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  • Amazon Laying Off 9,000 More, With AWS Hard-Hit

    Amazon Laying Off 9,000 More, With AWS Hard-Hit

    Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has announced the company plans to lay off an additional 9,000 employees, particularly in AWS, PXT, Advertising, and Twitch.

    Amazon has already laid off 18,000 employees, between reported decisions made in November and an expansion of those plans in January. CEO Andy Jassy has announced that the company plans to expand the scope of its layoffs once more, this time letting an additional 9,000 employees go:

    As we’ve just concluded the second phase of our operating plan (“OP2”) this past week, I’m writing to share that we intend to eliminate about 9,000 more positions in the next few weeks—mostly in AWS, PXT, Advertising, and Twitch. This was a difficult decision, but one that we think is best for the company long term.

    Jassy says a big part of the decision-making process involved looking at what mattered to the company’s customers and how best to meet those needs:

    As our internal businesses evaluated what customers most care about, they made re-prioritization decisions that sometimes led to role reductions, sometimes led to moving people from one initiative to another, and sometimes led to new openings where we don’t have the right skills match from our existing team members.

    It’s interesting that AWS is one of the teams being targeted with this round of layoffs, but Jassy emphasized his faith in the cloud division’s future:

    I remain very optimistic about the future and the myriad of opportunities we have, both in our largest businesses, Stores and AWS, and our newer customer experiences and businesses in which we’re investing.

  • Laid-Off Googlers Ask CEO to Honor Approved Medical Leave

    Laid-Off Googlers Ask CEO to Honor Approved Medical Leave

    Laid-off Google employees have repeatedly asked Google and CEO Sundar Pichai to honor previously approved medical leave.

    Google did what was once considered unthinkable for the company, laying off thousands of workers for the first time in its history. At the time, Google promised 16 weeks of severance pay plus an additional two weeks for every year an employee worked at the company.

    Unfortunately, for some workers, that still comes out to less time than they were previously promised for medical leave, parental leave, or caregiver’s leave. In early 2022, Google increased the length of various leaves, with parental leave lasting up to 24 months. At the time, Chief People Officer Fiona Cicconi said the company wanted employees to “spend more time with their new baby, look after a sick loved one or take care of their own wellbeing,” according to CNBC.

    Now, faced with losing some of that time they were previously promised, more than 100 employees have formed the “Laid off on Leave” group. The group has already sent three letters to Google executives, including Pichai, asking them to honor their previous promise.

    In the meantime, the layoffs are causing a significant amount of hardship and inconvenience, including individuals losing access to their health care via Google’s on-site One Medical facility the moment the layoffs were announced.

    Still others found out about the reduced leave they’re now facing right when they needed it most.

    “Exactly a week after receiving the text and sharing the exciting news that my maternity leave was approved, I got the already widely talked-about email letting me know that I was among the 12k terminated,” a Google program manager wrote on LinkedIn. “Easy target? Maybe.”

    “On 1/20/23 at 7:05 am while in the hospital bed holding my hours-old newborn I learned that I was part of the #thegolden12K of Googlers who had been laid off,” Kate Howells wrote on LinkedIn. “I was a Googler for 9.5 years.”

    When contacted by CNBC, a Google spokesperson simply pointed to the original layoff announcement.

    “As we shared with impacted employees, we benchmarked this package to ensure the care we’re providing compares favorably with other companies, including for Googlers on leave,” the spokesperson said.

    Needless to say, the company’s actions are not going over well with Googlers and fly in the face of the image the company has maintained for years, in terms of how it treats its employees.

    “When Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced layoffs, he mentioned the company’s commitment to AI three times, but never once mentioned Google’s commitment to accessibility,” the group wrote in an email to CNBC. “This matters deeply because accessibility is part of the company’s actual mission. This clearly calls for a re-centering of priorities. It’s unsurprising that through a bungled demo just days after laying us off, Google showed they’re indeed not leading the way in AI. However, the good news is that an incredible opportunity remains to be an accessibility leader in the treatment of laid off workers.”

