[Swizec]

> I will die on this hill: tech firms that mandated 5 days in the office was about soft layoffs, rather than a principled stance on individual performance under WFH

“True work only happens in person with human collaboration! Everyone must come back”

2 years pass

“Oh wow we can replace everyone with a chatbot this is amazing”

narrator: It was the interest rates all along. Many of these tech businesses are fundamentally bad, the ROI is smoke and mirrors, energy shocks and bad macro-economics are coming, and investors are starting to ask hard questions.

[davidw]

Tech has never been perfect, but there was a time when it felt more hopeful and optimistic and about building cool stuff. There's always been give and take with the money side of things that's necessary to keep fueling the building, but it feels like it all kind of went off the rails somewhere.

I'd be fine with earning less (we're pretty frugal) to work in that kind of environment with good people.

[whatshisface]

You'd also be a lot more likely to keep that kind of job post-crash, by all means take it if you find one.

[UncleMeat]

I don't think it was interest rates. Tech just saw that workers were able to extract higher and higher pay and more and more benefits and the industry saw an opportunity to reverse this trend. And it has succeeded. The semi-coordinated action since 2023 has caused pay to stagnate, enabled businesses to remove benefits, and frightened workers away from changing employers.

[Corrado]

You know, I never realized the "human collaboration" against "AI can replace you" dissonance before but I believe that you are complete correct.

[quantified]

It was the 100% writeoff of R&D spending and software salaries mandated as R&D. As soon as that changed, very precisely, layoffs started.