Google to Lay Off Around 12,000 Staff to "Set up for the Future"

[Totally]

Well, guess all those who've just been laid off can simply just learn to code.






Oh, wait I meant farm. Sorry, I'll see myself out.

 

[PLAfiller]

I just what's going to keep happening. In the sci fi show expanse it shows everything but a few things are automated so nobody has a job they have to live off the government. Which is really the endgame.

Not really. That is a show. Now let's have some reality check, if you wish, spend the time to check out a research by Aarhus university in Denmark. It showed that actually automatization helped retain and use people's talents on better stuff than throwing meat on the hooks in the slaughterhouse for example. That chorus about automation needs to tone down IMO. Things are changing and so is the employment market. And to be fair, gruesome, repetitive, labour intensive work that's lowly paid, isn't a walk in the park for the person doing too.

 

[The Von Matrices]

I just what's going to keep happening. In the sci fi show expanse it shows everything but a few things are automated so nobody has a job they have to live off the government. Which is really the endgame.

If the pandemic era has taught us anything it's that the opposite is true. I used to be supportive of a universal basic income because I thought, like you, that automation would remove too many jobs, but I am not anymore now that it's obvious that there are way more jobs than workers in the world. The December statistics in the U.S. are 3.5% unemployment and 5.6 million unemployed, and that is despite all the recent layoffs (not at Google but at other places). It's obvious that the population's capacity to consume is way higher than the amount of additional production that automation provides.

 

[evernessince]

If the pandemic era has taught us anything it's that the opposite is true. I used to be supportive of a universal basic income because I thought, like you, that automation would remove too many jobs, but I am not anymore now that it's obvious that there are way more jobs than workers in the world. The December statistics in the U.S. are 3.5% unemployment and 5.6 million unemployed, and that is despite all the recent layoffs (not at Google but at other places). It's obvious that the population's capacity to consume is way higher than the amount of additional production that automation provides.

It's hard to say whether job creation will more than offset job loss to automation.

That said, if you can fully automate food production and house building you might as well ensure that everyone is fed and has a house.

 

[The Von Matrices]

It's hard to say whether job creation will more than offset job loss to automation.

The struggle with automation in low-skill industries is that migrant labor is still cheaper than machines and will probably remain that way for a long time. It's clear that there are many products in the market that are too inexpensive for automation or well-paid employees to make financial sense.

That's part of what I see causing the high unemployment. Companies want to produce low-value products that cannot provide enough profits to justify either automation or moderately paid workers. At the same time, the population in general isn't desperate enough for money to accept lower-paid positions in other industries should jobs in their own industry not be available. So we get no automation, shortages, and unemployment.

 

[ReallyBigMistake]

Sundar Pichai was in charge when Google failed with Stadia and now them having to fire 12K employees......but no he will get the bonus and like 200 million....

 

[Vayra86]

Doesnt help they are going to shedding good chunk of profit margins to anti-trust lawsuits and many more of these anti-trust lawsuits are in pipeline. "Wild west" era of big Tech is fast ending and they are going to be on leash in rest of the world.

Google Faces Record $4 Billion Fine In Europe After Losing Android Antitrust Appeal

The EU’s fine against the American tech giant is the largest antitrust penalty it has handed out so far.

www.forbes.com

About f'in time too.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Yeah got to love the EU at times here in the US all they do is make the ceo sit in congress for a day or two which leads to a large nothing burger

 

[Totally]

Hi,
Yeah got to love the EU at times here in the US all they do is make the ceo sit in congress for a day or two which leads to a large nothing burger

The nothing burger is having a CEO sit before Congress over something like this in the first place, doing their exact job.

 

[ThrashZone]

The nothing burger is having a CEO sit before Congress over something like this in the first place, doing their exact job.

Hi,
I was referring to this

Google Faces Record $4 Billion Fine In Europe After Losing Android Antitrust Appeal

The EU’s fine against the American tech giant is the largest antitrust penalty it has handed out so far.

www.forbes.com

Not sure if you are or not

 

[Totally]

Hi,
I was referring to this

Google Faces Record $4 Billion Fine In Europe After Losing Android Antitrust Appeal

The EU’s fine against the American tech giant is the largest antitrust penalty it has handed out so far.

www.forbes.com

Not sure if you are or not

Oh didn't realize you were off-topic.

 

[Aquinus]

You know, nobody has pointed out the elephant in the room which is the fed interest rate hikes. Businesses don't have fixed rate loans like you would for a mortgage on a house or a car (at least here in the US.) Most companies have debt because despite being profitable, additional money is needed to accelerate initiatives within the business. For years interest rates have been the lowest that they've ever been and businesses got very comfortable taking on a lot of debt. If you hold something like 2.0B in debt, your interest payments annually have just jumped by tens of millions of dollars. So now you're in a position where that debt is costing you a metric crap ton more and on top of that, in order to get it under control you need to pay off the principal which costs even more money.

