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Author Topic: Layoffs at istock  (Read 135920 times)

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PaulieWalnuts

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« Reply #75 on: January 18, 2012, 06:07 »
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For the people who are calling the staff incompetent, keep in mind that what you are capable of, and what you are told to do by your bosses, may be two different things.


« Reply #76 on: January 18, 2012, 06:27 »
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This comes as no surprise. Prices have been jacked up to mid-stock prices, there are too many pricing tiers that confuse buyers, and they've COMPLETELY forgotten the reasons why iStock was successful before Getty came along and mucked things up. Shutterstock and other true microstock sites are now laughing all the way to the bank, and Getty has completely stripped iStock of what it once was. It's a shame, but again, not a shock to me.

Unless Getty lowers prices to bring back the buyers so that it can compete with other sites, iStock is in for some VERY rough times ahead. Their corporate greed and hubris have caught up to them, and now people are paying the price.  
« Last Edit: January 18, 2012, 06:37 by jsmithzz »

« Reply #77 on: January 18, 2012, 06:30 »
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And just to add, Steve Jobs once said of Mark Zuckerberg, ""I admire Mark Zuckerberg. I only know him a little bit, but I admire him for not selling out, for wanting to make a company. I admire that a lot."

Too bad that can't be said of Bruce. 

« Reply #78 on: January 18, 2012, 06:46 »
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For the people who are calling the staff incompetent, keep in mind that what you are capable of, and what you are told to do by your bosses, may be two different things.
Absolutely, ive seen it happen too often in the workfield.
Peeps having to follow insanely ineffective and needlessly complicated procedures,  because management in their ivory towers are clueless and incompetent.

I wonder if the in-house masseuse got sacked too...
Sincere sympathies to those that were layed off though.  :-[

« Reply #79 on: January 18, 2012, 07:12 »
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And just to add, Steve Jobs once said of Mark Zuckerberg, ""I admire Mark Zuckerberg. I only know him a little bit, but I admire him for not selling out, for wanting to make a company. I admire that a lot."

Too bad that can't be said of Bruce. 

From what I heard it seemed that istock needed a lot of invest at the time of the buyout.  I read it that quite a lot of the money was reinvested in IT to make the place run smoothly (for a bit).

« Reply #80 on: January 18, 2012, 07:44 »
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From what I heard it seemed that istock needed a lot of invest at the time of the buyout.  I read it that quite a lot of the money was reinvested in IT to make the place run smoothly (for a bit).

D'ya think? Of course it did. Every expanding business needs investment to do so. Do you think Facebook, a business making no money (quite unlike Istock at the time of the sell-out), is still operating out of Zuckerberg's bedroom?

Btw, the money for the sale went into Brucie's back-bin (togther with any co-investors) not into Istock. Bruce sold it remember? Afterwards it was owned by Getty.

helix7

« Reply #81 on: January 18, 2012, 07:45 »
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Jodi Styner was one of those who lost their job, on her birthday no less. Bummer.

Jodi was a copywriter at istock, and she tweeted, "Spent today getting drunk with my coworkers, most of whom don't have jobs anymore either, & it was great but also sad because I love them." I'm guessing she's referring to coworkers in and around her department mostly, so I'm assuming other copywriters, maybe marketing staff, etc., are among the casualties.

In all it sounds like around 30 jobs were cut. That's pretty huge for a company of around 100. Especially a company that has already been struggling to solve the problems they had before they cut 30 people from their roster. Cutting jobs saves money, but it also makes it a hell of a lot harder to solve problems. Less people trying to do more isn't a good thing.

I had very little confidence in istock ever regaining their former glory before this news. Now I have zero confidence in the company at all. I don't think that istock will be around for long if this keeps up. The best thing that could happen to istock now would be for H&F to decide they want out of their Getty deal, and then for Getty to cut istock loose to some new buyer. Hopefully someone with the vision and sense to see what needs to be done to fix the company and to do it.

« Reply #82 on: January 18, 2012, 07:55 »
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Jodi Styner was one of those who lost their job, on her birthday no less. Bummer.

Jodi was a copywriter at istock, and she tweeted, "Spent today getting drunk with my coworkers, most of whom don't have jobs anymore either, & it was great but also sad because I love them." I'm guessing she's referring to coworkers in and around her department mostly, so I'm assuming other copywriters, maybe marketing staff, etc., are among the casualties. =

It's too bad more (or some) of these people didn't interact with us.  They might have had more insight to the issues and been able to help steer things.  From what I hear, most of the employees there really don't have an idea of what goes on at the site.  They are just doing their own thing.

