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Yahoo Lays Off 600; Free Beers and Jobs Flow
CWmike writes "Yahoo confirmed on Tuesday that it has laid off 600 people, following news reports often based on Twitter messages from employees who had been let go. The layoffs amount to about 4 percent of the company's global workforce, Yahoo said. The company said affected workers are receiving severance packages and outplacement services. Laid-off workers may find some comfort on Twitter, where they are receiving an outpouring of goodwill. One San Francisco brewery is offering a free beer to people from Yahoo who show their termination letters. People with companies including Aprendi Learning, Tucows.com, DirecTV, Combine Couture, OMGPOP.com, and Uptake.com all posted Twitter messages expressing interest in hiring former Yahoo employees. The site Quora is hosting a thread for companies in the San Francisco area interested in hiring laid-off Yahoo workers. So far, there are 14 posts about jobs with companies including Yammer, Mozilla, and Cloudera."
Is Yahoo even relevant with anything anymore? They shut down their own search, they shut down geocities, no one really uses portal sites anymore and they don't make any hardware or provide services. The only thing I can think of is email, which is also is far away from popularity of gmail and hotmail. What do they even do?
in a company the size of yahoo, i can't imagine that laying off 400 will really bring them to profitability.
Looks like Yahoo! also fired their exclamation point? If only...
What sorts of jobs were lost?
Were these people programmers, graphics designers, server administrators, network administrators, network technicians and others who actually produce something of value?
Or were these people involved with "marketing", "project management" and other ill-defined positions that usually just suck resources away from those getting real work done?
Since the 1970s, there has been a disappointing trend in American corporate culture whereby those who actually do productive work get laid off, while those who fluff around in meetings coming up with "strategy" or putting together "action plans" end up remaining employed the longest. Eventually the company goes under, since it is not actually producing anything of value. I sure hope Yahoo! hasn't gotten sucked into this horrible situation.
Losing a job can cause depression. We should do something nice to help them out. Lets offer them free alcohol, everyone knows alcohol and depression are like peanut butter and jelly. Best idea ever!
I have a AT&T/Bellsouth account and last year, IIRC, all of our email is now hosted on Yahoo!.SMTP/POP are all yahoo.com.
I'm sure there are other infrastructure stuff thta Yahoo! is behind
Which is smart. Retail level stuff is usually the low margin business.
Great idea! I'm sure Yahoo laid-off all their best people first.
I've been laid off five times in my career; never got free beer for my troubles.
I've used their services for like 10 years and the amount of inovation over that length of time is pretty slim or non-existent. I thought they'd build on Groups & Geocities but a lot of time passed and they eventually closed Geocities. Sure the email interface got a facelift, they bought Flickr and have the popular Y!Answers but I still think this is a web company with no imagination and it has a serious lack of leadership... this boat is bound to sink.
Yahoo is like RadioShack, they've been in business forever, dumped everything that was cool about their service years ago and it's a marvel how they stay open despite having nothing that anyone really wants anymore.
Been seeing these ads myself on Craigslist and really don't understand it. The place is a cube farm, and while I know there's some knowledgeable people there, I highly doubt the braintrust in this layoff has any real appeal. Also, I know for a fact that they OVER HIRED from 2004 - 2007 because I was getting up to 5 calls a day from on-site and 3rd party recruiters for Yahoo, to the point that I wrote them a letter asking them to place me on whatever list they had for non-interested parties. That request actually did seem to work since the calls ceased. But it was common knowledge that they were hiring pretty much any warm body they could get their hands on.
If anything, I'd probably steer clear of these laid-off workers since I'm pretty sure it's a separation of the wheat from the chaff. With the sort of hiring practices they engage in, picking up a bunch of sub-par workers is all but assured and it's only wise to jettison them when you no longer have a need for extra warm bodies or need to make room for new candidates to take their place
Yahoo? they still exist? I remember them in 1996 and they were big, but I assume they went broke/bust/irrelevant/trivial/unneeded in 1990.
Seriously, these guys should have dies 5 years ago.
Just bought a new quantum computer, but I'm uncertain how it works.
Pabst Blue Ribbon is offering free beer to anyone still working at AltaVista.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
That is a big generalization.
The fact of the matter is people like myself used Yahoo exclusively a decade ago before switching to Google. Yahoo lost revenue for internet ads to Google as well and is no longer profitable in most operations in the US. Laying off employees in the non profitable areas only makes sense. It does not make them bad employees. If anything it shows management to be the bad decision makers where the productivity employees are let go to pay for their directors and executives mistakes.
Also Yahoo planned on entering new markets and hired like crazy before Icahn came in with a hostile takeover and decided to raid and sell its assets. These employers were probably hired to help Yahoo enter these new areas before the buyout and then the sellout of its assets to satisfy Wall Street. They were no longer needed.
