this post was submitted on 25 Oct 2024
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2024 has seen two mass layoffs at Microsoft, with 1900 staff laid off in January, before a further 650 Xbox employees were shown the door in September.

Regardless, Microsoft's shares are up and the company's market value is now higher than $3tn, as it works to capitalise on the rise of AI.

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[–] Quexotic@infosec.pub 6 points 34 minutes ago

I think the author got confused, it's not despite off it's because of.

[–] Antaeus@lemmy.world 1 points 32 minutes ago

Go Copilot!

[–] OldWoodFrame@lemm.ee 5 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

He's doing what the Board wants, stock price is up. If there was a worker advocate on the board, maybe things would be different.

[–] TheReturnOfPEB@reddthat.com 1 points 36 minutes ago

stock is regularly at a new all time high with $400++/share.

[–] 01011@monero.town 17 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Trickle down economics - when the 1% piss on the remainder.

[–] Flocklesscrow@lemm.ee 3 points 1 hour ago

Trickle down was a rebrand.

It used to be called "Horse and Sparrow economics."

Idea being: The horses eat buckets of whole grains. And the sparrows pick their meal from the horseshit.

[–] kamen@lemmy.world 5 points 4 hours ago

CEOs gonna CEO.

[–] interurbain1er@sh.itjust.works 40 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago) (1 children)

In case you missed it, in our broken model of civilization a CEO's only responsibility is to increase value for shareholders. Not to clients, not to employees, not to the biosphere.

Market cap increased, job's done successfully.

[–] Flocklesscrow@lemm.ee 5 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 55 minutes ago)

A) 1971, Economist Milton Friedman explicitly told the world the "only social responsibility" for businesses is to increase shareholder value. The Business Roundtable heartily endorsed this view, setting the stage for the next half century of villains to gleefully enrich themselves without compunction.

B) 2019, Business Roundtable reversed their 50 year position to include that businesses should be beholden to all Stakeholders, not just shareholders.

But of course the damage has been done, and continues onward. To compound this, the FED's open-purse monetary policy for 14 YEARS ushered in the worst inflation in 40 years, while wages have stagnated for 4 decades, kicking off around the time Baby Boomers were birthing the first Millennial children.

These are just some of the reasons Millennials lay the bulk of culpability at the feet of Baby Boomers, who of course respond with something like: "Well, I don't remember that."

[–] Default_Defect@midwest.social 39 points 9 hours ago

Because of layoffs, not despite them.

[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 77 points 12 hours ago (12 children)

When I entered the work force in 2005, it was with a company that had never had a layoff in its thirty-year history.

Then, in 2009, they had their first layoff, and I learned later our CEO had taken an 80% pay raise that year.

Taxes aren't theft. Literally firing people and taking their salaries is theft.

[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 24 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Also that CEO has an eminently punchable face.

[–] feedum_sneedson@lemmy.world 0 points 4 hours ago

tautological

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[–] independantiste@sh.itjust.works 12 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (2 children)

The entire point of AI as it stands right now is to allow more of those layoffs. Anyone telling otherwise is a liar.

Also I hate how currently, AI is used to remove the fun parts of creating things at a computer. Take coding for example, I think I can speak for many people when I say that the fun part of their job, is not the planning or the meetings, it's the actual coding and stumbling upon a hard problem to solve. Now with AI you the human will only keep the boring parts of the job!

[–] Nalivai@lemmy.world 9 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Don't overestimate LLMs, it can't code and never will be. It can create templates convincingly enough and do boilerplate parts that are nonsense only sometimes, but those aren't the fun parts of the coding process anyway. In my experience, LLM isn't helping at all and I spend more time fixing it's nonsense than I would do if I don't use it at all, so I don't

[–] Saryn@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours ago

As someone without a computer science background and who started learning Python for data science shortly before LLMs became mainstream, I gotta say it's been pretty useful for the learning process. I don't mean I just use it to write scripts for me but rather it can be a useful sorta of guide the way a scripted advisor mihht be in a game. Seems to me that one of the good sides of LLMs is that they can make technically dofficult fields more accessible as long as you understand its limits and know what it can and cant do._ i would never use it for any sort of subjective issue but I find it great for logical tasks. And this is not to say that's its perfect for that either but it has increased my efficiency for certain work tasks tremendously.

[–] filister@lemmy.world 2 points 4 hours ago

Exactly how I am feeling. AI took the fun part away of cracking a problem and the satisfaction of solving it is now gone.

[–] card797@champserver.net 20 points 11 hours ago

They should be paying 90% tax over 1 million.

[–] Gammelfisch@lemmy.world 26 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Typical and most people in the US view CEO's as heroes. US income distribution is on the same level as fucking Russia.

[–] rottingleaf@lemmy.world 18 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

As someone from fucking Russia, people with biggest income in your country are usually first businessmen, second - something else, while in Russia those would be cockroaches from MFA, PA and other thieves, plus a few oligarchs who at some point were among those cockroaches.

So it may not be as bad yet, but frankly yes, you are giving out vibes of going in the same direction.

[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 0 points 27 minutes ago (1 children)

US is the OG oligarchy, but we cosplay "Democracy" to cope

[–] rottingleaf@lemmy.world 2 points 10 minutes ago (1 children)

I agree, but yours are real oligarchs, while those I'm talking about are a relatively new thing for you.

Russian-style ones are just blokes from one and the same corporation who chose they want to be celebrities. A façade. They used oligarchy as a scapegoat in the 90s, to avoid lustration while it still could be done.

[–] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 1 points 8 minutes ago

I see your point. In US our oligarchs run the show. In russia, they submit to the "President" to obtain the position.

[–] ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one 10 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (1 children)

Thank god, all these employees lost their jobs so Satya Nadella can pad out their already insanely high salary.

We don't want Satya to starve like the rest us of plebs!

[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

This is the shit we need to be thinking about when we read about a black person getting shot by a cop for stealing a loaf of bread, if you ask me.

[–] HotsauceHurricane@lemmy.one 5 points 10 hours ago

“Look timmy, it’s a man made entirely of bullshit”

[–] ysjet@lemmy.world 62 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

He made $12000 off each fired employee.

[–] P1nkman@lemmy.world 41 points 17 hours ago

Per year. And lets not talk about his stock options and other benefits... Fucking disgusting.

[–] Etterra@lemmy.world 11 points 13 hours ago

Pretty standard issue corporate psychopath.

[–] octopus_ink@lemmy.ml 161 points 21 hours ago
[–] bamfic@lemmy.world 10 points 14 hours ago

An old friend was one of the people who got laid off in January. Fuck MSFT.

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