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Comment by crop_rotation | Hacker News Reader

Given that hiring is a costly process, and laying off employees is not free either, what does a company like Apple get by doing this to retail employees. Is saving a few million even worth it if it ends up in articles like this. Regardless of the financial and business soundness, this seems like penny pinching with bad PR. A small dip in the advertising budget might have been a better option if the few millions were so important.

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TFA: "Employees in Apple's Development and Preservation teams, which handle construction and maintenance of the company's retail stores"

So with the related news about the M2 being halted due to weak demand, what we're seeing is the demand is collapsing due to interest rate hikes (and other weaknesses in the US economy).

These aren't retail employees, they're construction overseers of new Apple stores.

>if it ends up in articles like this

>bad PR

It's sad that people get laid off but can you really say this kind of article changes anyones stance on buying Apple products?

It certainly reinforces the many good reasons to not give any money to the company.

This sort of thing used to be rather common: "Justify your job, or you're laid off".

It might have been common in companies with low margins and not much room to overspend. In a hyper competitive low margin commodity industry, the push to keep costs low ultimately decices a company survive or not. But that is not the case here. The amount saved for a year might not even equal 1 day's ad budget.

The title is misleading. They're not being asked to justify the job they have. These jobs are being cut. Apple is telling people to apply for new roles within the company.

Here's an interesting brain glitch. I read the article but my mind had been primed by the title. The article never came out and overtly said that a layoff had occurred, so my brain kept interpreting it through the lens of the title.

Even as I read it, the article seemed odd and not to make complete sense to me -- because my dumb monkey brain was trying hard to interpret it in a way that agreed with the title.

However, your comment cleared all that fog away instantly.

>Is saving a few million even worth it if it ends up in articles like this.

Are you not going to be buying Apple's product anymore? I personally don't have any experiences with any Apple retail staff, so this won't affect my opinion in anyway.

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