« Reply #83 on: January 18, 2012, 08:04 »
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Jodi Styner was one of those who lost their job, on her birthday no less. Bummer.

Jodi was a copywriter at istock, and she tweeted, "Spent today getting drunk with my coworkers, most of whom don't have jobs anymore either, & it was great but also sad because I love them." I'm guessing she's referring to coworkers in and around her department mostly, so I'm assuming other copywriters, maybe marketing staff, etc., are among the casualties. =

It's too bad more (or some) of these people didn't interact with us.  They might have had more insight to the issues and been able to help steer things.  From what I hear, most of the employees there really don't have an idea of what goes on at the site.  They are just doing their own thing.

Agreed. Most people here have been seeing the downward slide for over a year now. If anyone working there didn't have a clue this was coming, it was their own fault, because the signs sure weren't hidden! A year is a lot more notice than some folks nowadays are getting that they are going to be losing their jobs.

I think it's probably a lot like the layoffs going on in other business sectors. Middle and upper management need to protect their big salaries, so the peeps lower down the ladder take the fall. Somebody has to pay for those masseuses and istockalypses.  >:(

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #84 on: January 18, 2012, 08:06 »
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Somebody has to pay for those masseuses and istockalypses.  >:(
Oh, here was I thinking that's why they wouldn't give me my 5% increase when I hit iron pyrites.

« Reply #85 on: January 18, 2012, 08:10 »
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It's hard enough getting any sort of information out of them as it is, it's going to be much harder now.

The writing has been on the wall for sometime now, but the lack of any sort of feedback about anything recently seems to indicate something has been going on there.

I wonder if they will make any sort of official announcement ... somehow I doubt it!
I don't think so now.  :)   On one of the race threads, there was a short message where someone said something like 'bad news at msg', a couple people saying, 'yeah not good' or 'site mail me if you don't know what I'm referring to' -- and no one mentioned the word layoff at all.  And a mod just deleted ALL of those posts, with "some issues that other microstock forums may choose to discuss may not necessarily be discussed here."   I guess that settles the question of any kind of an official announcement.  I don't know why, knowing how it had hit the forums and twitter, they just don't say 'yeah, we found it necessary to make some staff reductions' and just leave it at that, and move on.  Banning all reference to company news, and dodging the questions with a lockdown, just makes it worse.  
« Last Edit: January 18, 2012, 08:13 by KarenH »

« Reply #86 on: January 18, 2012, 08:12 »
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Agreed. Most people here have been seeing the downward slide for over a year now. If anyone working there didn't have a clue this was coming, it was their own fault, because the signs sure weren't hidden! A year is a lot more notice than some folks nowadays are getting that they are going to be losing their jobs.

I think it's probably a lot like the layoffs going on in other business sectors. Middle and upper management need to protect their big salaries, so the peeps lower down the ladder take the fall. Somebody has to pay for those masseuses and istockalypses.  >:(

The most obvious sign that things weren't going to plan was when Thompson got sacked.

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #87 on: January 18, 2012, 08:17 »
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 Banning all reference to company news, and dodging the questions with a lockdown, just makes it worse.  
That's their modus operandi.
Mushroom management.
(Keep us in the dark and feed us sh*t)

« Reply #88 on: January 18, 2012, 08:36 »
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Jodi Styner was one of those who lost their job, on her birthday no less. Bummer.

Jodi was a copywriter at istock, and she tweeted, "Spent today getting drunk with my coworkers, most of whom don't have jobs anymore either, & it was great but also sad because I love them." I'm guessing she's referring to coworkers in and around her department mostly, so I'm assuming other copywriters, maybe marketing staff, etc., are among the casualties. =

It's too bad more (or some) of these people didn't interact with us.  They might have had more insight to the issues and been able to help steer things.  From what I hear, most of the employees there really don't have an idea of what goes on at the site.  They are just doing their own thing.
The fact that their own employees were in the dark and working in silos speaks volumes about the management (or mismanagement) of that place.

PaulieWalnuts

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« Reply #89 on: January 18, 2012, 08:40 »
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Jodi Styner was one of those who lost their job, on her birthday no less. Bummer.

