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Re:Epic Games is laying off 16% of its staff by JumpCrisscross on Thursday September 28, 2023 @11:46AM (#37691302)
> most of the people I've seen being fired in one of the big ones are senior people working in customer facing roles

Which industry? I’m seeing a lot of middle layers being reduced, but not the rainmakers.

Re:Epic Games is laying off 16% of its staff by AugustoCAS on Thursday September 28, 2023 @12:03PM (#37691581)
I've seen this on the org I work, the whole 'engineer manager' layer was removed and replaced with wishful thinking (love that phrase!). The engineer managers had a good idea of how to manage teams and were doing team/tech lead work and coaching the team/tech leads, which didn't have much experience (mostly senior devs who didn't want to code any more).

This org in particular missed, in my eyes, where to cut. There is a number of engineers who cannot do much more than copy/paste code and the org has no wish to train them. Unfortunately, the org thinks that going wide (lots of teams, lots of people) is a good way to scale.

Re:Epic Games is laying off 16% of its staff by JAlexoid on Thursday September 28, 2023 @12:10PM (#37691687)
Until hiring decisions are subjective and prone to manipulation - the "rainmakers" will not be fired. Middle management is screwed, though.

Though functions like CEO and a lot of the executive suite - are under threat of just being replaced.

Re:Epic Games is laying off 16% of its staff by alanfranz on Thursday September 28, 2023 @12:40PM (#37692142)
Otoh middle management often provides the human layer, something chatgpt can’t do. What would you replace manager 1:1 with? Planning? Coaching? Frustration venting? Team building?
Re:Epic Games is laying off 16% of its staff by JumpCrisscross on Thursday September 28, 2023 @12:26PM (#37691935)
> functions like CEO and a lot of the executive suite - are under threat of just being replaced

By what? A Board-hired AI?

Re:Epic Games is laying off 16% of its staff by JAlexoid on Thursday September 28, 2023 @12:40PM (#37692139)
Half of your marketing can already be replaced with AI, and CMO's strategy is better generated by ChatGPT. Quite a few people on the marketing team should be shaking...

Quite a few CEOs should just sit on the board and stick to reviewing an AI generated strategy implementation plan. Because it's still the board that decides on the strategy, while CEO typically is focused on the implementation of said strategy.

CEO as a fulltime position is definitely under threat here.

Re:Epic Games is laying off 16% of its staff by JumpCrisscross on Thursday September 28, 2023 @12:59PM (#37692457)
> marketing can already be replaced with AI, and CMO's strategy is better generated by ChatGPT

Agree.

> Quite a few CEOs should just sit on the board and stick to reviewing an AI generated strategy implementation plan

Generating strategy is an important part of a CEO’s job. But it’s far from the main one. Their job is, centrally, about people. Managing relationships external and internal. That is AGI-territory work.

Re:Epic Games is laying off 16% of its staff by JAlexoid on Thursday October 05, 2023 @12:08PM (#37780421)
Disagree about CEO. A hired CEO, not director/owner/founder, is not a strategy creator.