5 ms·

Microsoft Hosted Sting Performance in Davos on Night Before Announcing Layoffs

91 points by GrigoriyMikh 4y ago

wslh 4y ago
This is typical, companies are not a single organism perfectly synchronized. A few years ago, I rented a booth space at an event and the company at my side did a massive layoff that included the people in their booth... while the event was running.
- qbasic_forever 4y ago
  So are you saying Microsoft execs need more... Synchronicity ? ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronicity_(The_Police_album) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronicity_(The_Police_al... )
  - wslh 4y ago
    Or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Message_in_a_Bottle_(The_Police_song)?wprov=sfti1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Message_in_a_Bottle_(The_Polic...
  - _0xdd 4y ago
    Pirates of Silicon Valley reference? :)
- inglor 4y ago
  I had this happen at a conference I helped organize where between the time we knew who signed up to sponsor and the conference a bunch of companies (mostly in crypto) who spent a lot of money on booths because they really needed help hiring went bankrupt. It was a still fun conference ^^
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- __derek__ 4y ago
  Satya and other top executives attended the concert, and they were also involved in the layoffs. In that one group, at least, we could expect some level of synchronization.
  - wslh 4y ago
    Probably they couldn't tell the organization team
seydor 4y ago
What did he sing? "Fragile" ? "I can't stand losing you" ? "If I ever lose my faith in you"?
- x86x87 4y ago
  Desert Rose... Ya leel, ya leel... layoffs... Ya leel!
- philwelch 4y ago
  They should just stop spending money hiring Sting for these private concerts. I thought it was clear when we said, “Defund The Police”.
- Doctor_Fegg 4y ago
  Fields of Gold?
mark_l_watson 4y ago
Sorry to be off topic, but are most people here on HN as unhappy about Davos and the World Economic Forum as I am? I really dislike their "Young Leaders" program, going back decades (lots of US politicians, Canada's Prime Minister, etc. have been indoctrinated). I am very happy to see Davos getting bad rap right now from independent bloggers and independent (small) news outlets. This helps push back against corporate owned media which pushes a positive slant on one world government, "in 20 years you will own nothing and be very happy", etc.
- themitigating 4y ago
  What corporate owned media pushes the concept of a one world government. I've never heard that concept mentioned on the news
- GrigoriyMikh 4y ago
  There's short street interviews(or rather attempts) of WEF participants, booming on Twitter from Rebel News. To be fair, questions asked by interviewers are often just provocative, still, arrogance in behavior of, specifically, CEOs is just overwhelming.
- mikymoothrowa 4y ago
  Here’s how I think about it: Davos is a religious gathering. You wouldn’t be happy/unhappy about other religious gatherings that you don’t participate in. The elites really don’t have any control or vision over what’s going to happen, just like shamans and religious leaders of the past did not
  - ErikVandeWater 4y ago
    How do 52 heads of state and 600+ CEOs of the world's largest companies not have "any control or vision of what's going to happen?"
    - GalenErso 4y ago
      Because the WEF is not controlled by 52 heads of state of 600+ CEOs. It's controlled by Klaus Schwab, a managing board and an executive committee: https://www.weforum.org/about/leadership-and-governance https://www.weforum.org/about/leadership-and-governance 10 people sit on the managing board, none of them household names: Børge Brende, Mirek Dušek, Julien Gattoni, Jeremy Jurgens, Adrian Monck, Sarita Nayyar, Gim Huay Neo, Olivier M. Schwab, Saadia Zahidi, and Alois Zwinggi.
bryanrasmussen 4y ago
That's smart, make them glad they're being fired.
- cbm-vic-20 4y ago
  I doubt any Microsoft employees in Davos were affected by the layoffs.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
flybrand 4y ago
That really stings…
moomoo11 4y ago
Honestly it’s just a job guys. People want these companies to act like your parents and coddle you. No it’s freakin Micro gd soft. You’re paid to work while the company believes it is worth paying you. I’m so tired of seeing these layoff news. DUDE WE ARE IN TECH. I make a ton of money, maybe not as much as some super elite tech workers but enough to live in SF and have six years runway to maintain my lifestyle without a job. I feel bad for people who make 12/her and get fired without 4 months plus severance, without health insurance extension, etc. Seriously, stop complaining. End of the day life is not fair and you have to set yourself up to SURVIVE. As a fellow tech worker, realize we are playing a capitalist game and when capital is expensive our jobs are at risk. It’s work. It’s business. You are exchanging time and skills for money willingly.
- themitigating 4y ago
  "I feel bad for people who make 12/her and get fired without 4 months plus severance, without health insurance extension, etc." But also "Seriously, stop complaining. End of the day life is not fair and you have to set yourself up to SURVIVE. " Why would you feel bad for those people if life isn't fair and they should have set themselves to survive?
  - moomoo11 4y ago
