#mass layoffs

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Mass tech worker layoffs and the soft landing

As tech giants reach terminal enshittification, hollowed out to the point where they are barely able to keep their end-users or business customers locked in, the capital classes are ready for the final rug-pull, where all the value is transfered from people who make things for a living to people who own things for a living.

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/21/tech-workers/#sharpen-your-blades-boys

“Activist investors” have triggered massive waves of tech layoffs, firing so many tech workers so quickly that it’s hard to even come up with an accurate count. The total is somewhere around 280,000 workers:

https://layoffs.fyi/

These layoffs have nothing to do with “trimming the fat” or correcting the hiring excesses of the lockdown. They’re a project to transfer value from workers, customers and users to shareholders. Google’s layoff of 12,000 workers followed fast on the heels of gargantuan stock buyback where the company pissed away enough money to pay those 12,000 salaries…for the next 27 years.

The equation is simple: the more companies invest in maintenance, research, development, moderation, anti-fraud, customer service and all the other essential functions of the business, the less money there is to remit to people who do nothing and own everything.

The tech sector has grown and grown since the first days of the PC — which were also the first days of neoliberalism (literally: the Apple ][+ went on sale the same year Ronald Reagan hit the campaign trail). But despite a long-run tight labor market for tech workers, there have been two other periods of mass layoffs — the 2001 dotcom collapse and the Great Financial Crisis of 2008.

Both of those were mass extinction events for startups and the workers who depended on them. The mass dislocations of those times were traumatic, and each one had its own aftermath. The dotcom collapse freed up tons of workers, servers, offices and furniture, and a massive surge in useful, user-centric technologies. The Great Financial Crisis created the gig economy and a series of exploitative, scammy “bro” startups, from cryptocurrency grifts to services like Airbnb, bent on converting the world’s housing stock into unlicensed hotel rooms filled with hidden cameras.

Likewise, the post-lockdown layoffs have their own character: as Eira May writes on StackOverflow, many in the vast cohort of laid-off tech workers is finding it relatively easy to find new tech jobs, outside of the tech sector:

https://stackoverflow.blog/2023/03/19/whats-different-about-these-layoffs/

May cites a Ziprecruiter analysis that claims that 80% of laid-off tech workers found tech jobs within 3 months, and that there are 375,000 open tech roles in American firms today (and that figure is growing):

https://www.ziprecruiter.com/blog/laid-off-tech-workers/

There are plenty of tech jobs — just not in tech companies. They’re in “energy and climate technology, healthcare, retail, finance, agriculture, and more” — firms with intensely technical needs and no technical staff. Historically, many of these firms would have outsourced their technological back-ends to the Big Tech firms that just destroyed so many jobs to further enrich the richest people on Earth. Now, those companies are hiring ex-Big Tech employees to run their own services.

The Big Tech firms are locked in a race to see who can eat their seed corn the fastest. Spreading tech expertise out of the tech firms is a good thing, on balance. Big Tech’s vast profits come from smaller businesses in the real economy who couldn’t outbid the tech giants for tech talent — until now.

These mass layoff speak volumes about the ethos of Silicon Valley. The same investors who rent their garments demanding a bailout for Silicon Valley Bank to “help the everyday workers” are also the loudest voices for mass layoffs and transfers to shareholders. The self-styled “angel investor” who spent the weekend of SVB’s collapse all-caps tweeting dire warnings about the impact on “the middle class” and “Main Street” also gleefully DM’ed Elon Musk in the runup to his takeover of Twitter:

Day zero

Sharpen your blades boys 🔪

2 day a week Office requirement = 20% voluntary departures.

https://newsletter.mollywhite.net/p/the-venture-capitalists-dilemma

For many technologists, the allure of digital tools is the possibility of emancipation, a world where we can collaborate to make things without bosses or masters. But for the bosses and masters, automation’s allure is the possibility of getting rid of workers, shattering their power, and replacing them with meeker, cheaper, more easily replaced labor.

That means that workers who go from tech firms to firms in the real economy might be getting lucky — escaping the grasp of bosses who dream of a world where technology lets them pit workers against each other in a race to the bottom on wages, benefits and working conditions, to employers who are glad to have them as partners in their drive to escape Big Tech’s grasp.

Tomorrow (Mar 22), I’m doing a remote talk for the Institute for the Future’s “Changing the Register” series.

Image: University of North Texas Libraries (modified) https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth586821/

[Image ID: A group of firefighters holding a safety net under a building from which a man is falling; he is supine and has his hands behind his head. The sky has a faint, greyscale version of the 'Matrix Waterfall' effect. The building bears a Google logo.]

