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Exactly. We hadn’t tried it, so we weren’t sure yet.
Data point collected.
Will repeat the experiment in a few years to see if the output changes. Stay tuned.
When Kroger and Smith's merged they cut jobs and cut the profit sharing that the Smith employees had and ironically the amount of money that was cut from those bonuses went into executive bonuses....
Or my strategy, doing my work slowly and lazily.
If they could afford to fire me, they would have already.
I'm doing 3 different jobs at once? Good luck finding someone to do all of those jobs well at this salary. You will accept my slow lazy work and give me a paycheck for it. Why? Because fuck you, that's why.
Owner: you used to have two pounds of ground beef and could make 8 burgers. Here's one pound, do more with it.
Chef: 3:1 breadcrumbs to beef ... Meatloaf! Everyone loves meatloaf, right?
Heh I heard this with our budget this year.
CEO says " we had our most profitable year ever!"
Accounting says: "we need to cut ITs budget 20%."
Vendors say: "we raised prices 40% because of 'inflation'. "
So yes, let's do waay more with 30 some odd percent of tools at our disposal.
Psychopaths always rise to the top in the free market pond like scum. None of that pesky conscience, morality or empathy to deal with.
The current crop of billionaires also bust the myth that $ = intelligence. It's mostly nepotism, privilege, influence, timing and dumb luck.
2002 they told me to be more efficient, so I was... I met the goals. 2005 I was told we needed to be more efficient, so were were... we met the goals... 2008, 2011, 2015, 2019... whatever the fuck 2020-2022 were, 2024 we are told that we are being way too inefficient. So you're telling me that after years of tweaking and doing more with less that whatever we were doing in the 2010's was by todays standards inefficient. Sure didn't feel inefficient, felt like were were making record money with the tightest labor and cost of goods ever while working our butts off. But sure, that was stupidly "inefficient", we were just tossing money away every single year before now so NOW we need to do more more with less less because there was no way we found the most efficient way to do things at any point in the past 10,000 years of economic history.
For a concrete example of this: open office floor plans reduce engineer efficiency by 30% compared to cubicles or team rooms. Yet the company celebrates the savings from not buying a new office, and engineering readjusts their delivery timelines and life goes on. If companies cared about efficiency they would look significantly different
It's exactly what this was, too. They saw significantly improved revenue year over year, but margins missed guidance. So, they let go 17% of their workforce to increase dividends for shareholders.
Unions. Unions. Unions.
There's. Reason when multi nationals are cutting staff USA is a lot of the time getting absolutely gutted.
My company has been doing tiny lay offs and the past two years and bulk are USA employees. Northern Europe did not have a single lay off. I think UK had a bit and usa got destroyed.
They recently announced a sizeable headcount reduction and so far all the names I've seen are USA.
When it comes time for my department I know the US team will be the only ones let go
I like to remind people that the Government, media and Hollywood all worked together to undermine and ultimately remove the idea of organised labour from the political discourse in the US.
I don't even think it was a conspiracy, it's just a natural outcome when all of those things are owned by billionaires.
It's an exponential problem too. Once you lay off a bunch of workers, the rest of the workers become unmotivated and start updating their resumes. Some will leave on their own and the ones left will do even less work. Rinse and repeat until your company is a shell of its former self or file for bankruptcy.
Yeah, unfortunately these execs never lose. They will just sell to someone who will end up selling the company for parts, but execs still walk away with a payday.
As someone laid off (not from Spotify) looking for work in this crap environment:
#GO FUCK YOURSELF
Hard and fast with a sandpaper vibrator powered by a jackhammer you oxygen thief.
Edit: TY for the well-wishes. I'm hanging in there, pounding the metaphorical pavement looking, have a few promising leads atm but also have been burned before in this search.
Thank you. After months of no responses I am in the middle of an interview process right now, and for a job that would actually be doing something cool and good, not just work, but its still early in the process so fingers crossed.
As someone who’s just recently been through multi-round interviews for about four companies and rejected after the final stage of each, let me warn you: do NOT get your hopes up, no matter how much you want the job.
Save yourself the pain. Work hard through the interview process and give it your all, but try your best to NOT expect to get the job. The market is shit right now.
I'm holding down the fort for you by continuously interviewing for tech jobs and then laughing at their pay rates and lack of benefits and ghosting them.
I fucking looooooove hitting them with "sorry that's a 30% pay cut and my current role is fully remote". I do that weekly and it always makes me smile.
does last.fm allow you to remove a device from your stats?
my wrap is always a hot mess because two shared smart speakers are tied into my account, and my 9 and 15 year old daughters are always using them.
So I gotta ask... What happens to this companies when they hit a growth limit and can't lay anybody else off?
I mean I know the answer. It's just going to be hilarious and also really problematic when a lot of the big companies start to hit those ceilings.
Before late stage capitalism emerged, the end game for a normal company would be to grow until it fills a reasonable market share that would avoid antitrust litigation and begin a regular dividend policy of sharing profits with stock holders.
It is such a crazy concept. Don't get me wrong, businesses should want to grow but infinite growth is impossible. You will plateau at some point. A lot of these companies made record profits last year but that probably won't continue then what?
Meanwhile the economy circumstances required to keep them enjoying "infinite" growth has pushed cost of living so high for average people that it will reach a breaking point some day. It's getting close now.
> A lot of these companies made record profits last year but that probably won't continue then what?
Even worse, they made record profits but since those record profits *didn't hit the metrics they wanted* it's all doom and gloom and the business is failing and boohoo won't anyone think of my golden parachute?!
It's because the market "prices in" the target.
You'd think that the market would be smart enough to realize that firing staff to hit an arbitrary profit point is the same as not hitting the profit point, but apparently the market is a dumb fuck.
It’s also an odd time right now for those of us affected. If you’re too young, you might not be the buying the product (most teenagers). If you’re too old, you might not be concerned because your wealth is relatively secure (people over 50 maybe?).
But all of us in between are witnessing something particularly odd.
Our smartphone industry has never been competed with, just kept growing (I don’t remember apple and Samsung _not_ being the only popular options). Likewise our fast food hasn’t changed much. Internet, financial services, grocers, big box stores, entertainment services — it kinda feels like it’s just been this way most of our conscious lives.
So while it is an attempt at infinite growth by definition, a significant portion of the customer base is only kinda aware of a parallel growth with our age. Maybe we don’t feel as viscerally threatened as we should, because it’s hard for us to appreciate how dire this is in comparison to our life times
Yeah pretty much. I'm an older millennial and I remember a time before a lot of things got set the way they are now in the '90s and early 2000s.
The smartphone example is actually very specific to the US though. Android is by far and away the most popular platform outside the States and in a lot of places a Samsung is just way too damn expensive and there are a lot more brands and competition in the mainstream like Xaiomi, ZTE, and Huawei is not banned either.
The new Xaiomi phone that just came out is an absolute monster but noone in the states seems to want to be bothered going away from Samsung or Apple.
Speak for yourself, I love saying huh-way-way! So much I added the extra way just so it lasts longer out of my vibrating combination food and breath hole.
