[newaccount2023]

the employees were fools for falling in love with their employer, not sure how else to say it

they should be grateful they were paid so well for so long to do so little...chances are they will never see comp like that for work like that again

...and hopefully no one is naive enough to think Google is "done"...after next earnings I expect an even bigger round

the same thing is happening all over tech - go down to a reduced staff of essential contributors and re-hire later for much lower comp

[vineyardmike]

I don’t think people were fools for falling in love with their employer. Naive maybe. But Google was really nice to employees and (intentionally) made it easy to forget you were a number in the capitalist machine. They listened and responded to employees, they made work more comfortable and easy with perks, and they regularly changed to stay up to date on what helped employees.

> ...and hopefully no one is naive enough to think Google is "done"...after next earnings I expect an even bigger round

I haven’t seen it talked about anywhere. I’m an ex-googler from layoffs. My old team was massively impacted and some coworkers were put on “delayed exit” to wind down their projects by fall. I don’t know the extent of it company wide but on my old team, the lay offs and delayed exit were 1:1 roughly.

[newaccount2023]

> I haven’t seen it talked about anywhere. I’m an ex-googler from layoffs

Why would you hear about a confidential layoff plan??

[vineyardmike]

People have been notified about their “delayed exit”. Like you get an email that says “your job ends in October” type of notice.

It’s not confidential, afaik, since people were told about it. I’m surprised no one offers up their status as part of it in discussions.

[newaccount2023]

so he can just announce another delayed exit...

every layoff so far has had a month or more between announcement and implementation

[vineyardmike]

Not Google, the company in question. They announced layoffs same day.

[drstewart]

>the same thing is happening all over tech - go down to a reduced staff of essential contributors and re-hire later for much lower comp

If supply and demand stay the same, then why do you think the price will change?

[Animats]

>If supply and demand stay the same, then why do you think the price will change?

Fear. Much of this layoff activity is intended to induce fear. Employees were getting too uppity. Talking back to management. Doing side projects. Talking with each other about wages and working conditions. Even forming unions. That had to be stopped.

"A touch of the lash will keep them in line."

[cyberlurker]

I suspect this was not the main reason for the layoffs. But whether it was the intention or not, it definitely is a powerful psychological tool in negotiations during a time when many employees were demanding more and more.

[sokoloff]

Isn’t >100K cumulative layoffs in the industry and widespread hiring freezes exactly a reduction in demand?

Do you think the demand for SWEs will be the same in April of 2023 as it was in April of 2021?

[drstewart]

If they're just hiring them back, then yes, demand is the same?

[sokoloff]

You and I appear to disagree on the April 2023 vs 2021 demand. I think April 2023 will have a lot less demand for SWEs than 2021.

[drstewart]

That's great, but has nothing to do with the original comment I was responding to

[sokoloff]

If there is less demand in the future from the overall industry cutbacks, that is definitely relevant to whether the supply and demand are the same.