Tech has failed to be a good employer; Layoffs are just one example

People in tech are in over their heads. There’s been an unsustainable inflation in salaries and somehow 20 somethings have actually started believing their skills are worth what they’re making I speak to so many engineers who just with two years of experience are making 30-40 LPA packages. They actually believe they are better than people in say banking who make the same salary after 15 years of grinding it out. It’s all supply-demand. Supply will soon catch up to the demand. Salary normalization will happen. Your salaries may not grow for years if you don’t personally grow as well in skill set and become more valuable overall. At the least, don’t have an attitude about how much you make. Stay humble. Enjoy the good times while they are still here

These Big Tech companies like Microsoft, Google, Meta, Amazon, Apple, Salesforce were the dream jobs, dream workplaces, you know if you got into that, your life was settled, you had arrived. Cool workplaces, high salaries, onsite assignments, basically Big Tech employees were the cream of the IT employees. But last couple of months, feel that the Big Tech aura has somewhat come down. Layoffs are inevitable in Tech world, but the rather clumsy way these companies have handled it rankles. Employees working from long, fired over zoom calls, emails, access disabled. I honestly did not have much expectations from the Desi service companies, having had experience of their terrible work culture, but expected much better from the Big Tech ones. I think people will still keep aspiring to land a job in the Big Tech firms, but that aura is no longer there.

I have been through ups and downs in IT, but these layoffs seem crazy. There is just no pattern to it, more like everyone is firing let me fire. Honestly I feel its high time Tech companies, Startups take a hard look at their business and revenue model. Most just seem to be in a herd mentality. Every one is mass hiring, let me also mass hire. Every one is giving exorbitant salaries, let me also give. Its become more a cycle now, hire in large numbers, find there is no work to give, no revenue to sustain, and so mass fire again. This just cant be going on. Who makes mistakes that results in revenue loss or crunch? Top management Who gets fired ? Every one except the ones who are responsible. Dont fucking give me the reasoning that you are doing this for efficiency and streamlining. No you are just doing it to protect your own arse, while making scapegoats of others. So the Musks, Pichais, Zuckerbergs happily take fat bonuses, while drafting teary regret letters for firing. And they are supposed to be our role models to look up to? Enough is enough IT industry can't forever be running in this same mode. These hire and fire cycles are getting weary nowadays.

I recently laid off, sometime ago. I was privileged enough so didn't really complained about it. But what i realised is: "Everyone should get laid off once in a lifetime." Reason being you stop being emotional about your job. Some people have a habit to treat job as a the only purpose their life has. Basically job gives them the validation which they never received from anyone. Also you realize the hard truth that you are just a number. "Resource" as they aptly call you. You realize your life has many dimensions than just serving someone. Quite an experience i would say, Kuch din to guzariyen lay offs mein!

There has been a huge influx of posts dissing roles like Product, Marketing, HR etc. by Techies. Every other post, or comment is made by them undermining the value of other depts and these cuties think business runs just by their sub-par code. I understand that their delusion stems from the fact they get paid huge salaries by loss making companies. Which is bound to crash sooner or later. Rant over.

Having recently been laid off, these last 2 months was a life changing experience and it taught me a lot of things than any degree or organisation ever did. Some pointers: 1. The people who make the decisions never get punished or are held responsible, its the folks like us who are the first to be pushed out of the door. 2. Its shocking to see the layoffs like firesale, affecting almost each and every company in the IT sector. But it makes you think, did some companies really need to layoff people or did they just do it to inflate their share price and Mcap. The upper management and LT are paid in crores to make the decisions and how could they unanimously fail in such a critical part of business planning. 3. Its all about profits. There's no humanity in any of these companies or rather the folks making the decisions and it doesn't matter if you have been with them for 2 years or 20. If I was responsible for 100 people under me and some of them lost jobs because of the decision I made, I would have stepped down myself and wouldn't be able to sleep at night knowing I uprooted the dreams and hopes of not just employees but their families as well, many of whom are sole bread earners of the family. 4. Treat your employer just as you would treat any brand outside when you go out to shop - treat it like a transaction and nothing else. This layoff also taught me to never compromise about your career and position within an organisation. If the organisation can layoff so many people without a second thought, there's nothing holding you back from joining the next organisation who is offering a better role/compensation. 5. Be a risk taker. Thankfully I have always been this and this helped me rise quickly in my 6 year career but it's my suggestion to everyone and not just folks affected by layoffs - Never get comfortable in any organisation or any role. Would love to hear what others think or went through during this difficult period.

Just an open ended question on why are layoffs happening on such a scale. I personally feel the skill to salary ratio has fucked up so much lately that the companies are having to fire people who are essentially useless to them. More of liabilities than just assets! What do you think?

Tech is slowly realizing that Elon was right and a huge amount of overhead is not necessary to grow these companies when you actually manage teams properly.

This has become a common discussion topic in my friend circle when we think about switching jobs. Earlier Google used to be number one choice for many, but now due to layoffs and the hear-say about toxic work culture in google cloud things are changing and people are preferring other companies. Is it the same for you as well ? has your perception of Google changing too? Is google loosing both the cloud and AI battle? @google