But no execs, I assume.
Discord is laying off 17 percent of employees
Submitted 9 months ago by testeronious@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world
https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/11/24034705/discord-layoffs-17-percent-employees
Comments
GlitzyArmrest@lemmy.world 9 months ago
mp3@lemmy.ca 9 months ago
At least not without a golden parachute.
SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Here is your reward for fucking up
Gork@lemm.ee 9 months ago
The execs I know yell at people. They somehow get rewarded for having temper tantrums.
murmelade@lemmy.ml 9 months ago
I hope it’s the Nitro bros.
dinckelman@lemmy.world 9 months ago
It’s not like the management has let people, who still work there, add or fix anything. It’s been nothing but Nitro promos, and animated profiles. Huge shame that people got laid off like this
Sabata11792@kbin.social 9 months ago
"Heres your hourly reminder to rent worthless garbage we want you to pay monthy for, per server"
spacebirb@lemmy.world 9 months ago
God forbid they offer goods and services in exchange for money
inb4_FoundTheVegan@lemmy.world 9 months ago
To be clear, I’m not defeneding this pratice but explaining it. This cycle is how large businesses operate to foster growth over time.
- Lay off people to tell stock holders they are becoming more efficient.
- wait
- Hiring spree, announce new features, new directions, hype hype hype
- wait
- Lay offs! Trimming overhead! Streamlining! Much efficency! Good business!
- wait
- Hyyyyyyype! Discord announces a plan to replace iMessage, Email and the entire concept of texting! Triples their staff! Such hype!
Rinse, repeat
It’s horrific for the employees and a scathing indictment as capitalism as a whole. But, this is how large businesses work, not nessecarily a massive corporate slip up.
Here is a lawyer explaining the “dance steps” that the game industries is doing as of late.
danielbln@lemmy.world 9 months ago
That may have been true during the lavish times of ZIRP, but I wouldn’t expect to see this dance any longer, at least until money is cheap/free again.
Jyek@sh.itjust.works 9 months ago
Money is always cheap for capitalists. Even the hardest of times is only hard for people without money.
Reddfugee42@lemmy.world 9 months ago
UNIONIZE
BlanK0@lemmy.ml 9 months ago
Damn, this was very insightful. Thx for sharing!!! 😁
SuperSpruce@lemmy.zip 9 months ago
Y’know, they were going crazy over the top implementing unnecessary features… Maybe they actually did have too many employees doing useless things, but they should’ve instead had those employees focus on performance instead
sunbeam60@lemmy.one 9 months ago
You hit the nail on the head.
I see this so many places - nobody asks “how big does this company need to be”? This is the problem with public companies - they are caught in an endless growth trap. Private businesses at least get to a point where a) growth has to happen sustainably because often there isn’t endless money available to invest and b) once you’ve got one private jet, as owners, do you really need another?
Reddit was no different. Maybe it would have been better for us all if it was a much smaller team and just careful tendered like a garden that had filled its plot.
lazynooblet@lazysoci.al 9 months ago
Probably trying everything they could to get more $$$ but it didn’t work out so… bye.
NotJustForMe@lemmy.ml 9 months ago
The one writing the change-logs should stay though. Hilarious.
But yeah, featureitis usually comes from employees sitting on their hands. I mean, I keep telling myself, just because I only use two features, doesn’t mean everybody else does… But I strongly feel that nobody really does. Chat, video, voice, done.
corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 9 months ago
You think you could put “improved performance and fixed bugs” on the brochure but if it’s not something with ~A.I. then it’s not gonna help sales.
Zoidberg@lemm.ee 9 months ago
Unity, Google, Discord. All within a day or two of each other.
For every number of employees laid off, a VP level employee must be fired. Those employees didn’t hire themselves. Someone came up with the idea.
If companies don’t do this they’re not attacking the root of the problem.
interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml 9 months ago
They coordinate to create a glut and push all their wages down. Computer touching wagies and so socially stunted they’ll never form effective union. If they did, they would jusy defect out of greed.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Computer touching wagies and so socially stunted they’ll never form effective union.
The industry is so niche, the technology is so heavily customized, and the people so idiosyncratic that I think forming a union shouldn’t be that hard. The real dampener is that the pay for these jobs is always far above the median. Five years of experience and you’re reaching towards six figures. Ten years and you’re well over the line. And in Silicon Valley, the sky is the limit. A master’s or phd in your field means you’re looking at $200k, $300k, $400k…
If there’s a big drop in wages (and considering the real estate prices in the neighborhoods where these businesses exist) something’s got to give. Maybe you get unions. Maybe you just get a bunch of businesses collapsing on themselves Twitter-style and forcing people back into the “indie company-in-my-garage” model. Maybe everyone becomes contractors.