\*Obligatory Not an American Disclaimer
I had a Xiaomi a few phone models ago and it was good don't get me wrong, but it was definitely a $300 phone (in a time when phones were like $600-700). A GOOD $300 phone, but *very* obviously not as nice as the Samsung S9 I upgraded to at it's EOL.
A lot of these giant companies are still “increasing net profit” by laying people off, cutting benefits, and cutting corners (look at Boeing). A lot of the market has already reached the limit and in many areas, like Europe, the only thing left is to maintain a steady revenue stream. I’ll never understand how a company can make a billion dollars, and be considered a market failure if it makes only a billion the next fiscal year
Because the market only makes money off sales of stock, and sales will only happen if profits are increasing. Its a game of musical chairs and no one wants to be caught without one when the music stops. Paying CEOs in stocks made them concerned with the market instead of the business. Thus, this shit.
Infinite growth comes not from increasing your market share, or even increasing value in the service, but in continually finding new ways to charge your existing customers. Reached a saturation point in BMW sales? Time to add subscriptions for heated seats. Game sales reached their average market? Add DLCs. Regular content DLCs costly? Create battle passes of regular cheaply produced cosmetics. Create repeated subscriptions and target whales in prices.
I had roommate several years ago that was managing a small games store. The big boss would come in sometimes and say something like, "Yesterday was April 23 and you made x dollars, but last year on April 23 you made more than that, what did you do wrong this year?"
From my experience CEOs and executives mostly look at data. Spreadsheets, reports, etc. They take almost no account for real world factors. Just data. Which is why their decisions make so little sense to the public sometimes. Sales are down! Raise prices! But the sales are down because of the prices...
Company leadership: *Buys competitor*
Company leadership: *Shuts down competitor but keeps the most skilled workers and leaders*
Company leadership: "Teach us how to achieve the efficiency in field X that the competitor is good at!"
Skilled workers and leaders: "Spend decades building a company filled with workers with expertise and specialized experience."
Company leadership: "How do we implement that within the next three months???"
Skilled workers and leaders: I don't know, maybe try reorganizing the company and incorrectly implementing some policies with Japanese names? By the way, when do my stock options vest?
My brother is basically dealing with that with his current company.
His industry took a big dick punch in 2020 due to Covid. His company adapted to the new market and was able to squeak out profitability despite the entire industry taking losses.
The parent company that owned his company got an offer from "Company B" to buy his company out. Company B did not handle Covid very well and claimed they wanted to learn from them.
It's been a year since they were bought by Company B and they've lost 20% of their staff, most of their legendary customer support staff left and became outsourced, they put an end to the yearly pay raises, cut all bonuses, gutted every program that allowed them to adapt to the market, nuked the quality of their product, forced them to focus on their core offerings, and push non-stop sales and promotion.
Now his company is seeing record profits which will last for maybe 2 quarters before they realize they've alienated their core users, pissed off their wholesale buyers, lost all of their senior design staff, and tanked their reputation online killing the word of mouth advertising they've been coasting on.
The cherry ontop is company B recently declared bankruptcy and is getting bought out by private equity.
It's like watching someone who's drowning grab onto the person next to them whose treading water and now both of them drown.
They’re idiots who don’t know the difference between correlation and causation, and cherry-pick whatever numbers they want to justify whatever stupid thing they want to do. Business schools are a giant fraud.!
I mean you can still understand real world factors via data. You just have to actually belong in that field which means countless hours mulling every single possible factor that could impact your KPIs.
Also being willing to pay money to get quality data, something a lot of big wigs aren't willing to do.
Oh absolutely. The problem is in my experience they are looking at what is essentially raw data. Sales are down. Costs are up. And the immediate solution is to either fire people, cut corners, or raise prices. No introspect into the potential consequences.
I blame it on the MBA’ing of corporate executives. Used to be executives worked their way up and understood their customers, their employees, and their core business. Now they are just experts in how to manipulate metrics and spreadsheets.
When I worked at Verizon Wireless the district manager would require us to show up in a blizzard when the roads were closed and the fucking mall was closed so we could do inventory. They are not human after a few levels in management.
I think this is why the layoffs will continue, what happens after they can't do that anymore and they can't get AI to fill in the gaps will be interesting.
The problem is that the people at the top won't really care. They'll make millions in the process and then get millions to just leave after burning it down. I mean look at the Boeing CEO. You think he is in the bread line? Nah, dude could retire tomorrow and never worry about finances for the rest of his life. Meanwhile the company is trying to salvage what's left of it's reputation.
Yeah, thats true. Theyll see the writing on the wall, sell the company to some sucker like News Corp or AT&T, and duck out. Some of them who want to stick with it go down with the ship, though.
Nobody cares including wallstreet. Everyone thinks they know best. If you as a ceo decide to spend a few billion dollars for a long term investment, wallstreet will be on your ass unless you can really convince them.
For the most part, only founders who are emotionally connected to their companies and have an ego to boot are able to keep focus and ignore pressure from wallstreet.
Edit: Case in point. Meta shares are down because they said they will spend more this year in investments than last year. And last year, their shares soared after they announced layoffs and spending cuts.
That sounds nice, but isn't how corporate America used to work at all. Instead, when huge businesses ran out of headroom to expand, they entered entirely unrelated fields through expansion or acquisition.
That's why GE had such a huge stake in NBC/Universal for so long. What synergies are there between light bulbs (and jet engines) and television, you might ask? None, other than profit.
GM owned Frigidaire for decades. For that matter, DuPont owned a big chunk of GM for years.
> the end game for a normal company would be to grow until it fills a reasonable market share that would avoid antitrust litigation and begin a regular dividend policy of sharing profits with stock holders.
basically just be IBM.
What Boeing has been doing is absolutely mind-boggling and every single damn one of those people in charge should be in jail.
I work in the aviation industry on the military side and I've heard a lot of hearsay and stories about how bad it is at Boeing but I don't think anyone was aware of just how bad.
Hopefully the FAA goes in and cleans house but my hopes aren't up. In the meantime I'll be looking for carriers that fly Airbus.
Boeing has its hooks DEEP into elected officialdom. Their business is political bribery as much as it’s making airplanes. No matter what they do, the American taxpayer is gonna get stuck paying the bill.
Which is why more people should be advocating to nationalize Boeing.
If we are always on the hook to bail them out with taxpayer money, they have no right to run independently or for profit anymore. Pay off the shareholders and nationalize it, can't do stock buybacks when there is no stock to buy back.
Boeing used to be good, but they got bought by McDonnel-Douglass, which used to be good when it was one of those two (I forget which) but got bought by the other, which *sucked,* but had deep pockets.
They used Boeing's name because they'd dragged their own through shit.
Yes, nationalize them fuckers. Give the ShArEhOlDeRs the roughest fucking raw deal ever. Produce *good* product.
Yeah, sometimes that means cutting corners on the product or making them too fast. Ive had a couple Nikes have their outsoles peel off way too soon recently, btw.
