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Buffer Layoffs

open.buffer.com

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Re: Buffer Layoffs

#321

Post by timv »

fullshark wrote: post #318
timv wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many times do you put up with your kid beating up his mother when he comes home drunk in the middle of the night before you require him to move out of the house? Keep in mind that his is 15 years old... As parents, we tend to believe that we will always love our kids in a way that allows us to maintain healthy functioning relationship with them no matter what happens. But when you see what can go wrong in familie…

Your point is ok but your hypothetical is so ludicrous it undermines it.

> your hypothetical is so ludicrous

My wife is a former welfare case worker. The scenario I painted is quite real, but if it is so far removed from your reality that it seems ludicrous then that says good things about your family life.

Re: Buffer Layoffs

#322

Post by jon-wood »

bbcbasic wrote: post #288
harryh wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many times do I have to get annoyed at my kid for waking up in the middle of the night before you're OK with me kicking him out of the house? Keep in mind that he is currently 11 months old...

Really. You get angry at a baby? To answer your question... kick him out this week by getting a relative to take care of him for a night and catch up on sleep.

Best advice ever right there - our sanity was saved on several occasions by friends offering to look after our child for a night when he was small and not sleeping.

Re: Buffer Layoffs

#323

Post by rmc »

stevewilhelm wrote: post #311
btmorex wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sports teams don't actually pay market rates. Every sport that I can think of limits pay in one way or another especially for stars, ostensibly so that small market teams can compete with big market teams.

In English and European club football (soccer) there are no salary caps. "In English sport, there’s no draft; there’s no salary cap; there’s no revenue sharing, no parity. In the Premier League, it’s every team for themselves." [1] 1 http://freakonomics.com/podcast/leicester-city/

It quite funny how socialist American football is. :)

Re: Buffer Layoffs

#324

Post by omarchowdhury »

jes wrote: post #306
nostrebored wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it, if the GP instilled the same values in his children? I hope that my children will hold me accountable for my actions and vice versa.

Thank you for understanding this point. I do not want my children to love me because I'm their father, or because I took care of them (along with their mother) when they were growing up. I see it as my job, if I want a relationship with my children, to be bringing value to them in the here and now. Sure, we have good memories of the past, but good memories are not (in my view) a sufficient basis for an ongoing relati…

What was your relationship like with your parents?

Re: Buffer Layoffs

#325

Post by jsprogrammer »

aianus wrote: post #260
jsprogrammer wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Isn't that a felony?

Re: Buffer Layoffs

#326

Post by phamilton »

gonehome wrote: post #222
cyberpanther wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

They may not pay millions (as far as I know), but I've heard a senior engineer at Netflix can make upwards of $400k/year which is a lot relative to a similar position in other companies.

It's actually comparable to league minimum in Major League baseball, roughly $500k.

And I can guarantee that the average minor league player out there makes far less than your average software engineer.

Re: Buffer Layoffs

#327

Post by dhbanes »

beambot wrote: post #93
smuss77 wrote: post #57

I really like the transparency and accountability. Two questions: Why are the two loans necessary? And, how does a loan get counted as savings? > Leo and I are committing $100k each in the form of a loan at the lowest possible interest rate, with repayment only when Buffer reaches a healthy financial position. Savings: $200,000.

It shows founder commitment -- a willingness to put their own personal savings at risk to help the company survive. It's "savings" in the penny-saved, penny-earned sense.

A penny saved is not a liability, it is an asset.

Re: Buffer Layoffs

#328

Post by kmonsen »

arcticfox wrote: post #170
cyberpanther wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree the whole family thing is ridiculous. However, the performance focus of Netflix is probably too far on the other end and ridiculous too. People are not machines and performance will not always remain high. And also measurements of performance of people are often silly and useless. Performance will fluctuate and change with time. So a level a loyalty in the face of bad performance is still very advantageous ev…

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).

I don't know for sure, but I don't think Netflix cuts people right away either. I am sure they are looking for future potential before making a rash decision. If not there would be hardly anyone left and I know several that people that have worked there for many years.

Re: Buffer Layoffs

#329

Post by relix »

stalcottsmith wrote: post #312
danso wrote: post #7

FWIW, 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…

It is very interesting to me that the founders have agreed to pay people in very low-cost-of-living areas almost as much as people in San Francisco. I'm pretty sure USD$95k in South Africa, Croatia, or Italy beats the pants off $120k in SF lifestyle wise. I guess the founders have not traveled to these places or fine with overspending?

The value the developer brings to the table does not fluctuate with the cost of living of the place he lives at. The profit that can be made in arbitraging CoL should mostly go to the developer, since he is the one who also has to bear the negative features of living in a low CoL place, which are often overlooked in a naive dollar-to-dollar comparison.

Looked at from the other side, it's a competitive process between employers and there's no reason why other companies wouldn't pay top dollar for a top developer. If Buffer didn't pay it, the developer would find another employer who would.

Re: Buffer Layoffs

#330

Post by prdonahue »

gonehome wrote: post #222
cyberpanther wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

They may not pay millions (as far as I know), but I've heard a senior engineer at Netflix can make upwards of $400k/year which is a lot relative to a similar position in other companies.

Some make far more than that. They pay 100% cash and let employees decide how much appetite for (equity) risk they want to take on. It's a refreshing model for those who've seen their significant equity stakes (on paper) become worthless, or those who prefer to know exactly what compensation they'll be getting upfront, etc.
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