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days of future past (thelemmy.club)
submitted 3 months ago by to c/programmer_humor@programming.dev
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/65410582

sauce

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[–] 43 points 3 months ago (5 children)

Current tech layoffs are mostly a result of over hiring during the pandemic. Blaming AI is just the sales pitch to investors try to prove that the AI spending was worth it.

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  • [–] 14 points 3 months ago (3 children)

    I find this hard to believe, since I remember those pandemic layoffs already happening around 2023.

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  • [–] 3 points 3 months ago* (2 children)

    Wasn't this more related to the Trump era H1B limitations expiring under Biden around 2022? I may be misremembering the timeline since time after 2020 is fucked, but I swear I remember a greater uptick of H1B hires in tech around this time, as well as outsourcing teams to India.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    An H1B is valid for up to 6 years, and as far as I know the thing that changed is how hard it is to get a visa in the first place, anyone already hired would be unaffected. Tech companies spend so much on legal fees for hiring foreign workers, they're a bit reluctant to get rid of them immediately. It's also really shitty for the workers if they get laid off, since their visa is tied to employment, and it only gives them like a month to find a new job sponsor or leave the country.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago*

    Sorry, I was unclear. I meant the layoffs were related to replacing pandemic hires working from home with cheaper H1Bs willing to RTO/take cheaper salaries, since by then everyone was boostered up and ready for travel, and visa applicationswere actually being processed instead of "backlogged" (ignored) by Trump Admin 1.0.

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  • [–] 5 points 3 months ago

    Maybe. There were rounds of layoffs a couple years ago where companies used COVID over employment as the rationale. I think four years removed that rationale is a bit of a stretch.

    I think it’s also possible that the looming recession is a cause, but they can’t say that out loud for fear of offending the Crybaby in Chief.

    And if AI is working properly these “innovative” tech companies shouldn’t really need to fire anyone, right? All their bright employees should just be able to use AI to generate value for their respective companies.

    Idk the answer, but I can say that I personally know high-performing engineers who swear by it. I mostly found it useful as a rubber duck, or to quickly tear down some code in a language with which I’m not acquainted.

    I actively try to avoid AI for moral reasons, but I have found it useful for certain tasks. It’s not a panacea, but it’s also not useless.

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