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“Today I cut my pay to $0. I'm committed to laying off 0 of our employees.”

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61–70 of 193 posts

Re: “Today I cut my pay to $0. I'm committed to laying off 0 of our employees.”

#61

I wonder why we aren't hearing about companies selling more stock for funding. Sure it's at a huge discount, but better dilution than destruction, right? Is it just because the bailout loans offer them a better path? Or because they'd rather lay folks off than dilute?

Are there enough buyers for stock to make that useful right now? (Non-rhetorical question; I have no idea either way.)

Re: “Today I cut my pay to $0. I'm committed to laying off 0 of our employees.”

#62

Almost everyone I know who has run a business (myself included) has made similar sacrifices. This is not that rare. This guy seems to serially try to generate PR by making himself out to be a selfless CEO. In doing so, he is implying that most other CEOs/business owners are bad people.

I wouldn’t be so cynical.

It’s important there are vocal leaders showing the sacrifices they are making — otherwise it’s easy for others to pretend it isn’t possible to make the same sacrifice.

Re: “Today I cut my pay to $0. I'm committed to laying off 0 of our employees.”

#63
post #34
post #7

What I've been hearing on the internet is that companies are racing to lay off as many people as they need to now, before applying for their free bailout money from the government. It also sounds like businesses are trying to lay off more than they actually need to lay off, in order to get the maximum benefit. The terms of the bailout loans are such that they can lay off people before they apply, get the money, and s…

"And the principle of really existing free market theory is: free markets are fine for you, but not for me. That’s, again, near a universal. So you — whoever you may be — you have to learn responsibility, and be subjected to market discipline, it’s good for your character, it’s tough love, and so on, and so forth. But me, I need the nanny State, to protect me from market discipline, so that I’ll be able to rant and r…

people in this forum pretty much control if any SaaS live or die.

if we care enough we can compile a simple list of layoffs happy companies to boycott.

Re: “Today I cut my pay to $0. I'm committed to laying off 0 of our employees.”

#64

Are we really patting people on the back for cutting their own pay to allow employees to be paid more? That's how economics work: if you want to pay X then you have to find that money somewhere.

I did not downvote you, but paying people more is not a zero-sum game. The pay rate of an employee is not necessarily contingent on the salary of a CEO. More money can be attained through the creation of value in an economy - this value will add wealth - this added wealth could allow for both the employee and the CEO to be paid more.

Re: “Today I cut my pay to $0. I'm committed to laying off 0 of our employees.”

#65
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People like to compare the current situation to wartime and I think some of the parallels are useful. In wartime there is a much stronger moral backlash against perceived profiteering. We're seeing it in the UK with campaigns to boycott companies that have already shown no desire to share the nation's pain. Hopefully companies that cynically abuse the bailout will find themselves tarnished in a way that is harder to…

It kinda happened with Gamestop here. They tried to classify themselves as essential business first ( I kinda bought the argument btw. - there are people who don't handle isolation well; entertainment helps ), but after backlash all of a sudden delivery @door came into being. I will add that all of a sudden, I have way more respect for Amazon ( not for their employee practices ; it is a separate can of worms ). Their…

I'm kinda curious what role Gamestop would be considered essential when you have alternative ways to purchase games such as Steam, XBox/Playstation stores and just simply Amazon.

At this point it wouldn't be worth the risk to allow people to get games at a slightly better price because it is used at Gamestop.

Re: “Today I cut my pay to $0. I'm committed to laying off 0 of our employees.”

#66
post #7

What I've been hearing on the internet is that companies are racing to lay off as many people as they need to now, before applying for their free bailout money from the government. It also sounds like businesses are trying to lay off more than they actually need to lay off, in order to get the maximum benefit. The terms of the bailout loans are such that they can lay off people before they apply, get the money, and s…

"What I've been hearing on the internet..." Good grief

Where do you think the California unemployment filers came from?

The SF company I worked at (public, $B revenues, familiar name) laid off all contractors one week into shelter in place, two days after their quarterly financials investor call. There’s been zero press about this particular company and their cuts.

FTEs, not yet... but those contractors, working for contracting companies (and some, like me, corp temps... so employed by said SF company) are all eligible for unemployment benefits.

But still, laid off.

Re: “Today I cut my pay to $0. I'm committed to laying off 0 of our employees.”

#68
post #34
post #7

What I've been hearing on the internet is that companies are racing to lay off as many people as they need to now, before applying for their free bailout money from the government. It also sounds like businesses are trying to lay off more than they actually need to lay off, in order to get the maximum benefit. The terms of the bailout loans are such that they can lay off people before they apply, get the money, and s…

"And the principle of really existing free market theory is: free markets are fine for you, but not for me. That’s, again, near a universal. So you — whoever you may be — you have to learn responsibility, and be subjected to market discipline, it’s good for your character, it’s tough love, and so on, and so forth. But me, I need the nanny State, to protect me from market discipline, so that I’ll be able to rant and r…

That’s a straw man. Big corporations that love regulatory capture and government bailouts rarely make free market arguments. They tout things like important regulations for their industry and how closely they work with the government to ensure a safe society or whatever.

Re: “Today I cut my pay to $0. I'm committed to laying off 0 of our employees.”

#69
post #5

Stewart Butterfield (Slack CEO) was asked if he'd commit to not doing layoffs and I appreciated his response[1]. Effectively pointing out that it's easy to just say yes in their position, and that it's presumptuous of Salesforce to be asking for no-layoff pledges. It's pretty meaningless and comes off as shallow or self-serving PR for types of businesses that are doing better than ever right now or can easily weather…

The author of the original tweet is the CEO of Gravity Payments, a Square competitor that mostly serves smaller retail and restaurant businesses. In further tweets he talks about how they're losing tons of revenue right now. I agree that it's shallow for Slack and Salesforce to pledge not to have layoffs but in this case I think it's a pretty meaningful commitment.

Re: “Today I cut my pay to $0. I'm committed to laying off 0 of our employees.”

#70
post #34
post #7

What I've been hearing on the internet is that companies are racing to lay off as many people as they need to now, before applying for their free bailout money from the government. It also sounds like businesses are trying to lay off more than they actually need to lay off, in order to get the maximum benefit. The terms of the bailout loans are such that they can lay off people before they apply, get the money, and s…

"And the principle of really existing free market theory is: free markets are fine for you, but not for me. That’s, again, near a universal. So you — whoever you may be — you have to learn responsibility, and be subjected to market discipline, it’s good for your character, it’s tough love, and so on, and so forth. But me, I need the nanny State, to protect me from market discipline, so that I’ll be able to rant and r…

They have a gun pointed to the government, we'll lay off 12,870 employees, unless. And so on. So it's not always that easy.
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