Flexport (YC W14) Lays Off 20% of Its Employees | Hacker News Reader

Flexport (YC W14) Lays Off 20% of Its Employees

flexport.com

13 pointsvijayrs8 comments

Not terribly surprising because co-CEO/founder Ryan Peterson was just on the Odd Lots podcast again to talk about the "Great Recession" in the shipping industry.[1]

This is also interesting because Dave Clark joined as co-CEO after leaving Amazon, where he most recently spearheaded the dramatic increase in fulfillment center capacity due to the pandemic[2], probably the most visible indication that Amazon leadership misread the situation.

[1]: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-05/odd-lots-...

[2]: https://www.geekwire.com/2022/how-amazon-ended-up-with-too-m...

A bit disappointed that until pretty recently I'd still see "Flexport is hiring" advertisement posts on HN frontpage

It looks like they are still expanding some software roles. Even during layoffs companies usually have specific roles they still need to fill.

While all the statements are almost the same shitty template, I find this one to be quite humorous:

  We begin the New Year with more optimism than ever about Flexport’s future.

If laying off 20% of your staff gives you more optimism than ever I have serious concerns about either the ability to write announcements or the leaderships vision.

It reminds me of all the "We care about your privacy" followed by a list of how we violate it. Somebody must think this sort of doublespeak works. Maybe there is a subset of people that is reassured by it?

I mean... it does work. It's not like they're going to say "Here's all the ways we're going to spy on you, you dumb fucking peasants". I'm sick of it too, it's so impersonal. But the doublespeak is strong and going nowhere.

> Maybe there is a subset of people that is reassured by it?

Only the band of Pied Pipers who are writing it and self-assuring about its efficacy.

Ongoing discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34344009

Reply on news.ycombinator.com