5 ms·

PayPal to lay off 325 employees and 120 contractors

58 points by techinsidr 14y ago

pkteison 14y ago
Serious question: How does laying off 325 product and technology employees get presented as speeding up how products are developed? Is there a kernel of truth hiding there, or is that just a polite complete lie?
- ericcholis 14y ago
  While not necessarily true here, one could argue that developer bloat could lead to a slow down in product completion. As a developer using services PayPal regularly, I hope that this does lead to an improvement of there service. Otherwise, we've been fleeced by corporate PR babble yet again. On a side note, the rise of companies like Stripe and Square might have given the higher-ups pause. These should have been spaces where PayPal was the innovative leader, not lemmings.
- georgemcbay 14y ago
  Cutting back on bloated tech staff could absolutely help speed up new product development for all the usual Mythical Man Month reasons.... in theory. I've never seen it work in practice. In practice, in my experience, layoffs never target exactly the right set of dead weight. Company politics always come into play and you end up with a situation where some of the right people got axed, but not enough and worse sometimes the layoffs hit people who are actually great producers but who weren't visible enough to upper management to be spared. And once this event occurs it tends to have a ripple effect among the survivors -- nobody really feels safe and so everyone starts considering other opportunities and naturally your best talent has the easiest time of landing new jobs so they're among the first out the door, and now you're on a downward spiral of fucked.
  - almost_usual 14y ago
    I experienced this exact situation a few weeks ago. Fortunately, I wasn't laid off but it did spark incentive for me to find a new employer. I landed a great position at a new company a couple weeks later and feel much happier now. I've heard through the grapevine that the megacorp I worked for is now in the downward spiral of 'fucked'.
    - josephjrobison 14y ago
      Yea I did a similar thing, but once I got the new job with an awesome raise, it made me think - "should I have applied and interviewed at a lot more places if it was that easy?"
  - preferToAnony 14y ago
    // layoffs never target exactly the right set of dead weight// This is exactly what happened today. This layoff is not based on performance (as communicated by the internal email from the director). Several top performers are asked to leave, while under performers are still there.
- zupreme 14y ago
  Maybe eliminating some of the layers between conception and deployment? I've worked at a megacorp before and I can say with confidence that big bloated teams are all to often where great and innovative ideas go to die.
- mtgx 14y ago
  There more people there are, the more complex the processes and procedures becomes. This is why big corporations are seen as slow usually.
Osiris 14y ago
What exactly were all those people doing? I've been using PayPal for years and it looks, feels, and works exactly the same now as it did five years ago. The process to setup Buy Now buttons hasn't changed. The complexity of setting up the advanced payment system hasn't changed. So what exactly were those guys working on to actually improve the business for their customers?
- timjahn 14y ago
  My thoughts as well. Other than the recent front end redesign, PayPal's interface and overall product has not changed since I started using it 5 or 6 years ago.
  - thornofmight 14y ago
    Has that made it any less usable?
    - timjahn 14y ago
      In my opinion (and experience), it was barely usable the first day I started using it. I'd think by now they'd have thought about making it any amount of slightly more usable.
  - jonknee 14y ago
    They've had a lot of new mobile stuff recently.
- ahelwer 14y ago
  The quote about PayPal (and all institutions which deal with money) being like an iceberg ring true here. Anyone have the link?
- reinhardt 14y ago
  Checking transactions manually, one by one.
- gus_massa 14y ago
zupreme 14y ago
I believe (although I have no inside info to support the theory) that this is part of a push at Paypal to respond to the challenges presented by smaller, younger, more agile competitors like those at Stripe and Square. Add to the fray Apple's Passbook and I think that Paypal is scrambling to secure their ecommerce throne.
zegmas 14y ago
another anonymous video yet to be published?
gambiting 14y ago
Nothing against these employees, but PayPal is a bad company and needs to die
mratzloff 14y ago
My first reaction: PayPal employed more than 450 people? Apparently, yes. According to Wikipedia in 2007 they employed 2000 people.
- pashakym 14y ago
  I think not 450 it is about 10% of the company. Don`t forget that they employ worldwide and it is interesting where they will lay off in the US or abroad.
pashakym 14y ago
dear PayPal, please improve the UI design of your site. :)

