Google and Meta over-hired thousands of employees who do \'fake work\"...

[Fred Bloggs]

More wasteful fraud from the tech industry. And it harmed everyone, the tech workers who thought they had a career, the investors, and ultimately the consumers of their over-priced products.

Thousands of tech staffers at Meta and Google do \"fake work\" and were brought on to fulfill the \"vanity metric\" of hiring, according to the outspoken investor and tech veteran Keith Rabois.

\"All these people were extraneous, this has been true for a long time, the vanity metric of hiring employees was this false god in some ways,\" he said..

\"There\'s nothing for these people to do — they\'re really — it\'s all fake work,\" he said. \"Now that\'s being exposed, what do these people actually do, they go to meetings.\"

Google, he continued, had intentionally over-hired engineers and tech talent to stop them from moving to other companies, a strategy he described as \"pretty coherent.\"

The comments come as soaring interest rates and inflation in recent months have led tech companies across the industry to take an ax to their workforces in a bid to manage costs and weather the economic storm. In 2022, more than 1,000 companies laid off more than 160,000 staff, according to the layoffs tracking site Layoffs.fyi. — that figure has already surpassed 100,000 for 2023 so far, according to the site.

https://www.businessinsider.com/google-meta-staff-do-fake-work-says-vc-keith-rabois-2023-3

 

[Ralph Mowery]

In article <80bb8c69-54de-4448-8f9b-c72696ffd5c2n@googlegroups.com>,
bloggs.fredbloggs.fred@gmail.com says...

More wasteful fraud from the tech industry. And it harmed everyone, the tech workers who thought they had a career, the investors, and ultimately the consumers of their over-priced products.

Thousands of tech staffers at Meta and Google do \"fake work\" and were brought on to fulfill the \"vanity metric\" of hiring, according to the outspoken investor and tech veteran Keith Rabois.

\"All these people were extraneous, this has been true for a long time, the vanity metric of hiring employees was this false god in some ways,\" he said.

\"There\'s nothing for these people to do ? they\'re really ? it\'s all fake work,\" he said. \"Now that\'s being exposed, what do these people actually do, they go to meetings.\"

Google, he continued, had intentionally over-hired engineers and tech talent to stop them from moving to other companies, a strategy he described as \"pretty coherent.\"

They could over hire so they could pick out the smartest ones and let
the less talented go.

 

[John Larkin]

On Thu, 9 Mar 2023 04:58:55 -0800 (PST), Fred Bloggs
<bloggs.fredbloggs.fred@gmail.com> wrote:

More wasteful fraud from the tech industry. And it harmed everyone, the tech workers who thought they had a career, the investors, and ultimately the consumers of their over-priced products.

Thousands of tech staffers at Meta and Google do \"fake work\" and were brought on to fulfill the \"vanity metric\" of hiring, according to the outspoken investor and tech veteran Keith Rabois.

\"All these people were extraneous, this has been true for a long time, the vanity metric of hiring employees was this false god in some ways,\" he said.

\"There\'s nothing for these people to do — they\'re really — it\'s all fake work,\" he said. \"Now that\'s being exposed, what do these people actually do, they go to meetings.\"

Google, he continued, had intentionally over-hired engineers and tech talent to stop them from moving to other companies, a strategy he described as \"pretty coherent.\"

The comments come as soaring interest rates and inflation in recent months have led tech companies across the industry to take an ax to their workforces in a bid to manage costs and weather the economic storm. In 2022, more than 1,000 companies laid off more than 160,000 staff, according to the layoffs tracking site Layoffs.fyi. — that figure has already surpassed 100,000 for 2023 so far, according to the site.

https://www.businessinsider.com/google-meta-staff-do-fake-work-says-vc-keith-rabois-2023-3

We have Google busses that peekup and drroppoff in our neighborhood.
When that started, real estate values exploded. A mated pair of
googlers live nearby and paid 5x what we did for an identical house.

They both work from home now. I hope they keep their jobs, because
they are very nice kids. We have pastry wars because \'T\' bakes a lot.
\'A\' needs my help to use an extension cord and doesn\'t seem to own a
screwdriver. Their house is blindingly automated; that\'s another
story.

I never understood why why a web site would need tens of thousands of
employees. What are a few hundred K of unemployed web lackeys going to
do?

I\'d like to hire some engineers to help me develop a new idea, but I
don\'t want to go the classic headhunter route and read
useless-ex-googler resumes. I think I\'ll hang out in some maker spaces
and meet people who like to solder.

 

[John Larkin]

On Thu, 9 Mar 2023 10:02:34 -0500, Ralph Mowery
<rmowery42@charter.net> wrote:

In article <80bb8c69-54de-4448-8f9b-c72696ffd5c2n@googlegroups.com>,
bloggs.fredbloggs.fred@gmail.com says...
More wasteful fraud from the tech industry. And it harmed everyone, the tech workers who thought they had a career, the investors, and ultimately the consumers of their over-priced products.

