Anyone affected by recent mass layoffs?

scotty on 02/02/2023 - 19:49

Saw this post on r/AusFinance yesterday, where some people shared what they saw at their workplace regarding to recent layoffs. Lots of redundancy at big global tech companies in the States, but some local Australian companies are also cutting their head counts. Heard from an ex-colleague that a company that I used to work for has stopped hiring since late last year. Friends of recent IT grads also found it increasingly difficult to land an interview.

Then in that Reddit post I saw something like this:

Catch of the day are laying off staff, 200 gone yesterday

Or this:

They laid off the entire Door dash Engineering team in Australia

Those are the companies that we see every other day here on OzBargain. Layoffs happening at retail as well? Anyone affected?

Education & Work

Comments

  • Mokr on 02/02/2023 - 20:15
    +3

    Catch of the day and door dash are struggling business already.

    • ThithLord on 03/02/2023 - 09:52

      It's just Catch now btw - who's parent company is owned by Wesfarmers. Uh ohhh

      • Mokr on 03/02/2023 - 10:52
        +1

        westfarmers are Masters at this

        • ThithLord on 03/02/2023 - 10:55

          Wesf but yeah

  • pegaxs on 02/02/2023 - 20:22
    +6

    Nope, I'm in a safe job… While ever idiots keep buying 12yo shit box Euro Trashwagens, I will always have a job. :D

    • Nugs on 02/02/2023 - 20:41
      +4

      I knew a mechanic who had a love-hate relationship with Commodores. Hated them being a Ford guy, loved them because they generated work through sheer volume
      .

  • Ghost47 on 02/02/2023 - 20:26
    +1

    I know someone who was laid off at Deliveroo. I'm not affected but just reading about this stresses me out.

    The way I see it is that we've had it way too good for far too long, when a recession comes it's gonna hit hard.

    Anyone here live through the recession of the early 90s and can shed some light on what it was like?

    • iCandy on 12/02/2023 - 12:04
      +1

      Yes. Worked for a large, National law firm. We laid off about 65 just from our Brisbane office. Interest rates were at 17% and wages were a lot lower. There were a lot of houses for sale at distressed prices. I worked in banking and finance then and we had a lot of work with mortgagee in possession sales. I tried to tell everyone here what could happen a year ago but the know it alls told me it would never happen as employers were begging for staff.

      • Ghost47 on 12/02/2023 - 15:19

        Thanks for the reply. Do you think the same could happen again now? As in are there similar conditions occurring in the lead up to the recession in the early 90s?

        • iCandy on 13/02/2023 - 07:22

          It’s definitely going to happen. Just not sure on how bad it will get before it’s over.

  • CodeXD on 02/02/2023 - 20:29

    Time to finish off those door dash vouchers…

  • payless69 on 02/02/2023 - 20:30
    +2

    Lol, some big country has an old Joe who gives heaps of cash to his beloved Mary.
    Watch Redacted on youtube as long as they are not banned!

  • Ocker on 02/02/2023 - 20:31
    +10

    Welcome to employment in the 21st century.
    There is absolutely no loyalty in tenure of employment on either the part of the employee, or the employer.
    Sadly, this is the way things work these days.
    Gone are the days where people (like me) worked for the one employer for 30+ years, and took pride in who we worked for and the image of the company we portrayed.
    On balance, I reckon employers deserve no respects from there employees because they will shaft them as suits

    • ThithLord on 03/02/2023 - 09:59
      +1

      On balance, I reckon employers deserve no respects from there employees because they will shaft them as suits

      You're onto something here

    • [Deactivated] on 08/02/2023 - 14:44
      -2

      Just a regular seasonal threat magnified by the media to keep the workers in check and create an "environment of greatfulness" amongst people who have jobs into accept no wage rises or even accept pay cuts. People are stupid enough to fall for it every other year. We have always been under the threat but it does not mean we parrot media outlets who are clearly controlled by large institutions with vested financial and other interests to drive the wages down.