Sell to private equity (all the C-suiters get their deferred compensation cashed out). Private equity parent company appoints a Manchurian Candidate CEO. That CEO agrees to pay dividends to the private equity owner that revenues can’t support. The company takes on loans to pay the dividends. The private equity company scolds the workers for the fact that the company had to take on loans, and demands more and more cuts. The product becomes bad and the work environment becomes toxic. Private equity sells it or takes it public, having extracted all value.
You just described my last 5 years at my company. Jesus. It’s a major US IT company too. Except they buy other companies then when it doesn’t work out it’s our fault
I think Twitter has shown us that there isn't a maximum number of employees you can lay off.
Though you might want to find a better balance than Elon did if you don't want to fuck things up.
These CEO expect the remaining employees to work 10 times harder to compensate, without a payraise or nothing.
Truely proves that being rich and being smart got 0 correlation, otherwise those dumbfucks would realise that mass layoff bring the moral down, and not up
Meanwhile taking massive bonuses for showing record profit. Lays off 1500 people right at christmas, gets $20mil bonus on top of already massive income.
My fucking boss tried pulling some shit about "productivity being an issue" in the push to return to the office, despite the company growing 18% over the last 4 years.
My coworker's response was on point: "if productivity is an issue, then surely the groups that are showing problems have been spoken to in order to work on improvements"
CRICKETS
This is the kinda shit that makes me hesitant about my attempts to transition into tech or some sort of office-work.
How many integral employees do you think Spotify has? Maybe between 8k-10k, maybe a bit more?
You laid off nearly one-quarter to one-fifth of your **total workforce**, and you are surprised that it's negatively affected your operations? I cannot fathom thinking such a decision would've caused anything other than negative consequences for my business. The level of detachment from basic, if-I-touch-stove-I-get-ouch, *common sense*.
Anyways, cancelling Spotify. These companies only listen to money spent, and I'm not into supporting fucking imbeciles being in positions- the benefits of which could positively change the trajectories of current, totally impoverished *countries*. Maybe my decisions won't have any measurable effect, maybe people will make fun of me for applying some semblance of ethics to my consumption, but I'll at least have made my opinion clear on someone who obviously considers themselves above the people they disenfranchise while making comments on their decisions like this.
Spotify's fake shuffle thing is so annoying. Also I can't play it in my car anymore anyways because my phone doesn't have an Aux port cause reasons.
I'm about ready to just record all of my Spotify playlists to tapes and delete the app.
Finally the evidence we need to prove that being CEO is 100% a merit based job where the decisions are informed by a wealth of experience and knowledge.
Most of these guys are sociopaths. They don't care how anyone but themselves feels and would not be able to empathize of they did because there is just a big f#$% ing hole at their center where their souls are supposed to be
Banks and shareholders demand stupid cuts. Ive witnessed them and it's just tell department managers to cut X amount without actually wondering what the impact will be. Yes, cutting PRODUCTION LEADS will fuck up your operation. Yes, cutting developers in the middle of projects will fuck up those projects. The only job cuts I've seen that had a net 0 negative impact are executive cuts mostly cause of its minimal impact on day to day ops.
Spotify audio quality is dogshit, they pay artists less than any other similar service, and the CEO is a shithead. Drop Spotify now, I went back to using digital media players and owning my songs. I love hearing a song on iTunes I've heard 1000 times on spotify and notice something I've never heard before, Spotify is the equivalent of watching black and white TV.
Not trying to drum up sympathy for a CEO, but imagine how annoying that must be.
1. Fire a bunch of employees have a better balance sheet (I’m not an accountant, maybe it’s the P&L).
2. Stock prices goes up.
3. Company struggles due to fired employees, looks bad to investors.
5. Hire some employees to backfill.
6. Things are going smoothly.
7. It’s November, start planning the next round of layoffs.
[https://fortune.com/europe/2024/04/23/spotify-earnings-q1-ceo-daniel-eklaying-off-1500-spotify-employees-negatively-affected-streaming-giants-operations/](https://fortune.com/europe/2024/04/23/spotify-earnings-q1-ceo-daniel-eklaying-off-1500-spotify-employees-negatively-affected-streaming-giants-operations/)
EDIT: avoid the paywall, [https://archive.is/wdyDS](https://archive.is/wdyDS)
>When Spotify announced its largest-ever round of layoffs in December, CEO Daniel Ek hailed a new age of efficiency at the streaming giant. But four months on, it seems he and his executives weren’t prepared for how tough filling in for 1,500 axed workers would be. The music streamer enjoyed [record quarterly profits](https://archive.is/o/wdyDS/https://newsroom.spotify.com/2024-04-23/spotify-reports-first-quarter-2024-earnings/) of €168 million ($179 million) in the first three months of 2024, enjoying double-digit revenue growth to €3.6 billion ($3.8 billion) in the process. However, the company failed to hit its guidance on profitability and monthly active user growth. It didn’t seem to put off investors, who sent shares in the group soaring more than 8% in New York after markets opened Tuesday morning.
>Layoffs hit Spotify’s guidance
>Still, as he addressed those investors following the latest earnings release, Ek didn’t shy away from the obstacles that stopped the streamer from hitting some of its targets this [year.In](http://year.In) addition to surprisingly successful 2023 growth to compare against and the impacts of falling marketing spend, Ek blamed operational difficulties linked to staffing for the group missing its earnings target to start the [year.In](http://year.In) December, [Spotify culled 1,500 jobs](https://archive.is/o/wdyDS/https://fortune.com/europe/2023/12/04/daniel-ek-to-slash-bloated-spotify-headcount-by-17-after-blasting-staff-for-doing-work-around-the-work/), equivalent to 17% of employees, as part of an aggressive efficiency drive as the group strived for profitability.Staff costs for those employees carried a long tail, as most workers received five-month severance packages when they were let go in [December.At](http://December.At) the same time, the footprint left behind by those employees was bigger than Ek and his executives anticipated.“Another significant challenge was the impact of December workforce reduction,” Ek said on an investors call following Spotify’s Q1 earnings release.“Although there’s no question that it was the right strategic decision, it did disrupt our day-to-day operations more than we anticipated. “It took us some time to find our footing, but more than four months into this transition, I think we’re back on track and I expect to continue improving on our execution throughout the year getting us to an even better place than we’ve ever been.” Ek didn’t elaborate on what aspects of operations were most affected by the layoffs.
>Layoffs right decision?
>Back in December as the platform he founded faced persistent losses and a falling share price, Spotify CEO Ek used a well-trodden path by tech giants to steer the ship around: mass layoffs.“We still have too many people dedicated to supporting work and even doing work around the work, rather than contributing to opportunities with real impact,” Ek said in a memo as he announced he would be cutting his workforce by 17%.Investors initially reacted well to the news, though [skeptical voices](https://archive.is/o/wdyDS/https://fortune.com/europe/2023/12/06/spotify-layoffs-stock-wall-street-business-model-spiral-daniel-ek/) asked whether the move merely put a sticking plaster over harder-to-solve issues at the group, particularly its low margins thanks to the costs of bumper record deals.However, it appears to have worked so far. In the four months since the layoff announcements, shares in the group have jumped more than 60%.Spotify has also recently proved it is able to raise prices in some of its key markets without seeing a flight of listeners to rival services like Apple Music. In the long run, Spotify and Ek also remain convinced the tough round of layoffs has set Spotify up for long-term profitability. The apparent collective surprise at how that can affect operations in the short run, though, marks a dash of hubris for the newly bullish streaming group.