Thousands of tech staffers at Meta and Google do \"fake work\" and were brought on to fulfill the \"vanity metric\" of hiring, according to the outspoken investor and tech veteran Keith Rabois.

\"All these people were extraneous, this has been true for a long time, the vanity metric of hiring employees was this false god in some ways,\" he said.

\"There\'s nothing for these people to do ? they\'re really ? it\'s all fake work,\" he said. \"Now that\'s being exposed, what do these people actually do, they go to meetings.\"

Google, he continued, had intentionally over-hired engineers and tech talent to stop them from moving to other companies, a strategy he described as \"pretty coherent.\"



They could over hire so they could pick out the smartest ones and let
the less talented go.

What a concept, hiring people that you don\'t need, for big bucks, just
so competitors can\'t afford them.

Real estate costs played into that game, but work-from-home makes that
a less useful tool.

 

[Dimiter_Popoff]

On 3/9/2023 17:54, John Larkin wrote:

.....

I never understood why why a web site would need tens of thousands of
employees. What are a few hundred K of unemployed web lackeys going to
do?

Of course they need them. Who is going to pedal them generators to
keep the website alive.

 

[Fred Bloggs]

On Thursday, March 9, 2023 at 10:02:42 AM UTC-5, Ralph Mowery wrote:

In article <80bb8c69-54de-4448...@googlegroups.com>,
bloggs.fred...@gmail.com says...
More wasteful fraud from the tech industry. And it harmed everyone, the tech workers who thought they had a career, the investors, and ultimately the consumers of their over-priced products.

Thousands of tech staffers at Meta and Google do \"fake work\" and were brought on to fulfill the \"vanity metric\" of hiring, according to the outspoken investor and tech veteran Keith Rabois.

\"All these people were extraneous, this has been true for a long time, the vanity metric of hiring employees was this false god in some ways,\" he said.

\"There\'s nothing for these people to do ? they\'re really ? it\'s all fake work,\" he said. \"Now that\'s being exposed, what do these people actually do, they go to meetings.\"

Google, he continued, had intentionally over-hired engineers and tech talent to stop them from moving to other companies, a strategy he described as \"pretty coherent.\"


They could over hire so they could pick out the smartest ones and let
the less talented go.

That doesn\'t make sense unless they\'re getting gobs of non-profit funding aka government contracts. In the case of government contracts, big industry over hires like mad, and makes a profit off billing the government for their time at a profitable markup.

 

[Fred Bloggs]

On Thursday, March 9, 2023 at 10:57:23 AM UTC-5, John Larkin wrote:

On Thu, 9 Mar 2023 10:02:34 -0500, Ralph Mowery
rmow...@charter.net> wrote:

In article <80bb8c69-54de-4448...@googlegroups.com>,
bloggs.fred...@gmail.com says...
More wasteful fraud from the tech industry. And it harmed everyone, the tech workers who thought they had a career, the investors, and ultimately the consumers of their over-priced products.

Thousands of tech staffers at Meta and Google do \"fake work\" and were brought on to fulfill the \"vanity metric\" of hiring, according to the outspoken investor and tech veteran Keith Rabois.

\"All these people were extraneous, this has been true for a long time, the vanity metric of hiring employees was this false god in some ways,\" he said.

\"There\'s nothing for these people to do ? they\'re really ? it\'s all fake work,\" he said. \"Now that\'s being exposed, what do these people actually do, they go to meetings.\"

Google, he continued, had intentionally over-hired engineers and tech talent to stop them from moving to other companies, a strategy he described as \"pretty coherent.\"



They could over hire so they could pick out the smartest ones and let
the less talented go.
What a concept, hiring people that you don\'t need, for big bucks, just
so competitors can\'t afford them.

Well if the people they hire are content to sit around and do nothing, they aren\'t exactly a find anyway. Tell Google to keep them.

Real estate costs played into that game, but work-from-home makes that
a less useful tool.

 

[Phil Hobbs]

On 2023-03-09 10:57, John Larkin wrote:

On Thu, 9 Mar 2023 10:02:34 -0500, Ralph Mowery
rmowery42@charter.net> wrote:

In article <80bb8c69-54de-4448-8f9b-c72696ffd5c2n@googlegroups.com>,
bloggs.fredbloggs.fred@gmail.com says...
More wasteful fraud from the tech industry. And it harmed everyone, the tech workers who thought they had a career, the investors, and ultimately the consumers of their over-priced products.

Thousands of tech staffers at Meta and Google do \"fake work\" and were brought on to fulfill the \"vanity metric\" of hiring, according to the outspoken investor and tech veteran Keith Rabois.