  • Empharand on 02/02/2023 - 20:42
    +3

    Unfortunately I suspect it's going to get worse…
    Consumer spending is down, inflation is ever increasing and employee's are seeking pay increases / changing jobs for higher paying jobs. Employee wages are without a doubt one of the biggest overheads in any business, so when business slows down unfortunately they have no choice.

    • SF3 on 02/02/2023 - 22:03

      employee's are seeking pay increases

      Cue for the “underpaid” poster to comment.

    • brandt on 14/04/2023 - 11:54

      And yet profits are through the roof? Businesses need to reset pricing lower to attract more consumer spending, and reduce the need for employees to seek higher paying jobs.

  • megaalc on 02/02/2023 - 20:50
    +1

    I am pretty sure the IT market in Australia is very hot, so all of those laid off will be hired in a matter of few weeks if not days by someone else.
    PS ATM , in my fed gov department ( IT/ MS Cloud, Canberra), the direction is to replace contractors with APS (perm) staff as much as possible , but I do not think it is gonna happen as their APS' annual wages is quite low …

    • Aleigh123 on 14/04/2023 - 11:58

      Hmm…APS salaries do seem bad. Equivalent roles pay way less than private.

  • Hydralyte on 02/02/2023 - 21:23
    +1

    Yes.

    Few Australian start ups who work in defence have just slashed their workforce. Signs of recession. High interest rates. High energy and gas prices. FML

  • whoamitoblame on 02/02/2023 - 21:48
    +2

    Thank goodness I didn't leave my current role to join Doordash engineering in Aus. Phew.

  • Stalker on 02/02/2023 - 22:21
    +2

    I reckon this is just the start of it. We are in the early stages of a recession. Strap in, it's going to be a rough ride - but it won't last forever.

    • Ghost47 on 03/02/2023 - 10:53

      The Great Depression lasted 10 years.. it’s not forever but in a human lifespan it’s a long time.

  • USER DC on 02/02/2023 - 22:34
    +1

    I hope ordinary people suffer as least as possible. Businesses laying of staff will definitely struggle finding new same or higher quality staff later (just look at Qantas).

    And business can run on losses and still be manageable BUT ordinary people I hope not have to find themselves in such position

  • ForkSnorter on 03/02/2023 - 08:18
    +4

    If a recession is coming, I blame the RBA. Its short-sighted near-zero interest rate policy drove up property prices across the country (pretty sure this was their goal anyway), and they just kept them low while property prices continued to soar and soar.

    Obviously the entire RBA board profited from this policy, because they are wealthy bankers, no doubt each with their own large property portfolio.

    Now property prices are high, interest rates are high, inflation is high, but salaries have hardly risen to keep up.

    If my own behaviour is indicative of the general population, then there is a deep recession coming. I'm spending less than ever before, mainly because I'm scared about the cost of housing and cost of living, both now and in the future.

  • Cheaplikethebird on 03/02/2023 - 09:54
    +2

    No layoffs at my company but we're hiring atm. Went from a few applicants for a role at the latter end of last year to 70 applicants in Jan. Lots of recent graduates who weren't given a look-in. Lots of people lured into IT after COVID who are just entering the market now coupled with the layoffs, it's going to be a tough market. I think if you're in IT and you're not in a niche role, it's time to dig your nails in.

    • iCandy on 12/02/2023 - 12:08

      We hired right up until the day they had a mass lay off so as to keep it quiet. We had lawyers hired who were only there for a week, sacked.

      • Cheaplikethebird on 13/02/2023 - 08:50
        +1

        Fortunately I'm in a recession proof industry and I kiss arse.

  • pyramid on 03/02/2023 - 09:57
    +1

    A federal govt organisation fired around 3k contractors with a week notice just before Xmas last year….

  • TheYeetDoe on 03/02/2023 - 10:04
    +1

    Zomato has stopped operations in Australia.

    https://www.zomato.com/australia/goodbye

    • hamza23 on 03/02/2023 - 10:30
      +2

      I believe that happened in 2020. Link.

