Twitter Axe
Last Friday, Elon Musk cut about half of the company’s work force. That’s approximately 3,700 jobs.
Many employees did not know until they saw their corporate access blocked. I saw some Tweets in which managers did not even know which of their subordinates were axed.
The managers sent emails to their subordinates asking if they still had access. Lovely.
Anyway, methods aside, that’s 3,700 jobs. Facebook rates to be much worse.
Facebook Large-Scale Layoffs Coming This Week
The Wall Street Journal reports Facebook Parent Meta Is Preparing to Notify Employees of Large-Scale Layoffs This Week
Meta Platforms Inc. is planning to begin large-scale layoffs this week, according to people familiar with the matter, in what could be the largest round in a recent spate of tech job cuts after the industry’s rapid growth during the pandemic.
The layoffs are expected to affect many thousands of employees and an announcement is planned to come as soon as Wednesday, according to the people. Meta reported more than 87,000 employees at the end of September. Company officials already told employees to cancel nonessential travel beginning this week, the people said.
The planned layoffs would be the first broad head-count reductions to occur in the company’s 18-year history. While smaller on a percentage basis than the cuts at Twitter Inc. this past week, which hit about half of that company’s staff, the number of Meta employees expected to lose their jobs could be the largest to date at a major technology corporation in a year that has seen a tech-industry retrenchment.
The Jobocalypse is Coming
Layoffs momentum keeps building
Latest headlines:
– Meta to begin “large-scale” layoffs
– Twitter laying of half (3,300+) of employees
– Opendoor laying off 18%
– Stripe 14%
– Lyft 13%These are not small cuts nor are these small companies
The Jobocalypse is arriving… pic.twitter.com/jFoW1Utvoc
— Adam Taggart (@menlobear) November 6, 2022
Malinvestment
It’s getting really ugly in Europe. Contagion is spreading like an out-of-control forest fire.https://t.co/GOSK46butL
— David (@QWIKBLU) November 7, 2022
A Word About Stock Buybacks
Stock Buybacks!™️
100% of Meta’s $96 billion in stock buybacks went to sterilize new shares issued to employees.
90% of Google’s $156 billion in stock buybacks went to sterilize new shares issued to employees.
None of this was ‘returned to shareholders’.
ET note tomorrow.
— Ben Hunt (@EpsilonTheory) November 2, 2022
What About Amazon?
Tech companies fire their contractor workforce first, that’s why you aren’t seeing massive layoffs with these misses in earnings…
I’m seeing these messages daily now from the largest tech orgs.
This one from #Amazon. pic.twitter.com/IWLiYKBpA2
— Kevin Logan Jr (@BitMember) October 26, 2022
DotBombs
$MSFT and $CHKP are not supposed to be on that list. Had no good place to put them.
— Vitaliy Katsenelson (@vitaliyk) October 31, 2022
Judging from DotBombs, many more layoffs are coming up.
Watch Full Time Jobs, Not the Unemployment Rate
Not to worry there are plenty of openings in the Leisure and Hospitality sectors. There are also gig jobs at Uber and plenty of part time jobs everywhere.
So, don’t watch the unemployment rate for stress, watch full time jobs.
Payrolls vs Employment Since March 2022
- Nonfarm Payrolls: +2,452,000
- Employment Level: +150,000
- Full Time Employment: -490,000
Employment fell by 328,000 in October.
Full time employment is down 490,000 since March and down by 572,000 since May!
For discussion, please see Is Full Time Employment a Trend or Noise? Let’s Compare Today to the Great Recession
This post originated at MishTalk.Com
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Mish
I dipped into Twitter for a while and saw a few things first hand. One is that there are a whole lot of privileged California layabouts, soon to be California layoffabouts, who thought that Twitter was one of those NGOs out to save the world. Um, no, and being head of the equity and inclusion department adds no value, nor did an extra vacation day per month just because. Or covid? Bleeeech. Methinks there’s a whole lot of deadwood throughout Sillycon Valley ready to be thrown onto the burn pile.
Past that, in about 10 days on Twitter, I realized the nature of addiction. Facebook is too much coffee, but Twitter is meth 24 hours. No wonder it’s so popular with the “news” media. Those people are sickos to begin with, naturals for Twitter. I’ve been online for about 35 years, and have always managed to learn something even on terrible sites. Until Twitter. Honest: No value whatsoever. Other than coming up close and personal to the nature of addiction, I learned nothing at all, which for me is extremely rare.
When I was a kid, I’d hear about meth after it killed the San Francisco Summer of Love: “Speed kills.” Kids, “Twitter is death.” LOL
“Mortgage volumes at Wells Fargo slowed further in recent weeks, leaving some workers idle and sparking concerns the lender will need to cut more employees as the U.S. housing slump deepens.
The bank had about 18,000 loans in its retail origination pipeline in the early weeks of the fourth quarter, according to people with knowledge of the company’s figures. That is down as much as 90% from a year earlier, when the Covid pandemic-fueled housing boom was in full swing, said the people, who declined to be identified speaking about internal matters.”
Why is this happening now: retailers have everything in stock for the holidays and no need to replenish inventories.
As a former techie, I agree! Lots of people wheeling those little carry-ons with laptops in them, trying to look important. Ask them a few questions and their answers will reveal that they are doing nothing that is actually vital to the company.
There are so many things I never knew. And there are so many people around here just waiting to be asked to help. When we had 12 feet of snow last winter, I was saved multiple times because I was the guy who would admit that he knows nothing and needs help. The sense of entitlement that I’ve seen in various places has always boggled my mind.
Meetings? The minute there are more than 3 people in a corporate meeting, two things happen: the collective I.Q. starts declining because someone will insist on challenging the underlying assumptions and agenda (which can work, but not in a corporate meeting), and the meeting becomes the display of corporate rank. I avoided meetings every chance I got.
High tech. This is a silly anecdote, but it has stayed with me. I will never forget a meeting with VCs on Sand Hill Road. Walked in, and two of them were playing ping pong on a big table in the lobby. Children who got lucky on 1 in 10 bull market bets and thought they were smart and fun and could F off. Shall we say that it clashed with my Midwestern cultural foundations? Yes, we can say that. When I was later offered a job in Silicon Valley, I declined. I was polite, but it took some discipline. LOL
After the polls close tomorrow? Let the diarrhea begin! LOL.