A billionaire wrote this letter to Google a year ago. How likely is that Google's layoffs and actions since then are at least partly because of this?
Submitted 1 year ago by lledrtx@lemmy.world to workreform@lemmy.world
https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/a62908fe-f361-4455-8668-94b6998a5788.jpeg
Comments
slingstone@lemmy.world 1 year ago
iAvicenna@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I read his wikipedia article and I must say I was somewhat confused. He does not eat meat, he advocates urgent action on the climate crisis and has given over billions to children’s investment fund (don’t know if this is a good charity or not). And yet he is an asshole enough to ask a company to fire tens of thousands of employees so his investments are more profitable on short term.
96VXb9ktTjFnRi@feddit.nl 1 year ago
The Children’s Investment Fund Management (TCI) is not a charity, it is a hedgefund. Even this letter was sent on behalf of TCI. They’re apparently one of the most activist investors out there. And not activism in a good way, their only focus is maximizing profits. So activism means: demanding lay-offs, doing unsolicited take-overs of other companies, etc. And then after a few years dumping the company again. They themselves probably have all sorts of thoughts about how they play an important function in an economy because they are ruthless and force changes in the markets. To put ‘children’s’ in the name is just a scam that aims to make them sound innocent. But just this fact tells you a lot about how these people operate. Source: en.wikipedia.org/…/The_Children's_Investment_Fund…
jaybone@lemmy.world 1 year ago
The Human Fund
iAvicenna@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Yes though initially it was contractually giving certain parts of its profit to children’s fund foundation which existed before TCI and was a charity. After his divorce though the contractual donation was apparently cancelled. The aims written for the foundation all look nice but very vaguely termed and I don’t know to what effect were they able to (or try to) achieve it.
ikidd@lemmy.world 1 year ago
You can put whatever you want on Wikipedia. You don’t think PR firms have longterm Wikipedia editors on retainer for this sort of thing?
iAvicenna@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Yea, I am sure that happens all the time but I don’t really wanna dismiss a piece of information without any further evidence just because of my priors. That is why I posted it here to see if anyone has seen other stuff about this charity which I have heard for the first time.
Chestnut@lemmy.world 1 year ago
he thinks that it is healthier and would make him live longer (typical billionaire)
I’m pretty sure there are a lot of people who aren’t billionaires who do this. I’m not sure “wanting to live longer” is necessarily a billionaire exclusive trait
iAvicenna@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Yea for sure but I think you miss my point. I am wondering whether if he is a vegetarian because he cares about the environment and animals or just because he thinks it is healthier.
knotthatone@lemmy.one 1 year ago
Oh, I very much doubt that he’s the only billionaire who’s written a letter like this to Google in the past year.
jonne@infosec.pub 1 year ago
They’ve written one like that to every tech company. It’s probably just so they can repeat the conditions from before they got sued for colluding to depress employee wages. This has the same effect, except this time it’s not collusion, it’s doing their fiduciary duty because shareholders are demanding it.
peopleproblems@lemmy.world 1 year ago
the “fiduciary duty” isn’t a real thing.
they can fire and change who governs the board by using their majority share holder votes (which has been selecting short term max profit guys) but it’s a myth that they have a legal responsibility to return anything to shareholders
31337@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
Layoffs make no sense when companies can afford to retain their workers. Layoffs typically hurt companies for 3 years after they happen: hbr.org/…/what-companies-still-get-wrong-about-la…
june@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I just got laid off last month and I was a revenue generator.
The decision came down from the board as a part of a total restructure that eliminated my position, which was transitioning to be in line with the ‘new’ direction. The day after I was laid off I had an 80k deal come through, and I was set to bring in double what it cost to keep me on in 2024. That revenue would have continued to grow, and now they have no one to pick up that work and carry it forward. It was a stupid decision and I let them know how I felt about it (respectfully, didn’t want to burn any bridges) in my exit interview and when I attempted to negotiate my severance.
Coreidan@lemmy.world 1 year ago
How do you negotiate severance? You’re in absolutely no position to negotiate anything. You have zero leverage.
frank@lemmy.world 1 year ago
TL; DR We’re making a lot of money, but we could be making more if we fuck over 120,000 people that built the thing that is making money.
JoMiran@lemmy.ml 1 year ago
I think the comments are cutting Alphabet too much slack. Yes the billionaire is heartless, but he isn’t wrong. Alphabet was careless. They binged on talent because they did not, and do not, place significant weight on the consequences of their hubris. Why? Because ultimately it is the workers that have to pay the price, not the executives that hired carelessly. If you do not force management to care, they won’t.
I always think of Indeed and their CEO. They too hired too many too quickly and were forced to fire. What did the CEO do? Not only did the company make sure the severance package was generous, the CEO took a pay cut too.
MrSpArkle@lemmy.ca 1 year ago
The thing about Google is that they have one of the highest profit-per-employee metrics in the whole industry.
Bayz0r@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I think asking for lowered compensation is definitely shitty and he should be condemned for that.
However, can someone explain to me the vitriolic opposition to downsizing/layoffs whenever this topic comes up?
I don’t see how anyone has a right be hired and work at X company. It is, after all, their company and their decision. Surely we can all agree that sometimes companies make strategic mistakes in terms of hiring and need to correct them later on. Also, circumstances could simply change, products be canceled or no longer need as much manpower etc.
What am I missing?
BigMacHole@lemm.ee 1 year ago
He’s asking for layoffs because we raised his taxes OBVIOUSLY otherwise he would be calling for MORE jobs!
Chriswild@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Raise taxes for every employee cut. Every job cut in a tax year increases the corporate tax on profit for that year.
profdc9@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Hey, I wanna sell Alphabet stock. Make the balance sheet look good so I can unload!
NutWrench@lemmy.ml 1 year ago
“Reduce the ‘headcount’ but profits must not decrease by one single penny.”
Said no one who understands how businesses work, ever. If capitalism actually worked the way these people claimed it worked, we wouldn’t have so many idiot billionaires.
squirmy_wormy@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Is there a source on this
lledrtx@lemmy.world 1 year ago
News articles - theguardian.com/…/major-investor-calls-on-google-…
forbes.com/…/billionaire-hedge-fund-investor-urge…
The letter from their (TCI) website -
squirmy_wormy@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Fair play, fuck this dude. Let’s eat
mozz@mbin.grits.dev 1 year ago
"This thing employs people who produce AMAZINGLY profitable and world famous stuff."
"It also has way too many people working on producing stuff, based on my analysis which began and ended with counting up how many people and what it costs to pay them."
"Time to kill the people. Then it'll only be the profitable stuff, and none of the cost of the people. I'm amazed no one has realized this yet."
Fudoshin@feddit.uk 1 year ago
Whenever I hear of another billionaire I’m filled with a kind of tearful revulsion.
AnonTwo@kbin.social 1 year ago
I feel like there aren't enough heads turned on investors who could care about employees even less than companies do.
johannesvanderwhales@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Constantly trying to reduce cost base is BAU.
AllonzeeLV@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Our civilization rewards behavior like this, while literally punishing pro-social behavior like teaching.
Think about what that says about humanity.