@fuzzychef It's extremely convenient that they included an address to direct comments to at the bottom. Also convenient that those overpaid tech people built a service just for this sort of occasion. https://www.shitexpress.com/

@fuzzychef I regret seeing that letter, because I'm not sure a human is physically capable of channeling the degree of utter rage which needs to be directed against the bipedal fatberg masquerading as a human being who dictated and signed it as if it was simple buying and/or selling, willfully blinding himself to the number of people that layoffs of that scope *hurt*.

I may not be able to channel the necessary mass or volume of rage on my own .. but I find myself trying anyway.

@fuzzychef for everyone on comments: to my great surprise, this is real https://www.tcifund.com/CorporateEngagements/Alphabet

@fuzzychef i wish all hedgies a very guillotine

@fuzzychef glutting the market with skilled workers is the perfect short-term quarterly report solution

Except all those folks taking jobs at lower pay are going to jump ship the instant someone offers them what they're worth.

@fuzzychef ladies and gents, take a glimpse at the invisible hand of the market.

@fuzzychef
Ok, not a hedge fund fan here, but let's also sink in the mediocrity of Alphabet's management (they are indeed in good company) who may have set their business on a pathway of unsustainable growth. What else are you expecting from a hedge fund analyst if not to promote decisions that would maximize the return on their investment?
Don't bring up greed here please because that's what's driving capitalism of TCI, Google, Microsoft,Tesla, and Joe the Plumber, so really nothing new IMHO

@fuzzychef I suggest that the head count and salary of hedge fund managers also should be cut:-)

@fuzzychef
Let's set up a hedgefund that demands that CEOs cut their salary in half and distribute it with the workforce! 🤡

@fuzzychef
@aquarium Well, next time they can try that with CEOs, possibly also gazzilionaires.

Some already are trying:

a) https://www.marketwatch.com/story/u-s-corporate-greed-has-gone-too-far-says-norway-fund-manager-who-voted-against-apple-ceos-pay-11674054694

b) https://manilastandard.net/business/biz-plus/314296718/oxfam-pushes-higher-taxes-to-reduce-number-of-billionaires.html

@fuzzychef layoffs are a main form of inflation control and a goal of interest rate hikes. So yeah, definitely orchestrated.

@fuzzychef Jesus.

@fuzzychef It's real? Not a fake?

@fuzzychef

the real question is what the hell does TCI have over Google/Alphabet that G/A's CEO has to pay attention to what they say?

@fuzzychef Remind me again why Google has to obey the demands of hedge fund managers?

@fuzzychef hedge funds are an abomination. They have no skills. They couldn’t build anything. They only care about their bottom line. They should not be allowed to exist!

@fuzzychef for receipts, it's linked directly from there site:
https://www.tcifund.com/files/corporateengageement/alphabet/20th%20January%202023.pdf

I know this system creates evil, but sometimes I'm still impressed by the scale of the monstrosity.

@fuzzychef Sundar could have replied that the stock price has soared under him and he was right to hire so much but instead he falls for the whisper of some hedge fund manager ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

@fuzzychef were they pushing at an open door? Own 0.27% of shares according to wiki.

@fuzzychef Err, Tail-Wagging-Dog should not be allowed to continue. This particular "Hedge Fund Manager" must also be let go at the earliest opportunity!

@fuzzychef

I see two more remarkable things here:

Addressing an innovator to reduce headcount to the operational level. That sounds like cashing out.

Stock is basically a worthless form of compensation, they sound reluctant in any situation that appears no to work on a pumped price.

But the orchestration is of course obscene

@fuzzychef I love the way it presents the discussion and the summary of what has to be done:
- lay off people to reduce Google costs and global rate of IT
It is a really good use of #propaganda to achieve Global decisions and make IT people rate drop to achieve the transformation from pioneer to worker.
We started pioneering the world of computers... but there is always someone to stop the bleeding and put every sheeps in line again.
Be a silent computer scientist and follow the lines

@fuzzychef
Is there a verified source for this image?

@fuzzychef oh wow :(

@fuzzychef People making a cool million before secondary income complaining people making $200k as a married working couple with kids are getting too uppity about labor rights.

@fuzzychef :guillotine:

@fuzzychef I think TCI owns less than 1% of google's outstanding stock, so I think this is just more chest-puffery than anything else.

@fuzzychef It's a mess, isn't it?

My new (ish) motto: never trust a hedge fund.

⬆️

@fuzzychef I mean, if you work for a company that's owned by a hedge fund, you work for the hedge fund. In general, you work for whoever owns the company.

@fuzzychef always a joy, corporatism.

