SNAP: Employee Staff Layoffs

Posted on February 7, 2024 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Staff Reporters

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According to Wikipedia, Snapchat is an American multimedia instant messaging app and service developed by Snap Inc., originally Snapchat Inc. One of the principal features of Snapchat is that pictures and messages are usually only available for a short time before they become inaccessible to their recipients. The app has evolved from originally focusing on person-to-person photo sharing to presently featuring users’ “Stories” of 24 hours of chronological content, along with “Discover”, letting brands show ad-supported short-form content. It also allows users to store photos in a password-protected area called “my eyes only”. It has also reportedly incorporated limited use of end-to-end encryption, with plans to broaden its use in the future.

Snapchat was created by Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, and Reggie Brown, former students at Stanford University. It is known for representing a mobile-first direction for social media, and places significant emphasis on users interacting with virtual stickers and augmented reality objects. In July 2021, Snapchat had 293 million daily active users, a 23% growth over a year. On average more than four billion Snaps are sent each day. Snapchat is popular among the younger generations, particularly those below the age of 16, leading to many privacy concerns for parents.

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So yesterday, Snap laid off 10% of its staff. The job cuts, which amount to roughly 540 people, are Snap’s largest since 2022. Ad revenue at the social media giant has slowed since Apple changed its privacy policy, making it harder for advertisers to access user data.

Meta also suffered from the changes but has rebounded after the company laid off thousands of workers as part of CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s “year of efficiency.” Snap’s layoffs prolong a ghastly start to 2024 for the tech industry, which has endured 32-K job cuts already this year, as per the Layoffs.

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EMPLOYEE LAYOFFS: A Different Type of Holiday “Window Dressing”

Posted on December 22, 2023 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

END-OF-YEAR FINANCE

By Staff Reporters

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We’ve discussed end of year mutual fund “window-dressing” before on this ME-P. Essentially, with mutual funds, window dressing refers to the superficial changes a fund might make to its portfolio of holdings to appear more attractive to current and prospective investors. At a glance, a potential investor might be drawn in with what appears to be good performance. 

For example, a mutual fund management team might choose to sell losing stocks and buy winning ones at or around the end of a quarter. This strategy hides weak performance and gives investors a perception of impressive returns. 

CITE: https://www.r2library.com/Resource/Title/082610254

Window dressing in stocks is an example from another part of the world of finance, as public companies sometimes use window dressing when reporting earnings. Depending on the specifics, this practice can range from “creative accounting” to something bordering on or actually qualifying as fraud.

For example, some economics researchers cite rounding as a manipulative form of window dressing. A firm might round $5.99 million in quarterly earnings up to $6 million because the round number can be more psychologically attractive.

MORE: https://medicalexecutivepost.com/2023/12/02/what-is-mutual-fund-window-dressing/

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The GM-owned self-driving car company Cruise will lay off 24% of its staff (~900 employees) as well as nine executives following a serious autonomous taxi crash in San Francisco in October 2023 and the vehicles’ subsequent banning in the state of California.

Cruise’s staff reduction appears mostly due to the safety concerns around the company’s robo-taxis, but it comes after a deluge of other high-profile companies made major cuts just before the holidays:

  • Etsy. The online marketplace said it was laying off 11% of its staff. CEO Josh Silverman blamed the macroeconomic environment and previous over-hiring despite gross merchandise sales remaining flat since 2021.
  • Hasbro. The toymaker laid off 1,100 workers (roughly 20% of its staff) after a period of less-than-stellar toy sales following a pandemic surge. This most recent layoff is in addition to the 800 jobs it cut earlier this year.
  • Spotify. The streaming giant announced its third round of 2023 layoffs earlier this month. The company cut 1,500 jobs, which equates to about 17% of staff.
  • Why do companies do this?

Pre-holiday layoffs might seem especially cruel, but sadly, they aren’t uncommon. December job cuts are the quickest way for companies to pad the balance sheet and EOY reports before they show them to shareholders. Plus, it means they’ll have to give out fewer end-of-year bonuses.

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PHYSICIAN LAYOFFS: Job Eliminations Across 66 Hospitals

Posted on July 23, 2023 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Staff Reporters

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A report published by Becker’s Hospital Review highlights a large number of job elimination efforts that have been announced or already implemented across 66 hospitals, including the following:

  • As an organizational redesign measure, Oklahoma University (OU) Health has eliminated around 100 positions.
  • 200 healthcare jobs were cut by Oklahoma City-based Integris Health to curb expenses.
  • ProMedica in Toledo, Ohio, announced plans to lay off 262 employees in March.
  • 337 employees of New York City-based Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center are likely to be laid off shortly.
  • 112 employees of Pikeville Medical Center in Kentucky were laid-off at the end of 2022.
  • Desert Springs Hospital Medical Center in Las Vegas has already notified its workers that 970 jobs will be lost as it transitions to an emergency department.
  • California-based Kaweah Health in Visalia is likely to eliminate 94 positions.

These healthcare worker layoffs only reveal a part of the crisis because the complete closure of numerous hospitals is also on the horizon.

While the closure rate is faster for rural hospitals, urban hospitals are not safe either. In November 2022, Atlanta Medical Center (AMC) in Atlanta Georgia, announced its closure, leaving hundreds of workers jobless. This closure also had a severe adverse impact on the availability of trauma care in Atlanta. In 2019, the city council in Washington D.C. voted in favor of closing United Medical Center prior to COVID, leaving a healthcare gap during the pandemic.

CITE: https://www.r2library.com/Resource

NOTE: The current trend of hospital closures and healthcare job cuts not only affects the healthcare workers and their families but also poses serious questions about the quality of healthcare in the country. Last year, McKinsey & Company predicted that by the end of 2025, the US healthcare system may face a shortage of up to 450,000 registered nurses [RNs].

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MARCH “IDES”: Banking, Markets and Labor

Posted on March 15, 2023 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

IN BRIEF

By Staff Reporters

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The Ides of March (today) is infamous for being the date Julius Caesar was killed. But before that happened, it was mostly known as the deadline by which the ancient Romans had to settle their debts.

Speaking of debts?

Markets: Banking debt crisis averted? While many questions remain over the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, stocks boomed yesterday in a sign Wall Street has moved past the “panic” stage of this drama. Regional banks like First Republic, whose shares got trounced on Monday, rebounded as the threat of an SVB-like bank run dissipated.

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Finally, while the US labor market remains strong, layoffs have spiked in 2023. Companies announced 180,713 job cuts in January and February—the most to start any year since 2009, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas. About one-third of the layoffs took place at tech companies, like Meta which just announced another 10,000 more..

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ORDER: https://www.routledge.com/Risk-Management-Liability-Insurance-and-Asset-Protection-Strategies-for/Marcinko-Hetico/p/book/9781498725989

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