Tech layoffs the result of ‘magical thinking’ in the industry, professor says

[@superblondeDotOrg]

Tech always over-hires because they want to find the top people and regularly lay off the poor performers. Otherwise it is too hard to find or attract the top talent, so they just sweep up large quantities of anyone who qualifies in general, and then sort them out with layoffs of lackluster hires later. So in general.. the laid off employees are not the top talent..

[@mah7961]

People from the outside, looking in are saying that this is the Day of reckoning. For these middle-management diversity hires that had no real skills to offer other than showing off how much they can goof off and eat free food. However, the real day of reckoning will be that once they’re cushy, severance packages, come to an end. These people are now going to have to actually applied to a real job and do real work so they can eat. there are no free rides in the real world out there for these grown-up children. So they are going to have to grow up very quickly.

[@davidr4523]

Great point! Absolutely agree with you and every point that Betsey Stevenson made during this interview. Tech definitely did over hire during the pandemic as they believed the online activity surge during COVID was not just due to the pandemic but the new reality. Although tech was partially correct they were incorrect with the earning projects they had. Combined with inflation, higher interest rates and recession they realized that they had over hired. However their company size should now be equivalent to where they were below the pandemic. With the exception of Amazon which is highly labor intensive, do the other major tech companies need to have so many employees? Keep in mind these companies can ramp up by thousands on any day by making an acquisition.

[@Falconlibrary]

Wrong. You're perpetuating the myth of Big Tech as a meritocracy. It's not. The butt kissers will keep their jobs and the creative talent will lose theirs. That's how it works. I've seen and experienced layoffs before. The worst people keep their jobs and the best are thrown into the streets--exact opposite of the fantasy you just described.

[@superblondeDotOrg]

@@Falconlibrary the true R&D tech talent does not experience what you say unless entire divisions are cut 100% or unless the company has corrupt management. the true tech talent keeps their jobs, there is no amount of "butt kissing" which you call it, which saves poor R&D tech workers from the layoff axe when their performance has been repeatedly ranked as poor.

[@bigbarry8343]

Surprisingly, significant portion of layoffs at Google seem to come from experienced cohort, i.e. the people that built Google to what it is today. The Tic-toc crowd makes the most noise though.

[@djeiys]

It will be hard for the economy to offset the tech's layoffs with other sectors, you also have to concider the businesses who work around big tech companies, they will also be hit by a slowdown and will have to layoff employees at some point. Know that tech employees are the one with high range salary, they have a strong buying power compare to employees from other sectors of activities. But now unemployed, these tech employees will start falling behind in whatever payment they owe, cause we know that they are the one who eating out the most, they are the one who have usually a mortgage to pay back, they are the one that spend the most on extra activities in that economy. Its just the beginning of the snowball effect, if you look, the real estate already started to slowing down, the supply chain in china is broken, and the energy crisis in Ukrain rise the price of gas and electricity and the cold winter didn't event started yet.

[@TonyConyers]

There are THOUSANDS of jobs available at the border, police, trucking etc.etc.etc. ..... All they have to do is call the Labor Dept. for more info. Many companies also train people ....

[@2011hwalker]

LOL the chart at 3:17 is labelled totally wrong. The purple is the pandemic headcount growth and the light blue is the recent layoffs. 😅

[@davidr4523]

Apple is not purely consumer based. Many corporations use all Apple products internally.

[@HALLELUJAH4EVA]

is the industry really having to adjust to reality or did they plan to optimize during the start of the pandemic, only waiting to lay off once things died down? that plan is certainly feasible considering the massive revenue these companies produced as a result of the pandemic.

[@leilamelany]

I don’t like buy things online!! And I planing use my iPhone for 5 years!

[@TruthAboutHuman]

We definitely definitely need more blue collar workers in the service sector.

[@Iquey]

Netflix ending lenient password sharing is also ok going to bite them in the ass. Especially for families with college students away from the home wifi and military families who move around a lot/have one person deployed or living in a base or dorms abroad.

[@TheRomanTimesNews]

5:53 5:56 tipo le dude bro

[@jaimeduncan6167]

I understand where she lies politically, and due to that she is hostile to the tech sector that she sees as populated by men (bros as they call them), but I understand that they are doing an analysis of the tech sector. So the question is will layoffs continue? are they structural to the sector? will Apple fire people and drag the market with them? is Apple more exposed than said Google, Amazon, and Microsoft because they don't have a corporate branch? I understand that she is correct that the fall of the tech sector is not the same as the fall of the economy (but not as simple: if the Tech sector collapses people will be less likely to invest on haircuts and other more female sectors. Women have partners by the way).