    I do feel bad for the 12/hour folks considering I used to be one of those. As someone who got into tech as a self taught engineer at age 25 I am always blown away by the entitled nature of people around me who either A) don't work that hard and goof around on the clock and B) complain when we're literally coddled to the brim with free food, free trips to events every year, and various other free benefits. I remember not getting a $0.25 per hour raise one year and being upset about it for a minute. I didn't have free top of the line health insurance (no insurance actually), nor did my company just pay for things that have nothing to do with my job. As someone who went from a few hundred bucks in his bank account to now literally six figures in my checking, and much more in stocks and investments (which are down lol), even if I got laid off I know I'm probably getting 5 years x service + 3-4 months full pay severance worst case scenario. All I'm saying is that we're playing the game (capitalism) and companies will cut their losses. That's just how it works and we choose to sign offer letters, and yes I feel much worse for my friends who are not in tech who can barely afford to put food on the table or meet rent than a fellow tech bro who has to cancel his luxury Lake Tahoe cabin rental during these economic hardship times.
joezydeco 4y ago
I'm not going to defend the event or the optics of it all, but I would hazard a guess that if you hire Sting to perform at your company picnic it's not something you do the week before the event. The contract was probably signed off and paid in full months or years ago depending on how busy Mr. Sumner is these days. I've been in a similar situation. Large company outing booked and all set up for the holidays, then there's a sudden layoff involving most of the people booked on the trip. We gave them the tickets and said "why not go anyway?"
- jordij1 4y ago
  Microsoft has enough money on its pocket to pay the penalty for cancelling Sting's concert. It's probably a drop in the ocean compared to the cost of the compensation paid to all people being laid off.
  - riskneutral 4y ago
    So what you're saying is, they should have laid off Sting too.
- qbasic_forever 4y ago
  This was not the Microsoft company picnic, it was an event for 50 or so senior execs. Microsoft famously used to have a huge and extravagant company-wide picnic for all employees in the fall--they would rent out an entire stadium or other huge area. They canceled the company-wide picnic in the downturn of '09 and as far as I know never brought it back. This event was something different and just for a hand picked selection of execs.
  - inglor 4y ago
    When we (our group in Microsoft) did our group event a few weeks ago it was in fact a picnic. Guess what? because we didn't want to spend a lot of money on it and wanted to show we are cost-cutting we did a potluck. Everyone cooked and brought stuff along. No one spent a lot of money, it was nice. When we did a team event it was volunteering together. No fancy restaurants like last year for the same reason - we don't want to be wasteful in an unclear market. I am disappointed in our execs doing this. I understand it was already probably pre-booked and it was probably just a few hours in a lot of long and frustrating leadership meeting but the optics are bad. Satya is usually such a respected leader for knowing how to do the right thing and avoid these situations, bummer.
_zoltan_ 4y ago
Aaaand?
aliqot 4y ago
every move you make..
- x86x87 4y ago
  I'll be watching you... Through the Teams spyware!
philwelch 4y ago
Was MSFT losing money and needing to reduce costs to survive, or did they just hire too many people over the past couple of years? I think it’s borderline embezzlement for a few dozen senior executives to use company money to hire Sting for a private concert in Davos in any event, but unless the company is straight up going broke, that’s irrelevant to the layoff issue even if the timing and optics look bad.
birdymcbird 4y ago
Davos is private gathering with politicians..media..celebrities. It saddening to see it not questioned enough. A private gathering—-people with agenda and means..capital media and celebrities—-to normalize and propagate that agenda. while these globalists say they want more open border they meeting in one of most exclusive country in the world where difficult to get citizenship. this also a grift. jason calacanis said on all in podcast how they offer him a seat at table for $25k or $40k some number like that in early 2000s.
- riskneutral 4y ago
  > Davos is private gathering with politicians..media..celebrities ... jason calacanis said on all in podcast how they offer him a seat at table for $25k or $40k some number like that in early 2000s. They're modern day "philosopher kings." This is the world that we live in. In the capitalist meritocracy in which we all live, money is an important point keeping system. So it makes sense that you have to buy a seat at the table and it costs a lot. I imagine that money alone is not enough merit to get a seat though, as there are many other measures of merit or social rank. I'm not sure how this can be effectively questioned. Ban private gatherings and private property? It's been tried before, didn't go well.
yuppie_scum 4y ago
If you love someone, set them free
jeisc 4y ago
was having sting an inside joke on layoff day did he do a cover of the last good-bye