      • TheYeetDoe on 03/02/2023 - 11:15
        +1

        Geez i'm slow, but I swear I was using Zomato to look at reviews for local restaurants in Victoria just a week or so ago.

  • ECE on 03/02/2023 - 11:22
    +1

    Everyone will be replaced by robots except the niche trades 🤣😷

  • whatwasherproblem on 03/02/2023 - 14:19
    +1

    It will be interesting to see the demographics. There was a recent study that was looking at this with the recent Facebook-Apple-Google-Microsoft-Amazon-Netflix US big tech layoffs, and they found some interesting points:

    • many of the layoffs were HR/recruitment (~27%),
    • many of the layoffs were actually more senior positions with over a decade of experience in the field, and aged 30-40,
    • the median time at the company for layoffs was 2.5years, which puts them right around the Covid WFH employment boom.

    That was for the US big tech layoffs, it will be interesting to see whether demographics here are similar.

  • Italkdigital on 03/02/2023 - 14:19
    +2

    The rich getting richer the poor get the picture 👍😁

  • Unorthodox on 08/02/2023 - 12:37

    Saw the Aussie Corporate post about Accenture letting go a significant % of their consulting team in Aus.

    I have heard that they tried to require people on the bench (eg not on chargeable work) to be in the office more. Probably a fair request to be honest especially for junior staff who should be helping on other work/, getting visibility to be staffed.

    • pyramid on 08/02/2023 - 14:11

      Would you mind sharing link or post of this news

      • Unorthodox on 08/02/2023 - 14:37

        I wouldn't consider it news, it's unconfirmed but they usually get things spot on from leaks by employees.

        Search Aussie Corporate on Instagram.

        (They broke the PwC bat saga, EY suicide, etc)

  • freefall101 on 08/02/2023 - 17:36
    +2

    IT job ads are down more year on year than hospo, work seems to be drying up there very quickly.

    Recessions can be a self fulfilling prophecy. Companies and people prepare for them, companies shrink the upcoming product pipeline due to less demand on the horizon and people start cutting back on extra spend in preparation for it. Result is the recession comes quicker than it would otherwise.

    The opposite happened with the recent boom, there was demand for everything so companies hired like crazy. I read that Zoom fired 15% of it's workforce today, that was hardly surprising as it grew from 2,500 to 8,500 employees from 2020 to prior to this firing. Unemployment is incredibly low for a reason, a lot of places thought it'd be time for huge expansions.

  • Ghost47 on 14/02/2023 - 19:28

    Just got whiff today that several people from my old workplace was let go. Probably represents around 10% of the workforce. Scary times.

  • Unorthodox on 15/02/2023 - 11:35

    Not surprised but Milkrun letting go of 20% of their staff.

    I'm in the camp that they've been vying to be bought out and the founders to get that exit $$. Such a poor business model.

    • scotty on 15/02/2023 - 12:08

      I guess that's the result of funding running dry. Some startups need constant injection of cash to expand the market share, hoping either some private equity fund would buy them out or going to public. Ultimately it's just a ponzi scheme with a very slim hope that sometime in the future the business would take majority of market share & be profitable.

  • Unorthodox on 16/02/2023 - 11:48

    https://www.afr.com/companies/professional-services/kpmg-to-…

    Repeat of something similar during Covid-19. If I recall KPMG was one of the big 4 to do a mass layoff.

    • scotty on 16/02/2023 - 20:36

      Only 200 staff got layoff though, after they put on 2,000 new hires n Australia last year.

  • DennisLiu on 19/02/2023 - 16:33

    The ironic thing is that they are trying to get more seniors back into the workforce to take away jobs from the younger generation…

    These are the same people with lots of superannuation and savings… What a joke…

  • Sydneyswans on 14/04/2023 - 21:09

    Not yet but they are moving work away from Australia to our team in Mumbai hehehehehe. For the moment the team in India are doing some process work that could have otherwise been done in Australia and I assume we give them more work to do but on the other hand I'm still snowed under with work. Furthermore half our job tasks cannot be moved across to India due to legislation (I work in superannuation and investor relations ahaha)

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