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Restructuring Announcement

(automattic.com)
261 points markx2 | 6 comments | 02 Apr 25 18:34 UTC | HN request time: 1.705s | source | bottom
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zem ◴[02 Apr 25 19:21 UTC] No.43560470[source]▶
on the positive side, it's a small thing monetarily, but retention of company laptops is a nice goodwill gesture
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bmulholland ◴[02 Apr 25 19:24 UTC] No.43560520[source]▶
Eh, from the company's perspective this is logistically easiest--the laptop's value is hardly worth the effort.
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zem ◴[02 Apr 25 19:30 UTC] No.43560574[source]▶
a lot of companies ask for equipment to be returned due to security concerns, or just on principle
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jelder ◴[02 Apr 25 19:55 UTC] No.43560825[source]▶
A company which is even moderately "OK" at IT will already have the means to instantly lock and securely wipe devices of any employee at a moments notice. Doing this during a RIF is a hell of a lot better than making the mail room deal with a bunch of filthy laptops.
replies(1): >>43560847 #
oblio ◴[02 Apr 25 19:57 UTC] No.43560847[source]▶
A large bunch of big companies, including some of the biggest on the planet don't even sell past-end-of-life laptops to their current employees.

Let that sink in. They're not even willing to <<sell>> old laptops, they would rather scrap them and contribute to pollution and overall waste.

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1. preinheimer ◴[02 Apr 25 20:36 UTC] No.43561219[source]▶
If you scrap a laptop you get a nice, auditable, chain of custody from the end user to the company that will certify it's been destroyed. If you sell someone their old laptop you need to ensure that it's actually been wiped, not just "I copied my files over and started using the new one". I've seen a few IT departments be not great at "Sam got their new laptop two weeks ago, someone should follow up now to see if the wipe on the old one happened".

One choice won't get you fired, the other might save you a bit of cash.

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2. oblio ◴[02 Apr 25 21:36 UTC] No.43561919[source]▶
I'm talking about some companies that should have the best IT departments on the planet.
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3. dylan604 ◴[02 Apr 25 23:21 UTC] No.43562948[source]▶
Writing off equipment through depreciation is a time honored thing for corps. If they sell them, they are no longer a write off. That's now more work for the bean counters.
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4. oblio ◴[03 Apr 25 03:24 UTC] No.43564346{3}[source]▶
Then donate them.
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5. dylan604 ◴[03 Apr 25 08:01 UTC] No.43566374{4}[source]▶
Isn't that essentially what they are doing when the let the employees keep them?
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6. oblio ◴[03 Apr 25 08:57 UTC] No.43566833{5}[source]▶
My original comment in the thread:

> A large bunch of big companies, including some of the biggest on the planet don't even sell past-end-of-life laptops to their current employees.

It's good that Automattic is doing it, I was wishing it was an industry standard procedure, for all past-end-of-life hardware, not just layoffs and not just laptops.

Right now FAANG, for example, which you'd expect to have the very best of everything, as far as I know don't give old laptops (and other old hardware) to employees, they don't even sell them. They send them to be recycled or whatever, but the best action is to reduce and reuse, recycle should be the last option.

Plus an employee is likely to be willing to accept their old device since they know it's performance and general behavior.