this post was submitted on 27 May 2024
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[–] [email protected] 120 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Hey this has been happening at my work! It definitely isn't a complete dumpster fire over here now, that knowledge and experience from those hundreds of people wasn't critical or anything, the people who are left are totally working well and not just scraping by under constant fear of being fired next, it's fine

[–] [email protected] 30 points 11 months ago (1 children)

My company built a big lab with expensive equipment and then laid off the person who was an expert in using all of it.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago

I'm sure that won't have any negative consequence. Please do not question the decisions of our enlightened leaders or you won't have pizza.

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[–] [email protected] 61 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I honestly feel you shouldn't be able to declare money saved from layoffs as a good thing, shouldn't profit be a sign of growth but if you really could keep growing you'd still need that staff

[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago

It's not a good thing if you know what you're looking at. Of course, the average investor doesn't have a clue. Half the problem is that there's a lot that can't be conveyed in financial statements. I've worked for companies that I would never buy any stock in because it's like you get there and realize that they completely destroyed any chance at long term viability for some small short term gains. Even if they're profitable. Corporations that focus on building a high quality, sustainable business that aims to earn a modest profit are an exceptionally rare breed.

[–] [email protected] 57 points 11 months ago (3 children)

My company 😢

This shit sucks. Some Silicon Valley shit company bought ours and they're closing us down after only half a year. Feels so unfair. Our company was doing well while theirs is going down the shitter with huge loans and promising the moon but delivering fuck all. Silicon Valley culture is toxic shit

[–] [email protected] 20 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (6 children)

Typical Private Equity deal... The buyers take a massive loan in the name of the company they are buying then they use the sudden massive interest payments to explain the declining profits and the need to downsize. Then they find a way to squirrel out of the loans claiming the company sucked and let banks take remaining assets (or losses) and maybe resell the intellectual property to someone else right before that.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Well, this is because it's access to Money that determines power, not actual merit.

That's the purest Capitalism you can think of and you see it at such an extreme level in present day Tech Startup Culture because nowadays it's basically the Even Wilder Wild West Of Finance so it operates by the same principles of Finance - (I actually went from Investment Banking to Startups back in the UK a few years ago and for me it looked a lot like the Founder and Investor level culture of the latter was very similar to that in the wildest bits of the former). Back in the 90s Startups weren't quite like that, but nowadays it's different.

That kind of thing also operates at the people level: I've seen Startups with so-so ideas get jump-started with a couple of millions because mommy and daddy of a main founder are rich whilst ideas with a lot better legs to go places keep limping along unable to generate sufficient cash flow to takeoff or to get enough investment to do what's needed to generate more cash flow, until running out of founds.

What survives is either those with access to lots of no questions asked money upfront (which actually works because a well funded half-arsed idea can still triumph in the market over barelly funded good ideas) or those who manage to portray their stuff as paradygm-changing ("The next Google!!!") which why one sees incredible levels of bullshit in the Startup space and endless jumping on hype-trains (like, for example, anybody looking for funding now will be pitching "something-something-AI !!!")

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago (4 children)

Imagine how many brilliant innovations have been lost to the world because of this...

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[–] [email protected] 57 points 11 months ago (2 children)

You certainly won’t have to rehire many of them in a week or two as your operations turn to shit.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 11 months ago

Wait till they demand contractor rates!

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[–] [email protected] 56 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Oh yes. The CEO said to my boss that they need to cut down on staff because it costs too much, meanwhile he takes a huge bonus every year. Makes sense...

[–] [email protected] 16 points 11 months ago

Then on the other end, you have bosses who willingly took pay cut to save employees from lay offs such as Nintendo bosses Satoru Iwata and Shigeru Miyamoto. They're far and wide among the bloody sea of cut throat and greedy executives.

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[–] [email protected] 49 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Add in re-hiring those same employees at a lower rate or off-shoring to India to get 3x the head count for the same wage and that's basically what's going on.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 11 months ago (2 children)

3x times the headcount 9x times the lead times. Spend more for less!

[–] [email protected] 29 points 11 months ago

Good God Almighty. If I worked on a construction job, you'd see a bunch of people trying to pound screws in with the head of a screwdriver. Meanwhile, I'm over here like, "No! What? What the hell are you doing?!Wait, did you just try to solder too boards together with a blow torch? Oh fuck. Now the building is on fire."

And of course, management is like, "Why is the building on fire?? Isn't this like the twelfth time the building has been on fire?"

Yes. Yes it is, because you geniuses fired all the guys who knew anything about construction and hired a bunch of people who were able to identify screwdrivers without asking them if they knew how to use one.

