months or so, and push wages back down to 2014 levels? ...and off shore the laid off staff and hire developers in cheaper countries as a skeleton crew to keep costs down and beat Wall St. expectations.
gnicholas 3y ago
IMO what Elon did at Twitter showed that some tech companies can shed a ton of staff and still operate. That put pressure on boards of other tech companies to figure out if they were overstaffed. Simultaneously, Twitter dumping a bunch of employees put downward pressure on wages (for certain roles), which made the math even more compelling for companies that were on the fence. It became clear that you could probably lay off people now and then fill new roles (in strategic departments) with lower comp. Once it was apparent that tons of companies were doing RIFs, the reputational hit of doing a RIF was greatly diminished. Boards felt pressure from shareholders, and one domino fell after another.
- mullingitover 3y ago
  I'm not sure that twitter can really be held up as a success story here. Tesla is the worst performing stock in the S&P500, but that's only because twitter isn't public. If they hadn't sold, and hadn't had the layoffs, and simply stayed on course they likely would be fairly healthy right now instead of beelining toward insolvency.
  - gnicholas 3y ago
    Twitter is complicated. I think much of its challenges are due to Elon's personality and other choices. If that stuff hadn't happened then they would have had much less of a problem with advertisers (and therefore, revenue). But regardless of whether it was ultimately/financially a success, there's no doubt that they cut a ton of salary expense, and the platform is still running. That was what other tech companies/board members/shareholders saw.
  - basch 3y ago
    Tesla has a PE ratio of 37.52. Microsoft has a PE of 37.6. Tesla isnt "performing" bad, and its price has roughly nil to do with how the company is doing. It's share price got insanely overvalued, and it corrected. Tesla is up 767% in the last 5 years, almost 10x the SP500.
    - mullingitover 3y ago
qwertyuiop_ 3y ago
I totally believe there is a Signal or equivalent chat room for the cabal. Look at the near synchronization of messaging regarding RTO starting first from the city politicians and then thr corporate overlords.
1vuio0pswjnm7 3y ago
Is the cabal only comprised of so-called "tech" companies. Is 237 the number of so-called "tech" companies in the Fortune 500. How many of the Fortune 500 have had "tech layoffs". 237 or some other number.
- pg_1234 3y ago
  How many "tech layoffs" really are what would have been considered "tech" pre-2010? Most of these layoffs seem to be dominated by "tech adjacent" roles ... that bloated "engineering" when there was lots of easy money.
belter 3y ago
A wild theory, worthy of the worst conspiracy theorists. Until you find out companies have engaged in behaviors that are very close to what is described, with no real consequences... "Apple, Google, others settle antipoaching lawsuit for $415 million" - https://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/apple-google-others-settle-anti-poaching-lawsuit-for-415-million/ https://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/apple-google-others-...

sleight42 3y ago

In 2010, major players in the Valley were found guilty of colluding to keep salaries lower. It took a few years but salaries in Tech spiked enormously. See https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-requires-six-high-tech-companies-stop-entering-anticompetitive-employee https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-requires-s...

rvz 3y ago

> Tech historically has a chronic staffing shortage, which has been why it has paid so well. Companies really don't want more staff at these salaries if they are seen as a cost center in the billions each year, Twitter, Meta, Snap, Coinbase, Robinhood, etc are great examples that showed this in the past. They really are screaming for a staff shortage of people who want to accept their very low-ball offers. A decade ago, the amount of VC capital contributed to such inflated salaries as the standard to lure people working at banks, wall st, hedge funds or older established tech companies. As soon as those places started to lose staff to startups, they decided to raise their salaries and comp packages to discourage them from leaving, and those companines can afford to do such raises or bonuses. Startups? Not so much, unless they are immensely profitable. > Hey folks, staffing is getting expensive. Competing for staff is hurting us all. What do you say we all coordinate and put our projects on ice for a while, do major layoffs for 18 months or so, and push wages back down to 2014 levels? ...and off shore the laid off staff and hire developers in cheaper countries as a skeleton crew to keep costs down and beat Wall St. expectations.

gnicholas 3y ago

IMO what Elon did at Twitter showed that some tech companies can shed a ton of staff and still operate. That put pressure on boards of other tech companies to figure out if they were overstaffed. Simultaneously, Twitter dumping a bunch of employees put downward pressure on wages (for certain roles), which made the math even more compelling for companies that were on the fence. It became clear that you could probably lay off people now and then fill new roles (in strategic departments) with lower comp. Once it was apparent that tons of companies were doing RIFs, the reputational hit of doing a RIF was greatly diminished. Boards felt pressure from shareholders, and one domino fell after another.

mullingitover 3y ago
I'm not sure that twitter can really be held up as a success story here. Tesla is the worst performing stock in the S&P500, but that's only because twitter isn't public. If they hadn't sold, and hadn't had the layoffs, and simply stayed on course they likely would be fairly healthy right now instead of beelining toward insolvency.
- gnicholas 3y ago
  Twitter is complicated. I think much of its challenges are due to Elon's personality and other choices. If that stuff hadn't happened then they would have had much less of a problem with advertisers (and therefore, revenue). But regardless of whether it was ultimately/financially a success, there's no doubt that they cut a ton of salary expense, and the platform is still running. That was what other tech companies/board members/shareholders saw.
- basch 3y ago
  Tesla has a PE ratio of 37.52. Microsoft has a PE of 37.6. Tesla isnt "performing" bad, and its price has roughly nil to do with how the company is doing. It's share price got insanely overvalued, and it corrected. Tesla is up 767% in the last 5 years, almost 10x the SP500.
  - mullingitover 3y ago

qwertyuiop_ 3y ago

I totally believe there is a Signal or equivalent chat room for the cabal. Look at the near synchronization of messaging regarding RTO starting first from the city politicians and then thr corporate overlords.

1vuio0pswjnm7 3y ago

Is the cabal only comprised of so-called "tech" companies. Is 237 the number of so-called "tech" companies in the Fortune 500. How many of the Fortune 500 have had "tech layoffs". 237 or some other number.

pg_1234 3y ago
How many "tech layoffs" really are what would have been considered "tech" pre-2010? Most of these layoffs seem to be dominated by "tech adjacent" roles ... that bloated "engineering" when there was lots of easy money.

belter 3y ago

A wild theory, worthy of the worst conspiracy theorists. Until you find out companies have engaged in behaviors that are very close to what is described, with no real consequences... "Apple, Google, others settle antipoaching lawsuit for $415 million" - https://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/apple-google-others-settle-anti-poaching-lawsuit-for-415-million/ https://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/apple-google-others-...