The Scoop #21: One Deep Layoff or Death By a Thousand Cuts?
Formerly high-flying startups face layoff pressure and are responding to this in different ways. Also: pay raises at Apple and JP Morgan.
The Scoop is a bonus series, covering patterns and trends I observe and hear about within Big Tech and at high-growth startups. Have a scoop to share? Send me a message!
A lot of what I share in The Scoop is exclusive to this publication, meaning it’s not been covered in any other media outlet before and you’re the first to read about it. Many of these exclusives come from me talking directly with people working at companies, then sharing what I hear with you. Thanks to everyone who sends me tips and messages!
I’ve gotten some feedback that it’s not always clear that The Scoop delivers this first-hand, original, reportage, so I’m adding an ‘Exclusive’ label to news which features original reporting direct from my sources, as distinct from analysis, opinion and reaction to events. Of course, I also analyze what’s happening in the tech industry, citing other media sources for information and quoting them as I dive into trends I observe. These sections will not carry the ‘Exclusive’ mark.
Speaking of which, we have plenty of hot topics to report in The Scoop this week, and almost all are exclusives:
An uptick in Performance Improvement Plans (PIPs) at Stripe. Is the fintech formerly valued at $95B executing shadow layoffs? I talked with software engineers inside the company and this could be the case. Exclusive.
Layoffs at Oracle. Three weeks after I reported on layoffs starting at Oracle, the company has switched up gears in executing layoffs. More details on the organizations hit, and how the layoffs are playing out. Exclusive.
Layoffs at Shopify: a follow-up. The layoffs came out of the blue for many people, as just months ago the company was planning to increase compensation across the board. Exclusive.
Deep layoffs vs death by a thousand cuts. Stedi let go a large part of its employees, as did Robinhood and Eden Health. SoundCloud will do the same. Exclusive on Stedi, SoundCloud and Eden Health.
Pay rises at Apple. Given the cooling market, will Apple walk back its promise to raise compensation? I talked with managers at the corporate giant on what to expect. Exclusive.
Midyear raises at JP Morgan. In a somewhat unexpected move, the investment bank is upping compensation for many software engineers in the US and UK. Exclusive.
The mood inside Google after the warning of ‘productivity concerns.’ Forbes broke news that CEO Sundar Pichai has reportedly told employees he sees concerns with productivity. I went ahead and asked several engineering managers if people even noticed this comment. Spoiler: they barely did. Exclusive.
Oncall scoop. Why did LinkedIn stop paying for site reliability engineers (SREs)? Why does Amazon only pay for oncall within its Prime Video unit in the UK? Exclusive.
The Ukraine software engineering market. A look at how the tech market is doing, six months into the war.
Let’s jump in!