<story><title>Apple: The only big tech giant going against the job cuts tide</title><url>https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/apple-job-cuts-tide/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>2muchcoffeeman</author><text>I’m not sure I believe that. It honestly sounds like an excuse to fire people. Or leadership has no clue.&lt;p&gt;The biggest thing I got from the pandemic is flexible work arrangements. But I and everyone I knew all wanted to get back out there. Just not back out on public transport to work. We were doing things online because there was no other option.&lt;p&gt;But once the borders opened and restrictions eased, everyone did what they said they would. Travel. Eat out with their friends. Play their old sports. Who in their right mind would think they would continue to stay home and do everything online?</text></item><item><author>tyre</author><text>Depends on the company but yes.&lt;p&gt;Stripe, as an example, drastically slowed down hiring when the pandemic hit expecting an economic slowdown. It then turned out that so much commerce moved to online—rather than stopped—so they ramped up hiring to meet demand.&lt;p&gt;The bet that companies like Shopify and Stripe [1] made was that COVID created a “new normal”; much of the economic activity that went online would stay there. They were wrong, so there were layoffs to correct it.&lt;p&gt;[0]: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.shopify.com&amp;#x2F;changes-to-shopifys-team&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.shopify.com&amp;#x2F;changes-to-shopifys-team&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[1]: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;stripe.com&amp;#x2F;newsroom&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;ceo-patrick-collisons-email-to-stripe-employees&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;stripe.com&amp;#x2F;newsroom&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;ceo-patrick-collisons-email...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>2muchcoffeeman</author><text>Did the pandemic really increase business so much that they had to hire that many people?</text></item><item><author>trynewideas</author><text>&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;techpp.com&amp;#x2F;2023&amp;#x2F;01&amp;#x2F;25&amp;#x2F;tech-layoffs-apple-2023&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;techpp.com&amp;#x2F;2023&amp;#x2F;01&amp;#x2F;25&amp;#x2F;tech-layoffs-apple-2023&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Amazon, for instance, hired about 780,000 people during the pandemic. Meta, too, had more than doubled its staff in this period, going from about 40,000 to 87,000. Even Microsoft had hired about 77,000 people just before the pandemic.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Apple, in comparison, is believed to have hired under 20,000 people during the period of the pandemic.&lt;p&gt;Can&amp;#x27;t layoff people you didn&amp;#x27;t hire.&lt;p&gt;Besides, if they lay anyone off, it&amp;#x27;ll be through retail (already happening in their third-party channel sales staff, who are employed by Apple but work in stores like Best Buy) and eventually retail closures when&amp;#x2F;if they can do it without being accused of more union-busting.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Lutger</author><text>I never wanted to commute. Not in busy trains and certainly not getting stuck in traffic jams. I also never wanted to shop or spend time in the supermarket getting spaced out by their weird lightning they install to make you make bad decisions.&lt;p&gt;I do want to visit friends, go out in nature and once in a while eat at a restaurant. But for me, I am so happy to wfh 80% of the time and do 99% of shopping and groceries online, that has certainly stuck. And while I am a bit more of a recluse than most people I know, almost everybody is happy to work from home at least some of the time and does far more online shopping than before the pandemic.&lt;p&gt;Maybe this varies between countries. Or social circles. I certainly see a lot traffic again so people do like to move around again and get stuck in traffic jams a lot, but something _has_ changed for at least _some_ people. A couple of years ago working from home was unheard of, now a company seems out of touch if they don&amp;#x27;t allow it at all.</text></comment>
<story><title>Apple: The only big tech giant going against the job cuts tide</title><url>https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/apple-job-cuts-tide/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>2muchcoffeeman</author><text>I’m not sure I believe that. It honestly sounds like an excuse to fire people. Or leadership has no clue.&lt;p&gt;The biggest thing I got from the pandemic is flexible work arrangements. But I and everyone I knew all wanted to get back out there. Just not back out on public transport to work. We were doing things online because there was no other option.&lt;p&gt;But once the borders opened and restrictions eased, everyone did what they said they would. Travel. Eat out with their friends. Play their old sports. Who in their right mind would think they would continue to stay home and do everything online?</text></item><item><author>tyre</author><text>Depends on the company but yes.&lt;p&gt;Stripe, as an example, drastically slowed down hiring when the pandemic hit expecting an economic slowdown. It then turned out that so much commerce moved to online—rather than stopped—so they ramped up hiring to meet demand.&lt;p&gt;The bet that companies like Shopify and Stripe [1] made was that COVID created a “new normal”; much of the economic activity that went online would stay there. They were wrong, so there were layoffs to correct it.&lt;p&gt;[0]: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.shopify.com&amp;#x2F;changes-to-shopifys-team&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.shopify.com&amp;#x2F;changes-to-shopifys-team&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[1]: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;stripe.com&amp;#x2F;newsroom&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;ceo-patrick-collisons-email-to-stripe-employees&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;stripe.com&amp;#x2F;newsroom&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;ceo-patrick-collisons-email...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item><item><author>2muchcoffeeman</author><text>Did the pandemic really increase business so much that they had to hire that many people?</text></item><item><author>trynewideas</author><text>&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;techpp.com&amp;#x2F;2023&amp;#x2F;01&amp;#x2F;25&amp;#x2F;tech-layoffs-apple-2023&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;techpp.com&amp;#x2F;2023&amp;#x2F;01&amp;#x2F;25&amp;#x2F;tech-layoffs-apple-2023&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Amazon, for instance, hired about 780,000 people during the pandemic. Meta, too, had more than doubled its staff in this period, going from about 40,000 to 87,000. Even Microsoft had hired about 77,000 people just before the pandemic.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Apple, in comparison, is believed to have hired under 20,000 people during the period of the pandemic.&lt;p&gt;Can&amp;#x27;t layoff people you didn&amp;#x27;t hire.&lt;p&gt;Besides, if they lay anyone off, it&amp;#x27;ll be through retail (already happening in their third-party channel sales staff, who are employed by Apple but work in stores like Best Buy) and eventually retail closures when&amp;#x2F;if they can do it without being accused of more union-busting.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>simonh</author><text>You’re being very absolutist, people don&amp;#x27;t have be doing “everything” online for the shift in habits to have a significant effect.&lt;p&gt;Yes on the whole most people do go out and travel again, but on average much less frequently than they used to because they retained the desire but not the same habits. They find they can scratch the itch with fewer outings.&lt;p&gt;All it takes is for people to go out 20% less than they used to, averaged out, and that’s a massive shift in economic terms that can heavily impact businesses.</text></comment>