People being laid off is sad whether they were talented or not. Just because someone hires does not make them incompetent in the hiring process.
http://saveie6.com/
For not selling to MS when they had a lot of money on the table. What a tard.
*My wife uses Yahoo news and YahooIM still. It is what she is used to. The search engine was crap which was how Google came in and killed it with a lite no nense search while Yahoo spiced it up making it a portal and internet destination for all users.
Yahoo exists for its news, mail, and answers, and it generates revenue by directing its uses to MSN Bing and ads to its pages. That part is still popular but it is a shadow of itself since Google and then Icahn came in and gutted the company.
http://saveie6.com/
ahhh, Yahoo WAS a blowjob, it didn't give them out! (weeellllll, they DID do a LOT of "free")
Just bought a new quantum computer, but I'm uncertain how it works.
Management isn't about to fire themselves...
Think of parasites slowing killing its host.
OK maybe I am just having a bad day.
Just ONE free beer? What happens when that initial buzz wears off and his wallet is still empty? Poor bastard.
Just in time for the Holidays!! Ah. Brings back memories!
http://www.beanleafpress.com
what's with these corporate assholes that always choose the one time of the year that everyone has the highest financial burden to start downsizing/firing/laying people off? Why can't they make these decisions in April? or August?
Is that many people haven't dealt with proper project managers, as in a manager who's job it is to oversee a protect and make everything work. They've dealt with "Project Managers" people who's title is PM and who believe they can attach themselves to any project, no matter how little they know about it, and "manage" it effectively.
Any project has a manager just because of how it works. Even a one man project, in that case the one guy manages it. For large projects, it is so complex that you need people who do nothing but deal with the management, the logistics, that kind of thing. A project manager, or in some industries a producer. A person who's focus is big picture, making sure everything is working and working to correct problems when they happen. That is valuable. However those people are generally people who are managers of that particular kind of thing. Someone who manages a large programming project effectively is likely just a manager of programmers, and probably has some understanding of how programming works.
However the people who identify themselves as "Project Managers" who find their role in life is just to manage random projects? Worthless normally. I've dealt with a few indirectly, and have friends who spoken, at great length, about them. They are people who attach themselves to projects in a company. They aren't someone in the normal structure of command, they just kind of slip in. Because of this, they've no real knowledge on any of the things they are doing. They don't understand the project. As such they tend to do useless shit like demand meetings with the developers to "See what you have," even when development is in the stage there is nothing running, or they ask useless questions like "How much time could you save if we skip the testing phase?" or "Let's not worry about what's possible right now." (really, I was in the room for that one). They just regurgitate stuff they learned from a book or a course, presuming it works for anything.
That seems to be the problem to me. A case of project management is useful but Project Managers are worthless. In my observation, "professional" Project Managers are a role the useless types work themselves in to. They don't have the skills to get themselves an actual management sort of job, they don't have the skills to really do anything, so they get themselves in the nebulous "I can manage any project even if I understand fuck-all about the technology, process, employees, and so on," position. That's where the dislike comes from I think.
I don't worry when I hear a project has a manager, that just tells me that people have bothered to think about who is in charge, who makes the decisions, who needs to make things run smooth. I worry when a project gets itself a "Project Manager" to "help things out." Someone who had no real involvement and doesn't have a clear position in teh chain of command.
I've been using yahoo as primary email for a long time, shortly not long after it's rolled out (mid/late 90s? after mail.com 'promises' of free email and then backtrack the decision). It's been ubiquitous and very good for a long time. Last few years it's be acting up a lot a with unexplainable downtime and errors, and especially this email upgrade is just bad. The new interface and whatnot are simply unintuitive and not up to par with many bugs (e.g. after a few click you always see junk mailbox instead of the inbox). I really hope somebody like MS pick it up and I can migrate once and for all...
"Since the 1970s, there has been a disappointing trend in American corporate culture whereby those who actually do productive work get laid off, while those who fluff around in meetings coming up with "strategy" or putting together "action plans" end up remaining employed the longest. Eventually the company goes under, since it is not actually producing anything of value" - by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 15, @08:24AM (#34559618)
Per my subject-line, agreed, 110% - why? I see the SAME THINGS YOU DO, and for nearly as long (been working since 1982 - & finally, last year? I was able to STOP WORKING if I like (I still do though, to get ahead faster/more), because I busted my hump for 28++ yrs. to buy rental properties & home for doing what anyone w/ any sense does: RENTAL INCOME - it keeps you alive & even somewhat profitable (especially when you go over 1 home only)).
I saw this all coming, no surprise, as "the rats always 'rise to the top'", just as they have in politics in this nation, due to extreme wealth gained by reprehensible means - there are NO "nice businessmen" people, they all pull dirty tricks & more to get to the top (secret handshake scumbags & other "religious cults" etc./et al)...