  • LinkedIn Users Will Be Able to Use AI to Help Create Their Profiles

    LinkedIn Users Will Be Able to Use AI to Help Create Their Profiles

    If you’ve ever struggled to find the right words to describe your career on LinkedIn, the platform is deploying AI to help.

    LinkedIn is owned by Microsoft, giving it access to the same ChatGPT-based tech its parent company is using to power the next generation of its Bing search engine. The networking platform is looking for innovative ways to deploy the tech, including allowing users to tap into AI to write better profiles.

    The company made the announcement as part of a broader initiative to use AI in various classes:

    To empower members with the latest AI skills, starting today we’re unlocking more than 100 LinkedIn Learning courses – and coming soon we’ll roll out twenty new generative AI courses. From the basics to advanced applications of AI, these courses will help members gain a competitive edge in today’s rapidly-changing market.

    But that’s not all. We’re also starting to roll-out new AI-powered features, leveraging advanced OpenAI GPT models, as we continue to look for ways to create more value for our members and customers.

    • To help make the process easier and more effective, we’re testing a new tool for LinkedIn Premium subscribers that provides personalized writing suggestions to your About and headline sections.
    • We’re testing a new AI-powered job description tool that will make it faster and easier to write job descriptions.

    The new features should be a boon for anyone who’s struggled with writer’s block about their current job or a job they’re trying to find candidates for.

  • Meta Is Laying Off Another 10,000, Touts ‘Year of Efficiency’

    Meta Is Laying Off Another 10,000, Touts ‘Year of Efficiency’

    Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced the company is laying off an additional 10,000 employees and closing additional open roles.

    Meta laid off 11,000 in November, the biggest layoff of 2022. Rumors have been circulating for weeks that Meta planned another round of layoffs, which Zuckerberg has just announced:

    With less hiring, I’ve made the difficult decision to further reduce the size of our recruiting team. We will let recruiting team members know tomorrow whether they’re impacted. We expect to announce restructurings and layoffs in our tech groups in late April, and then our business groups in late May. In a small number of cases, it may take through the end of the year to complete these changes. Our timelines for international teams will also look different, and local leaders will follow up with more details. Overall, we expect to reduce our team size by around 10,000 people and to close around 5,000 additional open roles that we haven’t yet hired.

    Zuckerberg says the hiring freezes will be lifted once the company’s reorganization is complete:

    After restructuring, we plan to lift hiring and transfer freezes in each group. Other relevant efficiency timelines include targeting this summer to complete our analysis from our hybrid work year of learning so we can further refine our distributed work model. We also aim to have a steady stream of developer productivity enhancements and process improvements throughout the year.

    A major focus of the company’s efforts is reducing the various layers of management, streamlining and flattening the company’s communication:

    In our Year of Efficiency, we will make our organization flatter by removing multiple layers of management. As part of this, we will ask many managers to become individual contributors. We’ll also have individual contributors report into almost every level — not just the bottom — so information flow between people doing the work and management will be faster.

    Meta’s image has already been tarnished, in the eyes of its employees, after its first round of layoffs. Many blame Zuckerberg and his obsession with the metaverse. Laying off another 10,000 employees is not likely to improve that perception.

  • VC Keith Rabois: Tech Layoffs Result of ‘Vanity Hiring’

    VC Keith Rabois: Tech Layoffs Result of ‘Vanity Hiring’

    Venture capitalist Keith Rabois has harsh words for Silicon Valley, saying the recent layoffs resulted from a “vanity metric” of hiring.

    Rabois is one of the “PayPal Mafia,” the group of tech execs that spent their early years at PayPal before going on to found successful companies of their own. Rabois was at the payment company at the same time as Elon Musk, another member of the group.

    Rabois told Business Insider that many of Silicon Valley’s top companies, such as Google and Meta, were hiring for looks rather than out of a true need.

    “All these people were extraneous, this has been true for a long time, the vanity metric of hiring employees was this false god in some ways,” he said.