#pluralistic #employment big tech #mass layoffs #tech workers #layoffs #labor

[antifatabi]

The first software engineers were women. The first algorithm was also written by a woman. The pioneer of broadening internet access is also a woman. These are just a few examples.

#elon musk #twitter #feminism #misogyny #mass layoffs

[kp777]

By Jake Johnson

Common Dreams

Nov. 4, 2022

Just a week after completing his takeover of Twitter, billionaire Elon Musk was hit with a class-action lawsuit Thursday over his attempt to fire roughly half of the social media company's employees—a move that workers say violates California and federal laws requiring at least 60 days of notice for mass layoffs.

The lawsuit was filed in a federal court in San Francisco shortly after Twitter employees, who are not unionized, began receiving emails late Thursday notifying them of the sweeping job cuts. Some learned they were among those losing their jobs when they were unable to access the company's communication channels.

"It appears that he's repeating the same playbook of what he did at Tesla."

"Numbers dwindling down in the [Slack] channels last hour, people dropping like flies," one employee told The Washington Post on the condition of anonymity, fearing retribution from Musk, the self-proclaimed champion of free expression who has a long record of cracking down on workers' speech.

Under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, companies with more than 100 employees must provide at least 60 calendar days of advance notification for mass layoffs. California has its own version of the WARN Act with similar requirements.

"We filed this lawsuit tonight in an attempt to make sure that employees are aware that they should not sign away their rights and that they have an avenue for pursuing their rights,” Shannon Liss-Riordan, the attorney who filed the lawsuit Thursday, told Bloomberg.

"We will now see if he is going to continue to thumb his nose at the laws of this country that protect employees," Liss-Riordan said of Twitter's new owner and CEO. "It appears that he's repeating the same playbook of what he did at Tesla."

As Bloomberg noted, "Liss-Riordan sued Tesla Inc. over similar claims in June when the electric-car maker headed by Musk laid off about 10% of its workforce."

"Tesla won a ruling from a federal judge in Austin forcing the workers in that case to pursue their claims in closed-door arbitration instead of in open court," the outlet added.

Read twitter insert.

Prior to finalizing his $44 billion purchase of Twitter—a buy-out financed in part by a prominent Saudi billionaire—Musk suggested he wanted to eliminate 75% of the company's 7,500-employee workforce. Through a holding company, Saudi Arabia has a major stake in the now-private social media company.

After seizing control of Twitter, Musk swiftly dissolved the board of directors and fired top executives, including the former CEO. One worker compared Musk's erratic and dictatorial management style to that of former President Donald Trump.

"We're all working for the Trump White House," the worker said.

#elon musk #twitter #class action lawsuit #mass layoffs

[forsakebook]

#facebook #meta #facebook as a business #delete facebook #delete social media #delete instagram #forsakebook #suckerberg #mass layoffs

[toshootforthestars]

ALT Text:

Every few months another cultural institution gets trashed by some conglomerate for short term profit and loads of talented, hard working people lose their jobs. We mourn it and we move on, but this world is getting remade by those with no interest in art, culture, or people.

It's incredible that, when I graduated high school and looked at college, journalism was still a thriving career choice. Now just over 20 years later it's as devalued as ice delivery after the refrigerator was invented. But crucially, it's not being replaced by anything better.

(third panel is a troll claiming journalists are themselves responsible for being unemployed, allegedly for choosing not to create any value)

(source)

#this world is being remade by those with no interest in art culture or people #food for thought #mass layoffs #the news industry #the news media #journalism #mass media #news #media layoffs #brave new world #the 2020's #meanwhile on twitter

[mxdwn]

Via mxdwn MOVIES: Disney Begins Second Wave Of Layoffs That Will Take Thousands Of Jobs

https://movies.mxdwn.com/news/disney-begins-second-wave-of-layoffs-that-will-take-thousands-of-jobs/

#disney #disneyland #disney world #layoffs #mass layoffs

[livemintvideos]

Layoffs : SAP to cut 3,000 jobs | Mint Primer | Mint

German software firm SAP recently said said that the company has planned to cut 3,000 jobs, or 2.5% of its global workforce, and explore the sale of its remaining stake in Qualtrics, as it looks to cut costs and focus on its cloud business. This comes at a time when tech giant including Alphabet's Google, Microsoft and Amazon announced layoffs to cut costs as they brace for tougher economic conditions. In this video, let us elaborate on SAP’s approach to cut down on the number of employees.

