3 ms·

40% actually seems reasonable for a flip into maintenance mode. That’s what PE firms do when then buy cash cow businesses. Dramatically cut engineering on new

40% actually seems reasonable for a flip into maintenance mode. That’s what PE firms do when then buy cash cow businesses. Dramatically cut engineering on new functionality, cut back on sales and marketing, remove all redundancy in operations. Anyone who has counted on a vendor that went private or was bought by a rollup firm has felt this pain. Better to do it all at once than repeated declines.

hellojesus 7mo ago
I first entered the workforce at IBM and several months later they did layoffs (resource action). Every six months after that for my 6ish year tenure there were more resource actions. To this day I walk into the office each morning thinking today may be the day I get laid off. My wife doesn't think it's a healthy mentality, but I'm not sure I know another path of life. This is to say at least it's done in one fell swoop. Repeated layoffs are certainly demoralizing.
- MattGaiser 7mo ago
  > To this day I walk into the office each morning thinking today may be the day I get laid off. My wife doesn't think it's a healthy mentality, but I'm not sure I know another path of life. Why? It lets you plan your actions accordingly.
- project2501a 7mo ago
  > but I'm not sure I know another path of life. Unionize.
  - dfadsadsf 7mo ago
    If we unionize, will I still be paid $500k with four years of experience?
    - shimman 7mo ago
      Why should tech workers care about the small minority of tech workers that make obscene amounts of money? The median dev salary in the US is ~$130k. [1] Besides that point, I would very much like to get paid over time for being on call. I would very much like a preplanned process that comes to layoffs rather than firing people at random. I would like paid paternity leave. Always a classic HN post about the rockstar dev willing to fuck over their fellow workers so they can make a quick buck then feign upset over how meaningless their lives are because they devote so much time making capitalists more capital rather than bettering their community. [1] https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/software-developers.htm https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/...
      - raw_anon_1111 7mo ago
        Cry me a river for the “average” senior developer who as a rule, makes twice the median income of whatever city they live in. It’s called saving money and living below your means. Yes I was a standard enterprise dev for 25 years before 2020 living in a second tier city.
        shimman 7mo ago
        Hey buddy, you may not believe this but helping workers does in fact help everyone. Maybe get out of the crab bucket mentality and help your fellow human, as I'm confident you would want your fellow man to help you when you make the call.
        raw_anon_1111 7mo ago
        Right because software engineers making $140K a year have the same grievances as the McDonalds workers who can’t get a set schedule. Again cry me a river because (hypothetical) you weren’t able to save 3-6 months salary making twice the median wage.
        project2501a 7mo ago
        Both do not own their means of production.
    - vineyardmike 7mo ago
      Yes. This is still possible. Not all unions look the same. There are unions that don’t prescribe pay to the company, leaving the company to compete for talent using salary.
  - raw_anon_1111 7mo ago
    So exactly what will the magic of unionization do when any company can hire developers from LatAm (much easier to deal with in the same time zone) that are good enough enterprise devs for half the price?
    - project2501a 7mo ago
      block the hiring.
      - raw_anon_1111 7mo ago
        So you are going to tell a company that has an international business that they can only hire in the US?
        smnplk 7mo ago
        For shops on the US soil, yes.
        raw_anon_1111 7mo ago
        Let’s be clear what you are saying - no international company based in the US should be allowed to hire anyone outside of the US?
        project2501a 7mo ago
        Do the bosses live in the US? If they do, then yes.
- raw_anon_1111 7mo ago
  It is a healthy mentality. After staying at my second job for too long - 9 years until 2008, I was uncompetitive in the job market and I didn’t have a network. I was 34 then. I said never again. I don’t get demoralized at all. I’ve had 10 jobs in 30 years. When a company decides or I decide that the deal of they give me money and I give them work doesn’t work for one of us - I move on. And I found a job quickly with multiple offers after being Amazoned in 2023 and again in 2024
  - hellojesus 7mo ago
    I think part of my anxiety is this. I went to IBM, stayed until my subsidiary went under, and then started job 2 in 2019, and I've been there sense. I'm a bit terrified of my market competitiveness. But the good news is the mentality helps me keep costs under control. I'm nowhere near real earners in tech at only 200k, but I have two littles so haven't considered moving until they get a bit older because I'm fully remote and the flexibility with daycare sickness is helpful.
    - raw_anon_1111 7mo ago
      Well two things in my case can both be true. In my niche - customer facing + strategy + implementations hands on keyboard cloud/app dev consulting and every project I’ve had over the past year and half has involved integrating with LLM - my resume never gets ignored by companies looking for full time consultants not bragging I am old and experienced. But my niche is just that a niche. “Cloud architects” who spend time doing migrations and infrastructure babysitting are far more in demand since AWS throws money at 3rd party partners for it than software developers who know AWS and can lead consulting projects I’m very concerned about not being able to find a job in this market. It wasn’t this bad in 2000 in second tier cities as an enterprise dev working for profitable companies And to your other point, I’m also just over $200k. But our kids (my step sons ) are “taxpayers” and fully launched and my wife and I moved to a condo 1/3 the size of our old house in state tax free Florida in 2022. Our fixed expenses are 35% of my gross. My wife has been retired since 2020 since she was 44. Push comes to shove, I could take a job making $135K (only a little less than I was making in Atlanta before 2020 and my pivot to consulting) and be fine - just wouldn’t be saving much.

hellojesus 7mo ago

I first entered the workforce at IBM and several months later they did layoffs (resource action). Every six months after that for my 6ish year tenure there were more resource actions. To this day I walk into the office each morning thinking today may be the day I get laid off. My wife doesn't think it's a healthy mentality, but I'm not sure I know another path of life. This is to say at least it's done in one fell swoop. Repeated layoffs are certainly demoralizing.