    “There’s nothing for these people to do — they’re really — it’s all fake work,” he added. “Now that’s being exposed, what do these people actually do, they go to meetings.”

    While it doesn’t seem like a good idea to hire unneeded personnel, Rabois said at least part of the motivation was to prevent talent from being picked up by other companies. This was especially true of Google, which led to a slew of engineers that were happy to “be entitled, sit at their desks, and do nothing.”

    In contrast, Rabois had high praise for Elon Musk and how he has run Twitter since buying it.

    “People are watching Elon and Twitter and he’s clearly setting an example — maybe it’s an extreme example,” Rabois told Insider.

    Rabois is one of the few with praise for Musk. Since taking over Twitter, Musk has laid off thousands and stoked one controversy after another. The company has also experienced a major uptick in outages, likely the result of its reduced technical staff.

    Despite the controversy Musk is generating, Rabois isn’t the only one who thinks his methods may catch on. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff recently said in an interview with Insider that “every CEO in Silicon Valley has looked at what Elon Musk has done and has asked themselves, ‘Do they need to unleash their own Elon within them?’”

  • Meta Plans a Second Round of Layoffs This Week

    Meta Plans a Second Round of Layoffs This Week

    Meta is preparing for another round of layoffs, with the company reportedly dropping the bad news this week.

    Meta engaged in a massive round of layoffs in late 2022, letting some 11,000 employees go. Rumors have been building for weeks that the company planned another round of layoffs, even going so far as to give thousands poor performance reviews, in what many believed was a precursor.

    According to Bloomberg, the next round of layoffs could hit as soon as this week and will likely impact thousands of additional employees.

    Meta’s image and reputation have already been tarnished by its layoffs. Employees have become increasingly disillusioned with the company and CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s leadership in particular. Zuckerberg is seen, both in and outside the company, as being obsessed with the metaverse.

    This obsession has led some employees to believe Zuckerberg will ultimately cause the death of the company.

    “The Metaverse will be our slow death,” one user, identifying as a senior software developer, posted on the anonymous forum Blind late last year. “Mark Zuckerberg will single-handedly kill a company with the meta-verse.”

    When the company announced its first round of 11,000 layoffs, Zuckerberg took responsibility for the action.

    “I want to take accountability for these decisions and for how we got here,” he said at the time. “I know this is tough for everyone, and I’m especially sorry to those impacted.”

    With another round of layoffs looming, it’s a safe bet the angst at Meta is about to get a lot worse, and the company’s image will continue to suffer.

  • Google Will Be Promoting Fewer Staff to Senior Roles

    Google Will Be Promoting Fewer Staff to Senior Roles

    Google has informed employees that there will be fewer promotions to senior roles, a reflection of the company’s changing workforce.

    Like many in the tech industry, Google has conducted extensive layoffs, letting some 12,000 employees go. The company has also cut back on projects and has implemented various hiring freezes. As a result of these changes, it appears there are fewer senior roles than in past years.

    The company informed employees via an email that was seen by CNBC:

    “The process is manager-led and will be largely similar to last year — though with our slower pace of hiring, we are planning for fewer promotions into L6 and above than when Google was growing quickly.”

    The company added that the adjustment is being made “to ensure that the number of Googlers in more senior and leadership roles grows in proportion to the growth of the company.”

    “If your manager believes that you are ready to be promoted, they will nominate you,” the email said. Those who want to “self-nominate” have a “short window of time” from March 6-8.

  • Sen. Bernie Sanders Wants to Subpoena Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz

    Sen. Bernie Sanders Wants to Subpoena Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz

    Senator Bernie Sanders has some tough questions for Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz and wants to subpoena him to get the answers.

    Starbucks has been under growing scrutiny for its anti-union efforts against Workers United. In the US, companies are strictly regulated regarding how they interact with unions and are prohibited from interfering with organizing efforts.

