Author Topic: SpaceX reducing workforce by at least 10 percent  (Read 50063 times)

Offline spacenut

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Re: SpaceX reducing workforce by at least 10 percent
« Reply #160 on: 01/18/2019 03:02 am »
I was working at a factory, working my way through college, when they had a big layoff.  It went strictly by seniority.  I was a quality control inspector and got demoted to keep working.  At least I had a job in a bad economy. 

Offline AC in NC

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Re: SpaceX reducing workforce by at least 10 percent
« Reply #161 on: 01/18/2019 03:27 am »
I was working at a factory, working my way through college, when they had a big layoff.  It went strictly by seniority.  I was a quality control inspector and got demoted to keep working.  At least I had a job in a bad economy.

In college, I worked through a temp agency at a printing company in Newton, NC called Meredith Burda.  They recently sold for $500M to RH Donnelly.  Back then they printed KMart Circulars, Fingerhut Catalogs, Grocery Store Weekly Ads, and such.  It was shift work where you rotated and I think I worked 1st and 2nd shift during that 6 weeks.  One of the jobs was to sort the Fingerhut catalogs by Zip Code into Mail Bags.  To keep from going crazy I would mentally sing Alice's Restaurant to myself repeatedly.

For the Grocery adds there was a machine to fold them.  For the catalogs, you would get pallets of sheets that had already been folded a certain way and you had to "jog" them (kind of fluff them so they wouldn't stick together) and then insert them in a machine so that one by one down the line they would all be pulled together to make the catalog.  Back to those pallets.  The sections were stacked in layers and the layers had separator sheets which were big multipage sheets of the porn mag covers they printed somewhere else in the plant.  That was pretty cool.

And the morale of the story ....     :-\     This is like the 43rd and the next is the 44th off-topic post in this thread.  Most of them in the last two pages.  Probably not even worth trying to salvage at this point.  I wouldn't want to sort through the mess.  Probably time to lock it down.
« Last Edit: 01/18/2019 04:12 am by AC in NC »

Offline docmordrid

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Re: SpaceX reducing workforce by at least 10 percent
« Reply #162 on: 01/18/2019 04:06 am »
No one is indispensible, and if you're emotionally invested in a job (vs your own business) you've misread important signals. Set up a portable retirement plan and go with the flow.
DM

Offline RonM

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Re: SpaceX reducing workforce by at least 10 percent
« Reply #163 on: 01/18/2019 05:28 am »
And the morale of the story ....     :-\     This is like the 43rd and the next is the 44th off-topic post in this thread.  Most of them in the last two pages.  Probably not even worth trying to salvage at this point.  I wouldn't want to sort through the mess.  Probably time to lock it down.

I think people are sharing their personal stories to make a point. At least that's what I did.

You work for a company and get a paycheck. That's your reward. If the company no longer needs your services they let you go. Sure it feels personal, but it's not. Business is business. Same goes for finding a new job. Don't feel bad about leaving. Your old boss should have paid you more or given better benefits.

Offline AC in NC

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Re: SpaceX reducing workforce by at least 10 percent
« Reply #164 on: 01/18/2019 02:53 pm »
And the morale of the story ....     :-\     This is like the 43rd and the next is the 44th off-topic post in this thread.  Most of them in the last two pages.  Probably not even worth trying to salvage at this point.  I wouldn't want to sort through the mess.  Probably time to lock it down.

I think people are sharing their personal stories to make a point. At least that's what I did.

You work for a company and get a paycheck. That's your reward. If the company no longer needs your services they let you go. Sure it feels personal, but it's not. Business is business. Same goes for finding a new job. Don't feel bad about leaving. Your old boss should have paid you more or given better benefits.

I totally get it.  It's neither topical or interesting.  We are debating philosophy of hiring and firing, of working and quitting.  That's not the purpose of NSF.

If people don't get that, fine.  I've tried to make the point 4 times and have gotten nowhere.  So carry on.
« Last Edit: 01/18/2019 02:55 pm by AC in NC »

Offline Lar

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Re: SpaceX reducing workforce by at least 10 percent
« Reply #165 on: 01/18/2019 03:21 pm »
(mod) No. Let's NOT carry on. Debating the nature of work, or whether capitalism is awesome or not, or what companies owe you, or telling your personal stories are all off topic for this narrowly focused thread.