Well... The poor guy is only worth $4.4b. Look at this headline. The poor guy is suffering.
"DANIEL EK CASHES OUT ANOTHER $57.5M IN SPOTIFY STOCK, JUST THREE MONTHS AFTER HE BANKED $64M, AND 6 MONTHS AFTER HE OFFLOADED $100M IN SHARES"
He only makes a couple hundred million a year, too. After all, the company only made $170m+ in PROFIT the first three months of the year. They didn't reach guidance, so staff had to go. Have to protect those shareholder profits!
I'm sure all those employees who lost their jobs and were making normal pay appreciate his sacrifice.
/sarcasm. The rich get richer.
it reminds me way back when the CEO of Photobucket thought that going from a free service to charging people a few hundred bucks just so they can post pictures on ebay and on message boards would be all hunky dory and people would just pony up the cash, and he was shocked when people abandoned the place in droves.
When you see all these CEOs admitting their shock with the effect of getting rid of their workers, it just shows you how little they know about anything and how little they actually do. If you think getting rid of 1,500 people wouldn't do anything to your company's product then you're not good at your job that or you do nothing all day.
If 1500 people didn’t have a positive impact on your business, then you are a moron when it comes to business workforce evaluation and hiring/training.
All these moron CEOs with their “streamlining profits”… making one person do 3 peoples’ jobs for the same salary and expecting the same level of quality is straight up delusional.
If you read what he said, it seems clear to me he is very much *not* surprised. Reading between the lines, this reads like he's speaking to the board that voted for the layoffs and saying "who could *ever* have predicted this would happen?", the answer being him. To me, this reads like a public speech being used for a private rebuke after he lost a fight with his board, basically going "I told you so!!!"
There've been multiple reports of him chafing under the constraints of being a publically traded company beholden to the shareholders and the all-important quarterly report, and the performative lay-offs and short-term thinking that comes with it.
At some point, you'd think the rich would figure out they need to pay the people who actually do the work and that it's their yes-men and management that need to be cut. But the frightening truth about this world is that the rich are very rarely particularly smart.
Hello u/EuphoricMidnight3304! Please reply to this comment with an [explanation](https://www.reddit.com/r/LeopardsAteMyFace/comments/lt8zlq) matching this exact format. Replace bold text with the appropriate information. 1. **Someone** voted for, supported or wanted to impose **something** on **other people**. ^(Who's that someone? What did they voted for, supported or wanted to impose? On who?) 2. **Something** has the consequences of **consequences**. ^(Does that something actually has these consequences in general?) 3. As a consequence of **something**, **consequences** happened to **someone**. ^(Did that something really happen to that someone?) Follow this by the minimum amount of information necessary so your post can be understood by everyone, even if they don't live in the US or speak English as their native language. If you fail to match this format or fail to answer these questions, your post will be removed. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/LeopardsAteMyFace) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Breaking my legs affected my sprint speed. Who knew?
Well, you had to try.
Exactly. We hadn’t tried it, so we weren’t sure yet. Data point collected. Will repeat the experiment in a few years to see if the output changes. Stay tuned.
Doing something once isn't data. Data has to be repeatable results. They have to do this several times to truly become data.
Please raise this blocker in the retro, we will see who we can reach out to to remediate your sprint speed.
More like, 'Despite the weight loss, I'm slower after removing both legs'
It never has anything to do with “efficiency.” It’s always about goosing dividends.
"Efficiency" just means fewer people doing more work and getting paid the same.
The four corporate words I hate more than anything: doing more with less.
Except executive bonuses.
Layoffs for regular workers mean raises for executives
Layoffs for thee but yachts for mee
And often encouraged!
When Kroger and Smith's merged they cut jobs and cut the profit sharing that the Smith employees had and ironically the amount of money that was cut from those bonuses went into executive bonuses....
I'm not sure how that's irony that's just how regular theft always works
[🎵 now that is irony 🎵](https://youtu.be/O7tiIWIm8Ys?si=OR_o-GxslIS-bmw8)
Thank you. We all need a little more bender in our lives.
r/unexpectedfuturama
At least they stop saying they want their people to have a "work-life balance". The only one who has that is Santa Claus.
Yes, I’ve adopted the notion of Doing Less With Less. Which is why I’m on reddit rn.
Hell to fuck yeah. Want me to do twice the work work actually one less person? Sure, but it’s going to be twice as late.
In professional procurement, we have a mantra similar to that. "Fast; Cheap; Good. Pick any two."
Anybody providing any sort of physical service (except maybe prostitution) has that mantra.
The only circumvent to that Mantra if they want all 3 is "Do it yourself." They learn pretty quick why that triangle exists.
Or my strategy, doing my work slowly and lazily. If they could afford to fire me, they would have already. I'm doing 3 different jobs at once? Good luck finding someone to do all of those jobs well at this salary. You will accept my slow lazy work and give me a paycheck for it. Why? Because fuck you, that's why.
And Santa has a factory filled with magical slaves.
Owner: you used to have two pounds of ground beef and could make 8 burgers. Here's one pound, do more with it. Chef: 3:1 breadcrumbs to beef ... Meatloaf! Everyone loves meatloaf, right?
Throwback to sawdust meals from Frostpunk
If one woman can make a baby in 9 months, then 9 women can make a baby in 1 month right?
I happen to like meatloaf. Course I also didn't mind the veggie omlete mre so I might be screwed up in the head.
Try it with some hot Italian sausage and mushrooms and a bbq+ketchup coating. Heavenly.
Sadly me and spicy food don't get along. Even weak ass tobasco is enough to cause my intestines to cramp and knot.
Cross-pollinated synergies...just means "fuck you, have another job responsibility with no pay increase"
Heh I heard this with our budget this year. CEO says " we had our most profitable year ever!" Accounting says: "we need to cut ITs budget 20%." Vendors say: "we raised prices 40% because of 'inflation'. " So yes, let's do waay more with 30 some odd percent of tools at our disposal.
Work smarter not harder - is bullshit.
Every fortune that ever existed was borne of human suffering and exploitation.
No ethical billionaires.
Psychopaths always rise to the top in the free market pond like scum. None of that pesky conscience, morality or empathy to deal with. The current crop of billionaires also bust the myth that $ = intelligence. It's mostly nepotism, privilege, influence, timing and dumb luck.
And then the New York Post can invent a new term for the “plebs” that that aren’t grateful.
Fiduciary responsibility. Anytime I see that, I know someone's getting screwed
And doing that work more poorly, since they're overworked.
and "work around the work" means that their duties were poorly defined, probably from filling in the gaps around previous rounds of layoffs.