These staffing reductions are, in my opinion, an attempt to pay for that additional interest and pay down that debt at the same time, which for 2B in debt would easily be over 100M annually. These are not small numbers. To handle that kind of shift, you very well might need to lay off 1,000 people to balance the budget. It might seem impersonal, but it's all math.

 

[caroline!]

The machine is ready

Spoiler

 

[Totally]

You know, nobody has pointed out the elephant in the room which is the fed interest rate hikes. Businesses don't have fixed rate loans like you would for a mortgage on a house or a car (at least here in the US.) Most companies have debt because despite being profitable, additional money is needed to accelerate initiatives within the business. For years interest rates have been the lowest that they've ever been and businesses got very comfortable taking on a lot of debt. If you hold something like 2.0B in debt, your interest payments annually have just jumped by tens of millions of dollars. So now you're in a position where that debt is costing you a metric crap ton more and on top of that, in order to get it under control you need to pay off the principal which costs even more money.

These staffing reductions are, in my opinion, an attempt to pay for that additional interest and pay down that debt at the same time, which for 2B in debt would easily be over 100M annually. These are not small numbers. To handle that kind of shift, you very well might need to lay off 1,000 people to balance the budget. It might seem impersonal, but it's all math.

This is probably part of it but there was ample time to prepare, everyone knew the hikes were coming and long overdue. Since things didn't go the other way, from the outset of 2020 efforts were towards delaying the hikes and the pandemic serving as a nice distraction, led to the bubble growing even bigger than it should have.

 

[Aquinus]

everyone knew the hikes were coming and long overdue.

Yes, but it's how rapidly the fed hiked interest rates that hurt. It wasn't gradual and inflation was only really starting to go out of control this last year. Some of this debt could easily have been taken on when the market conditions were far more favorable and it's not like CFOs have a crystal ball to predict the future. When things happen this quickly, businesses need to respond in kind, by moving quickly themselves.

 

[R-T-B]

Google aquired Boston Dynamics. They don't need a carbon based workforce anymore.

Of course they do. Who pets the robot dogs?

 

[Prima.Vera]

This will mean saying goodbye to some incredibly talented people we worked hard to hire and have loved working with. I'm deeply sorry for that. The fact that these changes will impact the lives of Googlers weighs heavily on me, and I take full responsibility for the decisions that led us here.

Go f..k yourself hypocrite. This p.o.s. should be the one to quit first if is his responsibilities to play with the lives of 12k people.
Those rich bastards have no more common sense and they thing they can just play with other people lives as they see fit.

 

[evernessince]

Go f..k yourself hypocrite. This p.o.s. should be the one to quit first if is his responsibilities to play with the lives of 12k people.
Those rich bastards have no more common sense and they thing they can just play with other people lives as they see fit.

Couldn't have said it better. The world is ruled by a bunch of incompetent oligarchs who only pass on the burden of their stupidity to everyone else.

 

[JaymondoGB]

Looks like the Stadia people at Google paid the ultimate price.

 

[Chomiq]

First MS, now Google, and yet some people say that the big R isn't right around the corner.

 

[64K]

First MS, now Google, and yet some people say that the big R isn't right around the corner.

It's coming this year and it will obviously be a Global Recession. Economists are saying that it won't be too severe but they really don't know for sure.

 

[Tartaros]

Not really. That is a show. Now let's have some reality check, if you wish, spend the time to check out a research by Aarhus university in Denmark. It showed that actually automatization helped retain and use people's talents on better stuff than throwing meat on the hooks in the slaughterhouse for example. That chorus about automation needs to tone down IMO. Things are changing and so is the employment market. And to be fair, gruesome, repetitive, labour intensive work that's lowly paid, isn't a walk in the park for the person doing too.

A lot of people really don't get that automatization needs supervision and not everything can be automatized or will happen many decades down the line with new opportunities from those change arising and goverments intervening, but they love to overdramatize because they seen one episode of Black Mirror and wot if ya mum but a robot. Most of the finest and clockwork precision systems can and will do a cascade of failures the moment the person in charge of watching over them takes a little too long crap or smokes 2 cigs instead of one. They LOVE the cheap drama.

 

[Totally]

... some people say that the big R isn't right around the corner.

Funny enough they are same people saying at are the same ones doing and want things that are push us towards it.

It's coming this year and it will obviously be a Global Recession. Economists are saying that it won't be too severe but they really don't know for sure.

They also said the inflation wasn't going to be bad either. Must be awesome being an economic analyst, doesn't matter how wrong they are as long as they tell people what they want to hear.

 

[R-T-B]

Funny enough they are same people saying at are the same ones doing and want things that are push us towards it.

Not really. Pretty much everyone agrees a recession is coming some just debate how big, and whether or not spending money via the government really has an impact in a negative way is highly debatable.

 

[Tartaros]

Not really. Pretty much everyone agrees a recession is coming some just debate how big, and whether or not spending money via the government really has an impact in a negative way is highly debatable.

The real thing will be how we all will agree to confront this situation and what policy should be applied to minimize the impact and give people new prospects, we have been past the realization of an economic recession since the first signs of big tech firing lots of people.