Jodi was a copywriter at istock, and she tweeted, "Spent today getting drunk with my coworkers, most of whom don't have jobs anymore either, & it was great but also sad because I love them." I'm guessing she's referring to coworkers in and around her department mostly, so I'm assuming other copywriters, maybe marketing staff, etc., are among the casualties. =

It's too bad more (or some) of these people didn't interact with us.  They might have had more insight to the issues and been able to help steer things.  From what I hear, most of the employees there really don't have an idea of what goes on at the site.  They are just doing their own thing.
The fact that their own employees were in the dark and working in silos speaks volumes about the management (or mismanagement) of that place.

Yes, it speaks volumes. But about what?

michealo

« Reply #90 on: January 18, 2012, 08:44 »
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The most obvious sign that things weren't going to plan was when Thompson got sacked.

And the source for this is?

« Reply #91 on: January 18, 2012, 08:50 »
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If they're downsizing across the board I wonder if that means inspectors and admins are next?

« Reply #92 on: January 18, 2012, 08:57 »
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All this just makes my head spin.  ??? I feel like I am on that cruise ship Costa Concordia that sank. The captain (KKT) already on shore while the passengers (us) are still on the ship.

Really got me thinking about dropping my crown.

Kelvin came into the Push for Gold thread and deleted any "hints' of news from msg.

And you know we care not going to get any official word from HQ.

« Reply #93 on: January 18, 2012, 09:29 »
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All this just makes my head spin.  ??? I feel like I am on that cruise ship Costa Concordia that sank. The captain (KKT) already on shore while the passengers (us) are still on the ship.

Really got me thinking about dropping my crown.

Kelvin came into the Push for Gold thread and deleted any "hints' of news from msg.

And you know we care not going to get any official word from HQ.
I'm also thinking of dropping my crown as well for the first time since I started back in 2006. Shutterstock is looking better and better every day. 

lagereek

« Reply #94 on: January 18, 2012, 09:58 »
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Jodi Styner was one of those who lost their job, on her birthday no less. Bummer.

Jodi was a copywriter at istock, and she tweeted, "Spent today getting drunk with my coworkers, most of whom don't have jobs anymore either, & it was great but also sad because I love them." I'm guessing she's referring to coworkers in and around her department mostly, so I'm assuming other copywriters, maybe marketing staff, etc., are among the casualties. =

It's too bad more (or some) of these people didn't interact with us.  They might have had more insight to the issues and been able to help steer things.  From what I hear, most of the employees there really don't have an idea of what goes on at the site.  They are just doing their own thing.

Quite right!  and, yes, dont know whats going on,  the usual story, they are the ones ending up with a rough deal.

« Reply #95 on: January 18, 2012, 10:11 »
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Banning all reference to company news, and dodging the questions with a lockdown, just makes it worse.  

That was my reaction too. It's this kind of 'all is well here, keep your head in the sand' attitude that helped get them into this predicament in the first place.

Istockphoto was killing Getty back in the day because istock was cheap, consistent, and simple to use, while the Getty site was a confusing, expensive, difficult to use mess. So what does Getty do? They buy Istock out and turn it into a confusing, expensive, difficult to use mess. It's what they do.

helix7

« Reply #96 on: January 18, 2012, 10:13 »
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I'm also thinking of dropping my crown as well for the first time since I started back in 2006. Shutterstock is looking better and better every day. 

Not that I need the competition, and I try not to encourage anyone to go independent, but it's hard not to think you guys are crazy for keeping the crowns. Just my 2 cents, but I wouldn't bet my future on that company, not in the state they are in these days. You're brave if you stick with it.

« Reply #97 on: January 18, 2012, 10:15 »
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I wonder if those laid off received some type of "golden parachute" offer of a bonus to not trash-talk iS in return?

It's usually not wise to trash talk the company you just got canned from if you want to work in the same industry.

« Reply #98 on: January 18, 2012, 10:17 »
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Not knowing the reasons or facts this is very hard to grasp! These lay-offs may have been desperately needed. Sometimes you need to clean house some to get it in order. My sales at iStock have
been extremely strong this month. I don't see this as the company is dying. I truly feel for those who have lost their jobs as I was there 2 years ago. Funny iStock saved my family and now its
hurting others. Truly a sad day for those who lost their jobs!

« Reply #99 on: January 18, 2012, 10:18 »
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Its just my guess, but I really think this points towards the beginning of iStock being absorbed into Getty (rather than operating as an independent site) as many other collections have. With that done, H+F can easily put Getty back on the market for resale. That's bound to happen sooner or later, and a streamlined Getty might be more easily sold.


 

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