It boggles my mind why a company like buffer that has a relatively simple product and a pretty straight forward transactional sales model would ever need that many people.
Buffer Layoffs
251–260 of 429 posts
Re: Buffer Layoffs
#252Why is this several hundred upvotes news? A startup grows from 30-something to 90-something it's too much it trims a little. That's entirely normal. What's the big news?
Re: Buffer Layoffs
#253Earlier 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.
> Yet they don't pay people millions of dollars like an athlete.
They also don't fire you at 30 for being washed up and leave you with brain injuries and zero transferable skills.
Re: Buffer Layoffs
#254Earlier quoted context omitted.
What about if your equity is in stock-options that haven't been exercised, and after you leave you only have 90 days to exercise them? :)
An option isn't equity. It is, by tautology, an option to purchase equity. By and large, options are just a symbolic gesture. I'm sure there are some people who've reaped a bounty from them... but it's exceeding rare, and even if everything goes right they still require a liquidity event that isn't guaranteed to include you. The first couple of times I got stock options, I exercised them... and ended up using them as…
An option isn't equity, but I would wager that a lot of people who subscribe to the "if I have equity I'm family" model are naive enough to not know that.
I definitely agree with your attitude on them, I really wish startup culture didn't frown upon electing to receive higher salary and no equity.
Re: Buffer Layoffs
#255Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some startups take your equity off you if you leave.
They can't just take away equity that's vested to you. And any equity that hasn't vested isn't yours.
If they have a call option on your stock (read your agreement), they're still not "yours". And it's for a private company you have no control over and probably no anti-dilution clauses on either.
Re: Buffer Layoffs
#256Why is this several hundred upvotes news? A startup grows from 30-something to 90-something it's too much it trims a little. That's entirely normal. What's the big news?
It trimmed the most recent employees, who decided to take the job after rejecting other job offers. Hiring 60 people in one year and then firing 10 of them in less than a year isn't nice and it doesn't feel nice. It's definitely a screw up in planning.
I understand why it can happen for sure, but still sucks.
Re: Buffer Layoffs
#257FWIW, 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…
I admire Buffer for being so transparent with their salaries, but I don't think I would ever decide to work for a company that mandated it. In my (admittedly limited) experience, mandating salary transparency tends to increase the salaries of low performers and reduce the salaries of high performers. It usually eliminates the potential for negotiating raises and poses difficult questions about paying some employees m…
It's definitely a great business case study. Most people don't get exposed to this kind of stuff.
Re: Buffer Layoffs
#258Earlier quoted context omitted.
I admire Buffer for being so transparent with their salaries, but I don't think I would ever decide to work for a company that mandated it. In my (admittedly limited) experience, mandating salary transparency tends to increase the salaries of low performers and reduce the salaries of high performers. It usually eliminates the potential for negotiating raises and poses difficult questions about paying some employees m…
> earned nearly double that for being merely "senior" Not as a base salary. No way. They earn that, but ~50% comes from equity.
What's the difference? Equity in a public company is cash. You can even lock in what your RSUs will be worth when they vest with some options contracts.
Re: Buffer Layoffs
#259Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is so 100% on point. I think the Netflix NYT article from yesterday had a more realistic tone regarding the "family" aspect: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/19/magazine/can-netflix-survi... > The key concept is summed up in the 23rd slide. “We’re a team, not a family,” it reads. “Netflix leaders hire, develop and cut smartly, so we have stars in every position.” Your last sentence here is really important. If tha…
I just listened to recent old NPR clip on Netflix and the HR employee who created this slideshow. I'm planning on exploring this slideshow soon.
Keep in mind the employee who created the famous culture deck was herself let go.
Re: Buffer Layoffs
#260Earlier quoted context omitted.
considering coach tickets are more than half the price, I don't see why anyone would not buy them.
Some people are too large to comfortably sit in coach seats for fourteen hours. Torturing an employee before a retreat is not very nice.
You'd be welcome to literally burn me with cigarettes during the flight if you paid me that $5,000 difference in fares.