    Senator Sanders believes Starbucks has crossed that line and wants to question Schultz about, according to a tweet he sent Wednesday:

    Unfortunately, Howard Schultz has given us no choice, but to subpoena him. A multi-billion dollar corporation like Starbucks cannot continue to break federal labor law with impunity. The time has come to hold Starbucks and Mr. Schultz accountable.

    Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders), March 1, 2023

    Sanders cites the 75 complaints the National Labor Relations Board has brought against Starbucks:

    “While Howard Schultz is a multi-billionaire who runs a very profitable multi-national corporation, he must understand that he and his company are not above the law,” Sanders said. “The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has filed over 75 complaints against Starbuck for violating federal labor law and there have been over 500 unfair labor practice charges lodged against his company. These violations include the illegal firing of more than a dozen Starbucks workers. For nearly a year, I and many of my colleagues in the Senate have repeatedly asked Mr. Schultz to respect the constitutional right of workers at Starbucks to form a union and to stop violating federal labor laws. Mr. Schultz has failed to respond to those requests. He has denied meeting and document requests, skirted congressional oversight attempts, and refused to answer any of the serious questions we have asked. Unfortunately, Mr. Schultz has given us no choice, but to subpoena him. A multi-billion dollar corporation like Starbucks cannot continue to break federal labor law with impunity. The time has come to hold Starbucks and Mr. Schultz accountable.”

    Sanders plans on calling a vote next week of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) on whether to subpoena Schultz.

  • Amazon Employees Can Use Their Stock to Finance Home Purchases

    Amazon Employees Can Use Their Stock to Finance Home Purchases

    Amazon employees are about to enjoy a new perk: being able to use their company stock to finance home purchases.

    According to TechCrunch, Amazon has struck a deal with Better.com to make it easier for employees to purchase a home. Under the terms of the deal, employees in Florida, New York, and Washington State will be able to use their vested equity as down payment collateral. It’s believed the program will expand to other states in time.

    Interestingly, the deal does not require an employee to give up their shares, only to pledge their vested equity. The deal also extends to former employees that still have a stake in Amazon.

    Amazon is “always looking for opportunities” to improve its employee perks “and better support employees’ mental, physical, and financial wellness,” company spokesperson Brad Glasser told TechCrunch.

    “As part of that, we offer a wide-ranging slate of financial benefits, including saving resources, tools to grow financial knowledge, and programs that help employees feel financially sound,” he said. “Eligible employees can access these benefits starting on the first day of their employment with us, regardless of role or location.”

    “Financial wellness, mental wellness, and physical wellness are all essential facets of employee health, and they all affect each other,” Glasser added. “For financial wellness, that means providing benefits that aid with both short- and long-term financial success, for employees’ time at Amazon and beyond.”

  • Stanford Professor: Tech Layoffs Are ‘Copycat Behavior’

    Stanford Professor: Tech Layoffs Are ‘Copycat Behavior’

    A Stanford professor has confirmed what many suspect, saying Big Tech’s layoffs are more about “copycat behavior than necessary cost-cutting.”

    Tech companies have already laid off hundreds of thousands of workers, blaming an economic downturn and overly-aggressive hiring during the pandemic for the current cuts. It appears many of those cuts are not necessary, instead reflecting a fundamental truth about human nature, Professor Jeffrey Pfeffer told Business Insider’s Sarah Jackson:

    The idea that human behavior is influenced by what others do is really old. If you’re a pedestrian and you see a stop signal, but no cars are coming and somebody steps into the street, you’ll probably do it too. It’s almost automatic behavior.

    We should expect this to also be true in business. A lot of companies were hiring during the pandemic, so everybody decided to hire. Now, companies are laying off, and everybody decided to follow each other and lay people off. A lot of this is just imitation.

    Read more: LinkedIn Hit With Layoffs

    Professor Pfeffer goes on to question the dubious “advantages” many companies tout when laying off employees:

    In many instances, layoffs don’t increase stock prices or cut costs. Between things like the cost of severance and the loss of productivity, layoffs have pretty nasty and negative consequences for the company. It’s not clear they actually increase profits.

