As stocks tank and layoffs take hold, tech titans are in trouble
Hi! Welcome back to Insider Weekly, a roundup of our top stories. I'm Lisa Ryan, editorial head of newsletters at Insider, subbing for Matt Turner as he takes some much-deserved time off. Let's get to it.
On the agenda today:
- The tech titans of Silicon Valley are in serious trouble.
- Inside JPMorgan's vast employee data-collection apparatus.
- Diving into an anonymous social network for high-earning techies.
- A look at an average workday in Sweden for an American expat.
But first: We have a new newsletter launching tomorrow — 10 Things on Wall Street, which will cover the latest stories in banking, fintech, hedge funds, and private equity. Sign up for it here. Aaron Weinman, a correspondent at Insider, will be leading the newsletter each weekday morning, and he's here with a preview.
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Introducing our new finance newsletter
I'm expanding this coverage with 10 Things on Wall Street, a weekday newsletter on the powerful people and meaningful transactions that move the worlds of big banks, hedge funds, private-equity firms, and fintech upstarts.
My goal: Make this newsletter a daily habit for finance professionals both green and experienced, and amplify the excellent reporting my Insider colleagues produce on a daily basis.
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'Lots of companies are going to get vaporized'
Tech empires flying by with get-rich-quick schemes could soon see their demise as the stock market tanks. Bankruptcies, hiring freezes, and stock collapses are looming. Made-up, hoodoo metrics kept by some companies just aren't cutting it anymore.
In her latest report, Insider's Linette Lopez chronicles the fall of our tech gods as they tumble from their thrones. But as she writes, we've built a tolerance for their bad behavior. We've thrown our chips in, betting on the forever rise of these supposed geniuses, despite our better judgment. What happens once their tricks and grandstanding are stripped away? What happens when we realize they may not have been that brilliant after all?
Why Big Tech is on autopilot to destruction.
How JPMorgan Chase gathers data about workers
Employees are watched the second they clock in. Their Excel activities are tracked in real time. Even their Zoom calls are monitored. That's what interviews with employees and ex-staffers, as well as internal documents, reveal about JPMorgan Chase's data-tracking practices.
Some staffers see this as straight out of an Orwellian nightmare; others say the data collection could be a harbinger of privacy violations. Many told us they didn't know why they were being tracked in such ways. But what's certain is that this has created a heightened sense of suspicion and fear at the big bank.
Read on to find out what staffers are saying.
Silicon Valley engineers are really freaking out
Burnout is a hot topic on Blind, a social platform for tech workers that allows for anonymity (as long as you divulge your salary and employer). There, techies ponder their next career moves, discuss optimization (save time by forgoing sex was one tip), and share advice for achieving the elusive state (especially in Silicon Valley) of work-life balance.
Senior tech correspondent Adam Rogers surfed through threads ranging from the existential to the banal. What he learned: It seems like nobody's happy and everybody's burnt.
Take a dive into the minds of high-earning tech workers.
Swedish workdays are a 'different pace' for this expat
Have you ever wondered what it's like to live and work in a Nordic country? An American executive who moved from the US to work at a startup in Stockholm tells us how different his work and social lives are now that he's relocated.
There are more moments reserved for socializing, Swedish-language classes, and sipping coffee. Then there are a few surprising customs that took some getting used to.
Here, he walks us through a typical day in his workweek.
This week's quote:
"When I started at Netflix, I was making money and continuously learning new things. Now, I was just making money with no career progression."
- Former Netflix engineer Michael Lin on why he quit his job making $450,000 a year.
More of this week's top reads:
- Stocks are crashing, tech is imploding — but the economy has never been stronger.
- The inside story of how Sheryl Sandberg lost her influence and power at Facebook.
- Wells Fargo to pull back on home mortgages amid criticisms over its lending practices.
- The 18 key trials that could make or break the psychedelics industry's future.
- A leaked survey of Nike's tech employees shows widespread dissatisfaction.
- An executive recruiter shares tips on how to negotiate — including never using the phrase "based on market research."
Plus: We're seeking nominations for Insider's list of the 30 leaders under 40 transforming healthcare. Here's how to apply.
Curated by Lisa Ryan. Edited by Sarah Belle Lin and Hallam Bullock. Sign up for more Insider newsletters here.