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OPINION

Facebook gets leaner, and meaner

The job cuts will continue until morale improves

During his two decades at the helm of General Electric, it's estimated that Jack Welsh axed over 250 000 people. This earned the man, whose legacy is shouted about in the great halls of capitalism, the nickname Neutron Jack – after the neutron bomb – for laying waste to people's livelihoods. 

When things go wrong, even when its directly the result of decisions made by management, it always seems easier to start looking at retrenching staff and shutting operations without any consideration of the larger unforeseen indirect costs doing so can have on your business. This is because the folks at the top have this unshakable conviction in their ideas and plans – despite all evidence to the contrary. 

Let's consider the tech bros. The rich CEOs that run these global behemoths with market caps as big as countries' GDPs, are revered as gods and rock stars. Welsh had a cult-like status, but when you get to that emerald mine beneficiary and local boytjie - who wants nothing to do with his homeland - Elon Musk, the hero worship is more like an actual cult. And this faux cult leader, who is having kids with his acolytes, now wants to build his own utopian enclave. 

When he took a hatchet to jobs at Twitter, he did not consider the ramifications of his actions on actual operations. He even allegedly made fun of a disabled employee that wanted to know if he had been fired, then had to apologise, likely when he was told how much they'd have to pay the man for breach of contract. When Musk punts an idea or project, his followers blindly follow, even if it is illogical.

Star Trek's Data cosplayer and Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who has driven R660 billion worth of capital into his utopian Metaverse virtual reality, initially fired 11 000 employees, before another round on Tuesday, culling at least 10 000 more. The reason? Facebook needed to be "efficient". 

Zuckerberg, whose mannerisms might confuse those captcha "I am not a robot" tests, sounds like he is being calculating and efficient, despite ploughing billions into an idea that seems like a flop in actual reality and virtual reality. However, the Zuckerberg algorithm glitched on Tuesday, as he attempted to turn a dour announcement into a party. "A leaner org will execute its highest priorities faster. People will be more productive, and their work will be more fun and fulfilling," he said.

Fun? Work at Facebook is going to be more fun now that 20 000 people who relied on them are going to be without a job, while the company sinks more money into a fake reality? Sounds like more illogical cult-like behaviour – it almost like "there have to be sacrifices for us to achieve our virtual future and then upload ourselves before the singularity".

This is the free market, not Waco, Texas at the height of cult leader David Koresh. These are mostly listed companies, not the Manson Family. Things need to be logical. Although the words of these CEOs are not gospel, they still need exegesis, not blind following.

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Previously:

STOCK TAKE | Brian Molefe, amateur advocate

STOCK TAKE | A future you don't want to subscribe to

STOCK TAKE | The ANC's Barbra Streisand moment?

STOCK TAKE | Did MPs read the rail White Paper Cabinet adopted, and can Eskom offer some good stats?

STOCK TAKE | Struggling sugar industry eyes Godongwana nervously and Telkom seems to get speedier

STOCK TAKE | The Magda U-turn - and SA's great credit rush

STOCK TAKE | The cost of cybercrime and the state of the captured nation

STOCK TAKE | Eskom's tough lessons for a zombie apocalypse

STOCK TAKE | Spar's flawed thinking

STOCK TAKE | Nampak is boxed in a corner

STOCK TAKE | Steinhoff's unsettling future for shareholders, and Telkom loses its suitors

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