uacabaca t1_jed4vq4 wrote on March 31, 2023 at 3:31 AM

Reply to comment by ElysiumSprouts in CEOs are quietly backtracking on remote work—and more companies could follow by ethereal3xp

Right sizing? You mean "firing"?

ElysiumSprouts t1_jed62og wrote on March 31, 2023 at 3:41 AM

What I meant is "right-sizing" The big tech companies over-hired in order to starve smaller companies of the skilled workers they needed. They brought on employees who simply were not needed and sat un-utilized to monopolize the work force. Reading the news, people got the impression that these big tech companies needed mass layoffs to downsize into effectiveness, but that's not entirely correct.

But sure, they fired workers and it harmed real people.

uacabaca t1_jed74jg wrote on March 31, 2023 at 3:51 AM

The vast majority of big tech are severely under-staffed, with a lot of activities put on hold because of lack of personel, and engineers working well above 8 hrs per day, just to make things move. So it's not "right sizing", it's "firing" to meet the quarterly financial goals that look good for their stock value.

UNSECURE_ACCOUNT t1_jeebu6l wrote on March 31, 2023 at 12:10 PM

If that was true why are perfectly profitable companies still firing people?

Because those employees cost more than they generate because they're not being used productively.

uacabaca t1_jeecmld wrote on March 31, 2023 at 12:18 PM

Mmm no. Rates are increasing and so cost of money. This means less "free" money to borrow for growth, so less growth. When you foresee less growth your shareholders will demand job cuts, otherwise the stock would tank. Then you start cutting projects and firing people. The ones that remain are overburdened by the tasks that were done by the ones that were fired. So they have to work more, under the pressure of being fired like their former colleagues. In other words, workers are paying for those stocks.

How you all are believing the narrative that they are "trimming fat" is beyond me. Google, for example, made profits into the billions (1 billion can feed 10000 families for a year) and still fired.