Now, if we were actually in construction, this would be completely ludicrous. But if you work in technology, it's considered a "good business decision" because it has a "positive impact on the bottom line". ..for about 5 minutes anyway.

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[–] [email protected] 49 points 11 months ago

You forgot to add ai to everything.

[–] [email protected] 46 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The problem is that these assholes never regret because there are no consequences.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 11 months ago

There are consequences, but those consequences are a big fat bonus and a golden parachute.

[–] [email protected] 40 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I immediately distrust anyone wearing a suit, I've just realised.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 11 months ago

"When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time."

— Maya Angelou

[–] [email protected] 40 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

Pick the victims randomly

Even better, pick the highest-paid rank-and-file workers (which usually have the highest pay for a reason), so your entire workforce is made up of inexperienced juniors unfamiliar with the things they're working on, who have little to no reason to stay at the company for long. That always works out in the company's favor long-term.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago

Experiencing this now. They fired my manager/boss, who was the only engineer that had the license to sign off on a bunch of shit related to a bunch of our projects. Now i’m left picking up the pieces and working remotely with some guy hundreds of miles away that doesnt have direct access to our file systems. So fun!

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[–] [email protected] 39 points 11 months ago (1 children)

If shareholders and executives are demanding so much money, shouldn't they be the optimal target for cuts to maximize profitability of the business? 🤔

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago

IMHO that's why co-ops tend to last longer.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (4 children)

Shareholders aren't the big issue. CEOs paying themselves hundreds of millions of dollars is.

Emphasis added since some seemed to not be reading all the words.

[–] [email protected] 87 points 11 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 19 points 11 months ago

Yup the CEO, shareholders, and middle management goals are diametrically opposed to the workers.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 11 months ago

The hell. Shareholders are vampires that suck the profits from a business that should go to employee compensation. All while demanding more.

I wish there were more coops that I could shop at.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Fiduciary duty to shareholders is a gun to civilizations head.

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 11 months ago

All employees are replaceable by a series of sales pitches on what AI is about to do right around the corner. That will keep pumping the stock price right up until the impending massive crash.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 11 months ago (1 children)

"The economy is doing fine."

[–] [email protected] 19 points 11 months ago (4 children)

I saw this a few years ago and it has stuck with me.

"The economy isn't talking about me and you, it's referring to corporations and executives and shareholders and such."

The economy could be doing amazing and we have 50% unemployment.

The economy could also be doing terrible and we have 0% unemployment.

The economy could also be doing amazing and the workers don't make enough to survive.

It isn't measuring what many people seem to think it is. It isn't a measure of "how well the average person is doing" at all.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 11 months ago

That's a problem for the poors and whoever is holding the bag after I retire.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago

Well it's about time we set up a union for workers in IT in general.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)
[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

[Verse 1] When the union's inspiration through the workers' blood shall run There can be no power greater anywhere beneath the sun Yet what force on earth is weaker than the feeble strength of one For the Union makes us strong

[Chorus] Solidarity forever Solidarity forever Solidarity forever For the Union makes us strong

[Verse 2] Is there aught we hold in common with the greedy parasite Who would lash us into serfdom and would crush us with his might? Is there anything left to us but to organize and fight? For the union makes us strong

[Chorus] Solidarity forever Solidarity forever Solidarity forever For the Union makes us strong

[Verse 3] It is we who plowed the prairies, built the cities where they trade Dug the mines and built the workshops, endless miles of railroad laid Now we stand outcast and starving 'midst the wonders we have made But the union makes us strong

[Chorus] Solidarity forever Solidarity forever Solidarity forever For the Union makes us strong

[Verse 4] All the world that's owned by idle drones is ours and ours alone We have laid the wide foundations, built it skyward stone by stone It is ours, not to slave in, but to master and to own While the union makes us strong

[Chorus] Solidarity forever Solidarity forever Solidarity forever For the Union makes us strong

[Verse 5] They have taken untold millions that they never toiled to earn But without our brain and muscle not a single wheel can turn We can break their haughty power gain our freedom when we learn That the Union makes us strong

[Chorus] Solidarity forever Solidarity forever Solidarity forever For the Union makes us strong

[Verse 6] In our hands is placed a power greater than their hoarded gold Greater than the might of armies magnified a thousandfold We can bring to birth a new world from the ashes of the old For the Union makes us strong

[Chorus] Solidarity forever Solidarity forever Solidarity forever For the Union makes us stron

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago

Too many people think the world belongs to those who dream, who imagine a better future..

It does not. It belongs to those who do the work that runs the world

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago

"Lean! Agile! Cost discipline!"

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