There's a lot going on over at Red Hat right now. Since the Linux giant was purchased by IBM in 2019, the company has been implementing massive changes to staffing and long-term policies. And w're not done yet.
It's increasingly looking like additional layoffs are on the horizon.
Here's a quick timeline of recent events, to put everything in context:
- December, 2020: Red Hat ends CentOS
- November, 2021: Red Hat announces that they will hire less experienced engineers from now on
- April, 2023: Red Hat Announces 760 layoffs
- June, 2023: Red Hat stops work on LibreOffice
- June, 2023: Access to Red Hat Linux source code restricted for first time
Considering the history of Red Hat -- those are some pretty dramatic changes in a fairly short period of time.
Then, yesterday, as the controversy over the recent changes to the Red Hat Linux source code policy raged on... I received a message from a Red Hat employee suggesting that an additional round of layoffs may be in the works.
Just a few hours later -- this morning -- the Fedora Project leader made the following statement on Twitter which would seem to lend additional credence to the idea of more layoffs:
That's quite a message to get!
"I got a message this morning from a high-up assuring me that if I hear the rumor that I've been laid off, I should not panic, because I have not, in fact, been. So, uh, thanks for that one, whoever."
That sort of message, coming down from management (seemingly out of nowhere), is never a good sign.
When I reached out to Matthew Miller (who I have had the pleasure of interviewing on multiple occasions) to see if he was expecting more layoffs, he told me the following:
"Not that I am aware of, but it really all hinges on, you know, capitalism. Profit and growth expectations for tech companies are unhinged from reality and apparently layoffs assuage the stockholders. I dunno; I'm not a finance dude. We'll see what the next quarterly report holds."
It doesn't end there.
The Red Hat workers union in France made a statement early last week (June 20th) that they expect layoffs in France (but are under an embargo).
Now, there could be multiple explanations for all of this.
It is entirely possible that the management team at Red Hat (or their IBM parent) discussed layoffs -- as management of companies tend to do, from time to time -- but decided not to go through with it (or not to at that moment). But they thought a rumor might have leaked.
Or, perhaps, someone started a rumor based on absolutely nothing. It happens.
Either way, management may want to squash any such layoffs discussion... especially among key employees.
... or ...
There is some truth to more layoffs coming.
Consider the following:
- We now have multiple statements, from different sources (all, in theory, unconnected), regarding additional layoffs at Red Hat.
- Layoffs tend to coincide with other organizational or policy changes at a company (restructuring, product line changes, etc.) -- which we are seeing to an unprecedented degree at Red Hat.
- Multi-round layoffs are happening across the tech industry right now (including at Amazon, Meta, Salesforce, Microsoft, and many others). In fact... multi-round layoffs are becoming common over the last year. And there is zero reason to think IBM / Red Hat is immune to that.
As of this moment we have no confirmation -- one way or another -- from Red Hat.
But, based on what we know so far (combined with past experince), my gut is telling me that there is more to come from Red Hat.
And soon.
Copyright © 2023 by Bryan Lunduke. All rights reserved. The contents of this article are licensed under the terms of The Lunduke Content Usage License.
