[HN Gopher] Indeed cuts 15% of workforce, 2200 jobs
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       Indeed cuts 15% of workforce, 2200 jobs
        
       Author : cridenour
       Score  : 60 points
       Date   : 2023-03-22 18:05 UTC (4 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.indeed.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.indeed.com)
        
       | paulpauper wrote:
       | That is pretty ironic, I guess. Like firetruck catching fire or
       | ambulance getting in an accident.
       | 
       |  _2,200 people go. This is roughly 15% of our team._
       | 
       | Why does such a company need 15k employees to begin with? That
       | seems like too many for a site that does not produce anything
       | tangible. Coding, support, marketing, sales, etc. does it really
       | add up to 15K?
        
         | lotsofpulp wrote:
         | Start a competitor to Indeed and attract their customers with
         | your superior cost structure.
        
           | bradhe wrote:
           | This is the best comeback to the
           | mentally...struggling...people that make the half-baked
           | argument that "tech companies are sooooooo bloated"
        
             | rcme wrote:
             | Yes because Indeed has literally zero moat /s
        
           | pie420 wrote:
           | "Oh, you think Standard Oil or Bell Telephone is overpriced?
           | Well why don't you start a competitor and attract customers
           | with your superior cost structure." - Megacorp, monopoly
           | bootlickers circa 1905.
        
             | asdajksah2123 wrote:
             | Since you seem to believe that Indeed is a massive monopoly
             | in an industry where it's almost impossible to build the
             | infrastructure to reach customers and provide competition,
             | why aren't you lobbying for the government to break them
             | up?
             | 
             | I'd be interested to see if you could even convince leftist
             | anti-corporate monopoly interest groups to go along with
             | your plans, never mind the fairly center right US govt.
        
             | lotsofpulp wrote:
             | A website that hosts job listings might not have as high of
             | a barrier to entry as an oil company or telecommunications
             | network. Nor does Indeed have any sort of monopoly on job
             | listings.
        
           | pastor_bob wrote:
           | Indeed is no good. They try to suck everything out of you
           | when you apply to a posting on their site, including details
           | about your current company. I avoid using them if I can.
           | 
           | They make money purely out of laziness of their customer
           | base.
           | 
           | "Where should we post this listing? I don't know...Indeed?"
        
           | reaperducer wrote:
           | I can think of 2,200 people he can hire immediately.
        
         | icedchai wrote:
         | You probably underestimate the marketing, sales, and support
         | aspects. Also, there are no doubt a ton of spam/scam jobs being
         | posted constantly. I'm not saying it adds up to 15K, just more
         | than you or I would think...
        
         | bsder wrote:
         | > Why does such a company need 15k employees to begin with?
         | 
         | Because not everything is tech?
         | 
         | For starters, Indeed is in a field with _legal compliance
         | issues_. If somehow  "No minorities." ever made it through
         | their screening system all holy hell would come down on their
         | heads.
         | 
         | That means that probably everything an employer could post
         | needs to be vetted by a human eventually. That's a _lot_ of
         | people given the number of job postings.
        
         | throwaway5959 wrote:
         | This is a really tired trope. Clearly they didn't need as many
         | people. Clearly they need more than most people think they do.
        
           | Thetawaves wrote:
           | It would be really nice to see the tree diagram that breaks
           | the company structure down to ~100 person 'divisions'
        
       | pokey96 wrote:
       | Indeedian here, thankful to not have been in the 2200.
       | 
       | Was a bit chaotic this morning, it doesn't seem like there was
       | any clear pattern to who got layed off. Managers were given no
       | advance notice for this either, know our manager was trying this
       | morning to figure out over Slack who was affected by asking
       | everyone.
        
         | esel2k wrote:
         | If managers didn't know, how was the decision taken? I am a
         | manager (not indeed but other company just doing layoffs) here
         | and I received a first estimate of my boss and I adjust when I
         | will let go whom (based on business needs).
        
           | Ancalagon wrote:
           | Indicates this layoff is probably actually cost-cutting
           | necessity, given it had to be done immediately with no regard
           | to performance.
        
       | 1attice wrote:
       | It is probably not very comfortable for the folks whose job
       | searches now begin on the website they used to be paid to
       | develop. Oof. <3 to the 2200.
        
       | BrentOzar wrote:
       | > I take sole accountability for where we are today. I am deeply
       | and profoundly sorry. I will be taking a 25% cut in base pay.
       | Additionally, more than 75% of my total compensation is directly
       | tied to Indeed revenue growth, and is at risk given current
       | trends.
       | 
       | That's how you tell people you're accountable.
        
         | Vespasian wrote:
         | Maybe I'm imagining it but this letter seems a lot more direct
         | than the other ones.
         | 
         | "People loosing jobs" instead of "Puffys getting the
         | opportunity to move on.".
         | 
         | Also their yes/no mail has a clear title and they lay down
         | policy that fired people get to use slack for a few days to
         | "say goodbye to friends" etc.
         | 
         | Not great obviously (it's still kicking them out) but at least
         | they are not adding insult to injury.
        
         | SamuelAdams wrote:
         | To be fair, stock prices typically go up after layoffs are
         | announced. So it's not like he is losing money.
        
           | s1artibartfast wrote:
           | stock proce isnt revenue growth.
           | 
           | IF comp is tied to revenue, it doesn't matter if the stock
           | goes to the moon.
           | 
           | The stock goes up because investors think that _revenue_ will
           | go up if they pay fewer salaries.
        
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       (page generated 2023-03-22 23:02 UTC)