    The irony is that these same companies were talking a year ago about people as their most important asset, and now they’re treating their employees pretty badly, laying them off via email or by abruptly cutting off their access to the company. These layoffs are a decision that reflects the company’s values, and these companies have basically given their employees the middle finger.

    Virtually every one of the world’s biggest tech firms has already laid off thousands, including Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Meta. In fact, only Apple stands apart among Big Tech companies as the one that has yet to engage in mass layoffs.

    Perhaps, given Professor Pfeffer linking layoffs to “copycat behavior,” it’s not all that surprising Apple is the one Big Tech company to avoid layoffs. Apple has a long history of bucking popular conventions and the company and has rarely, if ever, been accused of being a copycat.

  • Ericsson Laying Off 8,500 Employees

    Ericsson Laying Off 8,500 Employees

    Ericsson is joining the list of tech companies laying off staff, with CEO Borje Ekholm saying 8,500 employees will be laid off.

    The tech sector has been especially hard-hit by the economic downturn, with companies large and small laying off workers. Ericsson is the latest to announce job cuts, according to Reuters, with Ekholm sending a memo to employees to inform them of the company’s plans.

    “The way headcount reductions will be managed will differ depending on local country practice,” Ekholm wrote in the memo.

    “In several countries the headcount reductions have already been communicated this week,” he said.

    Ericsson did not specify which regions would be most impacted, but analysts have predicted that North America would likely be one of the hardest hit.

    Ekholm said the layoffs were necessary to help the company remain competitive.

    “It is our obligation to take this cost out to remain competitive,” Ekholm said in the memo. “Our biggest enemy right now may be complacency.”

  • Meta Plans to Lay Off More Personnel

    Meta Plans to Lay Off More Personnel

    Meta appears to be moving forward with plans to lay off additional personnel despite CEO Mark Zuckerberg indicating the contrary.

    Meta laid off 11,000 employees in late 2022, marking the biggest layoffs of the year among tech firms. According to The Washington Post, Zuckerberg framed the layoffs as a necessary step to “minimize the chance of having to do broad layoffs like this for the foreseeable future.”

    “I obviously can’t sit here and promise you that nothing will happen in the future because it’s a very volatile environment,” he added. “But what I can say is that for where we are right now, that’s what I foresee.”

    Unfortunately, according to the Post, Meta appears to be preparing for another major round of layoffs, despite Zuckerberg’s assurances. The company is having its lawyers, financial experts, executives, and human resources personnel devise a plan that would reorganize the company and possibly lead to thousands of jobs being cut.

    Part of leadership’s goal is to flatten the corporate hierarchy, reducing the path between Zuckerberg and the company’s interns. The move will see some team leaders taking on lower-level roles. The Post’s sources said the company expects some of the individuals whose roles have changed to eventually resign, naturally reducing the company’s headcount through attrition.

    The Post’s report confirms other rumors regarding the company’s plans. Meta recently gave thousands of its employees the second-lowest review possible, raising concerns it was laying the groundwork for another round of layoffs.

    Meta’s actions also appear to be a concerted effort to streamline its operations and return to the startup-style way of operating it enjoyed before becoming a multi-billion dollar corporation. The company has recently taken fire for its ‘self-sabotaging’ behavior by none other than legendary developer John Carmack.

    “We have a ridiculous amount of people and resources, but we constantly self-sabotage and squander effort,” Carmack wrote when he departed the company in December. “There is no way to sugar coat this; I think our organization is operating at half the effectiveness that would make me happy.”

    “I have never been able to kill stupid things before they cause damage, or set a direction and have a team actually stick to it,” he added.

  • Meta May Be Prepping for More Layoffs, Giving Thousands Poor Reviews

    Meta May Be Prepping for More Layoffs, Giving Thousands Poor Reviews

    Meta may be prepping to lay off thousands more employees after giving them poor performance reviews.

