Mark Zuckerberg admits he got it wrong as Meta lays off 11,000 people
- Thread starter midian182
- Start date
R
Red34jfp
It's funny, Musk fires 3700 people after buying a failing company and he's described as some kind of monster by the media, Zuckenberg fires 11000 people and they tell us that he's sorry, almost as if we're supposed to be sorry for him as well. I wonder if it shows how political inclinations can change media's narratives. Anyway, I personally don't care that he's "sorry" and I'm fairly certain that those he fired are even less inclined to give a damn about it.
lripplinger
Posts: 454 +252
PEnnn
Posts: 1,285 +1,853
It seems mainly a US (also a Third World custom, and sorry for the redundancy) for the filthy rich billionaires to make hugely expensive mistakes, admit them AND keep their jobs!!
A mere janitor losing a broom in their firms would face more serious consequences!
A mere janitor losing a broom in their firms would face more serious consequences!
moral hazard
Posts: 42 +16
OOPS!,My bad. - Zuck.
Its all OK, Zuck, relax man. You said sorry which, for this century, is perfectly adequate to absolve you of all responsibility: you are truly sorry - so your mistakes are all forgiven. There is that other theoretical aspect of being a manager or leader called accountability. You have always taken the public sector view of this - I am accountable to the people that give me money (lets call them the voters). If they continue to give me enough money to live to my standard then they confirm that they are completely happy with my actions. In this you are correct too - no advertisers or stock holders have left in any appreciable numbers - so you have been perfectly accountable - well done! And yes, just like in the public sector, the fact that you are ethically and morally bankrupt is of no concern to the voters.
Its all about the money. Neither customers, advertizers or stock holders have voted with their feet against Zuck so by his definitition he still has an income and having an income implies having a job. Its not about the absolute number of $$ its about the payment of any $.
Bp968
Posts: 277 +195
He actually *has* to do whatever is in the best interests of shareholders (how the whole metaverse nonsense is in their best interests is beyond me though).
The part that blows my mind is even with the big drop in his wealth due to FBs stock price, he has so much money we could do silly math like this:
If the average income of those 11,000 employees is 100,000$ he could *personally* pay their salaries for *3 decades* before running out of money (if he never earned another dime).
That said, I have to wonder what all those jobs are doing? Facebooks core business likely doesn't need nearly so many positions which makes me suspect many of those jobs are mostly wasteful nonsense that never should have been created to begin with. The articles comment about the "reality labs" growing a bunch during covid reinforces my belief that they were largely unnecessary and foolish positions that never should have existed to begin with.
I've had plenty of IT jobs that I *knew* were essentially short-time roles simply because I looked at the company or divisions core product and saw it was a pipe dream or outright nonsense that was doomed to fail. So I got the training, experience and income while it lasted and depending on the company a comfortable severance at the end.
As an employee you should think of yourself and your career like its a business. Understand that your customers (the company) don't owe you anything and will switch to another product (employee) or simply stop buying (layoff) so you should always be on the lookout for signs that you need to switch things up (IE, switch jobs, switch locations, switch fields, etc). And remember, the easier your job is to do the easier you are to replace and the less value you have.
Honestly the biggest issue I see (and the numbers reinforce this) is people refusing to move to new areas for a job. I was in florida in palm springs (outrageous cost of living) and the lower end jobs were paying pretty poorly and few places seemed to be hiring. Then I returned home to Northern Kentucky and say the same types of jobs commanding double the wages with better benefits, help wanted signs everywhere and a much much lower cost of living. A two income family moving from palm springs to here could go from renting a small 1-2 bedroom apartment to owning their own home. You can be broke in cali or NYC or own a home in the midwest, etc.
Id love to move to palm springs or Hawaii and afford it on my disability income and my wifes moderate income but thats just not gonna happen. We don't all get to live in the most desirable locations.
This monopoly capitalism in its glory. General capitalism is not at fault. What shocks the rest of the world is that the US was the first country in history to admit that monopolistic capitalism is bad, put in laws to ban it from 1887 on to , and enforced the law (read the "breakup of Standard Oil" in 1911) by the FTC and DOJ, and they currently do absolutely nothing about it for US based countries. The Silent Generation and the Baby Boomer Generation FTC and DOJ followed the path set by previous generations. The GenX and succeeding generations of FTC and DOJ have received no complaints from the public and have not bothered to even try and enforce the laws. But if the "little people" complained they might. By do the little people complain to them; no - they complain to Techspot. By the way if you think Zuck is a bad actor in this, think again. Far worse were BillG and SteveJ; but did the little people complain about them to the FTC and DOJ?
No, the point was/is that they should never have been hired in the first place: unless of course they were made aware that he was only offering gig work; which they weren't. The bottom line was that he treated them as slaves (or peons in Spanish) to be hired and fired at his whim. He did not treat them as skilled humans deserving of respect. A symptom of a human mental disease called narcissism; or "god like" behavior.
AlaskaGuy
Posts: 868 +848
They could always 'learn to code'.
True. But they would then be in the lottery situation that Zuck was at school: only a very few of us can win the lottery. I have heard of a number of people that have 'winning the lottery' as their retirement financial plan. But for their working years?
Been used before in the military - attack that hill, I will take responsibility for the win/loss - you will just be dead or alive.
The severance, the lack of cap on the per year, the healthcare are all better than some people laid of by tech companies got. I will never understand his suddenly realizing metaverses exist problem was exactly that is other places have done it better for longer.
Wonder if they will cut advertising on the come back to Facebook theme.
I think it isn't reasonable to think that he or any of the higher ups will take a pay hit other than of course with shares tumbling in value that does impact them.
Given as a traded company he has to act in the best interests of the shareholders - while ideally he would have looked around at how other people have been doing interactive environments for ages now. I guess that bit was hubris thinking that his 3 d version of not much could compete.
I know for older people I know it was mostly confusing and of course for the not so old baffling
I do think it's a generous severance package and the reality in jobs of all sorts of "technical" is it's a hard world so I doubt people thought they were safe You get used to the whole a company makes a mistake and it's not if the employees will have their heads rolling but how many.
WhoCaresAnymore
Posts: 772 +1,221
Gastec
Posts: 541 +281
Genesis released the song "Land of Confusion" 36 years ago in 1986, most likely before those 11,000 former Facebook/Metha employees were even born. The American heavy metal band Disturbed released their cover of that song and the accompanying music video 17 years ago, in 2005. The only thing I can recommend them is to watch that video and reconsider their path in life.
Gastec
Posts: 541 +281
Code what?
So if he meant to stay he shouldn't have said he takes responsibility in your view? Im sorry but you really dont know what youre talking about. That guy built something unreal. He makes a mistake and you say he should step down. SIlly world we live in.
WhoCaresAnymore
Posts: 772 +1,221
He should step down. LOL. just so maybe Facebook would get purchased by Musk and maybe go away from Bankruptcy. Then I can get my wife off of it.
Totally agree. I believe I read elsewhere that a lot of the jobs were in the hiring department which makes sense since hiring has essentially frozen across tech industries.
On another note, Amazon just announced 10k layoffs (corporate level) as well.
Similar threads
- Locked