91 points by GrigoriyMikh 4y ago

wslh 4y ago

This is typical, companies are not a single organism perfectly synchronized. A few years ago, I rented a booth space at an event and the company at my side did a massive layoff that included the people in their booth... while the event was running.

qbasic_forever 4y ago
So are you saying Microsoft execs need more... Synchronicity ? ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronicity_(The_Police_album) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronicity_(The_Police_al... )
- wslh 4y ago
  Or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Message_in_a_Bottle_(The_Police_song)?wprov=sfti1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Message_in_a_Bottle_(The_Polic...
- _0xdd 4y ago
  Pirates of Silicon Valley reference? :)
inglor 4y ago
I had this happen at a conference I helped organize where between the time we knew who signed up to sponsor and the conference a bunch of companies (mostly in crypto) who spent a lot of money on booths because they really needed help hiring went bankrupt. It was a still fun conference ^^
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
__derek__ 4y ago
Satya and other top executives attended the concert, and they were also involved in the layoffs. In that one group, at least, we could expect some level of synchronization.
- wslh 4y ago
  Probably they couldn't tell the organization team

seydor 4y ago

What did he sing? "Fragile" ? "I can't stand losing you" ? "If I ever lose my faith in you"?

x86x87 4y ago
Desert Rose... Ya leel, ya leel... layoffs... Ya leel!
philwelch 4y ago
They should just stop spending money hiring Sting for these private concerts. I thought it was clear when we said, “Defund The Police”.
Doctor_Fegg 4y ago
Fields of Gold?

mark_l_watson 4y ago

Sorry to be off topic, but are most people here on HN as unhappy about Davos and the World Economic Forum as I am? I really dislike their "Young Leaders" program, going back decades (lots of US politicians, Canada's Prime Minister, etc. have been indoctrinated). I am very happy to see Davos getting bad rap right now from independent bloggers and independent (small) news outlets. This helps push back against corporate owned media which pushes a positive slant on one world government, "in 20 years you will own nothing and be very happy", etc.

themitigating 4y ago
What corporate owned media pushes the concept of a one world government. I've never heard that concept mentioned on the news
GrigoriyMikh 4y ago
There's short street interviews(or rather attempts) of WEF participants, booming on Twitter from Rebel News. To be fair, questions asked by interviewers are often just provocative, still, arrogance in behavior of, specifically, CEOs is just overwhelming.
mikymoothrowa 4y ago
Here’s how I think about it: Davos is a religious gathering. You wouldn’t be happy/unhappy about other religious gatherings that you don’t participate in. The elites really don’t have any control or vision over what’s going to happen, just like shamans and religious leaders of the past did not
- ErikVandeWater 4y ago
  How do 52 heads of state and 600+ CEOs of the world's largest companies not have "any control or vision of what's going to happen?"
  - GalenErso 4y ago
    Because the WEF is not controlled by 52 heads of state of 600+ CEOs. It's controlled by Klaus Schwab, a managing board and an executive committee: https://www.weforum.org/about/leadership-and-governance https://www.weforum.org/about/leadership-and-governance 10 people sit on the managing board, none of them household names: Børge Brende, Mirek Dušek, Julien Gattoni, Jeremy Jurgens, Adrian Monck, Sarita Nayyar, Gim Huay Neo, Olivier M. Schwab, Saadia Zahidi, and Alois Zwinggi.

bryanrasmussen 4y ago

That's smart, make them glad they're being fired.

cbm-vic-20 4y ago
I doubt any Microsoft employees in Davos were affected by the layoffs.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

flybrand 4y ago

That really stings…

moomoo11 4y ago

Honestly it’s just a job guys. People want these companies to act like your parents and coddle you. No it’s freakin Micro gd soft. You’re paid to work while the company believes it is worth paying you. I’m so tired of seeing these layoff news. DUDE WE ARE IN TECH. I make a ton of money, maybe not as much as some super elite tech workers but enough to live in SF and have six years runway to maintain my lifestyle without a job. I feel bad for people who make 12/her and get fired without 4 months plus severance, without health insurance extension, etc. Seriously, stop complaining. End of the day life is not fair and you have to set yourself up to SURVIVE. As a fellow tech worker, realize we are playing a capitalist game and when capital is expensive our jobs are at risk. It’s work. It’s business. You are exchanging time and skills for money willingly.

