
Tech's New Normal: Microcuts Over Growth at All Costs (wsj.com) 78
The tech industry has largely recovered from the downturn, but Silicon Valley learned a long-lasting lesson: how to do more with less. From a report: Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Meta Platforms have been cutting dozens or a few hundred employees at a time as executives keep tight controls on costs, even as their businesses and stock prices have rebounded sharply. The cuts are far smaller than the mass layoffs that reached tens of thousands in late 2022 and early this year. But they suggest a new era for an industry that in years past grew with little restraint, one in which companies are focusing on efficiency and acting more like their corporate peers that emphasize shareholder value and healthy margins.
The launch of the humanlike chatbot ChatGPT late last year served as a bright spot of growth in an industry that was otherwise scaling back. Challenges regarding the technology and calls for regulation remain, but some of the biggest tech companies are starting to make it their priority. There is a reallocation of resources from noncore areas to projects such as AI rather than hiring new people, said Ward, who was previously a director of recruiting at Facebook and the head of recruiting at Pinterest.
Amazon eliminated several hundred roles this month from its Alexa division to maximize its "resources and efforts focused on generative AI," according to an internal memo. The company has also made small cuts in recent weeks to its gaming and music divisions. Facebook's parent, Meta, recently posted its largest quarterly revenue in more than a decade. It laid off 20 people weeks later. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said on an earnings call that the company would continue to operate more efficiently going forward "both because it creates a more disciplined and lean culture, and also because it provides stability to see our long-term initiatives through in a very volatile world."
The launch of the humanlike chatbot ChatGPT late last year served as a bright spot of growth in an industry that was otherwise scaling back. Challenges regarding the technology and calls for regulation remain, but some of the biggest tech companies are starting to make it their priority. There is a reallocation of resources from noncore areas to projects such as AI rather than hiring new people, said Ward, who was previously a director of recruiting at Facebook and the head of recruiting at Pinterest.
Amazon eliminated several hundred roles this month from its Alexa division to maximize its "resources and efforts focused on generative AI," according to an internal memo. The company has also made small cuts in recent weeks to its gaming and music divisions. Facebook's parent, Meta, recently posted its largest quarterly revenue in more than a decade. It laid off 20 people weeks later. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said on an earnings call that the company would continue to operate more efficiently going forward "both because it creates a more disciplined and lean culture, and also because it provides stability to see our long-term initiatives through in a very volatile world."
Who's cutting who? (Score:2)
I think it's time to cut them. No more games.
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I think it's time to cut them. No more games.
You are free to go any time you like. Don't let the door knob get stuck in your back side on the way out.
And yet if every employee took your advice, the owner of a failing business would quickly see who really needs who to survive.
Sounds like unions need to become the "new normal" before corporate greed gets any more arrogant.
Re: Who's cutting who? (Score:2)
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Why not cut all the office spaces and tell everyone they MUST work from home? seems like a no-brainer for shedding costs. The only "offices" that should be kicking around are the data centers. No cubicle farms need to exist.
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The extroverts would never allow that to happen.
Alexa, and other digital assistant, concerns (Score:3)
I would be very hesitant to use Google Assistant for, what amounts to the same reason. These devices are not driving sales well and Google is notorious for cutting unprofitable services.
I hesitate to go with Apple because I do not want the tie in to a more expensive eco-sphere.
So, any other suggestions for simple things like light control, turning the AC on before I get home, reading the morning news brief, and similar trivial tasks?
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It seems like Alexa has been on the chopping block recently...can anyone recommend any good alternatives?
This is Slashdot, so: https://www.home-assistant.io/... [home-assistant.io]
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My Echo Dot has officially been retired as of this morning. I fired it from it's single remaining task - being an alarm clock. No matter what I did, it would simply stop responding to voice until I pulled the plug and reset it. Recently it happened almost every day.
I did everything. I worked with support, performed all requested troubleshooting tasks, did factory resets, firmware resets... nothing.
So I bought an actual alarm clock, and the dot is on the shelf. Goodbye.
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I see the principle behind Occam's Razor still works well.
For the unaware ... that's a form of the K-I-S-S principle.
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Almost the same to me. My Echo Dot lies in my kitchen and serves only two functions: as a timer and a music player.