\"All these people were extraneous, this has been true for a long time, the vanity metric of hiring employees was this false god in some ways,\" he said.

\"There\'s nothing for these people to do ? they\'re really ? it\'s all fake work,\" he said. \"Now that\'s being exposed, what do these people actually do, they go to meetings.\"

Google, he continued, had intentionally over-hired engineers and tech talent to stop them from moving to other companies, a strategy he described as \"pretty coherent.\"



They could over hire so they could pick out the smartest ones and let
the less talented go.

What a concept, hiring people that you don\'t need, for big bucks, just
so competitors can\'t afford them.

Real estate costs played into that game, but work-from-home makes that
a less useful tool.

Fortunately market discipline eventually takes over. Unlike
featherbedded government departments, which tend to do mischief that is
not fake, and are much harder to get rid of.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

 

[a a]

On Thursday, 9 March 2023 at 18:11:53 UTC+1, Phil Hobbs wrote:

On 2023-03-09 10:57, John Larkin wrote:
On Thu, 9 Mar 2023 10:02:34 -0500, Ralph Mowery
rmow...@charter.net> wrote:

In article <80bb8c69-54de-4448...@googlegroups.com>,
bloggs.fred...@gmail.com says...
More wasteful fraud from the tech industry. And it harmed everyone, the tech workers who thought they had a career, the investors, and ultimately the consumers of their over-priced products.

Thousands of tech staffers at Meta and Google do \"fake work\" and were brought on to fulfill the \"vanity metric\" of hiring, according to the outspoken investor and tech veteran Keith Rabois.

\"All these people were extraneous, this has been true for a long time, the vanity metric of hiring employees was this false god in some ways,\" he said.

\"There\'s nothing for these people to do ? they\'re really ? it\'s all fake work,\" he said. \"Now that\'s being exposed, what do these people actually do, they go to meetings.\"

Google, he continued, had intentionally over-hired engineers and tech talent to stop them from moving to other companies, a strategy he described as \"pretty coherent.\"



They could over hire so they could pick out the smartest ones and let
the less talented go.

What a concept, hiring people that you don\'t need, for big bucks, just
so competitors can\'t afford them.

Real estate costs played into that game, but work-from-home makes that
a less useful tool.

Fortunately market discipline eventually takes over. Unlike
featherbedded government departments, which tend to do mischief that is
not fake, and are much harder to get rid of.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

If you are funded by CAPEX
you get free money for nothing to spend for nothing
You get a lot of free money to spend ASAP

Ask FED for details

Silicon Valley was funded by CAPEX in the past
$Bs $Bs $Bs free money invested by FED to counterfeit Japanese businesses.

 

[Lasse Langwadt Christensen]

torsdag den 9. marts 2023 kl. 17.25.23 UTC+1 skrev Fred Bloggs:

On Thursday, March 9, 2023 at 10:57:23 AM UTC-5, John Larkin wrote:
On Thu, 9 Mar 2023 10:02:34 -0500, Ralph Mowery
rmow...@charter.net> wrote:

In article <80bb8c69-54de-4448...@googlegroups.com>,
bloggs.fred...@gmail.com says...
More wasteful fraud from the tech industry. And it harmed everyone, the tech workers who thought they had a career, the investors, and ultimately the consumers of their over-priced products.

Thousands of tech staffers at Meta and Google do \"fake work\" and were brought on to fulfill the \"vanity metric\" of hiring, according to the outspoken investor and tech veteran Keith Rabois.

\"All these people were extraneous, this has been true for a long time, the vanity metric of hiring employees was this false god in some ways,\" he said.

\"There\'s nothing for these people to do ? they\'re really ? it\'s all fake work,\" he said. \"Now that\'s being exposed, what do these people actually do, they go to meetings.\"

Google, he continued, had intentionally over-hired engineers and tech talent to stop them from moving to other companies, a strategy he described as \"pretty coherent.\"



They could over hire so they could pick out the smartest ones and let
the less talented go.
What a concept, hiring people that you don\'t need, for big bucks, just
so competitors can\'t afford them.
Well if the people they hire are content to sit around and do nothing, they aren\'t exactly a find anyway. Tell Google to keep them.

I guess that is why Google (and other big tech companies) have the more or less official policy that employees
are encouraged to work 20% of their time on their own side projects, keeps \'em happy and of course with the nice side effect
that if they come up with something good, the company owns it ...

 

[a a]

>

Yet one more #veryStupidByLowIQaa post.