    Meta has already laid off 11,000 employees, the largest number for a single company in 2022. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, the company may be preparing to add to that number, giving some 10% of its employees a “meets most” rating. Of the company’s five performance ratings, “meets most” is the second-lowest, with “meets some” being the lowest. Very few of the lowest ratings are ever given, however.

    Meta has repeatedly signaled its intention to drastically cut costs. CEO Mark Zuckerberg emphasized that goal once again in a recent discussion with investors.

    “We’re working on flattening our org structure and removing some layers of middle management to make decisions faster as well as deploying AI tools to help our engineers be more productive,” Zuckerberg said.

    Employees have already expressed their frustration with Zuckerberg over his management of the company, especially his near-obsessive focus on the metaverse. The frustration is driven in no small part by the fact that Meta is continuing to pour billions into metaverse development, despite its mass layoffs.

    If the company does engage in another major round, it’s a sure bet confidence in Zuckerberg’s leadership will hit an all-time low.

  • DocuSign Is Laying Off 10% of Its Staff

    DocuSign Is Laying Off 10% of Its Staff

    DocuSign has filed paperwork with the SEC indicating it plans to lay off 10% of its employees, or roughly 700 individuals.

    DocuSign experienced rapid growth during the pandemic as record numbers of people worked remotely, making digital document signing a critical component of day-to-day operations. As many companies have experienced, however, with the economic downturn has come a reduced need for many of the products and services that were flying high just months before.

    The company described the layoffs as a “restructuring plan”:

    On February 16, 2023, DocuSign, Inc. (the “Company”) announced a restructuring plan (the “Restructuring Plan”) that is designed to support the Company’s growth, scale and profitability objectives. As part of the Restructuring Plan, the Company expects it will restructure and reduce its current workforce by approximately 10%, primarily in the Company’s worldwide field organization.

    Interestingly, the company expects to pay $25 to $35 million to implement this plan:

    The Company currently estimates that it will incur charges of approximately $25 to $35 million in connection with the Restructuring Plan, consisting primarily of cash expenditures for employee transition, notice period and severance payments, employee benefits, and related costs as well as non-cash expenses related to vesting of share-based awards. The Company expects that the majority of the restructuring charges will be incurred in the first quarter of fiscal 2024, and that the execution of the Restructuring Plan will be substantially complete by the end of the second quarter of fiscal 2024.

  • Intel Slashes Employee Pay Rather Than Reduce Dividend

    Intel Slashes Employee Pay Rather Than Reduce Dividend

    Intel is showing where its priorities are, slashing employee pay in an effort to maintain its quarterly dividend.

    Intel is in trouble, with the company losing $8 billion of its market value in what has been described as a “historic collapse” that was triggered when the company warned it would miss analysts’ revenue expectations by billions.

    According to SemiAnalysis, the company has now resorted to cutting employee pay in an effort to make its quarterly dividend. Principal Engineers, grades 7 to 11, will see a 5% cut. VPs will see a 10% cut and executive leadership will see a 15% cut. CEO Pat Gelsinger’s pay will drop by 25%.

    According to The Oregonian, hourly employees’ pay won’t be cut, nor will their annual bonuses. They will, however, lose out on other incentives, such as merit-based raises, quarterly profit-sharing bonuses, and more.

    “These changes are designed to impact our executive population more significantly and will help support the investments and overall workforce needed to accelerate our transformation and achieve our long-term strategy,” Intel spokesperson Will Moss said. “We are grateful to our employees for their commitment to Intel and patience during this time as we know these changes are not easy.”

    Intel’s strategy is an incredibly dangerous one since it risks alienating the very employees and engineers the company needs to turn things around. Cutting employees’ pay, in the middle of an economic downturn no less, sends a clear message to employees that they are not as important to leadership as lining investors’ pockets.

    Our money is on this decision coming back to haunt Intel, with the company likely to start losing its top talent to companies that won’t sell them out.

  • Microsoft’s Azure Business Hit With Layoffs

    Microsoft’s Azure Business Hit With Layoffs

    Microsoft’s Azure division appears to be the latest part of the company hit with layoffs, with 150 personnel impacted.