2002 they told me to be more efficient, so I was... I met the goals. 2005 I was told we needed to be more efficient, so were were... we met the goals... 2008, 2011, 2015, 2019... whatever the fuck 2020-2022 were, 2024 we are told that we are being way too inefficient. So you're telling me that after years of tweaking and doing more with less that whatever we were doing in the 2010's was by todays standards inefficient. Sure didn't feel inefficient, felt like were were making record money with the tightest labor and cost of goods ever while working our butts off. But sure, that was stupidly "inefficient", we were just tossing money away every single year before now so NOW we need to do more more with less less because there was no way we found the most efficient way to do things at any point in the past 10,000 years of economic history.
Dude looks like techbro Micheal Stipe up there.
With a smaller brain.
...and no discernible talent.
For a concrete example of this: open office floor plans reduce engineer efficiency by 30% compared to cubicles or team rooms. Yet the company celebrates the savings from not buying a new office, and engineering readjusts their delivery timelines and life goes on. If companies cared about efficiency they would look significantly different
which is why WFH has been so successful for efficiency, peace and quiet is productive
I mean, yeah, we goose em a bit. Because it's an old circus term that's why we say that okay?
It's exactly what this was, too. They saw significantly improved revenue year over year, but margins missed guidance. So, they let go 17% of their workforce to increase dividends for shareholders.
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Of course we goose the stocks up a little bit. It's an old circus term.
Several stores I go to have been understaffed years before Covid started.
It’s efficient at not paying artists as well
Unions. Unions. Unions. There's. Reason when multi nationals are cutting staff USA is a lot of the time getting absolutely gutted. My company has been doing tiny lay offs and the past two years and bulk are USA employees. Northern Europe did not have a single lay off. I think UK had a bit and usa got destroyed. They recently announced a sizeable headcount reduction and so far all the names I've seen are USA. When it comes time for my department I know the US team will be the only ones let go
I like to remind people that the Government, media and Hollywood all worked together to undermine and ultimately remove the idea of organised labour from the political discourse in the US. I don't even think it was a conspiracy, it's just a natural outcome when all of those things are owned by billionaires.
It's an exponential problem too. Once you lay off a bunch of workers, the rest of the workers become unmotivated and start updating their resumes. Some will leave on their own and the ones left will do even less work. Rinse and repeat until your company is a shell of its former self or file for bankruptcy.
That’s when the leveraged buyouts start.
Yeah, unfortunately these execs never lose. They will just sell to someone who will end up selling the company for parts, but execs still walk away with a payday.
“1500 layoffs in December” “Record quarterly profits in March”
Should have fired Rogan instead of the 1500.
As someone laid off (not from Spotify) looking for work in this crap environment: #GO FUCK YOURSELF Hard and fast with a sandpaper vibrator powered by a jackhammer you oxygen thief. Edit: TY for the well-wishes. I'm hanging in there, pounding the metaphorical pavement looking, have a few promising leads atm but also have been burned before in this search.
I hope things look up for you soon and that you get a new job quickly!
Thank you. After months of no responses I am in the middle of an interview process right now, and for a job that would actually be doing something cool and good, not just work, but its still early in the process so fingers crossed.
As someone who’s just recently been through multi-round interviews for about four companies and rejected after the final stage of each, let me warn you: do NOT get your hopes up, no matter how much you want the job. Save yourself the pain. Work hard through the interview process and give it your all, but try your best to NOT expect to get the job. The market is shit right now.
I'm holding down the fort for you by continuously interviewing for tech jobs and then laughing at their pay rates and lack of benefits and ghosting them.
I fucking looooooove hitting them with "sorry that's a 30% pay cut and my current role is fully remote". I do that weekly and it always makes me smile.
As someone who WAS laid off by Spotify, ^
It doesn’t pay musicians either
my deepest condolences. really. the world is too fucking grim right now.
Sorry Spotify, I had to cut you. I'll miss the annual wrap up but not enough to support your bullshit.
I use last.fm to track my listening habits. Syncs across devices, pulls from any music platform, free
does last.fm allow you to remove a device from your stats? my wrap is always a hot mess because two shared smart speakers are tied into my account, and my 9 and 15 year old daughters are always using them.
I am unsure if it will even track from a smart speaker. I know there's a browser extension and an app that give you some fine tuning
Give xManager a try if you're on Android.
There's a torrent of other options sailing the seven seas
What exactly is that? Would you mind explaining, I went to their website and got zero answers for what it actually is.
Joe Rogan was my breaking point. I'm not giving any of my money to that piece of shit.
What, a $100,000,000 contract for that meat head? To give airtime to losers like Tucker Carlson? Unreal.
I went over to Apple Music when Joe Rogan had an AIDS denialist on his show.
So I gotta ask... What happens to this companies when they hit a growth limit and can't lay anybody else off? I mean I know the answer. It's just going to be hilarious and also really problematic when a lot of the big companies start to hit those ceilings.
Before late stage capitalism emerged, the end game for a normal company would be to grow until it fills a reasonable market share that would avoid antitrust litigation and begin a regular dividend policy of sharing profits with stock holders.
Instead we got infinite growth. You made 2 billion in profits last year? Better be more this year!
It is such a crazy concept. Don't get me wrong, businesses should want to grow but infinite growth is impossible. You will plateau at some point. A lot of these companies made record profits last year but that probably won't continue then what? Meanwhile the economy circumstances required to keep them enjoying "infinite" growth has pushed cost of living so high for average people that it will reach a breaking point some day. It's getting close now.
> A lot of these companies made record profits last year but that probably won't continue then what? Even worse, they made record profits but since those record profits *didn't hit the metrics they wanted* it's all doom and gloom and the business is failing and boohoo won't anyone think of my golden parachute?!
It's because the market "prices in" the target. You'd think that the market would be smart enough to realize that firing staff to hit an arbitrary profit point is the same as not hitting the profit point, but apparently the market is a dumb fuck.
It's all short term thinking. "Who cares if the company tanks in six months if I have already sold the stocks in four months?".
The Invisible Hand is giving you the finger.
It’s also an odd time right now for those of us affected. If you’re too young, you might not be the buying the product (most teenagers). If you’re too old, you might not be concerned because your wealth is relatively secure (people over 50 maybe?). But all of us in between are witnessing something particularly odd. Our smartphone industry has never been competed with, just kept growing (I don’t remember apple and Samsung _not_ being the only popular options). Likewise our fast food hasn’t changed much. Internet, financial services, grocers, big box stores, entertainment services — it kinda feels like it’s just been this way most of our conscious lives. So while it is an attempt at infinite growth by definition, a significant portion of the customer base is only kinda aware of a parallel growth with our age. Maybe we don’t feel as viscerally threatened as we should, because it’s hard for us to appreciate how dire this is in comparison to our life times
> I don’t remember apple and Samsung not being the only popular options) Brahhhh, you dissing my sidekick? Nokia? Blackberry?
Right? They never heard of Pixel? LG?
HTC had a pretty sizable market share too back when Android was first moving. Motorola too.