@fuzzychef I despise these people with all my mind, heart, body, and soul.

@fuzzychef What the ever living fuck

I thought this was the kind of stuff heavily hinted at on a Golf course or something, not sent in a letter in thinly veiled words.

@fuzzychef

> Apparently the current layoffs were orchestrated by hedge funds.

They were not, as probably already mentioned in other replies. Commenters on HN report that this fund owns just 0.5% of Google shares, with Brin and Page still owning majority.

I can send a letter with friendly unsolicited advice to any company, then publish it if the company moves in the same direction and try to claim credit.

@fuzzychef my favorite part is they are shameless about it. they posted this letter on their own site! i don’t even think we can call it the “quiet part” any more.

https://www.tcifund.com/files/corporateengageement/alphabet/20th%20January%202023.pdf

@fuzzychef Tech workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains!

Between this recent wave of bigtech layoffs and the fair-right government in my home country, I never felt so compelled to vote left.

@fuzzychef if you ever needed to lose a shareholder, it would probably be that guy.

@fuzzychef If I had a choice about how to live my life — and I do — I would not spend it just being a cog in a paper clip maximizer machine, like this guy is.

@fuzzychef I've been saying this for weeks.
The shareholders are the same across all these companies.

"If one can live with 10% less fees and make us more money why can't the other ones"- said those shareholders

@fuzzychef Hedgefunds just create more trouble than they are worth

@fuzzychef why on earth does Google need investments??

@fuzzychef we all seem to know the underpinnings of this situation but what is the CTA?

@fuzzychef https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acT_PSAZ7BQ

@fuzzychef
Interesting that it is all seen as cost, no acknowlegdement that there are 2 sides to a ledger.

No concept of value

@fuzzychef I've also heard from a source I unfortunately can't name that the layoffs are an effort to rein in / roll back the advantages workers obtained during the pandemic (work flexibility etc)

@fuzzychef I don't know, do they think the word "headcount" sounds cool (thus the extensive use) because it refers to the brains or stuff? It just makes it sound like you're talking about cattle.

@fuzzychef this has been orchestrated for months, recall when Fed Charmain Powell said close to the same and next thing you knew, interest rates started going all the way up? The powers that be want everyone except the obscenely rich to suffer.

@fuzzychef Statisticians looking at the numbers without context and mixing London Prices with SanFrancisco?

@fuzzychef https://www.reuters.com/technology/alphabet-links-more-ceo-pichais-pay-performance-2022-12-21/ And this…

@fuzzychef Capitalism is a blight, when these companies lay people off cancel subscriptions and tell them why

@fuzzychef Anyone who subscribes to the notion of the benevolent billionaire exception take heed. The revealed email/text traffic between Elon/SBF and their billionaire brethren show their shared confidence in their own brilliance and contempt for the rest of us mortal fools. They have little practical business management idea what they order but they smuggly execute anyway.

@fuzzychef I have no words

@fuzzychef I don't intend on letting this person who signed this memo sleep at night. We cannot alow these people any quarter in society.

@fuzzychef in case anybody is interested, here's the link to the original: https://www.tcifund.com/files/corporateengageement/alphabet/20th%20January%202023.pdf

This is also not the first time such a letter was sent, this is from November 2022, same theme (head count too high, salaries too high): https://www.tcifund.com/files/corporateengageement/alphabet/15th%20November%202022.pdf

@fuzzychef our company received a mandate from its holding company demanding that we reduce headcount. It’s incredibly demoralizing.

@fuzzychef The fact that the guy who wrote this is called Hohn, which is a German word that literally translates to "derision" or "mockery", is the icing on the cake.

@fuzzychef

Hedge funds are a menace to society.

@fuzzychef an investor activist. A good thing. The letter makes sense.

@fuzzychef And Wikipedia describes him as Philanthropist…. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Hohn

@fuzzychef Yea... he's added next to nazis in my list of people I'm allowed to punch.

@fuzzychef This is how hedge funds work: they buy companies on credit, strip them down to show a profit then on sell at a profit

@fuzzychef

I'm surprised there was no mention of fed rate increases and how eliminating jobs and reducing salaries would encourage the fed to slow or even stop those rate increases.

@fuzzychef Can we update “Occupy Wall Street” to “Burn Wall Street To The Ground”?

@fuzzychef Interesting how tech will take money from hedge funds but complain when those same funds do what they always do. #efficiency #oops #realworldproblems #tech #HedgeFunds #finance #money

@fuzzychef I was thinking "who leaked this" but it is public on their web site.

https://www.tcifund.com/files/corporateengageement/alphabet/20th%20January%202023.pdf

@fuzzychef To be fair employers are actually better off not working for these shit companies.