    Microsoft announced in January that it planned to lay off 10,000 employees but did not provide details about which divisions would experience cuts. The company’s plans have only become apparent as layoffs have occurred. Yesterday news broke that LinkedIn was the latest division to experience downsizing, following similar action across the HoloLens, Surface, and Xbox teams.

    According to The Information, Microsoft’s Azure division now joins the list. A source told the outlet that approximately 150 individuals in the company’s digital cloud acquisition team had been let go. The team is responsible for “convincing medium-size companies to adopt cloud services such as Azure server rentals and Microsoft 365 productivity apps.”

    Interestingly, the impact on the Azure team goes beyond just sales personnel. Azure test engineers, systems administrators, and product managers have posted on LinkedIn within the last few days, revealing they had been laid off.

    Gaurang Deshmukh, Software Test Engineer at Microsoft, was one such individual:

    With an extremely heavy heart, I have to announce that I was one of the employee impacted by #Microsoft layoffs. Despite this setback, I’m extremely grateful for my experience at Microsoft as Software Test Engineer in Azure for Operators #A4O org for over 3 years.

    Christopher Teahan, Azure Cloud Administrator, was another:

    I was laid off from #Microsoft this week, it was a great experience working for a start up like Affirmed Networks for 4 years and then transitioning to a larger company as part of the Microsoft acquisition back in 2020. I was at Microsoft for almost 3 years and learned a lot being part of the IT and BIS teams and working on the migrations of our legacy IT systems and tools to the Microsoft’s. Working on #Azure projects and transiting legacy systems to the cloud has been amazing and I am thankful for all I’ve learned at Microsoft. I will miss being part of the Azure for Operators organization and everyone I have worked with over the past 6-7 years, but it’s time for a new challenge and journey!

    During the economic downturn, the cloud segment has been one of the more resilient elements of the tech industry. While tech layoffs have become an almost daily occurrence, it is odd that the Azure team has been this heavily impacted.

  • LinkedIn Hit With Layoffs

    LinkedIn Hit With Layoffs

    Microsoft’s LinkedIn is the latest company to be hit with layoffs, with employees in the recruiting department impacted.

    Microsoft is in the midst of its announced layoffs of some 10,000 employees. When the company broke the news, executives did not reveal which departments and divisions would be impacted. As a result, the industry has been learning which employees are being let go as Microsoft makes the cuts.

    The HoloLens, Surface, and Xbox divisions all recently experienced layoffs. According to The Information, the company has now confirmed that LinkedIn, specifically the recruiting department, is the latest business to be impacted.

    Staff were notified Monday, although, at the time of writing, there were no posts on LinkedIn from any of the affected employees.

  • Getting Laid Off May Be the Doorway to a Better Job

    Getting Laid Off May Be the Doorway to a Better Job

    The tech sector has been hit with a wave of layoffs, but it’s not all bad news, especially for the workers being laid off.

    Mass layoffs have become an almost daily occurrence. Over the course of 2022, the tech sector saw a whopping 241,176 layoffs. As big as that figure may be, 2023 has already seen an additional 131,132 layoffs at the time of writing (via TrueUp). Almost no portion of the tech sector is immune, with companies large and small letting workers go.

    While being laid off can be a traumatic experience, the picture is not entirely doom and gloom. In fact, being laid off may be the best thing to happen to some people.

    Revelio Labs looked at the state of the industry, as reported by Business Insider, and found that 75% of laid-off tech workers can expect to find a new job within three months. In fact, while tech workers are almost always in demand, Revelio Labs found that is especially true in the current climate. In contrast, 71% could expect to find a job within three months in January 2022 and only 67% in July 2021.

    Perhaps most telling, Revelio Labs found that 52% of laid-off tech workers were finding jobs that paid more than the job they lost. There is such a demand for tech workers that Insider reports many employers are forced to offer a 7% premium over what their existing employees are being paid in order to attract new talent.

