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Comment by stetrain | Hacker News Reader

We laid off half of our employees, and the other half seem demoralized. We have no idea why so we're going to try making everyone come back to the office.

Also hey everyone we made record profits this year! Great job! Pay raises are on hold though due to economic uncertainty. Remember, we're a family!

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This is what's really getting under my skin. The messaging is not even hidden anymore.

It's right out in the open that many companies are making enormous profits and giving out astonishing executive bonuses, at the same time as freezing salaries and layoffs.

It's not adding up, and I'm kind of just waiting to see if more people are going to become as fed up with it as I am, or if we're all just too comfortable.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2023/08/25/t-mobile-lay... (T-Mobile to lay off 5,000 people nationwide, after Sprint merger promised more jobs)

https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/t-mobile-anno... (T-Mobile US announces $19 bln shareholder return program)

https://apnews.com/article/amazon-layoffs-jobs-cuts-jassy-0e... (Amazon cuts 9,000 more jobs, bringing 2023 total to 27,000)

https://www.seattletimes.com/business/amazon/amazon-reports-... (A year after historic loss, Amazon posts $6.7 billion quarterly profit)

It's almost as if corporations only care about their shareholders and give zero shits about their employees.

I always thought this was obvious. That’s why we need regulation.

This is also why we need unions.

what regulations would you propose?

Take a look at worker and consumer protections in the EU and you'd be heading in the right direction. Or what we used to have. The minimum wage was original a living wage. Specifically it was designed so the worker was doing more than just surviving.

> worker and consumer protections in the EU and you'd be heading in the right direction

Youth unemployment rate in France was 17-18% in 2022. Even today, it is 16% - https://tradingeconomics.com/france/youth-unemployment-rate

Seems like existing workers are being protected at the cost of new entrants. Utterly predictable, since companies will be hesitant to set up shop in France because of onerous process of firing low performers.

Doing away with at will employment would probably be a good start.

> It's right out in the open that many companies are making enormous profits and giving out astonishing executive bonuses, at the same time as freezing salaries and layoffs.

I started my career at a large defense contractor. This was long ago, back when one had a mail cubby to receive memos and the link. I remember receiving one memo that stated: 1. The company didn't hit the metrics needed to trigger profit-sharing with the employees 2. The executive team had different metrics which were hit, so they'd get bonuses

It was a good life lesson for 22 year-old me.

Economic uncertainty has been a thing since I got in the industry in 2009. Just when do CEOs feel certain about the economy?

This makes me think of...

"The beatings will continue until the morale improves!"

I think it was from an old Steve Yegge post on Google Plus?

That’s far older than Google plus.

I remember it being well established a lifetime ago when I was serving in the armed forces.

Greed at the CEO level is so widely distributed, none of them think they're responsible for inflation.

Maddening.

I think greed is an essential ingredient to become CEO in the first place. I simply cannot imagine a non-greedy non-sociopath becoming CEO of a big corp.

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