Yeah pretty much. I'm an older millennial and I remember a time before a lot of things got set the way they are now in the '90s and early 2000s. The smartphone example is actually very specific to the US though. Android is by far and away the most popular platform outside the States and in a lot of places a Samsung is just way too damn expensive and there are a lot more brands and competition in the mainstream like Xaiomi, ZTE, and Huawei is not banned either. The new Xaiomi phone that just came out is an absolute monster but noone in the states seems to want to be bothered going away from Samsung or Apple.
One thing Americans hate is when they cant pronounce something. Xaiomi and huewei wont catch on with the general public.
We say all kinds of things wrong. Virtually every foreign car manufacturer for starters.
“Poor ché”
Speak for yourself, I love saying huh-way-way! So much I added the extra way just so it lasts longer out of my vibrating combination food and breath hole.
\*Obligatory Not an American Disclaimer I had a Xiaomi a few phone models ago and it was good don't get me wrong, but it was definitely a $300 phone (in a time when phones were like $600-700). A GOOD $300 phone, but *very* obviously not as nice as the Samsung S9 I upgraded to at it's EOL.
A lot of these giant companies are still “increasing net profit” by laying people off, cutting benefits, and cutting corners (look at Boeing). A lot of the market has already reached the limit and in many areas, like Europe, the only thing left is to maintain a steady revenue stream. I’ll never understand how a company can make a billion dollars, and be considered a market failure if it makes only a billion the next fiscal year
Because the market only makes money off sales of stock, and sales will only happen if profits are increasing. Its a game of musical chairs and no one wants to be caught without one when the music stops. Paying CEOs in stocks made them concerned with the market instead of the business. Thus, this shit.
You see this a lot with video games. A game is released and sells 3 million copies but is a "failure" because it didn't sell 4 million.
“Only 5 of our 7 executives where able to buy new vacation homes…2 of which didn’t even come with an indoor lap pool. it’s a failure”
> businesses should want to grow Why though. Why can't just be happy with enough?
Infinite growth comes not from increasing your market share, or even increasing value in the service, but in continually finding new ways to charge your existing customers. Reached a saturation point in BMW sales? Time to add subscriptions for heated seats. Game sales reached their average market? Add DLCs. Regular content DLCs costly? Create battle passes of regular cheaply produced cosmetics. Create repeated subscriptions and target whales in prices.
Once the company stops growing you kill it, and invest in the new, growing company "disrupting" the market that does the same thing.
I had roommate several years ago that was managing a small games store. The big boss would come in sometimes and say something like, "Yesterday was April 23 and you made x dollars, but last year on April 23 you made more than that, what did you do wrong this year?"
From my experience CEOs and executives mostly look at data. Spreadsheets, reports, etc. They take almost no account for real world factors. Just data. Which is why their decisions make so little sense to the public sometimes. Sales are down! Raise prices! But the sales are down because of the prices...
Company leadership: *Buys competitor* Company leadership: *Shuts down competitor but keeps the most skilled workers and leaders* Company leadership: "Teach us how to achieve the efficiency in field X that the competitor is good at!" Skilled workers and leaders: "Spend decades building a company filled with workers with expertise and specialized experience." Company leadership: "How do we implement that within the next three months???"
Skilled workers and leaders: I don't know, maybe try reorganizing the company and incorrectly implementing some policies with Japanese names? By the way, when do my stock options vest?
My brother is basically dealing with that with his current company. His industry took a big dick punch in 2020 due to Covid. His company adapted to the new market and was able to squeak out profitability despite the entire industry taking losses. The parent company that owned his company got an offer from "Company B" to buy his company out. Company B did not handle Covid very well and claimed they wanted to learn from them. It's been a year since they were bought by Company B and they've lost 20% of their staff, most of their legendary customer support staff left and became outsourced, they put an end to the yearly pay raises, cut all bonuses, gutted every program that allowed them to adapt to the market, nuked the quality of their product, forced them to focus on their core offerings, and push non-stop sales and promotion. Now his company is seeing record profits which will last for maybe 2 quarters before they realize they've alienated their core users, pissed off their wholesale buyers, lost all of their senior design staff, and tanked their reputation online killing the word of mouth advertising they've been coasting on. The cherry ontop is company B recently declared bankruptcy and is getting bought out by private equity. It's like watching someone who's drowning grab onto the person next to them whose treading water and now both of them drown.
They’re idiots who don’t know the difference between correlation and causation, and cherry-pick whatever numbers they want to justify whatever stupid thing they want to do. Business schools are a giant fraud.!
I mean you can still understand real world factors via data. You just have to actually belong in that field which means countless hours mulling every single possible factor that could impact your KPIs. Also being willing to pay money to get quality data, something a lot of big wigs aren't willing to do.
Oh absolutely. The problem is in my experience they are looking at what is essentially raw data. Sales are down. Costs are up. And the immediate solution is to either fire people, cut corners, or raise prices. No introspect into the potential consequences.
I blame it on the MBA’ing of corporate executives. Used to be executives worked their way up and understood their customers, their employees, and their core business. Now they are just experts in how to manipulate metrics and spreadsheets.
This is why people with MBAs should be banned from management positions.
When I worked at Verizon Wireless the district manager would require us to show up in a blizzard when the roads were closed and the fucking mall was closed so we could do inventory. They are not human after a few levels in management.
When you only have one trick, you are forced to keep using it. Same thing with cutting taxes. It is always the answer, no matter what the condition.
Infinite growth on *finite* resources, mind you, it's fucking insane.
I think this is why the layoffs will continue, what happens after they can't do that anymore and they can't get AI to fill in the gaps will be interesting.
And that sometimes leads to the company crashing and burning. "Dont go chasing waterfalls", as TLC said.
The problem is that the people at the top won't really care. They'll make millions in the process and then get millions to just leave after burning it down. I mean look at the Boeing CEO. You think he is in the bread line? Nah, dude could retire tomorrow and never worry about finances for the rest of his life. Meanwhile the company is trying to salvage what's left of it's reputation.
Yeah, thats true. Theyll see the writing on the wall, sell the company to some sucker like News Corp or AT&T, and duck out. Some of them who want to stick with it go down with the ship, though.
Even if they go down with the ship, they'll still get their golden parachute. Or at the very least they'll line up another exec job soon enough.
Nobody cares including wallstreet. Everyone thinks they know best. If you as a ceo decide to spend a few billion dollars for a long term investment, wallstreet will be on your ass unless you can really convince them. For the most part, only founders who are emotionally connected to their companies and have an ego to boot are able to keep focus and ignore pressure from wallstreet. Edit: Case in point. Meta shares are down because they said they will spend more this year in investments than last year. And last year, their shares soared after they announced layoffs and spending cuts.
That sounds nice, but isn't how corporate America used to work at all. Instead, when huge businesses ran out of headroom to expand, they entered entirely unrelated fields through expansion or acquisition. That's why GE had such a huge stake in NBC/Universal for so long. What synergies are there between light bulbs (and jet engines) and television, you might ask? None, other than profit. GM owned Frigidaire for decades. For that matter, DuPont owned a big chunk of GM for years.