    “The key takeaway is ‘do not despair,’” says Reyhan Ayas, a senior economist at Revelio Labs. “The job market is still hot. Although some parts of the tech industry are struggling, other companies are actively hiring.”

  • Microsoft’s HoloLens, Xbox, and Surface Divisions Hit With Layoffs

    Microsoft’s HoloLens, Xbox, and Surface Divisions Hit With Layoffs

    Microsoft is in the midst of layoffs, with a picture emerging regarding which divisions are being especially hard-hit.

    Microsoft announced in January that it was cutting 10,000 jobs, although the company did not provide much detail on what departments and jobs would be most impacted. According to Bloomberg, that information is starting to filter out, with employees in the HoloLens, Xbox, and Surface divisions bearing the brunt.

    The HoloLens team, in particular, was especially hard-hit with much of the team let go. The HoloLens project has experienced a number of setbacks, including Congress refusing to authorize funds for the US Army to purchase more of the devices following concerns that soldiers experienced “mission-affecting physical impairments” after just a couple of hours of use.

    Xbox boss Phil Spencer notified employees that some of them would also be impacted, although he did not elaborate.

    “I encourage everyone to take the time and space necessary to process these changes and support your colleagues,” Spencer wrote in the email that seen by Bloomberg.

    Despite the hits to the HoloLens team, Microsoft told the outlet that it remains committed to the project.

    “While we don’t comment on specific staffing details, we can share there are no changes to HoloLens 2 and our commitment to mixed reality,” the company said.

  • Yahoo Plans to Lay Off 1,000 Now, 600 Later

    Yahoo Plans to Lay Off 1,000 Now, 600 Later

    Yahoo is preparing for a round of layoffs, with plans to eliminate 1,000 jobs now and up to 600 in the second half of 2023.

    First reported by Axios, Yahoo’s layoffs will impact roughly 20% of the company’s workforce. Unlike many of the tech industry’s recent layoffs, Yahoo CEO Jim Lanzone said the decision was not a result of financial issues, but is simply part of a larger restructuring.

    “The moves are meant to simplify and strengthen the good parts of the business, while sunsetting the rest,” Lanzone said.

    As part of the company’s restructuring, Yahoo will be shutting down portions of its advertising business, which has long been outclassed by both Google and Meta. As a result, while the rest of the business is quite profitable, the advertising business has increasingly been an anchor that is dragging the company down.

    “A lot of resources were going into that unified stack without a return,” Lanzone added. “This was a longstanding issue with every variation of this company … that needed to be solved eventually.”

    Lanzone says the move will be “tremendously beneficial for the profitability of Yahoo overall,” and will help the company “to go on offense” in more profitable areas.

    The move comes at a time when Yahoo is teasing a return to the search market, so it will be interesting to see if getting back to the company’s roots is an area where Lanzone plans “to go on offense.”

  • Visible Will Cover Customers’ Phone Bills if They Are Laid Off

    Visible Will Cover Customers’ Phone Bills if They Are Laid Off

    Visible is taking customer service to an all-new high, offering to cover customers’ phone bills if they are laid off.

    Visible is a Verizon-owned wireless carrier, focusing on an all-digital experience with unlimited plans. The company’s goal is to simplify wireless and offer premium services at a much lower price than traditional carriers.

    Visible is taking it a step further, however, offering to help out customers who have lost their job amid the recent economic downturn. The program is called Connection Protection and is a partnership between Visible and Empower Work.

    Through the program, Visible, the Verizon-owned all-digital wireless carrier, will help people stay connected by providing three months of cell phone service to those experiencing a work setback. And Empower Work, a national nonprofit, will provide support via our worker text line for people to process their job loss, think through their job search, and work on a plan to land their next job.

    If you’ve lost your job, had your hours cut, or are between jobs, you can apply for Connection Protection starting right now.

    The program is available to new and existing Visible customers who have been laid off, are not employed, and actively looking for work.

    Customers can find out more information here…