 

[a a]

On Thursday, 9 March 2023 at 20:42:45 UTC+1, Lasse Langwadt Christensen wrote:

torsdag den 9. marts 2023 kl. 17.25.23 UTC+1 skrev Fred Bloggs:
On Thursday, March 9, 2023 at 10:57:23 AM UTC-5, John Larkin wrote:
On Thu, 9 Mar 2023 10:02:34 -0500, Ralph Mowery
rmow...@charter.net> wrote:

In article <80bb8c69-54de-4448...@googlegroups.com>,
bloggs.fred...@gmail.com says...
More wasteful fraud from the tech industry. And it harmed everyone, the tech workers who thought they had a career, the investors, and ultimately the consumers of their over-priced products.

Thousands of tech staffers at Meta and Google do \"fake work\" and were brought on to fulfill the \"vanity metric\" of hiring, according to the outspoken investor and tech veteran Keith Rabois.

\"All these people were extraneous, this has been true for a long time, the vanity metric of hiring employees was this false god in some ways,\" he said.

\"There\'s nothing for these people to do ? they\'re really ? it\'s all fake work,\" he said. \"Now that\'s being exposed, what do these people actually do, they go to meetings.\"

Google, he continued, had intentionally over-hired engineers and tech talent to stop them from moving to other companies, a strategy he described as \"pretty coherent.\"



They could over hire so they could pick out the smartest ones and let
the less talented go.
What a concept, hiring people that you don\'t need, for big bucks, just
so competitors can\'t afford them.
Well if the people they hire are content to sit around and do nothing, they aren\'t exactly a find anyway. Tell Google to keep them.
I guess that is why Google (and other big tech companies) have the more or less official policy that employees
are encouraged to work 20% of their time on their own side projects, keeps \'em happy and of course with the nice side effect
that if they come up with something good, the company owns it ...
Company owns nothing since projects represent low quality, low tech.

US is low population, low engineering staff region, so money is poured into virtual corporations, to keep engineers active,
since import of engineers from abroad closed in recent 10-20 years, since Europe, China, India, Africa pay much more for their qualified high-tech staff.

 

[Anthony William Sloman]

On Friday, March 10, 2023 at 10:51:17 AM UTC+11, a a wrote:

On Thursday, 9 March 2023 at 20:42:45 UTC+1, Lasse Langwadt Christensen wrote:
torsdag den 9. marts 2023 kl. 17.25.23 UTC+1 skrev Fred Bloggs:
On Thursday, March 9, 2023 at 10:57:23 AM UTC-5, John Larkin wrote:
On Thu, 9 Mar 2023 10:02:34 -0500, Ralph Mowery <rmow...@charter.net> wrote:
In article <80bb8c69-54de-4448...@googlegroups.com>,
bloggs.fred...@gmail.com says...

More wasteful fraud from the tech industry. And it harmed everyone, the tech workers who thought they had a career, the investors, and ultimately the consumers of their over-priced products.

Thousands of tech staffers at Meta and Google do \"fake work\" and were brought on to fulfill the \"vanity metric\" of hiring, according to the outspoken investor and tech veteran Keith Rabois.

\"All these people were extraneous, this has been true for a long time, the vanity metric of hiring employees was this false god in some ways,\" he said.

\"There\'s nothing for these people to do ? they\'re really ? it\'s all fake work,\" he said. \"Now that\'s being exposed, what do these people actually do, they go to meetings.\"

Google, he continued, had intentionally over-hired engineers and tech talent to stop them from moving to other companies, a strategy he described as \"pretty coherent.\"

They could over hire so they could pick out the smartest ones and let the less talented go.

What a concept, hiring people that you don\'t need, for big bucks, just so competitors can\'t afford them.

Well if the people they hire are content to sit around and do nothing, they aren\'t exactly a find anyway. Tell Google to keep them.

I guess that is why Google (and other big tech companies) have the more or less official policy that employees are encouraged to work 20% of their time on their own side projects, keeps \'em happy and of course with the nice side effect that if they come up with something good, the company owns it ...

Company owns nothing since projects represent low quality, low tech.

It probably would be if a a were the engineer involved.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0022-3735/11/6/008/meta

presents a project I did as a spare-time hobby project. The article got six citations, which is not a lot over 45 years but it was pretty bleeding edge at the time.

> US is low population, low engineering staff region, so money is poured into virtual corporations, to keep engineers active, since import of engineers from abroad closed in recent 10-20 years, since Europe, China, India, Africa pay much more for their qualified high-tech staff.

Not exactly true. A a may only be getting paid what he is worth, which clearly won\'t be much.

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney

 

[a a]

>

Yet one more #veryStupidByLowIQaa post.

 

[wmartin]

On 3/9/23 08:10, Dimiter_Popoff wrote:

On 3/9/2023 17:54, John Larkin wrote:
.....

I never understood why why a web site would need tens of thousands of
employees. What are a few hundred K of unemployed web lackeys going to
do?

Of course they need them. Who is going to pedal them generators to
keep the website alive.

heh, so what is the watts to tofu ratio? Assuming they do get fed...