But almost every day I have to "wake it up" to starting using it. It's annoying.
So, in the last few days I've been thinking to replace it for other devices.
Alexa's never did much to me and almost everyone I know who got a device was excited at first but then gradually abandoned it. I also have been using Google Assistant in my car for a long time, now, and I have a strong impression that it's g
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So, any other suggestions for simple things like light control, turning the AC on before I get home, reading the morning news brief, and similar trivial tasks?
Guess that depends on if you're old enough to remember how you did all that before corporations invented privacy-warping devices under the guise of automation.
Trivial implies easy or simple to accomplish. I think you meant to say task that is beneath me. If your time is that valuable to you and makes you wealthy, perhaps hire someone to do it for you. There's zero concern of that resource going away.
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If your time is that valuable to you and makes you wealthy, perhaps hire someone to do it for you.
My time is valuable to me not because of the money I make with it, but because of the things I do which make me happy and fulfilled.
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If your time is that valuable to you and makes you wealthy, perhaps hire someone to do it for you.
My time is valuable to me not because of the money I make with it, but because of the things I do which make me happy and fulfilled.
Guess I never really found a lack of happiness or fulfillment by getting up and turning on the manually-operated light switch that still comes standard in every home. Probably why we're still building them that way.
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I guess you've never had to drag your ass out of a warm bed, re-dress yourself (or go in your birthday suit, if that's your thing.), walk through your entire house, and through a garage that's 10-below-zero, just to shut off the damn light you forgot to turn off earlier. That's incredibly unfulfilling.
Given that today's light bulbs consume a mere fraction of power, I'm hardly dragging my ass out of bed for that.
Lived in 60-below zero environments. Having a back up plan for when the almighty do-it-for-me internet goes down is a hell of a lot more important.
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So, any other suggestions for simple things like light control, turning the AC on before I get home, reading the morning news brief, and similar trivial tasks?
Your situation is as far removed as it can be from the original poster, which you are not.
I'd say motion sensors would be ideal for your situation. My argument is against relying upon everything-internet when it comes to automation. For not only the privacy-robbing concerns, but also curating a generation that is quickly becoming completely reliant upon it for even trivial tasks.
And I'm perfectly willing to temporarily potentially annoy my neighbors for my dogs' safety.
Given this, not even really sure what your concern is then. Again, motion sensors would likely suffice.
I know my neighbors would do the same.
Sounds like a non-concer
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Your situation is as far removed as it can be from the original poster, which you are not.
I do a few of those other things too, but you and I have gotten into this back and forth before, where you've shit over all of them as various forms of stupid or pointless. I was picking the most practical example for an actual "need" of mine that was met.
I'd say motion sensors would be ideal for your situation.
Tried them, they didn't meet my needs.
Given this, not even really sure what your concern is then. Again, motion sensors would likely suffice.
Again, motion sensors didn't work right. And I'm willing to annoy them for the 10 minutes while my dogs are out there, even the half hour between letting them out and crawling into bed. I'm not leaving it on all nigh
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The old way was mechanical time-clocks and light sensors.
The new non-internet way is digital time-clocks and light sensors.
It's just because of interest rates (Score:1)
It's not really working because inflation is mostly driven by collusion and monopolies. Despite that inflation has cooled a bit because the current administration has signaled that they might enforce antitrust law just a littl
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It's not really working because inflation is mostly driven by collusion and monopolies
So, every large company of every type of industry colluded AT THE SAME TIME to drive up inflation? Yep, that seems reasonable.
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no, that's what the federal reserve is for. oh and i guess the executive branch too.
Re: It's just because of interest rates (Score:2)
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Pretty much exactly that, yeah. Oh, they didn't all get together in some smoke-filled room and twirl their mustaches. But they all had similar thought processes. It started with post-pandemic supply chains being whacked and causing some legit increased cost. Then other companies who didn't have bad supply chain problems said, "Hey, we can raise our prices too and blame it on the supp
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It started with post-pandemic supply chains being whacked and causing some legit increased cost.
Yes, and when one industry raises cost, that can have ripple effects across other industries. Remember how we all stopped buying gas/oil? And then a year later, after said industries scaled waaaay back, we demanded them to ramp back up to original levels? And then were outraged when the price increased? And how a lot of people were shoveled gobs of borrowed government money, so had lots more money in the economy? Doesn't ring a bell?
