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Needing to cut 150 people suggests catastrophic mismanagement. I get that workloads change, orgs pivot, business has to do business shit, but if you've missed y

Needing to cut 150 people suggests catastrophic mismanagement. I get that workloads change, orgs pivot, business has to do business shit, but if you've missed your headcount requirement for whatever work you needed to do by a HUNDRED AND FIFTY PEOPLE!? What even. Management and leadership is practically a lost art these days, so many organizations are just filled with managers who haven't the first fucking idea how to actually manage people. All that said to be like: "Well how SHOULD we correctly fire 150 people?" I dunno, to me that's like saying how do I hit a tree with my car in such a way as to make sure I'm not paralyzed? Like so much has already gone wrong to bring you to where this is a pertinent question that I don't think there's really a right answer at this point, there's just gradations of bad.

throwaway7783 1y ago
150 people is less than 1.5% of their total number of employees (12,157 per google) . That is not a catastrophic overestimation.
signatoremo 1y ago
“catastrophic mismanagement”, “a HUNDRED AND FIFTY PEOPLE?”. What is it with all the hyperbole on HN? Atlassian grew from 3,600 people in 2019 to 12.100 in 2024. Triple in 5 years. Some adjustments are expected. Sucks to lose your job, but you might not have it in the first place. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1276817/atlassian-number-employees/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/1276817/atlassian-number...
- ToucanLoucan 1y ago
  The total headcount is irrelevant. What specific department overshot their required headcount by a hundred and fifty? Reviewing TFA, it's customer service and the context of it leans to being mass layoffs as Altlassan anticipates replacing those reps with LLM, which I'm sure Altlassan customers are simply thrilled about, and related, means the CEO's heartfelt message is even more hollow. So, I will fully grant that my original statement doesn't really matter here; this wasn't a department that over-scaled to meet a project that didn't exist, this is in fact, the far shittier kind of layoffs: the ones that are a direct result of a company taking by all accounts a fully functioning department and taking an axe to it to improve their bottom line in 6 months, trading experienced workers who likely have relationships with their clients for soulless chatbots for their customers to now argue with. So yes, I fully acknowledge I was wrong, and also, this is shittier than I assumed without reading. Take that how you will.

throwaway7783 1y ago

150 people is less than 1.5% of their total number of employees (12,157 per google) . That is not a catastrophic overestimation.

signatoremo 1y ago

“catastrophic mismanagement”, “a HUNDRED AND FIFTY PEOPLE?”. What is it with all the hyperbole on HN? Atlassian grew from 3,600 people in 2019 to 12.100 in 2024. Triple in 5 years. Some adjustments are expected. Sucks to lose your job, but you might not have it in the first place. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1276817/atlassian-number-employees/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/1276817/atlassian-number...

ToucanLoucan 1y ago
The total headcount is irrelevant. What specific department overshot their required headcount by a hundred and fifty? Reviewing TFA, it's customer service and the context of it leans to being mass layoffs as Altlassan anticipates replacing those reps with LLM, which I'm sure Altlassan customers are simply thrilled about, and related, means the CEO's heartfelt message is even more hollow. So, I will fully grant that my original statement doesn't really matter here; this wasn't a department that over-scaled to meet a project that didn't exist, this is in fact, the far shittier kind of layoffs: the ones that are a direct result of a company taking by all accounts a fully functioning department and taking an axe to it to improve their bottom line in 6 months, trading experienced workers who likely have relationships with their clients for soulless chatbots for their customers to now argue with. So yes, I fully acknowledge I was wrong, and also, this is shittier than I assumed without reading. Take that how you will.