#layoffs #sap layoff #tech layoffs #mass layoffs #layoffs in india #layoffs tech #big tech layoffs #job cuts #sap #sap software comapny #what is sap #layoffs in tech #layoff #amazon layoffs #google layoffs #meta layoffs #recession #tech layoff #tech jobs #tech industry #mass layoffs news #tcs layoffs #mass layoff #layoffs news #layoffs recession #tech layoffs 2022 #layoffs 2023 india #layoff news #job layoffs 2023 #job loss

[techeventure]

Elon Musk is facing a class-action lawsuit over the mass layoffs at Twitter.

#techeventure #twitter #twittermasslayoff #mass layoffs #elon musk mass layoff #elon musk twitter #technology #business

[devotedlynerdybasement]

Mass layoffs and hiring freezes: Just 9% of tech workers feel secure about their jobs right now

Mass layoffs and hiring freezes: Just 9% of tech workers feel secure about their jobs right now

Just 9% of tech workers are feeling confident in their their job security, according to a June survey from Blind, the anonymous professional networking site. No doubt, job-market fears are being fueled by months of headlines about hiring freezes, job offers being rescinded and mass layoffs from burgeoning upstarts and tech giants alike, including Robinhood and Oracle just this week. More than…

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#Mass layoffs

[tinyclowndancer]

And when I thought I couldn't like him more, a new skin is unlocked and here's Unionist Matt telling you, yes YOU, to organize and fight for your rights. ✊

I'm not gonna lie that these photos give me a bittersweet feeling, though. As if it wasn't enough for actors to still be vulnerable to the use of AI by studios even after the strike ended, in January SAG-AFTRA signed a deal with an AI studio to use voice replicas in games, instead of opposing completely to it.

It makes me happy to know he was involved in the strike but at the same time... being stabbed in the back by those who were supposed to protect you is disheartening. Kudos to Remedy for being ethical and respecting the artists they work with, at least.

(Source)

#I'm so so tired of this bs and mass layoffs and seeing colleagues having their art stolen and being harassed for taking precautions #it's a fucking nightmare and every new AI ''tool'' and update it only gets worse #anyway 😔 #Matthew Porretta #(my beloved) #(kissing you in the forehead)

[full---ofstarlight]

i simply think mass layoffs should be illegal

#this is not about me im fine #(for now) #this is about mass layoffs across every industry #tama talks

[blinkpen]

pour one out for cartoon network i guess, and be prepared to lend an ear and offer support to A LOT of people who are about to lose their jobs, many of whom may very well get it even worse than usual by having their passion projects ripped from them, set on fire and legally forbidden from being resurrected anywhere else bc “eh well we own the rights now and we’re cutting that”

ugh

#how did an industry that was already in shambles manage to get even shambles-ier #and its going to only get worse with this fucking merger #one venty mocha please #long story short WB bought cartoon network and while CN will Technically still exist its being wholly assimilated into WB #there will be mass layoffs and all that fucking jazz #shiiit suuucks

[villainanders]

You guys are like. aware the US and Canada are mostly likely about to hit a recession right

#(and many other countries too I assume I am not an economist) #the tags on that post are baffling me. not in a defending Bioware way but in an acting like this is out of the blue when soooooo many #companies are doing mass layoffs right now #my concern is first and foremost with the people who lost their jobs. but also I would have bet money on this happening

[mysticarcanum]

currently in the absolute hellish purgatory of waiting to see if that mystery meeting half my team got pulled into was them being fired

#if im the only narrative designer to survive mass layoffs at this company a SECOND time im gonna fully lose it

[mxdwn]

EA Plans to Lay Off 6% of its Workers for Restructuring

https://games.mxdwn.com/news/ea-plans-to-lay-off-6-of-its-workers-for-restructuring/

#ea #electronic arts #mass layoffs #the sims #fifa #apex legends

[livemintvideos]

IT sector to layoff 15,000 to 20,000 employees | Mint Primer | Mint

India’s IT and startup sectors may lay off 15,000 to 20,000 employees in the next six months, battling slowing demand after the hiring frenzy of the last two years inflated salary costs. Recruitment consultants expect fewer hiring mandates in the months ahead and have decided not to enter new businesses for now.

#layoff #tech layoffs #layoffs #amazon layoffs #google layoffs #meta layoffs #mass layoffs #layoffs in india #recession #recession 2023 #tech layoff #tech jobs #tech industry #layoffs in tech #big tech layoffs #mass layoffs news #tcs layoffs #big tech #mass layoff #layoffs news #layoffs tech #layoffs recession #tech layoffs 2022 #job cuts #layoff in it companies #layoffs 2023 india #layoff news #job layoffs 2023 #job layoffs #job loss