MattGaiser 7mo ago
> To this day I walk into the office each morning thinking today may be the day I get laid off. My wife doesn't think it's a healthy mentality, but I'm not sure I know another path of life. Why? It lets you plan your actions accordingly.
project2501a 7mo ago
> but I'm not sure I know another path of life. Unionize.
- dfadsadsf 7mo ago
  If we unionize, will I still be paid $500k with four years of experience?
  - shimman 7mo ago
    Why should tech workers care about the small minority of tech workers that make obscene amounts of money? The median dev salary in the US is ~$130k. [1] Besides that point, I would very much like to get paid over time for being on call. I would very much like a preplanned process that comes to layoffs rather than firing people at random. I would like paid paternity leave. Always a classic HN post about the rockstar dev willing to fuck over their fellow workers so they can make a quick buck then feign upset over how meaningless their lives are because they devote so much time making capitalists more capital rather than bettering their community. [1] https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/software-developers.htm https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/...
    - raw_anon_1111 7mo ago
      Cry me a river for the “average” senior developer who as a rule, makes twice the median income of whatever city they live in. It’s called saving money and living below your means. Yes I was a standard enterprise dev for 25 years before 2020 living in a second tier city.
      - shimman 7mo ago
        Hey buddy, you may not believe this but helping workers does in fact help everyone. Maybe get out of the crab bucket mentality and help your fellow human, as I'm confident you would want your fellow man to help you when you make the call.
        raw_anon_1111 7mo ago
        Right because software engineers making $140K a year have the same grievances as the McDonalds workers who can’t get a set schedule. Again cry me a river because (hypothetical) you weren’t able to save 3-6 months salary making twice the median wage.
        project2501a 7mo ago
        Both do not own their means of production.
  - vineyardmike 7mo ago
    Yes. This is still possible. Not all unions look the same. There are unions that don’t prescribe pay to the company, leaving the company to compete for talent using salary.
- raw_anon_1111 7mo ago
  So exactly what will the magic of unionization do when any company can hire developers from LatAm (much easier to deal with in the same time zone) that are good enough enterprise devs for half the price?
  - project2501a 7mo ago
    block the hiring.
    - raw_anon_1111 7mo ago
      So you are going to tell a company that has an international business that they can only hire in the US?
      - smnplk 7mo ago
        For shops on the US soil, yes.
        raw_anon_1111 7mo ago
        Let’s be clear what you are saying - no international company based in the US should be allowed to hire anyone outside of the US?
        project2501a 7mo ago
        Do the bosses live in the US? If they do, then yes.
raw_anon_1111 7mo ago
It is a healthy mentality. After staying at my second job for too long - 9 years until 2008, I was uncompetitive in the job market and I didn’t have a network. I was 34 then. I said never again. I don’t get demoralized at all. I’ve had 10 jobs in 30 years. When a company decides or I decide that the deal of they give me money and I give them work doesn’t work for one of us - I move on. And I found a job quickly with multiple offers after being Amazoned in 2023 and again in 2024
- hellojesus 7mo ago
  I think part of my anxiety is this. I went to IBM, stayed until my subsidiary went under, and then started job 2 in 2019, and I've been there sense. I'm a bit terrified of my market competitiveness. But the good news is the mentality helps me keep costs under control. I'm nowhere near real earners in tech at only 200k, but I have two littles so haven't considered moving until they get a bit older because I'm fully remote and the flexibility with daycare sickness is helpful.
  - raw_anon_1111 7mo ago
    Well two things in my case can both be true. In my niche - customer facing + strategy + implementations hands on keyboard cloud/app dev consulting and every project I’ve had over the past year and half has involved integrating with LLM - my resume never gets ignored by companies looking for full time consultants not bragging I am old and experienced. But my niche is just that a niche. “Cloud architects” who spend time doing migrations and infrastructure babysitting are far more in demand since AWS throws money at 3rd party partners for it than software developers who know AWS and can lead consulting projects I’m very concerned about not being able to find a job in this market. It wasn’t this bad in 2000 in second tier cities as an enterprise dev working for profitable companies And to your other point, I’m also just over $200k. But our kids (my step sons ) are “taxpayers” and fully launched and my wife and I moved to a condo 1/3 the size of our old house in state tax free Florida in 2022. Our fixed expenses are 35% of my gross. My wife has been retired since 2020 since she was 44. Push comes to shove, I could take a job making $135K (only a little less than I was making in Atlanta before 2020 and my pivot to consulting) and be fine - just wouldn’t be saving much.