Uber CEO Says Layoff Decision to Be Announced Within Two Weeks | Hacker News Reader

Uber CEO Says Layoff Decision to Be Announced Within Two Weeks

theinformation.com

50 pointswhatok26 comments

That's two weeks where nobody'll get any work done because of the constant stress of knowing for sure that layoffs are coming but not knowing whether you're on the line, whether there's anything you could be doing, whether the decision's already made or if you can still kiss up to your manager and try and save your job, or if layoffs will come with a good severance and health insurance or whether you'll be left on your own, or...

Surely there are better ways to communicate layoff decisions than leaving a 2 week gap between confirming a decision will be made and making the decision?

The best way to know if you're getting fired:

If you don't have a "cue" from your boss that you are safe PRIOR to the layoff, then you are pretty much on the chopping block.

In other words, if you don't know who the sucker is, you are the sucker.

I would be surprised if middle managers at Uber have access to the plan at this point.

Yeah, but you always "kinda" know where you stand with your boss.

But you dont know where your boss stands or if they even get to make the call

Having managed and laid off people (unfortunately), I would guess middle managers have already been given a number X to cut already, and they are spending some sleepless nights already trying to figure out exactly what to say (unless they are too chicken and have HR personel do the firing)

That is only one of the ways it’s done. The other is to hire strategy consultants who analyze org structure then try to fit people in those remaining boxes. Those left out are really out.

I always definitely know because I explicitly ask, and recommend others do as well. It was one of the things I started doing after reading through Netflix's culture deck.

In my experience, that is generally true. But if there have been any recent stack ranking efforts, that's certainly a dead giveaway.

A lot of companies do stack ranking every year regardless of whether they're doing layoffs.

Depends on company size; a lot of lower level bosses won’t know anything about layoffs. Last one I went through, which I survived, was a surprise to me despite being a manager.

I agree. But I think you're looking at it differently than Uber... they likely are doing it this way more for the sake of keeping investors happy than employees.

Compare it to Airbnb's 25% layoffs today. This has had a negative reaction, and Airbnb's has mostly been met with empathy. I think it shows a stark difference between the two companies and how they operate.

What do you think should have been done?

The information got leaked, it forces the company to make an announcement.

My anxiety would be through the roof.

The rumor I heard from within is that they are still in planning stages, and the information got leaked, so Uber went ahead and became transparent.

Disclaimer: I've been at Uber since early 2016, not the first layoff round I see myself in.

I have observed the opposite: when layoffs are announced, it gets shared internally, conversations die off within <0.5 day, and people get on with their jobs. 2017 was different though.

I just find it more productive to work on the technical problems, rather than to worry about things I cannot control. And this is quite universal in my environment.

I am quite sure Uber will restart hiring after the current crisis is over, I highly recommend this place.

Ridesharing is dead globally, in almost every country all at the same time. This is as catastrophic position as Airbnb, except Airbnb was profitable. I'm a huge Uber fan, a shareholder (unfortunately), and have many friends that work there currently, but this is as close to an existential crisis as they will ever face. Saying they will restart hiring is extremely naive. They could be a dead business if things don't go very right for them in the next 9 months, most important of which includes have a vaccine.

Ehh they have the food delivery potential, and cahs reserves to survive this. What won't survive though is Lyft, leaving a tasty market for Uber to eat up in 2021.

As someone who’s one week into a four-week gap between knowing there will be layoffs and knowing who exactly will be laid off, I completely agree. There’s some comfort in knowing that the layoff benefits are already defined, but they’re pretty bad for early career employees like me.

My nights are starting to focus on preparing for a job search.

Two weeks of kissing up to your manager is not going to save you. Managers are unlikely to make a decision based on what you do in the next two weeks. The only time I've seen it happen is when colleagues started casually mentioning the amazing interviews they had lined up at competitors and how the redundancy package would be a nice bonus. Not that I'm advising you do that. If your boss is half decent they won't pay any attention.

What an absurdity. Treating layoffs like a buildup to a product launch? From the outside that company has always seemed to me like it was mired in stupidity and they keep doing everything to reinforce this impression.

Normally we ask The Information to unlock their articles for HN (https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...) but in this case it's probably better to just wait the two weeks (https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...).

Wow. What a mess. Telling people giant cuts are coming with no further details is a failure. Uber had as much time as every other company. I wonder what went wrong. This can't have been the plan.

Interesting contrast in style with AirBnB's announcement today. Empathy & details.

https://news.airbnb.com/a-message-from-co-founder-and-ceo-br...

gonna expect 65% of personnel cuts. core strategy focus.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi told staff on Tuesday to expect a decision about layoffs in the next two weeks as the ride-hailing company struggles with depleted demand for its core business. “Hope is not a strategy,” he told employees. “We’re not going to avoid hard decisions.”

earlier leak said 20% of employees across all departments

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