Why is that?? Well, probably because they are the DIRTIEST CLIQUES OF SWINE IN EXISTENCE... & they do NOT operate honestly, or independently (but rather in packs/cliques). They work in packs, in collusion, and backstab & burn the good people out, to NO end, especially once they feel "threatened" their incompetence has been exposed... & that's easy to do, as they usually are only in the job because of a "buddy hiring them" or they are part of the family that OWNS the place (nepotism? It ABOUNDS, nobody really truly pays attention to the law, unless they pay "lipservice" only - this is part of the problem too!).
They typically surround themselves with either family, or close friends, so their "support network" is in place so they can keep raping others, and companies they work for (they don't give a damn, as they are typically megalomanical "fake-it-till-you-make-it" types)... I know, I was one (B.S. in Business Administration + MIS concentration here from 1989 onwards & I was a GOOD loss prevention mgr., led a chain of 218 stores in stopping internal shrink, and my store detectives also led the chain too in theft prevention) but... I really RESPECTED computer folks, so I went back for A.A.S.-B.S. in Comp. Sci. as I felt it was "the future". It worked out, until I hit "KORPORATE AMERIKA" for a few years, and saw shit like I am speaking of here, going on, & LIKE MAD!
The best people DO NOT WIN in the USA (or, probably anyplace else): The RATS & FAKE IT TILL YOU MAKE IT SCUMBAGS DO, & they do by the means I note above.
I figured this around 5 yrs. ago, finally:
Put up with the bullshit from underqualified scumbags, & stop trying to help them out, because they'll fry you in a seconds' notice & not lose any sleep over it, if you threaten them in ANY way... even if you're trying to help them out, because it will expose their sheer gross incompetence!
(E.G.-> I was even FIRED ONCE for pointing out that a company I worked for, a MAJOR INSURER no less (has the WWF as a client as an example) was NOT securing their "endpoints" in their network (printers, &/or workstations users used).
So, why would security MATTER so much there? The SSN#'s & health records of many people, even FAMOUS ones, were there is WHY!
I.E. -> I was hired to secure their programs written in VB, porting them to VB.NET, & I did so, 10 projects completed successfully over a 1 yr. period, on time & on budget too...
However, when I confronted the THEN network administrator on this? He told me a bunch of bullshit (which made me realize he was a "paper MCSE") that securing endpoints was "not needed, and a perimeter/edge router security was all that was
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Yahoo is a bit weak in the search engine area, but as someone mentioned earlier, they do own Flickr. When signing-in, I've noticed that Yahoo is trying to capture the "portal" status it once had. The campaign talks about having all your stuff in one place, but what it seems like is having all of your passwords stored in a central location, which to me is just a bad idea. Yahoo's not as likely to get hacked as, say, Lifehacker's site - but do I really want to access my bank through Yahoo? Not likely. I use Google for searching and Yahoo because of Flickr - but that's it. When people send me e-mail to my Yahoo account, I summarily ignore it. There have been people who have spoken to me months later saying "hey, did you ever get my e-mail?" It's funny. Then I give them my real e-mail address, and we're good.
I lost faith in Yahoo when they locked down their web-based e-mail service into this Ajax-y, Flash-y garbage. When will companies learn I want to browse using my browser? Also, you can't POP/IMAP your e-mail without paying, and who wants to pay for e-mail when I can have it free elsewhere?
For what I do, Yahoo just isn't relevant for much of anything anymore. The secret to making an award-winning portal site is to create content that people will come back to and visit every day. Heck, Slashdot with achievements has far more pull for me daily than Yahoo's messy cluttered flashy home-page.
It's 4% of their worldwide staff, and as I stated, they were definitely over-hiring. That is, hiring just for the sake of it, to deny those employees to their competitors and to add to their braintrust. Statistically, you just can't retain them all.
I'm not saying they are terrible workers, just that having consulted scores of dotComs in the SV area, I know for a fact that yahoo was on a warm body hunt and that these are likely to be the lower echelon of those warm bodies.
Anyway, my post wasn't to disparage these workers but to question the overwhelming eagerness of other employers to hire them. I'd look past the Yahoo name on their resume and look to what they did, how they contributed, what they can contribute and what skills they have, just as with any other candidate.
Yahoo owns 39% of Alibaba which is said by some to be worth around $11B. This is a significant stake of the online market in China and includes stakes in Taobao and Alipay which helps to props up Yahoo share price. Yahoo portal on its own is on life support.
www.newviewmedia.com
http://careers.yahoo.com
Please
There's some damn good programmers that are getting laid off just because their entire department is getting shut down. You can be there's some pretty solid talent getting laid off.
Not to mention, if anyone thinks survival in Yahoo is based on merit and not politics, you are crazy.
One San Francisco brewery is offering a free beer to people from Yahoo who show their termination letters.
I see a huge business opportunity there - www.yahooterminationletters.com
Backward%20compatibility%20is%20over-rated
Let's tag this "after work party".