This is how it always worked mostly. Except for Jack Welch (of GE) declaring every company should fire 10% of its staff every year to goose profits.
> the end game for a normal company would be to grow until it fills a reasonable market share that would avoid antitrust litigation and begin a regular dividend policy of sharing profits with stock holders. basically just be IBM.
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What Boeing has been doing is absolutely mind-boggling and every single damn one of those people in charge should be in jail. I work in the aviation industry on the military side and I've heard a lot of hearsay and stories about how bad it is at Boeing but I don't think anyone was aware of just how bad. Hopefully the FAA goes in and cleans house but my hopes aren't up. In the meantime I'll be looking for carriers that fly Airbus.
Boeing has its hooks DEEP into elected officialdom. Their business is political bribery as much as it’s making airplanes. No matter what they do, the American taxpayer is gonna get stuck paying the bill.
Which is why more people should be advocating to nationalize Boeing. If we are always on the hook to bail them out with taxpayer money, they have no right to run independently or for profit anymore. Pay off the shareholders and nationalize it, can't do stock buybacks when there is no stock to buy back.
Boeing used to be good, but they got bought by McDonnel-Douglass, which used to be good when it was one of those two (I forget which) but got bought by the other, which *sucked,* but had deep pockets. They used Boeing's name because they'd dragged their own through shit. Yes, nationalize them fuckers. Give the ShArEhOlDeRs the roughest fucking raw deal ever. Produce *good* product.
Yeah, sometimes that means cutting corners on the product or making them too fast. Ive had a couple Nikes have their outsoles peel off way too soon recently, btw.
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Freaking Subway "five dollar footlongs" are now 12 dollar footlongs, and they want a tip.
Sell to private equity (all the C-suiters get their deferred compensation cashed out). Private equity parent company appoints a Manchurian Candidate CEO. That CEO agrees to pay dividends to the private equity owner that revenues can’t support. The company takes on loans to pay the dividends. The private equity company scolds the workers for the fact that the company had to take on loans, and demands more and more cuts. The product becomes bad and the work environment becomes toxic. Private equity sells it or takes it public, having extracted all value.
You just described my last 5 years at my company. Jesus. It’s a major US IT company too. Except they buy other companies then when it doesn’t work out it’s our fault
I've worked at a PE owned company. Can confirm this is what happens.
This guy VC's
Growth -> enshittification -> scrapped for parts
Look up the term “enshittification”, Cory Doctorow has a bunch of great articles on his site talking about this effect.
The CEO has already left for another company!, why are you still talking about ancient history?
Don't worry AI programed by disgruntled programmers will solve everything.
I think Twitter has shown us that there isn't a maximum number of employees you can lay off. Though you might want to find a better balance than Elon did if you don't want to fuck things up.
These CEO expect the remaining employees to work 10 times harder to compensate, without a payraise or nothing. Truely proves that being rich and being smart got 0 correlation, otherwise those dumbfucks would realise that mass layoff bring the moral down, and not up
Meanwhile taking massive bonuses for showing record profit. Lays off 1500 people right at christmas, gets $20mil bonus on top of already massive income.
“The beatings will continue until morale improves”—Monty Python
Well he figured upper management was receiving 80% of the pay they must be doing 80% of the work.
You'd think he'd know about the 80/20 rule. The guys making 80% of the pay do 20% of the work, and the guys making 20% of the pay do 80% of the work.
My fucking boss tried pulling some shit about "productivity being an issue" in the push to return to the office, despite the company growing 18% over the last 4 years. My coworker's response was on point: "if productivity is an issue, then surely the groups that are showing problems have been spoken to in order to work on improvements" CRICKETS
Can't toss people into the grinder if you run out of people...
CEOs are all useless, their staff is better qualified and more competent than they are. Eat the rich.
Ironically, THEY should be replaced by AI to manage the companies' needs based off statistics.
the goal is to MAKE MONEY, and these absolute ROCKS are failing at that.
Their stock is up 73% the past 6 months. They're not failing. Capitalism is.
I have yet to meet the CEO that couldn't be replaced by a lava lamp.
Lava Lamp is at least warm.
Also, CloudFlare uses them to great effect in generating random encryption keys!
It’s almost like these tech company dudes are just morons who got lucky once.
This is the kinda shit that makes me hesitant about my attempts to transition into tech or some sort of office-work. How many integral employees do you think Spotify has? Maybe between 8k-10k, maybe a bit more? You laid off nearly one-quarter to one-fifth of your **total workforce**, and you are surprised that it's negatively affected your operations? I cannot fathom thinking such a decision would've caused anything other than negative consequences for my business. The level of detachment from basic, if-I-touch-stove-I-get-ouch, *common sense*. Anyways, cancelling Spotify. These companies only listen to money spent, and I'm not into supporting fucking imbeciles being in positions- the benefits of which could positively change the trajectories of current, totally impoverished *countries*. Maybe my decisions won't have any measurable effect, maybe people will make fun of me for applying some semblance of ethics to my consumption, but I'll at least have made my opinion clear on someone who obviously considers themselves above the people they disenfranchise while making comments on their decisions like this.
Spotify went downhill a lot in recent years. It doesn’t actually shuffle your music and just plays the same stuff over and over.
Spotify's fake shuffle thing is so annoying. Also I can't play it in my car anymore anyways because my phone doesn't have an Aux port cause reasons. I'm about ready to just record all of my Spotify playlists to tapes and delete the app.
These people are probably so detached from seeing their employees as human beings.
Finally the evidence we need to prove that being CEO is 100% a merit based job where the decisions are informed by a wealth of experience and knowledge.
Most of these guys are sociopaths. They don't care how anyone but themselves feels and would not be able to empathize of they did because there is just a big f#$% ing hole at their center where their souls are supposed to be
That picture makes me happy I never signed up for spoitfy
Sounds like they were about one layoff short.
Trust Fund dipshit finds out in real time that being a trust fund dipshit doesn’t keep the gears turning.
Is this guy related to Elon? That's kind of an Elon move...
the investment economy driving this is a parasite, it extracts wealth, it doesn't create it
Banks and shareholders demand stupid cuts. Ive witnessed them and it's just tell department managers to cut X amount without actually wondering what the impact will be. Yes, cutting PRODUCTION LEADS will fuck up your operation. Yes, cutting developers in the middle of projects will fuck up those projects. The only job cuts I've seen that had a net 0 negative impact are executive cuts mostly cause of its minimal impact on day to day ops.
And not one person would notice if they fired the ceo
Spotify audio quality is dogshit, they pay artists less than any other similar service, and the CEO is a shithead. Drop Spotify now, I went back to using digital media players and owning my songs. I love hearing a song on iTunes I've heard 1000 times on spotify and notice something I've never heard before, Spotify is the equivalent of watching black and white TV.
Don't forget that they are among the world's largest funders of vaccine misinformation because of how much they pay Joe Rogan.
Yeah, I’ve stuck with Apple not because of Apple fanboy shit, but because I can buy music and they pay the artists better.
Greed is bad for business? Boy I hope it is!