And BTW: turor2u.net? Really now?
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My company is raising prices for our customers. Our essential costs have not gone up. Our server hosting costs have actually gone down in the past couple of years. However, we have hired more people in order to grow the business. We have a captive audience with our customers. In our case, we are hoping that some of our customers chalk up the increases to global inflationary pressures. I imagine we are not alone.
All this talk of inflation allows some businesses to raise prices, even when their underlyi
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Sounds like you've been watching too much of Men in Black.
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I kind of doubt we'll see much in the way of deflation for prices. The best we can hope for is minimal inflation, which would be price stagnation. I seriously doubt you'll see prices on every day goods and services go down. Maybe on cars and houses, but only if inventory starts to back up, though that's unlikely to happen for housing.
"New normal"... stopped reading right there (Score:2)
Marketing-speak detected. Article will contain zero information content.
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Indeed! Companies cut small quantities of staff all the time, but we usually don't hear about it because it's a "small quantity", i.e. "under the radar". It's the mass layoffs that make the news.
Seems somebody has invented a bot to restate obvious things using newfangled buzzwords.
Oh, and they are not "fired", but "involuntarily retired".
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We're giving those employees the opportunity to find their new passion!
whip the workers harder (Score:2)
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You first. Oh, what's that? You won't do shit either? Thought not.
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Sure thing! Give me 400 million guns and I'll execute all of them. Hell... I'll throw in centilionaires.
Having (almost) three times the guns of ALL THE ARMIES IN THE WORLD COMBINED you should be able get rid of at least that many parasites.
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Sorry, but Elon isn't worth a second of jail time.
Make it legal to off the bastards and you'll see me pack heat.
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As I was saying before some sniveling corpo-pussy tried to censor the second amendment clause to distribution of resources...
What use is 400 million guns then... ...if you can't shoot even a single billionaire? What happened? Your balls dropped off?
Force that wealth to trickle down - with their blood. Make golf courses red again.
Just imagine chasing down Elon Musk with an AK, his fat wobbling every which way as you empty clip after clip around him, only nicking him each time, savoring the moment...
Or holing
Re: What use is 400 million guns then... (Score:2)
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The top .1% probably deserve the death since they've been robbing the rest of us to reach those heights. Pay your fucking workers respectable wages and we'll talk. But nope, those people at the top "know" they are gods and we commoners deserve as little as possible.
It would almost be worth it to watch society fall apart given how many people are suffering while the top enjoys a life beyond imagination of the commoners.
They didn't "earn" that life. They stole it from all of us collectively.
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I blame the politicians for making such favorable tax loopholes more then the corporations themselves. If you are in business, your goal is to make money and reduce your overhead. Of course you will take advantages of the tax code.
With that said, the tax code doesn't need to have such glaring gaps that you could drive a semi-truck through it. That these same corporations are lobbying the government for these special exceptions and exclusions is what bothers me.
A severely limited tax code would go a long way
Re: whip the workers harder (Score:1)
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Just make killing CEOs for shits and giggles legal and the problem is already solved.
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8 billion people, the species is hardly in any danger of dying out.
Yes, I'm a misanthrope. Sorry that I have to say it, I thought it's obvious by now. And be honest, imagine tomorrow every nurse, doctor and policeman was gone, and then imagine every investment banker, CEO and stock analyst was gone. And then tell me with a straight face which group you'd rather miss.
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I don't even want their money. What'd I do with more money, I gotta ask?
No, what irks me is the greed on display there. People ruining lives for no reason other than trying to one-up the other goofball in a monetary dick-measuring contest. I also don't mind the people who actually run companies responsibly, that build up a business with their own hands and want it to thrive. What bothers me is these cunts that get put on a high chair, have their "visions", throw out a bunch of people for the all-important s
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If I could pull down 200-300k per year for 3-5 years, yes it would be worth 70 hour work weeks. I'd save the majority of it and change roles after paying for a house in cash.
Of course, I'm use to getting by on 60k and if I worked 70+ hours, I wouldn't have time to spend the money I was making anyway. 5 years I could say, fuck off, and just bail, taking a significantly easier job making 60-70k but only working 40 hours (or less, since my overhead dropped with no house payment).