themitigating 4y ago
"I feel bad for people who make 12/her and get fired without 4 months plus severance, without health insurance extension, etc." But also "Seriously, stop complaining. End of the day life is not fair and you have to set yourself up to SURVIVE. " Why would you feel bad for those people if life isn't fair and they should have set themselves to survive?
- moomoo11 4y ago
  I do feel bad for the 12/hour folks considering I used to be one of those. As someone who got into tech as a self taught engineer at age 25 I am always blown away by the entitled nature of people around me who either A) don't work that hard and goof around on the clock and B) complain when we're literally coddled to the brim with free food, free trips to events every year, and various other free benefits. I remember not getting a $0.25 per hour raise one year and being upset about it for a minute. I didn't have free top of the line health insurance (no insurance actually), nor did my company just pay for things that have nothing to do with my job. As someone who went from a few hundred bucks in his bank account to now literally six figures in my checking, and much more in stocks and investments (which are down lol), even if I got laid off I know I'm probably getting 5 years x service + 3-4 months full pay severance worst case scenario. All I'm saying is that we're playing the game (capitalism) and companies will cut their losses. That's just how it works and we choose to sign offer letters, and yes I feel much worse for my friends who are not in tech who can barely afford to put food on the table or meet rent than a fellow tech bro who has to cancel his luxury Lake Tahoe cabin rental during these economic hardship times.

joezydeco 4y ago

I'm not going to defend the event or the optics of it all, but I would hazard a guess that if you hire Sting to perform at your company picnic it's not something you do the week before the event. The contract was probably signed off and paid in full months or years ago depending on how busy Mr. Sumner is these days. I've been in a similar situation. Large company outing booked and all set up for the holidays, then there's a sudden layoff involving most of the people booked on the trip. We gave them the tickets and said "why not go anyway?"

jordij1 4y ago
Microsoft has enough money on its pocket to pay the penalty for cancelling Sting's concert. It's probably a drop in the ocean compared to the cost of the compensation paid to all people being laid off.
- riskneutral 4y ago
  So what you're saying is, they should have laid off Sting too.
qbasic_forever 4y ago
This was not the Microsoft company picnic, it was an event for 50 or so senior execs. Microsoft famously used to have a huge and extravagant company-wide picnic for all employees in the fall--they would rent out an entire stadium or other huge area. They canceled the company-wide picnic in the downturn of '09 and as far as I know never brought it back. This event was something different and just for a hand picked selection of execs.
- inglor 4y ago
  When we (our group in Microsoft) did our group event a few weeks ago it was in fact a picnic. Guess what? because we didn't want to spend a lot of money on it and wanted to show we are cost-cutting we did a potluck. Everyone cooked and brought stuff along. No one spent a lot of money, it was nice. When we did a team event it was volunteering together. No fancy restaurants like last year for the same reason - we don't want to be wasteful in an unclear market. I am disappointed in our execs doing this. I understand it was already probably pre-booked and it was probably just a few hours in a lot of long and frustrating leadership meeting but the optics are bad. Satya is usually such a respected leader for knowing how to do the right thing and avoid these situations, bummer.

_zoltan_ 4y ago

Aaaand?

aliqot 4y ago

every move you make..

x86x87 4y ago
I'll be watching you... Through the Teams spyware!

philwelch 4y ago

Was MSFT losing money and needing to reduce costs to survive, or did they just hire too many people over the past couple of years? I think it’s borderline embezzlement for a few dozen senior executives to use company money to hire Sting for a private concert in Davos in any event, but unless the company is straight up going broke, that’s irrelevant to the layoff issue even if the timing and optics look bad.

birdymcbird 4y ago

Davos is private gathering with politicians..media..celebrities. It saddening to see it not questioned enough. A private gathering—-people with agenda and means..capital media and celebrities—-to normalize and propagate that agenda. while these globalists say they want more open border they meeting in one of most exclusive country in the world where difficult to get citizenship. this also a grift. jason calacanis said on all in podcast how they offer him a seat at table for $25k or $40k some number like that in early 2000s.

riskneutral 4y ago
> Davos is private gathering with politicians..media..celebrities ... jason calacanis said on all in podcast how they offer him a seat at table for $25k or $40k some number like that in early 2000s. They're modern day "philosopher kings." This is the world that we live in. In the capitalist meritocracy in which we all live, money is an important point keeping system. So it makes sense that you have to buy a seat at the table and it costs a lot. I imagine that money alone is not enough merit to get a seat though, as there are many other measures of merit or social rank. I'm not sure how this can be effectively questioned. Ban private gatherings and private property? It's been tried before, didn't go well.

yuppie_scum 4y ago

If you love someone, set them free

jeisc 4y ago

was having sting an inside joke on layoff day did he do a cover of the last good-bye