@fuzzychef Wow, the hedgefond manager's name is literally the German word for scorn (Hohn). Creepily fitting.

@fuzzychef

their greed has no upper bounds.

we have enough for everyone to have a life with basics+more but these #$&@ would rather not give up their extra extras. let's wake up.

@fuzzychef is there a source for that image, like another place it is on the internet?

@fuzzychef TBH this letter seemed unbelievable in the simplistic and blunt way it was written (and is public), I assumed it was fake. but no, this is an actual communication from a large and sophisticated shareholder. "you need to fire some employees and otherwise reduce their pay"

I've worked in a lot of financial orgs and have never seen language that looks like it's from a videogame plot

@fuzzychef Paging @kairyssdal Paging @kimberlyadams

@fuzzychef when accepting a job from a company like Google, it's good to know where the money comes from; in this case, ad revenue. They manipulate people to spend money. With rising interest rates and inflation, people can't spend money they don't have, so the first thing that gets cut with Google's customers is the advertising budget. If you want stability, get a job in infrastructure that people need. It might not be as glamorous or exciting, but at least you can count on a regular paycheck.

@fuzzychef The day my last company's owner sold out to Evergreen (and Alpine) was the day that place started crashing like a poorly-run Windows ME box.

@fuzzychef Definitely smells of "keep the peasants in line or they might start getting ideas".

@fuzzychef the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie

@fuzzychef It's like these guys have not seen any of the research showing that layoffs end up costing more money than they save, and even cause the stock price to drop because investors see layoffs and think "company's in trouble".

@fuzzychef The whole publicly trated company idea makes no sense to me, it just sounds like a huge mistake. It's like deciding your company revenue is to be provided by loan sharks and now they tell you how to run your company. The service you provide, your clients and the employees you suport no longer matter, everything you do now is lick boots all day so they don't pull the plug on you.

@fuzzychef I don’t know that this is the smoking gun it’s meant to be. These guys own, what, less than half of one percent of Alphabet’s shares?

@fuzzychef is there a link to a story?

@fuzzychef
If the #workers were #organized they'd be able to #strike for a contract and as a way to push back against #layoff threats from employers.

@fuzzychef said by a man who’s reported personal net worth is 7.9 billion. He needs a one way ticket on a rocket ship set for the sun.

@fuzzychef

"If we reduce the number of employees for better short-term financial results, employee morale will decrease," [Iwata] said. "I sincerely doubt employees who fear that they may be laid off will be able to develop software titles that could impress people around the world."

https://www.polygon.com/2013/7/5/4496512/why-nintendos-satoru-iwata-refuses-to-lay-off-staff

@fuzzychef if my company asked me to lay off people, I'd be at the top of my list.

@fuzzychef it would be fair to say that hedge funds wanted this. It would also be fair to say that publicly traded companies have a responsibility to their shareholders. The rest is speculation.

@fuzzychef why things like bitcoin are ultimately bullish…

@fuzzychef Wow. Reference: https://www.tcifund.com/files/corporateengageement/alphabet/15th%20November%202022.pdf

@fuzzychef yes, but the Google & Facebook founders all hold a majority of voting shares in their companies.

@fuzzychef Karma.

@fuzzychef He’s worth 8 billion dollars.

@fuzzychef Well.... With the GOP poised to burn the global economy to the ground, might as well go after the hedge funds while everything is on fire anyway.

@fuzzychef "Your labour's too expensive."

@fuzzychef Imagine being in the middle of a cost of living crisis and you get laid off 'cus a hedge fund thought you were being 'paid too much'. What a fucking joke.

@fuzzychef Wow. This guy must be fun at parties. "Too many drink options! Must reduce overheads." blehh

@fuzzychef this is just a conspiracy theory! The hedgefunds who own everything wouldn't try and artificially depress wages through collective action! How would they even do that? Its not like they have seats on every corporate board in a vast and strategic interlocking network

/s

@fuzzychef I'm entirely missing the point here. Hedge Funds are in bed with the corporate tech industry. Ask the CEOs why they don't lay themselves off. You don't need CEOs. CEOs need YOU. Most have only the most rudimentary knowlege of the product their company puts out.

@fuzzychef Layoffs are not isolated to this hedge fund. VC influence on companies and each other makes layoffs happen in the same pattern as a "social contagion", and almost always without accomplishing what the VCs say they're trying to accomplish, according to https://news.stanford.edu/2022/12/05/explains-recent-tech-layoffs-worried/