I'm a libertarian in most things but I still don't like layoffs from profitable companies.
Like it's probably not good for our society that people have to up end their life every few years and probably move to find a new job.
Both my parents stayed in the same
job for their careers and it meant they could stay in the same place, have kids, build ties to the community, etc. Seems important if you want to not die out as a society.
> Like it's probably not good for our society that people have to up end their life every few years and probably move to find a new job.
The thing is, Dropbox is done (as in feature complete). Like when the construction of a building completes, many people are "laid off" because they aren’t needed anymore. Yeah, you need to keep some people around for things like maintaining the building, but not to the scale of the original workforce required to build it.
It is "good" that the excess labour is freed up to go work on the next "building". What may not be good is that the workers didn't think to associate with each other like construction workers do. Construction, being a much more mature industry, typically keeps a clear separation between the workers and the building so that then construction is done the entire excess group of people can be lifted on to the next project instead of all going their separate ways.
Software will undoubtedly go that way eventually. But it is, in the grand scheme of things, still early days for it as an industry. We haven't yet learned the lessons that older industries have.
Interesting insight about construction. I think you're right.
We see this ad hoc in software now. When there is a mass layoff, someone will go get a new job, and then try to bring on all of their previous coworkers. Or a group will go off and start a startup which (if they're lucky) will get acquired and they get to keep working together.
Which now makes me think, if you're a big company, maybe it behooves you to offer a highly functioning team a seed round instead of individual severances...
Software engineering, as profession, offers a very different kind of capacity compared to professions found in the construction industry, though. The physical resources for buildings are expensive and rare (land, material etc), whereas compute and storage are literally getting cheaper by the minute. The Silicon Valley dream of getting from garage to unicorn within months might be far from realistic, but still way more probable that in any other industry. Quick prototypes can be built in days and it isn't uncommon for graduates to finish their research with a viable business idea. I never seen that in my circle of architecture friends.
>he thing is, Dropbox is done (as in feature complete)
Dropbox is "done" but Dropbox didn't employe 2700 people just to work on dropbox.
They toyed around with other services, weren't as gamebreaking as dropbox, and in hard times (not necessarily for their business) they deided to just abandon those other experients or products. This isn't some "the job is done" scenario, it's "we're hunkering down for the storm that we pretend isn't happening out loud" scenario and people are still falling for the idea that "the economy is soaring". It's disgusting.
>It is "good" that the excess labour is freed up to go work on the next "building".
sadly there is no "next building" in these times. When everyone is "feature complete", you just have a purge, not a new opportunity.
>Software will undoubtedly go that way eventually.
given the 3rd wave of attempting to outsourcce large software out, and the AI bubble, I don't think companies are ever going to truly appreciate proper mature software. Just the bare minimum to pretend the machine is running until the next CEO deals with the fire.
> Both my parents stayed in the same job for their careers
My father was the same, BUT.. this is an INCREDIBLY risky thing to do career-wise in the modern era. Given how much tech advances and that we actually face international competition that a lot of our boomer parents didn't during their career, I don't see really any going back either.
Some of the worst layoff situations I've seen were guys who worked in the same company for 25 years.. long enough that their knowledge & skills was too company-specific, but not long enough to retire. Just because someone seems indispensable doesn't mean they are safe.
Having to drain savings for 1-2 years jobless after a layoff in the last 10 years of your career and reset at a probably lower salary can set back your retirement 10 years.
Fully agreed - yet, we as a society consistently and systematically trade (or let "others" trade) much more critical aspects of life, such as quality of air, water, food etc. for short-term profits, even though that very often has no clear/direct positive impact on any other comparably valuable aspects of our lives.
So it's no wonder that "some people losing their jobs and needing to move for a new one" is irrelevant, when the only goal is profit maximisation, even though we don't even understand what for.
Like it's probably not good for our society that people have to up end their life every few years and probably move to find a new job.
Both my parents stayed in the same job for their careers and it meant they could stay in the same place, have kids, build ties to the community, etc. Seems important if you want to not die out as a society.