Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce • Hacker News Board

Re: Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

#451

Post by tmpz22 » Tue, May 05, 2020, 10:45 PM UTC

chrisseaton wrote: post #438

arcticbull wrote: post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds amazing, I wish someone would lay me off like that, damn. Four months PTO with healthcare?!

Do you realise you have to find a new job within those four months?! It's not 'time off', it's time desperately searching for a new job until you start eating into your savings and your children end up starving.

Air BnB employees in California will be eligible for $4200/mo in unemployment insurance, so compound the two together and that is a lot of dough.

Comparatively I got 0 severance from my small company but am grateful for the unemployment insurance.

Re: Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

#452

Post by _dps » Tue, May 05, 2020, 10:45 PM UTC

Beldin wrote: post #425

matthewowen wrote: post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

worth noting that this severance is vastly more generous than you'd get from statutory redundancy in most (all?) countries. the UK is one week's pay for every year, but with a maximum of £538/week and a maximum of 20 years for length service. given that a software engineer who's been at AirBnB for two years is going to get 16 weeks of pay and probably makes _at least_ 180k/year, they're probably getting around $55k.

NL: starting point is one month per year of employment. There's more detail to it, but that is the starting point. This compensation does not sound "vastly more generous", but not bad for those that were less than 5 years employed.

This is in practice just a deferred salary scheme. Since the mandate attaches an unavoidable additional liability to every year of employment, that will get rolled into the total cost of employment by accountants.

So yes, when you collect the deferred salary it feels generous. But you were getting less salary up until that point in order to make the system solvent.

One may well prefer this arrangement, but one can't evaluate the generosity of the payment without also accounting for the cost that made it possible.

Re: Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

#453

Post by nopriorarrests » Tue, May 05, 2020, 10:48 PM UTC

filoleg wrote: post #278

nopriorarrests wrote: post #16

>According to Chesky’s missive, Airbnb anticipates its 2020 revenue coming in under 50% of 2019’s total Very optimistic. They should be happy to get around 25% of 2019 totals.

Once places open up in a few months, I expect a massive short-term surge in demand for AirBnB lodging. I know for a fact that by the end of summer (assuming places open up like planned), I will start traveling again. And I will be doing no less traveling this year than I would any other year. Of course, that won't be the case for everyone, but keeping that in mind, the 50% revenue drop seems like a pretty reasonable…

How many people will be okay staying in some location which is not properly disinfected, unlike a room in a chain hotel?

How may hosts will me okay returning to their place knowing that some strangers were living there?

Even if everything, including international flights, open up in autumn, I think people will prefer hotels for a long time.

So, Airbnb had an average Q1, Q2 is dead in the water, Q3 might bring, idk, 10-20% compared to 2019? and Q4, maybe 50%?

Overall, I can hardly see 50% drop YoY.

Re: Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

#454

Post by justaguyhere » Tue, May 05, 2020, 10:50 PM UTC

raz32dust wrote: post #359

justaguyhere wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, during normal times. But these are not normal times - like, who is hiring now? If I were a top performer, I'd take a salary cut if it means saving my colleague's job. I get what you are saying though. They are a business and I guess they're doing what is best for their business. The severance package is generous (relatively speaking), so there's at least that. Edit : I guess I didn't word this properly. I was sa…

> "If I were a top performer, I'd take a salary cut if it means saving my colleague's job." Would you, really? If you can get a job at FB/AMZN/GOOG/Netflix paying the same or more, would you really stay? Highly unlikely I think.

Yes, I would. Actually the higher the salary, the easier it is to give up a portion of the salary, at least for me.

I understand your skepticism, but I would - I am single and my needs are small, so it is not like my kids are gonna starve.

Re: Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

#455

Post by 2019-nCoV » Tue, May 05, 2020, 10:50 PM UTC

Beldin wrote: post #425

matthewowen wrote: post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

worth noting that this severance is vastly more generous than you'd get from statutory redundancy in most (all?) countries. the UK is one week's pay for every year, but with a maximum of £538/week and a maximum of 20 years for length service. given that a software engineer who's been at AirBnB for two years is going to get 16 weeks of pay and probably makes _at least_ 180k/year, they're probably getting around $55k.

