←back to thread

Mozilla lays off 70

(techcrunch.com)
929 points ameshkov | 1 comments | 15 Jan 20 19:48 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
Show context
ameshkov ◴[15 Jan 20 19:55 UTC] No.22057804[source]▶
Brendan Eich tweeted that they laid off about 70 people: https://twitter.com/BrendanEich/status/1217517703914643456

This is about 7% of all their employees.

People report that a lot of QA, security, and release management folks were sacked.

A lot more details in the TechCrunch article: https://techcrunch.com/2020/01/15/mozilla-lays-off-70-as-it-...

> In an internal memo, Mozilla chairwoman and interim CEO Mitchell Baker specifically mentions the slow rollout of the organization’s new revenue-generating products as the reason for why it needed to take this decision

edit: fixed the numbers, added some more details.

replies(5): >>22057845 #>>22058286 #>>22058360 #>>22058483 #>>22058983 #
raister ◴[15 Jan 20 20:49 UTC] No.22058360[source]▶
It was Microsoft (or other company I don't recall) that every 5 years would lay off 5% of its work force (the least capable or productive people) - this would cause those that remain to work harder next year. Then, they would open positions. Rinse and repeat.
replies(7): >>22058384 #>>22058385 #>>22058470 #>>22058517 #>>22058555 #>>22058881 #>>22059210 #
walshemj ◴[15 Jan 20 20:57 UTC] No.22058470[source]▶
General Electric was famous for doing this is the problem is you cant keep doing it every year.

Also people just game the system and only do what will get them a good review.

I know some on at a big UK company who was bucking for a promotion and they blew through 1 Mill and 15 Man years for no good reason.

replies(1): >>22058710 #
asdasdasdasdwd ◴[15 Jan 20 21:17 UTC] No.22058710[source]▶
> Also people just game the system and only do what will get them a good review.

Wouldn't doing a good job earn a good review? This reminds me of the xkcd comic about the bots starting to have constructive messages to avoid spam filters. Mission fucking accomplished.

replies(4): >>22058896 #>>22058966 #>>22059344 #>>22060022 #
1. kyllo ◴[15 Jan 20 21:31 UTC] No.22058896{3}[source]▶
You get what you measure, for better or for worse.

But what tends to happen with stack ranking is that people only do what their direct manager values and rewards in the short term, and avoid other work that really needs to be done, or what the actual customer wants. Your boss becomes your only customer. You invent redundant new shit because that's more impressive than fixing your existing shit that's broken. This can be incredibly damaging to the quality of the product, and also to the careers of anyone the boss just doesn't personally like for whatever reason. It creates a monoculture of like-minded, demographically similar people who suck up and shit down.

You even can see pathological behaviors like managers purposefully recruiting low performers as sacrificial lambs to offer up at the next review time.

Companies got rid of the rank-and-yank system in the last decade or so for a very good reason.