But this isn’t sustainable in any serious sense.
neclimdul@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Also twitch. Yuck…
Probably some great devs on the market for anyone hiring though.
pologreem@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Yeah, no
All devs must go through at least a year of unemployment according to these mofos
CosmicCleric@lemmy.world 9 months ago
For every number of employees laid off, a VP level employee must be fired.
You’re expecting Morlocks to feast on each other, instead of feasting on the Eloy.
Hyperlon@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Year end business review
ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml 9 months ago
Bold of you to think that the VP level employees don’t get big raises in exchange for laying empoyees off.
Copernican@lemmy.world 9 months ago
I think it’s an unfair and naive assumption to think VPs all keep their jobs. I’ve seen some pretty nasty game of thrones plays by executive leadership during layoffs due to consolidation of teams and remits. Someone might get a bonus that doesn’t deserve it, but someone is going to get let go at a high level (albeit with a generous severance not offered to the rest of the employees.)
homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Tech CEOs: we need better numbers. Fire a bunch of people! Ahh there we go. Now we’re flush with cash. Well, my work here is done.
someguy3@lemmy.world 9 months ago
And gut the r&d budget. That’s future CEOs problem
superduperenigma@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Now where’s my golden parachute?
CosmicTurtle@lemmy.world 9 months ago
The Jack Welsh way…
That guy is literally, not figuratively, responsible for most of the shitty things that companies do now.
SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world 9 months ago
That will cause some discord
jaykay@lemmy.zip 9 months ago
Before you do that, can you fix screen sharing on Linux?
danielf@aussie.zone 9 months ago
I haven’t used Discord in a while so YMMV but I used to use WebCord and screen sharing worked pretty well IIRC. It uses an up-to-date Electron version which has better support for modern desktop Linux protocols. There are probably plenty of other alternative clients that just repackage the web app with better Linux support. There’s also gtkcord4 which is a native Gtk client, though definitely not as polished as the official client.
jaykay@lemmy.zip 9 months ago
It does support it, but not the audio :/
Telodzrum@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Man I know Wayland is the future, I just wish the future was better.
MonkderZweite@feddit.ch 9 months ago
Now how to move the gaming community to Matrix or XMPP.
Sylvartas@lemmy.world 9 months ago
You don’t. Gamers, are generally happy to bow to their corporate overlords for some reason.
Source: am a gamer. And I admit I do put up with some of that bullshit too.
Tangent5280@lemmy.world 9 months ago
I think that behaviour pattern has it’s roots in the perceived dominance of Microsoft windows in the gaming sphere - we can fix that by encouraging people to game with linux.
Draedron@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 months ago
Why? Discord is still as functional as ever. Why would I move platform?
MonkderZweite@feddit.ch 9 months ago
Because it locks you out from even seeing the mods and stuff if you don’t have an account. Old time forums were better.
Potfarmer@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Discord went the way of Skype, it’s just a bloated fustercluck now. I don’t use it often, just once a month or so to keep up with a group of old friends, and every time I fire it up it has a new update bringing features I don’t give a rats ass about.
FlavoredButtHair@lemmy.world 9 months ago
So the nitro subscription is gonna up to increase profits?
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 9 months ago
They’re going to introduce a new kind of emoji, though.
dylanTheDeveloper@lemmy.world 9 months ago
🫄
FlavoredButtHair@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Gotta have all the new DLC/cosmetic stuff.
PanArab@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Right after they ruined the app’s UI?
Maximilious@kbin.social 9 months ago
Mobile UI is atrocious after the recent upgrade a couple months ago. Wish I could go back.
FeelThePower@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 months ago
you can download an old APK on Android, or sideload on iOS. I have one with the early 2023 layout and one with the pre-2021 layout just because. none with the new update
Shihali@sh.itjust.works 9 months ago
Leave a bad review. I did get halfway back.
blueson@feddit.nu 9 months ago
Download an APK of an older version and disable auto-updates.
The API still works well so the old client doesn’t have any issues.
DoomBot5@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Small company: yeah, we hired too many people, need to let go of 170.
People: such huge cuts, not touching them anymore
Large company: we’re laying off the entire staff of pre-Elon Twitter worth of employees in this one department because they didn’t make us enough money.
