SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
A tough time for big tech workers continues:
Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Tuesday in a written statement that the tech giant would lay off 10,000 more workers, adding to the 11,000 people it laid off back in November. Additionally, around 5,000 open roles that hadn't been filled yet will be closed. In other words, it's a hiring freeze on top of a large number of layoffs.
Zuckerberg acknowledged the cuts in a blog post updating Meta's "Year of Efficiency."
This will be tough and there's no way around that. It will mean saying goodbye to talented and passionate colleagues who have been part of our success. They've dedicated themselves to our mission and I'm personally grateful for all their efforts. We will support people in the same ways we have before and treat everyone with the gratitude they deserve.
Amid the layoffs, Meta has also announced that it is stepping away from NFTs to focus on other projects.
According to TechCrunch, Meta's employee head-count came in at around 76,000 after November's layoffs. In the aftermath of this week's job cuts, that would bring the count down to around 66,000.
This is, unfortunately, just part of a wider trend in the world of big tech. Other tech firms of varying sizes like Lyft, Groupon, Vimeo, and Microsoft have all laid off workers in the last year due to broader economic difficulties.
Previously: Meta Employees Brace for Layoffs Ahead of Zuckerberg's Paternity Leave
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Thexalon on Thursday March 16 2023, @12:24PM (3 children)
Part of what appears to be going on here: There's an investor push to get *all* the big tech companies to announce big layoffs, regardless of whether it makes any sense for the specific company.
But you know what would come out of that? You'd create a significantly-sized population of experienced software engineers who might be desperate enough to take significantly lower pay for doing the same job they did before at another company. Which will lower the going rate for software engineers for all new hires. Which will then be used as negotiating leverage to convince the people who still have jobs at tech megacorps to either accept lower pay or significantly worse working conditions or both (if the people who were hired before all this make a fuss, you make their job suck so much that they quit and are now at another megacorp for that lower pay).
It's almost like they planned it that way. After all, we can't have people who produce things for a living getting paid well to do so, that's money that could be going to MBAs who couldn't write a line of code if their life depended on it.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by turgid on Sunday March 19 2023, @01:48PM (2 children)
The thing is, these "tech companies" aren't really tech worth mentioning. They are concerned with making online platforms for sharing pictures and messages and mining them for information to sell on for a profit.
This will backfire spectacularly. All these people who were kept busy doing that low-value (to society) work are now having to look for better work and to start their own businesses. Losing your job is a very unpleasant experience and I don't wish it on anyone except my worst enemies but this might mean that some real innovation comes along. Hint: learn embedded coding.
Those "tech companies" will find their value declining, and will find it harder to attract the staff they need to keep operating. Usually, these layoffs get rid of too many people and there's a frantic and embarrassed round of re-hiring shortly after.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Sunday March 19 2023, @02:17PM (1 child)
Something I've learned about management types a long time ago: They consider the availability of workers with the skills they want to be Somebody Else's Problem. As in, there's zero connection in their brains between their own behavior and the resumes they're getting in. And you can tell that because their mantra when labor markets in a particular field is "nobody wants to work, they all must be lazy", instead of the truth which is "nobody available wants to work for you, I must have really screwed up".
Part of the reason for that: The layoffs make their stock price go up, the bigger the better. So it's better for the top brass to lay off 10,000 people and quietly re-hire 3,000 of them than it is to lay off 7,000 people.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by turgid on Sunday March 19 2023, @02:39PM
Yes, they won't pay a penny for training. They'll only hire people with precisely the set of skills they want, and keep them on long enough to just about get the job done. I gave up years ago looking at companies as places I would stay long-term. I join companies for projects. When the project's done, if a suitably interesting new one doesn't come along with the right pay rise, I leave. If they don't train me but expect me to work >25% extra unpaid, I get the CV up to date and plan to jump, for more money.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].