6 ms·
"Sir Christopher Hohn A British hedge fund manager knighted by the late Queen Elizabeth II says that Google and its parent company, headquartered in the Bay Are
by bitsavers 4y ago
"Sir Christopher Hohn A British hedge fund manager knighted by the late Queen Elizabeth II says that Google and its parent company, headquartered in the Bay Area, should lay off more people after axing more than 12,000 people."
Title should read: "Upper class hedge fund manager thinks engineers make too much money, wants it for himself".
- voisin 4y ago> wants it for himself “wants it for his investors” His job is to advocate on behalf of his investors to get the best return he can. For this service he is well paid. We need to stop demonizing people for doing their job, successfully. Just because he is rich doesn’t mean his argument is wrong.
- pseudo0 4y agoHis investors would also be better off investing their money through a fund that doesn't charge 2 and 20 to hold Google stock. Maybe his investors should redirect their focus when it comes to cost-cutting?
- voisin 4y agoWhy don’t we assume his investors make decisions in their own self interest and that you probably aren’t the right arbiter of what they’d be better off doing?
- AlexandrB 4y agoJust because he's advocating on behalf of investors doesn't mean his argument is right either. I think the better question is wtf does a hedge fund manager know about running a tech company and why should we give any credence to his ideas about staffing?
- voisin 4y agoI'm not saying he's right or wrong. I'm saying he isn't wrong just because he's rich, or just because he's a hedge fund manager. Both are ad hominem attacks and ignore the actual arguments that Google needs to trim down.
- cmh89 4y agoWhat's the 'actual argument' here? He's essentially saying that he'd make more money if Google had less costs, and one way to cut costs is firing people. That's it. He doesn't go into any detail outside of "fire people and pay the ones you don't fire less" He's just a parasite on society who wants to suck more blood.
- candiodari 4y agoNot to worry. HIS job is increased shareholder value. Google was 92 USD when the layoffs were announced. Currently it's 93 dollars. Surely if it drops back below 92 he'll change his mind ...
- voisin 4y agoThe argument has been made recently by this guy and others that Google grew its ranks second only to Facebook during the pandemic, that it’s performance per employee today hasn’t justified the growth, and that it should stop putting money to inefficient uses given that suddenly there is an opportunity cost to capital with the ending of ZIRP worldwide. Seems reasonable to me. We learned how inefficient conglomerates are back in the 60s/70s.
- cmh89 4y agoBut that's the extent of the argument, and if you take away all the unsupported claims, it boils down to, "Google has more employees than it did, those employees cost a lot, Google should fire employees to lower its cost"
- whydoibother 4y ago[dead]
- nequo 4y ago> We need to stop demonizing people for doing their job, successfully. Even when their job is to actively hurt you, your family, and those around you?
- chairmanwow1 4y ago[flagged]
- bitsavers 4y agoIt is long past time for people to consider that working for public companies might not be in their long-term personal best interest.
- nequo 4y agoAre private companies better?
- joshuamorton 4y agoWhether or not it is my "right", firing me absolutely hurts me and my family, and and advocating for it does too. Nothing about that is a mischaracterization.
- nequo 4y agoI did not say it’s a right. If it was, we’d be talking about this in court, not in HN comments. What I said was that it hurts you if you get fired and thus it hurts your family. There is a lot of research on the negative effects of layoffs on those who are laid off. Also, not everyone is affected in the same way. For example, a US citizen or someone on a green card will need to find a new job. But someone on an H-1B is legally tied to the company that employs them. They cannot just switch jobs. But if they’re fired, they must uproot their lives, cut social ties, leave the country, and find a new job in a completely different economy. Sure, an employer has the right to fire its employees. But by firing them, the employer also has a causal effect on their well-being. And the employees are in their right minds to protest that.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- pixl97 4y ago>We need to stop demonizing people for doing their job W.T.F. I mean I hate to bring up the analogy, but at the Nuremberg Trials we hung people for 'just doing their job' because just following orders can lead to millions dead and other completely and totally terrible outcomes for humanity.
- hindsightbias 4y agoThis is the first time I’ve heard Google layoffs equated to the Holocaust.
- Kwpolska 4y agoThey aren't referring to Google layoffs, the evil people are the hedge fund managers.
- quantified 4y agoNot equated, just noting the that the "doing my job" argument is the same. If it isn't, do elaborate. Yes the jobs are different, as are all jobs from each other.
- tshaddox 4y agoOther people: > I don’t like this guy’s job. You: > But it’s his job. Right, they already said that part. They still don’t like his job.
- voisin 4y agoNot exactly. Other people: > This guy is wrong because of his job and the fact that he's apparently good enough at it that he's become rich. Me: > Neither of these facts has anything to do with his argument. He's neither right nor wrong based on his job or his success at his job.
- jk20 4y ago[dead]
- absolutelymild 4y agoYou’re right. To be a success capitalist, you need to be maximally greedy at all times. If you’re not greedy enough, someone else will just come and replace you
- he_is_legend 4y agoMan who "paid himself nearly $2 million a day in 2022" says google pay their staff too much ...
- Arnt 4y agoI read the article and don't see where he says that. I do see that he thinks Google has too many staff, but not that the payment level is too high. And frankly, if the son of a mechanic can get to the point of earning $2m/day, that's an indication that he has some amount of clue.
- macjohnmcc 4y agoI saw a quote from him a few weeks ago where he did say they were overpaid.
- quantified 4y ago> “management should also take the opportunity to address excessive employee compensation.” He has a clue how he should be paid more, yes. Google is worth as much as it is because it can afford the best engineers. If it can't, they'll go elsewhere and it won't be worth that much. Obviously they should all be replaced with offshore contractors.
- mellosouls 4y agoAccording to his wiki bio he comes from humble origins so the upper class barb isn't that helpful.
- Veen 4y agoHe was brought-up working class. His father's a Jamaican-born mechanic who moved to the UK in the 60s. He wasn't born with a silver spoon in his mouth. The class-war stuff probably isn't helpful.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- jszymborski 4y agoHe is currently upper class by virtue of his net worth and literal title as a knight.
- Veen 4y agoA bit off topic, but a knighthood doesn't make you upper-class. In England, the real upper-classes are landed nobles with hereditary titles (who will look down on any parvenu with a knighthood and a few billion).
- 4k3aa4 4y agoAlso most of the upper class don't have much money left, those houses cost a fortune to maintain.
- rpearl 4y agoThen I guess he should stop engaging in class war, shouldn't he
- Veen 4y agoI wouldn't count among the downtrodden proletariat the extremely well-paid Silicon Valley engineers who sell themselves to rapacious advertising companies. This is one elite individual saying something other elite individuals don't like.
- hellisothers 4y ago