58 points by techinsidr 14y ago

Serious question: How does laying off 325 product and technology employees get presented as speeding up how products are developed? Is there a kernel of truth hiding there, or is that just a polite complete lie?

ericcholis 14y ago
While not necessarily true here, one could argue that developer bloat could lead to a slow down in product completion. As a developer using services PayPal regularly, I hope that this does lead to an improvement of there service. Otherwise, we've been fleeced by corporate PR babble yet again. On a side note, the rise of companies like Stripe and Square might have given the higher-ups pause. These should have been spaces where PayPal was the innovative leader, not lemmings.
georgemcbay 14y ago
Cutting back on bloated tech staff could absolutely help speed up new product development for all the usual Mythical Man Month reasons.... in theory. I've never seen it work in practice. In practice, in my experience, layoffs never target exactly the right set of dead weight. Company politics always come into play and you end up with a situation where some of the right people got axed, but not enough and worse sometimes the layoffs hit people who are actually great producers but who weren't visible enough to upper management to be spared. And once this event occurs it tends to have a ripple effect among the survivors -- nobody really feels safe and so everyone starts considering other opportunities and naturally your best talent has the easiest time of landing new jobs so they're among the first out the door, and now you're on a downward spiral of fucked.
- almost_usual 14y ago
  I experienced this exact situation a few weeks ago. Fortunately, I wasn't laid off but it did spark incentive for me to find a new employer. I landed a great position at a new company a couple weeks later and feel much happier now. I've heard through the grapevine that the megacorp I worked for is now in the downward spiral of 'fucked'.
  - josephjrobison 14y ago
    Yea I did a similar thing, but once I got the new job with an awesome raise, it made me think - "should I have applied and interviewed at a lot more places if it was that easy?"
- preferToAnony 14y ago
  // layoffs never target exactly the right set of dead weight// This is exactly what happened today. This layoff is not based on performance (as communicated by the internal email from the director). Several top performers are asked to leave, while under performers are still there.
zupreme 14y ago
Maybe eliminating some of the layers between conception and deployment? I've worked at a megacorp before and I can say with confidence that big bloated teams are all to often where great and innovative ideas go to die.
mtgx 14y ago
There more people there are, the more complex the processes and procedures becomes. This is why big corporations are seen as slow usually.

Osiris 14y ago

What exactly were all those people doing? I've been using PayPal for years and it looks, feels, and works exactly the same now as it did five years ago. The process to setup Buy Now buttons hasn't changed. The complexity of setting up the advanced payment system hasn't changed. So what exactly were those guys working on to actually improve the business for their customers?

timjahn 14y ago
My thoughts as well. Other than the recent front end redesign, PayPal's interface and overall product has not changed since I started using it 5 or 6 years ago.
- thornofmight 14y ago
  Has that made it any less usable?
  - timjahn 14y ago
    In my opinion (and experience), it was barely usable the first day I started using it. I'd think by now they'd have thought about making it any amount of slightly more usable.
- jonknee 14y ago
  They've had a lot of new mobile stuff recently.
ahelwer 14y ago
The quote about PayPal (and all institutions which deal with money) being like an iceberg ring true here. Anyone have the link?
reinhardt 14y ago
Checking transactions manually, one by one.
gus_massa 14y ago

zupreme 14y ago

I believe (although I have no inside info to support the theory) that this is part of a push at Paypal to respond to the challenges presented by smaller, younger, more agile competitors like those at Stripe and Square. Add to the fray Apple's Passbook and I think that Paypal is scrambling to secure their ecommerce throne.

zegmas 14y ago

another anonymous video yet to be published?

gambiting 14y ago

Nothing against these employees, but PayPal is a bad company and needs to die

mratzloff 14y ago

My first reaction: PayPal employed more than 450 people? Apparently, yes. According to Wikipedia in 2007 they employed 2000 people.

pashakym 14y ago
I think not 450 it is about 10% of the company. Don`t forget that they employ worldwide and it is interesting where they will lay off in the US or abroad.

pashakym 14y ago

dear PayPal, please improve the UI design of your site. :)