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Meta plans to lay off 10% of its workforce in May, according to report (www.nbcbayarea.com)
submitted 6 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[+] -10 points 6 months ago (22 children)

What is the actual issue with these layoffs? Why do they always get spammed around and everyone gets mad. Big companies churn employees whats the problem? Do we need to celebrate when they hire 10% back in the next month.

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  • [–] 10 points 6 months ago (12 children)

    In America, your life is very much dependent on your job. Your healthcare is intrinsically tied to it, we have little to no safety nets protecting you when you lose it, and yet it’s a country with little to no employee protection laws. We’re in the middle of a recession and there aren’t enough jobs for everyone. They will not be hiring 10% back next month. At best these employees with their good credentials will got other jobs in the tech sector pushing out 10,000 other tech workers. People will go hungry, people will not be able to get medicine they need to survive.

    It used to be that layoffs were something companies did as an emergency last resort. Now people’s livelihoods are cast aside as casually as you would pick a new color to paint the office walls.

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  • [–] -1 points 6 months ago (11 children)

    These are workers in an industry where these work patterns are common, they make far above average wage and can work from anywhere in the world. Their job mobility is very high so why feel sorry for them? This isnt the same as the only steel mill in town laying off 1000 workers.

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  • [–] 2 points 6 months ago

    Mobility is not high when every other company in the market does this regularly. People that just started families, moved their lives, have healthcare needs will see significant negative impact. These actions are a direct transfer of wealth from working class people to already incomprehensibly wealthy shareholders. And what’s more the actions are designed to keep people happy with what they have and reduce wages and wage growth for those that aren’t impacted. Shareholders are incentivizing immoral acts against the working class and using tech corporations to do so.

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  • [–] 1 point 6 months ago* (6 children)

    These work patterns are becoming common and that’s precisely the problem.

    This industry is also very vast and doesn’t just include the big tech companies. When all the big tech companies are doing layoffs like this there is no lateral or upward mobility. Many of these employees move downwards pushing out plenty of employees without the high salaries and mobilities. Some of those less mobile employees leave the industry entirely and flood others affecting those as well.

    The idea that these layoffs affect only the people laid off is not accurate. 10,000 fewer jobs means 10,000 fewer jobs. In a country that does not have enough jobs for everyone who is willing and able to work, every lob lost is a net negative for an entire industry. When this continues year over year it’s not just the big tech sycophants who are negatively affected. This shit rolls downhill to every already underpaid high school IT employee.

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  • [–] 0 points 6 months ago (5 children)

    becoming? They have been common for the past 25 years.

    10,000 fewer jobs means 10,000 fewer jobs

    No because the reporting is only on the layoffs they wont cover the hiring that will happen next month. These tech companies dont lay off people then operate with 10,000 less staff. Meta's employee count has increased every year except the year after covid.

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  • [–] 1 point 6 months ago (4 children)

    They can’t report on hiring that doesn’t happen. They will not be adding these jobs back next month lmao

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  • [–] 1 point 6 months ago (3 children)

    you think by the end of the year Meta will have 10,000 less employees than it did at the start? I dont think thats likely. They will either increase employee count or slightly reduce due to how cooked the economy is but they will hire back a majority of those 10,000 jobs.

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  • [–] 1 point 6 months ago* (2 children)

    you think by the end of the year Meta will have 10,000 less employees than it did at the start?

    No, I think it will have even less.

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  • [–] 1 point 6 months ago (2 children)

    It was not common until about 3-4 years ago. For years, if you got hired, you were pretty much golden, as long as you were good at the job.

    Also, the job market is getting rougher and rougher. Just yesterday I read a comment from someone who said they'd been in the industry for 15 years and it's never been this bad. And another from someone who said they'd been unemployed for 18 months now.

    These layoffs are being done to manipulate stock prices and signal that "we're really great at using AI so we don't need to pay humans anymore". These are actual human beings as pawns in the games of capital. Doesn't matter how much you're earning for the company, they need you gone so they can say they're closer to being a human-free company.

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  • [–] 1 point 6 months ago (1 child)

    pre-pandemic hire yea you pretty much were set. but not during covid, and not during 2023 though.

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  • [–] 1 point 6 months ago*

    Yeah, boy am I glad I finally got into the industry just before the pandemic hit. If I was trying to get into it now with zero experience, I think I'd have a better chance of becoming a lawyer without a degree, Mike Ross style.

    I'm getting to the point where I can call myself a senior in a few years without feeling embarrassed. And since nobody's hiring juniors and they still want seniors, I think it'll be a good place in a few years. At least until they figure out AI that's good enough to start displacing seniors en masse as well, by then I hope to just have investments to make some passive income in addition to whatever the fuck I'll be doing to earn my bread after this. Maybe I'll be a lumberjack. I do like playing with my Husqie.

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  • [–] 8 points 6 months ago* (6 children)

    I hope someone asks you that next time you lose your job. It's only 8,000 people who's lives have been turned upsidedown, you have the emotional capacity of a CEO.

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  • [–] 1 point 6 months ago (5 children)

    These people work at Meta, they can get another job. These arent low mobility workers.

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  • [–] 3 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (4 children)

    I hope someone points that out to you next time you lose your job. Your lack of empathy is gross

    you have the emotional capacity of a CEO.

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  • [–] 1 point 6 months ago (3 children)

    So people should be forever employed? What kind of childish world view is this

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  • [–] 2 points 6 months ago (1 child)

    In sane parts of the world, layoffs need to be justified. E.g getting rid of a department that wasn't profitable and there's literally no other vacancies to fill in the company with the same people, or cutting costs to stay in business.

    Meta doesn't seem to be close to closing down. Their employee count isn't really reducing much, they're just virtue signaling AI usage by laying people off. Where I come from, it would be illegal to lay someone off and not hire them back when you're hiring again for a similar role, because layoffs are ONLY for positions being closed permanently. Otherwise it's a firing, and you also need justification for firing (and it's an entirely different kind of justification).

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  • [–] 1 point 6 months ago

    yes but America is not a sane part of the world and its always operated like this. To be surprised this is happening in a country where this is normal is odd. Meta's employee count grows every year(except 1 year after covid)

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  • [–] 4 points 6 months ago (1 child)

    If they have to hire back 10% next month, their foolishness will be even more newsworthy.

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  • [–] 1 point 6 months ago

    not really, different projects require different things. You want to do a big hire of X skilled professional then when its done you can get rid of them and get they Y skilled professional required for the next project. Thats better than trying to transfer them over.

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