People: good, your product sucked anyways
Chobbes@lemmy.world 9 months ago
I mean, I wouldn’t exactly call a company with 1000 employees “small”. It’s not the behemoth that something like Google is, but like… that’s a good chunk of people.
Fedizen@lemmy.world 9 months ago
A wave of enshittification has struck Discord
Urist@lemmy.ml 9 months ago
Sorry to say it, but it has always sucked.
chitak166@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Nah. What sucked was having to type in IP addresses just to talk on voice.
AlecSadler@sh.itjust.works 9 months ago
Absolutely. For some crazy-ass reason my job transitioned away from Teams (I get it) and Slack and to Discord.
Discord is garbage for this type of work environment. Maybe it works for some? But it just doesn’t make sense.
platypus_plumba@lemmy.world 9 months ago
My stress levels skyrocket whenever I’m using Discord. The quality of the voice is nice but having to constantly reconfigure the settings to make it work fine and the unintuitive UI stresses me out.
NotJustForMe@lemmy.ml 9 months ago
Still holding out for them to have a $10 a year tier with no added features. The $36 bucks a year entry fee is just too much.
Can someone here explain to me why so many free services directly jump to $3, $5 or $9.99 bucks a month? Why not $10 per year? Surely that’s better than nothing?
Just call it supporter tier and that’s it. I don’t want any icons or upload limits either. I just want to not feel like a leech. ;)
MaxPow3r11@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Capitalism!
It fucking sucks!
RandomStickman@kbin.social 9 months ago
Any alternative you would recommend? I'm mostly using it for video group call for dnd. Although convincing the group to change to yet another program would be the hardest part.
Copernican@lemmy.world 9 months ago
In this thread: Fuck Discord! Fuck capitalism! No company should lay off 170 people.
In other thread: Fuck Boeing! Fuck capitalism! It should die along without all 150,000 jobs occupied by their employees.
EnderMB@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Well, looks like I’ll be limiting my use of Discord from now on. I’ve no interest in supporting tech companies that will reduce headcount over admitting fault.
autotldr@lemmings.world [bot] 9 months ago
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Discord is laying off 17 percent of its staff, a move that CEO Jason Citron said is meant to “sharpen our focus and improve the way we work together to bring more agility to our organization.”
Based on Citron’s message to employees and my understanding of the business, Discord isn’t in dire financial straits, though it has yet to become profitable and is still trying to revive user growth after a surge during the pandemic.
In his memo to employees, which you can read in full below, Citron said Discord grew its headcount too fast over the last few years — an admission that has become quite common among tech CEOs as of late.
These cuts are Discord’s largest to date after the messaging app laid off 4 percent of staff last August.
They add to the layoffs that continue to sweep across the tech industry, including deep cuts at Google and Amazon just this week.
The company has been contemplating going public since it turned down a $12 billion acquisition offer from Microsoft in 2021, though I’m told it’s nowhere near close to doing so.
The original article contains 289 words, the summary contains 186 words. Saved 36%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
ryannathans@aussie.zone 9 months ago
Definitely not getting linux video streaming now
tabular@lemmy.world 9 months ago
I’d look for something else but it’s not as if my friends are there. Yay vendor lock-in !
vsh@lemm.ee 9 months ago
All were linux devs /s
Lightrider@lemmynsfw.com 9 months ago
Fuckingcapitalists
tory@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Shocked that discord employed 1k people tbh.
BlanK0@lemmy.ml 9 months ago
Shill element and we wouldn’t need to be in this situation people 😮💨
labbbb@thelemmy.club 9 months ago
I use Matrix already 3 years now
paddirn@lemmy.world 9 months ago
“sharpen our focus and improve the way we work together to bring more agility to our organization.”
Ahh yes, watching co-workers get laid off does wonders for improving the way you work together with the people still there.
OpenStars@startrek.website 9 months ago
It does make you work harder… at finding some other job:-P.
GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml 9 months ago
Not exactly a stellar market to be looking in. Chances are that you’ll be trading down, especially if you’re in some level of big tech, like Discord arguably is.
AFC1886VCC@reddthat.com 9 months ago
What a load of PR wank
GuyDudeman@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Right? Sharpening focus and working together have zero to do with how many people you employ.
This was about profits. It’s always about profits.
Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 9 months ago
Or maybe if has something to do with the limited availability of VC money. If you can’t find people to throw free money at your company, you need to figure out a way to actually make it profitable. You know, like a normal business…
PriorityMotif@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Trauma bonding exercise!
Emptiness@lemmy.world 9 months ago
“The beatings will continue until morale improves!”