NL: starting point is one month per year of employment. There's more detail to it, but that is the starting point. This compensation does not sound "vastly more generous", but not bad for those that were less than 5 years employed.

You'd be in the top 5% of software engineers in Europe if you pull >$55k after tax ANNUALLY. Let alone as a parting gift.

Re: Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

#456

Post by garyclarke27 » Tue, May 05, 2020, 10:50 PM UTC

Was a mystery to me why they waited so long to do an IPO. They must be kicking themselves now, will be a long long time, before they can match the kind of cash they could have raised anytime in 2019.

Re: Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

#457

Post by robocat » Tue, May 05, 2020, 10:51 PM UTC

jameshush wrote: post #82

schkkd wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why when a yet another aspiring startup wants to hire me, I ask for a high sign on bonus as an insurance, monthly vesting cycle, at least 200k in base pay and high severance upon termination. Never been given that, but I don't regret: looking back, all those "just 1 year till IPO" companies are underwater.

The "high severance upon termination" is smart, I never thought about asking for that. I'll definitely try that in the future!

This is called a a golden handshake: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_handshake

Unless you are receiving executive level compensation and/or you have a serious public reputation on the line, no reasonable company would consider giving you that. It would give you the perverse incentive to try to get fired and someone negotiating for that would be a strong negative signal - an economic moral hazard. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_hazard

Re: Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

#458

Post by spats1990 » Tue, May 05, 2020, 10:51 PM UTC

vkou wrote: post #22

keiferski wrote: post #10

Separated employees will receive 14 weeks of pay, and one more week for each year served at the company (rounding partial years up). The firm is also dropping its one-year equity cliff so that employees who are laid off with under 12 months of tenure can buy their vested options; Airbnb will also provide 12 months of health insurance through COBRA in the United States, and health care coverage through 2020 in the res…

Back in the day, severance packages for white collar workers were close to one month per year served. My father received that from Kodak (Not once, but twice... He had the rare privilege of being laid off (From the same team, no less) in 2009, and then again in 2016. The severance package did not change much between each of his stints of employment.) With that schedule, anyone who worked at AirBnB for four years or l…

>Back in the day, severance packages for white collar workers were close to one month per year served.

in Korea this rule is in actual labour law. One month's salary for each year employed fulltime, for everybody.

Re: Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

#459

Post by verst » Tue, May 05, 2020, 10:52 PM UTC

xenospn wrote: post #335

lostmsu wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I first misread it as "14 months" (as usually you count in months), but it was way out of bounds.

It's really strange to me that companies in the US can just determine how much severance they're "willing" to pay. Why is it even up to them?

I am not sure why you are being downvoted.

It seems that much of HN has very little knowledge of (and interest in) business operations and employment law in other countries.

I see your question as genuinely inquiring about this stark difference from what is common in Europe and other countries.

Re: Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

#460

Post by organicfigs » Tue, May 05, 2020, 10:54 PM UTC

schkkd wrote: post #44

keiferski wrote: post #10

Separated employees will receive 14 weeks of pay, and one more week for each year served at the company (rounding partial years up). The firm is also dropping its one-year equity cliff so that employees who are laid off with under 12 months of tenure can buy their vested options; Airbnb will also provide 12 months of health insurance through COBRA in the United States, and health care coverage through 2020 in the res…

That's why when a yet another aspiring startup wants to hire me, I ask for a high sign on bonus as an insurance, monthly vesting cycle, at least 200k in base pay and high severance upon termination. Never been given that, but I don't regret: looking back, all those "just 1 year till IPO" companies are underwater.

Same, those clowns are Sky Rocket Ventures wouldn't stop calling me. I told them to match 65% of my then-salary, they realized they weren't talking with a broke 20 year old kid and stopped calling me.