Earlier quoted context omitted.
The latest model I have seen showed founders making about one-third of top-level employees.
In take-home income right? They still have sizeable ownership of the company and vesting.
Buffer Layoffs
221–230 of 429 posts
Re: Buffer Layoffs
#222Earlier quoted context omitted.
The voting on your post implies people disagree, but the method you mention is the way the vast majority of companies try to operate because it intuitively makes sense. Even in a cut-throat industry like sports, athletes aren't cut or traded the instant they enter a slump (if they still have future potential).
As mentioned below, Netflix has the philosophy "we're a professional sports team". Yet they don't pay people millions of dollars like an athlete. If you really want to be cut throat, great, pay people like an athlete then. Otherwise quit the BS.
Re: Buffer Layoffs
#223FWIW, here's their public spreadsheet of salaries and calculations. Not sure if it's been recently updated (on closer look, seems to reflect the founders' stated pay cuts, and new hires as recent as last month): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1l3bXAv8JE5RB9siMq36-... edit: Adding links to their blog posts: https://open.buffer.com/transparent-salaries/ https://open.buffer.com/introducing-open-salaries-at-buffe…
What are Happiness Heros? Customer service or HR?
Re: Buffer Layoffs
#224Earlier quoted context omitted.
So how do you account for companies like ours when, during hard times the CEO and CTO took no pay for two months so that they could continue paying employees? Or by offering employees the same class of stock as the founders with the same voting rights etc...?
Would your CEO give up his life savings to pay your medical bills? Would he risk his life for you?
Re: Buffer Layoffs
#225Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you saying you can fly coach from SF to Berlin and actually still engage in a "retreat"?
considering coach tickets are more than half the price, I don't see why anyone would not buy them.
Re: Buffer Layoffs
#226Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you saying it is customary to fly people business class in the Valley, rather than coach? Especially for a team retreat?
I have no experience with SF, but when talking about trans-atlantic flights, business class is less of a luxury than normal. If you are tall, overweight, etc. sitting in a small seat for 10 hours can cause all kinds of joint, spine, and circulatory issues.
I am very overweight, and I never have an issue flying coach on transatlantic flights.
I've found most flights from US to Europe typically have more legroom, than domestic counterparts. Typically I will pay for the 1st class upgrade for domestic flights, but fly coach.
Re: Buffer Layoffs
#227Earlier quoted context omitted.
> cut smartly I actually think this is important. Working with an asshole is a big problem, and I fully admire leaders who know when it's time to let someone go because the situation cannot improve. It certainly beats working in a caustic environment because people are afraid to fire someone.
Wasn't Netflix referring to cutting people when they became idle? Their whole motto is "we're a professional sports team" so if you can't play ball (or there's no longer a ball for you to play with) then you're cut from the team. This was different from the family viewpoint where a company takes an employee and tries to grow them or find new work for them. They're not really referring to "culture" fit, team compatibi…
One usually must spend a decent amount of time/energy tracking and making the case for their own productivity, which of course, lowers their actual productivity.
Re: Buffer Layoffs
#228Re: Buffer Layoffs
#229Earlier quoted context omitted.
$4,000 would barely cover business-class airfare between SF Berlin for one employee. Not to mention accommodations, event space, meals and entertainment.
My wife and I will be flying to Vienna next month. It's $1,300/ea including the return flight from Copenhagen (price was the same when we priced Munich when we were planning the trip, in case you're wondering about the fare differences between Austria and Germany). I would never pay 307% of that price for an extra 3 inches of leg room and a free plate of salt and BHT.
1. https://www.google.com/flights/#search;f=SFO;t=VIE,XWW;d=201... *priced at less than $2,000 at the time of this posting
2. http://www.airfrance.us/US/en/common/guidevoyageur/classeetc...
Re: Buffer Layoffs
#230Earlier quoted context omitted.
As part of a company of less than 30 in a rural region, I get that feeling a lot. I'm sure I'm wrong but what do 57000 google employees do!? Am I really hitting an immense mechanical turk when I use google? Yet they can't spare a single person to spend a few weeks to convert the flash off of google finance?
Kind of, yes! You would not believe how much manual labor goes into maintaining and load balancing data centers and keeping deceptively simple-looking services up and running... There has been some recent press on the work done by legions of SREs that gets into a few of the details.
Our solutions are sometimes a bit clunky but our infrastructure is audited yearly by an outside firm and certified to carry banking data through the wireless device we designed and through our network. There is another 15-20 people doing financials, payroll, hr, tech support, sales, marketing, assembly, hardware testing, shipping etc..
We maintain multiple backend interfaces to a bunch of (sometimes old and archaic) bank networks and to our wireless devices as well as multiple front end portals for our users.
It's hard to imagine ever being able to make use of 57000 bodies, but I suppose that's a totally different context. We could use a few more.