In Silicon Valley, Buffer overflows you!
Buffer Layoffs
231–240 of 429 posts
Re: Buffer Layoffs
#232"... seeing team as family, with shared values..."
Should have tried pay cut across the board and see if folks jumped ship. A good test to see if that culture held up.
(Just a thought. I know it is more nuanced)
Re: Buffer Layoffs
#233Earlier quoted context omitted.
Two whole months ( rolls eyes )? You think they did because of a sense of "family"? Maybe they didn't want employees leaving in this labor market and I'm guessing they didn't want to lay people off because others would take that as a signal to jump ship. Trust me, if things get bad, they'll let people go. Two months is not really bad.
You're right, two months isn't bad, but it was a sacrifice, something people in this thread seem to just assume isn't done by management.
It was a sacrifice for themselves and their equity. What does the cap table look like? Not laying off employees prevents a morale issue and gives more resources to keep building product. Don’t confuse other employees by trying to say it was a sacrifice for them, that is misleading, it wasn’t, but I’m sure the founders would love to sell it that way: “We’re doing this for you!”
Re: Buffer Layoffs
#234Earlier quoted context omitted.
"With our culture of bringing our whole selves to work and seeing team as family, with shared values we live by,..." It's moronic drivel, isn't it. Apart from being nonsensical (how can you bring less than your whole self to work, unless you've had some sort of psychotic breakdown) and the poor English ("seeing team as family") it just reads like corporate babble. It's not a family. I care about my family. I don't ca…
> moronic drivel ^ why I downvoted you. > how can you bring less than your whole self to work This means basically wanting to be somewhere else rather than at work. i.e., their culture is one of being dedicated to work when you're at work; at least that's how I understand it. > poor English This is not uncommon colloquial English. “Team” and “family” here act roughly like “mind” does in the term “theory of mind”—basi…
I just posted my opinion on an aspect of the post. (I don't care about down votes; if I could hide my scores I would.)
I don't need to know anything about a companies culture to know what they're saying is patently specious nonsense. You might be impressed by it, who knows. Do you read a company's mission statement when considering a job and say "company a say they're honest and driven by a desire to put both their employees and their customers first, but company b claims integrity and a desire to raise the standard of customer service to a new level.....oh I just can't decide!"?
Re: Buffer Layoffs
#235Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am trying to learn about the business habits in the Valley. I wish someone could inform me. To answer your question, obviously I am not from the valley, i run my own business, it is quite profitable, i don't do retreats, and i fly quite a bit, always coach. So if i ever organised a retreat, i would expect everyone to fly coach. Hence my question.
FWIW, the US Government's regulations for civil service workers (civilians working for the federal gov't) are pretty strict, and are often used as a basis for private companies. (EG, mileage reimbursement is usually a rate set by the feds.) Their policy is business class for international flights over 8 hours. Given that, I think it would be seen as common/acceptable to mimic.
Interesting, ... that would basically mean that all flights from San Francisco to outside of the Americas should be business class.
Re: Buffer Layoffs
#236Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, I am apparently massively underpaid. And I have to commute to work. Lose-lose.
TBH, that's a win-win. There's nothing better than being content with what you're paid, and then learning that there's huge upside potential. The worst thing ever is finding out that you're in the top 2% of salaries for your role in the industry, and then knowing there's nowhere to go but down from there.
That's an odd statement. I don't think I'd be disheartened to learn I'm in the top 2% of salaries. That sounds like one of those good problems to have.
It also doesn't make sense - there is plenty of room to move up even if you're in the top 1% of salaries. The curve doesn't abruptly end at the top, there is a long tail of increasing salaries at the 1%, 0.5%, 0.1%, etc marks.
Re: Buffer Layoffs
#237This may be a little cynical but: "With our culture of bringing our whole selves to work and seeing team as family, with shared values we live by,..." In the American business world, you are an employee until you aren't. Confusing being an employee with being "family" is a mistake, both for the company and the employee. When times get bad, companies do what it takes to survive, including throwing employees overboard.…
I don't think it's cynical at all, I think a lot of how people view their job has to do with their evolution as an employee. If you fall in love with the mission, like the people you work with, it's easy to conflate family and work. You spend 8+ hours a day with these folks and the people you work with most likely care about you as much as you care about them.
The reality is that it's still business and decisions are made with the numbers in mind, especially when things get rough.
Re: Buffer Layoffs
#238Leadership has to stay under one roof. Team can be distributed but the leadership not. Everyone in the mother tipi.
Re: Buffer Layoffs
#239Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am trying to learn about the business habits in the Valley. I wish someone could inform me. To answer your question, obviously I am not from the valley, i run my own business, it is quite profitable, i don't do retreats, and i fly quite a bit, always coach. So if i ever organised a retreat, i would expect everyone to fly coach. Hence my question.
FWIW, the US Government's regulations for civil service workers (civilians working for the federal gov't) are pretty strict, and are often used as a basis for private companies. (EG, mileage reimbursement is usually a rate set by the feds.) Their policy is business class for international flights over 8 hours. Given that, I think it would be seen as common/acceptable to mimic.
Keep in mind: government employees who travel international are often diplomats. Gov rates for diplomats are, overall, luxurious. (I'm not sure of the bleedover here, but would not be surprised.)
Above comment about business class / direct for long trips, and at least direct/convenient economy for ~startups (not 2 guys & a laptop) sounds right.
Re: Buffer Layoffs
#240Earlier quoted context omitted.
That does seem astronomical. $4,000 per employee if they have ~100 employees like they say. Anyone think their salaries are absurdly high for some locations and positions? They've got Adnan working as an "Advanced Backend/Frontend Developer" in Sri Lanka, making only $65,104. This actually makes sense to me because Sri Lanka's cost of living is pretty low. But they've got an Advanced "Happiness Hero" which I presume…
Yes, I agree with you. Unless I'm fundamentally misunderstanding what a "Happiness Hero" is, it appears they are paying a developer's salary for email support. $77k in Louisville, Kentucky would be about $135k in NYC. $77k is not "extraordinarily" high for Kentucky without any context, but it would be very surprising for an email support role. In fact, I would expect $70k to be a very upper bound for technical suppor…
There are a few of them on their salary list and pay does not seem to have an correlation with working location. Could simply be level of ability and/or amount of quality work performed.