I suppose I just prefer a modes
I get it. (Score:2)
I remember the first time I looked for funding for a software project over $2M. The executive I was approaching told me, "You're asking for too little You need to be less conservative - the problem you're trying to solve is larger than the money you're asking for." My response was, "Let's worry about that in year two. If you give me $10M, I'm going to waste $5M for sure." Obviously that was me speaking from my own lack of experience in efficiently using money... but it scales. I do not understand how any co
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Re: I get it. (Score:2)
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I didn't say large teams were unnecessary, or that you can't do great things with them. I only said they are probably wasteful. I'm willing to bet the "unit of contribution per team member" gets smaller as the team size increases.
Maybe MBA's need a 3rd idea (Score:2)
Like just responsible hiring and management, maybe focus on a sustainable business model rather than just easy debt money growth to juice stock prices short term or payroll cuts to juice stock prices short term.
Of course they would have to use some of that supposed business acumen and that's just not what is taught today. You don't graduate Harvard Business School by leading with tempered and measured management and a focus on employee satisfaction. No sir that will not do.
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I'm still quite convinced that somewhere in that MBA curriculum is a mandatory lobotomy. I just wonder in what semester it has to happen.
new paradigm (Score:2)
Apparently, there is a new paradigm: hire everyone you can, then fire all the ones who turn out to be losers, except for minorities, who will sue you if you fire them. Because you can't tell anything about an applicant any more, this might actually be a good strategy.
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So... you'll end up with people who quit because they don't want to drag along the minority losers you can't fire?
I can't really say I would call that strategy smart.
Typical decisions (Score:3)
God I hate this "role" euphemism (Score:3)
Amazon eliminated several hundred roles this month
Say it like it is already: Amazon fired several hundred employees. That's what's going on here, It's real actual human beings who lost their jobs, not fucking roles.
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Amazon eliminated several hundred roles this month
Say it like it is already: Amazon fired several hundred employees. That's what's going on here, It's real actual human beings who lost their jobs, not fucking roles.
Not necessarily. Realistically, most cuts usually involve the destruction of at least some open headcount. A company the size of Amazon likely has thousands of unfilled roles, so it would be entirely possible for them to eliminate several hundred roles without firing any actual human beings, but rather by choosing to not hire replacements for people who have left or by choosing to not hire people to handle anticipated future needs.
Whether open headcount is included in the publicly announced number of elim
Re:God I hate this "role" euphemism (Score:5, Informative)
Well, there's a good reason not to do as you suggest. "Eliminated several hundred roles" is not the same as "fired several hundred employees". There are legal ramifications to firing, in some regions related to the ability to access unemployment benefits. Role elimination is not a "for cause" termination.
Role elimination precludes rehiring in the same position. That's why being laid off is different than being canned.
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Amazon eliminated several hundred roles this month
Say it like it is already: Amazon fired several hundred employees. That's what's going on here, It's real actual human beings who lost their jobs, not fucking roles.
Not necessarily true. Roles can be consolidated, with people moving to different roles w/o getting fired. Also, roles can be eliminated not by firing currently employed people, but by reducing or even eliminating new hires for those roles.
Why didn't anyone ever look at the macro-cuts? (Score:2)
You can save a TON of money by simply axing the useless bloat at the top.
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If you c
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It's still 1% of the payroll that you can save without losing anything.
"more" with less (Score:2)
They can fire the top earners (Score:3)
First time this has ever happened. (Score:2)
There has never before been a time when the tech industry has had to learn the valuable lesson of doing more with less, of not hiring everyone in sight just in case they might have a fresh idea. Fortunately, the very smart people who run these companies were able to identify and respond to the problem immediately, as this is the first time it has ever happened. Surely this means we have solved management of tech companies for the entire future.
Non-story (Score:1)
In fact, according to Glassdoor and LinkedIn Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, etc. are all still hiring.
The only thing going on here is that managers are actually being asked to manage for the first time.
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At least in cases I know about, you are laid off, but you're given application priority for a different role within the company, but you're still left to your own devices. It still sucks emotionally especially since it comes out of nowhere and you feel betrayed.
What should happen is that each person being laid off should be told their role will be eliminated i
That's not at all what this is about (Score:2)