If we can't stay on topic, yeah, it's time to lock. Try to stay focused if possible. Although perhaps all that can be said has been said, I'm interested in specific impacts to operations and plans as a result of this. That's on topic. I'm interested in the financial implications. That's on topic. I'm interested in what this bodes for the future. That's on topic.

Thanks.
"I think it would be great to be born on Earth and to die on Mars. Just hopefully not at the point of impact." -Elon Musk
"We're a little bit like the dog who caught the bus" - Musk after CRS-8 S1 successfully landed on ASDS OCISLY

Offline Patchouli

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Re: SpaceX reducing workforce by at least 10 percent
« Reply #166 on: 01/18/2019 04:06 pm »
Sometimes businesses have to reduce staff because the company's requirements change. We see that with Block 5 reusability and moving to SS/SH.

I was part of a big layoff a few years ago. The company decided to move to web-based apps, overseas help desk, and some "cloud" apps and storage. They no longer needed a large in-house IT department. Sure, it sucked being told on a conference call I was out of a job, but it made sense. I wasn't working on any new projects and was keeping busy by helping second level support. I knew my time was up.

The company gave us 30 days to help the reorg transition and a large severance package for incentive. They were about as nice and professional as they could under the circumstances.

Unfortunately, SpaceX went the IT company route of immediate dismissal, but that's common in tech industries today. I guess everyone has to suffer because of the possible damage a disgruntled employee can do.

The book Lab Rats by Dan Lyons comes to mind about how silicon valley companies operate these days.
Musk is originally a Silicon valley guy and old habits die hard.

Though those who left Spacex do seems to generally hold less resentment than average and tend to quickly find jobs else where.

Another issue they may have overshot on their hiring in some departments as the company was growing very quickly.
Plus how many times did they change star ship's basic design and probably would have ended up with more specialized techs and engineers than needed.
« Last Edit: 01/18/2019 04:12 pm by Patchouli »

Offline niwax

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Re: SpaceX reducing workforce by at least 10 percent
« Reply #167 on: 01/18/2019 05:11 pm »
Sometimes businesses have to reduce staff because the company's requirements change. We see that with Block 5 reusability and moving to SS/SH.

I was part of a big layoff a few years ago. The company decided to move to web-based apps, overseas help desk, and some "cloud" apps and storage. They no longer needed a large in-house IT department. Sure, it sucked being told on a conference call I was out of a job, but it made sense. I wasn't working on any new projects and was keeping busy by helping second level support. I knew my time was up.

The company gave us 30 days to help the reorg transition and a large severance package for incentive. They were about as nice and professional as they could under the circumstances.

Unfortunately, SpaceX went the IT company route of immediate dismissal, but that's common in tech industries today. I guess everyone has to suffer because of the possible damage a disgruntled employee can do.

The book Lab Rats by Dan Lyons comes to mind about how silicon valley companies operate these days.
Musk is originally a Silicon valley guy and old habits die hard.

Though those who left Spacex do seems to generally hold less resentment than average and tend to quickly find jobs else where.

Another issue they may have overshot on their hiring in some departments as the company was growing very quickly.
Plus how many times did they change star ship's basic design and probably would have ended up with more specialized techs and engineers than needed.

Case in point, Tesla just let 7% of their workforce go after hiring another 30% last year to get Model 3 rolling. Now they have production figured out and know who they actually need.
Which booster has the most soot? SpaceX booster launch history! (discussion)

Offline su27k

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Re: SpaceX reducing workforce by at least 10 percent
« Reply #168 on: 02/01/2019 10:14 am »
Elon Musk blames SpaceX layoffs on 'absolutely insane' Mars rocket and satellite internet projects

Quote
"On the SpaceX side, the cost reduction was for a different reason unrelated to – SpaceX has two absolutely insane projects that would not only bankrupt the company. There's Starship and Starlink. And so, SpaceX has to be incredibly Spartan with expenditures until those programs reach fruition."

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