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GrinningPariah t1_itwa40u wrote

Reply to comment by [deleted] in Alphabet is ramping up scrutiny of all its projects and cutting hiring in half as it tries to curb costs by chrisdh79

Hiring freezes and layoffs actually end up being counter-productive to curbing bloat.

If you're a mid-level manager and you know that the company goes through cycles of hiring freezes or layoffs, does that incentivize you to run a lean organization where you only have the engineers you need? Of course not, because everyone is going to be asked to cut back.

Instead, you're incentivized to hire as many people as you can when you can, specifically so that the cut backs aren't as painful when they come. If you're overstaffed, you can weather a hiring freeze and you can afford to lose some to layoffs.

But everyone else is doing the same math, and so everyone tries to be overstaffed, so the company ends up massively overstaffed, which forces leadership into more hiring freezes and layoffs because those are the only tools they have.

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[deleted] t1_itwdj0b wrote

Of course these companies rake in cash, but this, at big tech TC this defensive tactic seems so expensive and wasteful... but thanks to you comment, I realize that is isn't really the concern or dynamic.

In "tech hubs" this style of staffing has really disrupted our local economies in ways that have been harmful to communities and made civic systems unsustainable. This isn't a "get out, tech bro" complaint - but a systemic recognition. Seems so pointless.

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