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Yahoo! layoffs coming?

21 January 2008
Author: nick Posted under thought journal, nick sullivan

Rumor mills are circulating that there are major layoffs coming soon. Since I work at Yahoo! (YHOO), I’ll document some thoughts.

I think a layoff at Yahoo! would be a good thing.

  1. Cut some fat - The company has a bunch of smart people, amongst the brightest I’ve ever worked with, but there are so many of us that most projects are overstaffed. How can something be overstaffed? As the number of people working on a project increases, so does communication expense. Everyone spends all of their time talking to each other and getting each other "on the same page". If you haven’t read the Mythical Man Month, I encourage you to do so. This concept is covered in detail.
  2. Hunker down - Yahoo! should also prepare properly for the upcoming recession, brought on by the Subprime Lending crisis and 8 years of leadership by the worst president in history. Now is a good time to trim expenses and have more cash laying around.
  3. An Answer Wall Street’s calls for major change - Heads rolling is often symbolic of a company that "means business" and is willing to take serious action for change. Having a big layoff will stop everyone from saying that Yahoo! Management isn’t doing enough.

Wait a minute! I work there. What about me? I feel pretty safe. I was recently promoted, I work on the companies current #1 top-secret initiative, of which I am an architect for an essential piece of it, and I just booked a trip to England to get to know the rest of my team better.

But even if I get the axe? I’d enjoy a nice severance package and the opportunity to look around at all the exciting opportunities in the Silicon Valley, like wikinvest.com, wikia’s new search, and other startups. I get 5-10 job solicitations a month — so the problem won’t be finding a new job, but deciding which opportunity is the best vehicle for my talents.


2 Responses to ' Yahoo! layoffs coming? '

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  1. Todd Federman said,

    on January 24th, 2008 at 2:01 pm

    Mythical Man Month is a great book. I think that book’s where I got my favorite analogy about project scheduling: You can take nine women and get them all pregnant on day one, but that doesn’t mean you’re going to get one baby per month.

  2. Harrison McDonald said,

    on March 16th, 2008 at 2:50 pm

    Hey Nick!! Number 43 is the ONLY President in your adult history. If you think he is bad you should have lived under Lyndon Johnson, the Texas size crook, ( 58,226 dead US solders in Vietnam VS 4,000 in Iraq ) or Jimmy Carter who gave away Iran by abandoning the Shaw thereby setting up the present mess in Iraq AND squandered the Panama Canal, not to mention 22% interest rates. HHM

    P.S. the way to identify a really awful politician is if the ridiculous Modern Nobels award him the "Peace Prize". ie Nelson Mandela, Yasser Arafat, Al Gore, Jimmy Carter, just to name a few. hhm

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