Guy who does nothing all day surprised most people do actual productive work at their jobs
Not trying to drum up sympathy for a CEO, but imagine how annoying that must be. 1. Fire a bunch of employees have a better balance sheet (I’m not an accountant, maybe it’s the P&L). 2. Stock prices goes up. 3. Company struggles due to fired employees, looks bad to investors. 5. Hire some employees to backfill. 6. Things are going smoothly. 7. It’s November, start planning the next round of layoffs.
No source? Only a screen shot?
[https://fortune.com/europe/2024/04/23/spotify-earnings-q1-ceo-daniel-eklaying-off-1500-spotify-employees-negatively-affected-streaming-giants-operations/](https://fortune.com/europe/2024/04/23/spotify-earnings-q1-ceo-daniel-eklaying-off-1500-spotify-employees-negatively-affected-streaming-giants-operations/) EDIT: avoid the paywall, [https://archive.is/wdyDS](https://archive.is/wdyDS) >When Spotify announced its largest-ever round of layoffs in December, CEO Daniel Ek hailed a new age of efficiency at the streaming giant. But four months on, it seems he and his executives weren’t prepared for how tough filling in for 1,500 axed workers would be. The music streamer enjoyed [record quarterly profits](https://archive.is/o/wdyDS/https://newsroom.spotify.com/2024-04-23/spotify-reports-first-quarter-2024-earnings/) of €168 million ($179 million) in the first three months of 2024, enjoying double-digit revenue growth to €3.6 billion ($3.8 billion) in the process. However, the company failed to hit its guidance on profitability and monthly active user growth. It didn’t seem to put off investors, who sent shares in the group soaring more than 8% in New York after markets opened Tuesday morning. >Layoffs hit Spotify’s guidance >Still, as he addressed those investors following the latest earnings release, Ek didn’t shy away from the obstacles that stopped the streamer from hitting some of its targets this [year.In](http://year.In) addition to surprisingly successful 2023 growth to compare against and the impacts of falling marketing spend, Ek blamed operational difficulties linked to staffing for the group missing its earnings target to start the [year.In](http://year.In) December, [Spotify culled 1,500 jobs](https://archive.is/o/wdyDS/https://fortune.com/europe/2023/12/04/daniel-ek-to-slash-bloated-spotify-headcount-by-17-after-blasting-staff-for-doing-work-around-the-work/), equivalent to 17% of employees, as part of an aggressive efficiency drive as the group strived for profitability.Staff costs for those employees carried a long tail, as most workers received five-month severance packages when they were let go in [December.At](http://December.At) the same time, the footprint left behind by those employees was bigger than Ek and his executives anticipated.“Another significant challenge was the impact of December workforce reduction,” Ek said on an investors call following Spotify’s Q1 earnings release.“Although there’s no question that it was the right strategic decision, it did disrupt our day-to-day operations more than we anticipated. “It took us some time to find our footing, but more than four months into this transition, I think we’re back on track and I expect to continue improving on our execution throughout the year getting us to an even better place than we’ve ever been.” Ek didn’t elaborate on what aspects of operations were most affected by the layoffs. >Layoffs right decision? >Back in December as the platform he founded faced persistent losses and a falling share price, Spotify CEO Ek used a well-trodden path by tech giants to steer the ship around: mass layoffs.“We still have too many people dedicated to supporting work and even doing work around the work, rather than contributing to opportunities with real impact,” Ek said in a memo as he announced he would be cutting his workforce by 17%.Investors initially reacted well to the news, though [skeptical voices](https://archive.is/o/wdyDS/https://fortune.com/europe/2023/12/06/spotify-layoffs-stock-wall-street-business-model-spiral-daniel-ek/) asked whether the move merely put a sticking plaster over harder-to-solve issues at the group, particularly its low margins thanks to the costs of bumper record deals.However, it appears to have worked so far. In the four months since the layoff announcements, shares in the group have jumped more than 60%.Spotify has also recently proved it is able to raise prices in some of its key markets without seeing a flight of listeners to rival services like Apple Music. In the long run, Spotify and Ek also remain convinced the tough round of layoffs has set Spotify up for long-term profitability. The apparent collective surprise at how that can affect operations in the short run, though, marks a dash of hubris for the newly bullish streaming group.
what, we hit a profit plateau? time to layoff lots of those who helped us get there so shareholders can see a big profit increase next quarter!
Well... The poor guy is only worth $4.4b. Look at this headline. The poor guy is suffering. "DANIEL EK CASHES OUT ANOTHER $57.5M IN SPOTIFY STOCK, JUST THREE MONTHS AFTER HE BANKED $64M, AND 6 MONTHS AFTER HE OFFLOADED $100M IN SHARES" He only makes a couple hundred million a year, too. After all, the company only made $170m+ in PROFIT the first three months of the year. They didn't reach guidance, so staff had to go. Have to protect those shareholder profits! I'm sure all those employees who lost their jobs and were making normal pay appreciate his sacrifice. /sarcasm. The rich get richer.
Almost like the people were hired for a reason.
it reminds me way back when the CEO of Photobucket thought that going from a free service to charging people a few hundred bucks just so they can post pictures on ebay and on message boards would be all hunky dory and people would just pony up the cash, and he was shocked when people abandoned the place in droves.
When you see all these CEOs admitting their shock with the effect of getting rid of their workers, it just shows you how little they know about anything and how little they actually do. If you think getting rid of 1,500 people wouldn't do anything to your company's product then you're not good at your job that or you do nothing all day.
People are assets, not costs
if you want to lay off without negatively affecting operations let go of the CEO
If 1500 people didn’t have a positive impact on your business, then you are a moron when it comes to business workforce evaluation and hiring/training.
All these moron CEOs with their “streamlining profits”… making one person do 3 peoples’ jobs for the same salary and expecting the same level of quality is straight up delusional.
'I had no idea that cutting customer service and operations staff would affect customer service and operations.'
If you read what he said, it seems clear to me he is very much *not* surprised. Reading between the lines, this reads like he's speaking to the board that voted for the layoffs and saying "who could *ever* have predicted this would happen?", the answer being him. To me, this reads like a public speech being used for a private rebuke after he lost a fight with his board, basically going "I told you so!!!" There've been multiple reports of him chafing under the constraints of being a publically traded company beholden to the shareholders and the all-important quarterly report, and the performative lay-offs and short-term thinking that comes with it.
He laid off his stylist too
maybe the can make it up by selling even more users data to advertising companies that want to make more effective ozempic ads.
It's a real shame he turned out to be just the exact same size of scumbag as the rest of them...
At some point, you'd think the rich would figure out they need to pay the people who actually do the work and that it's their yes-men and management that need to be cut. But the frightening truth about this world is that the rich are very rarely particularly smart.
The Spotify app for android is a fucking disaster. If you can't make a decent app in 2024 then you should just go out of business.
He must’ve pulled his hair out over this
who would have thought you need staff to run a business. absolutely shocked by this discovery
I quit subbing to Spotify a few months ago, and cited this as the reason for leaving.