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Comment by wojcikstefan | Hacker News Reader

My heart goes out to the laid off employees, though I think they'll be able to find solid jobs (or start their own companies) when they're ready.

What I'm more surprised by is: 1. GitHub operating so independently from Microsoft at large that they have their own layoffs (not included in the 10k people that Microsoft announced they'll be parting ways with). 2. GitHub operating SO INDEPENDENTLY that they can decide to go remote-first.

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Is this GitHub acting independently or is it Microsoft informing them that they needed to lose 10% but they could do it on their own time frame?

Looking at the CEO's statement it seems the final layoffs aren't even finalized yet.

> Unfortunately, this will include changes that will result in a reduction of GitHub’s workforce by up to 10% through the end of FY23. A number of Hubbers will receive notifications today, others will follow as we are re-aligning the business through the end of FY23.

Wonder what teenagers these days think of when you call someone a "hubber"

Urban Dictionary has a pile of different definitions, many of which are quite unique. [1] I'm curious if you're thinking of a particular one?

[1] https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=hubbers

This is the exact same message Microsoft CEO said in his message. So yes MSFT is directing these layoffs.

The fact they're closing all offices and switching to fully-remote suggests it was Github's decision. Microsoft doesn't seem pro WFH

A bunch of my former co-workers at MSFT are working from home 100% of the time. Maybe it is a per organization thing.

Satya proudly announced WFH as a thing you could do around mid pandemic, then it was bastardized as it went down the orgs.

Some are 100% wfh, vast majority is some arbitrary %.

Can confirm it heavily depends on org.

In my case, I only go to office 1 day a week (to talk to people irl), and in my team only very few people go everyday, everyone else hovers between 20% to 100% wfh.

GitHub has been remote first forever tho. Microsoft buying them can’t change that without fundamentally breaking the teams.

I thought it was GitLab which was remote-first (or should we say remote-only?). GitHub still seems to have offices and people going into them.

Yeah I don't think github was remote-first when it started.

Definitely was- we didn’t have an office for the first few years. Picked up the first office in 2010, and it was a big component of work life since then (even though the numbers were primarily ⅔ remote throughout).

Oh interesting! Thanks for clarifying. I knew there was an office like a decade ago but I guess I forgot how old Github is!

I think it’s something to celebrate. It’s the best case scenario when you’re acquired by a megacorp.

Agreed!

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