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Citing revenue declines, Airbnb cuts 25% of workforce

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

#561

Post by louisswiss »

Naracion wrote: post #557
louisswiss wrote: post #539

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> even the workers seem to value the rights of the employers far above the rights of the employees. I'm not sure why this is. To paraphrase a famous quote, in the USA the workers don't see themselves as workers, but as temporarily down-on-their-luck owners.

Out of curiosity, what is the quote and whom is it by? (not trying to challenge you, just interested)

> “Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.”

By Ronald Wright.

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

#562

Post by 2019-nCoV »

vhartman wrote: post #532
2019-nCoV wrote: post #520

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Zurich and London top out at $100k, any more and we're talking managerial responsibilities. Compared to SF or SEA they are only paying ~25% market rate. The safety net argument has no legs. Australia and Canada both have social benefits that far exceed the majority of EU nations, yet pre-pandemic there was no shortage of $150k+ dev roles.

Zurich does definitely not top out at 100k. Depending on your negotiation skills, you'll start at about 120-140k in the big tech companies, around 120k in data science consulting, 120k for data science in banks, 80-100k at the smaller software companies.

The number of European devs making >$100k is a fraction of a percent. Your numbers tell the story — the pinnacle of the entire European continent is still only paying 25% comparable US market rate, and 60% comparable AU/CA rate. In a city more expensive than SF.

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

#563

Post by luckydata »

moltar wrote: post #522

Wondering what that means for their new Montreal office. They erected this whole new building in a trendy area.

if anything I can see them move more of their operations there and downsizing in SF where talent is still relatively expensive.

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

#564

Post by mav3rick »

mav3rick wrote: post #238
jameslevy wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Monthly vesting without a year one cliff is not really done, AFAIK. I also don't think that there is a lot of wiggle room for negotiated severance terms. But sign on bonuses and 200k base pay could certainly be on the table.

It happens at both F & G in FAANG.

Looks like finally a comment thread where there are no pitch forks against G. Still waiting for someone to concoct a reason as to why this maybe bad for employees :D Also it's quarterly at FB.

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

#565

Post by grecy »

kaybe wrote: post #464
grecy wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might be surprized how many people are "stuck" around the world right now, and are staying in Air B N B's waiting for all the closures to end. For example Argentina has cancelled ALL plane flights (in/out and domestic) until September.. and unless you have signed authority you can't even drive town to town. So anyone that was travelling there is now stuck, and are essentially forced to rent a place and stay put.…

So Germany basically collected all its citizens that could be found (and that wanted to) around the world back home last month, including chartered airplanes and special permission organized for them to travel to the airport (~200.000 people). Is that unusual? https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19-R%C3%BCckholprogramm_...

Lots of countries had repatriation flights like that, but many thousands of people chose not to go, or couldn't make it work for various logistical reasons (they're travelling with a vehicle or a pet or who knows why)

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

#566

Post by jashmatthews »

manigandham wrote: post #542
cecilpl2 wrote: post #523

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You own a factory. Your employees don't. There's a power imbalance in the employment relationship. Most people (who don't own things like factories) need a regular, predictable, stable income to survive, and finding new employment is not always easy. Therefore, people in most developed countries have agreed that by taking on an employee, it is contingent on the employer to provide some guarantee of stability. This is…

Nobody is stopping you from owning a factory. The workers are also free to leave anytime without any notice or responsibility to the employer. This is a flexible arrangement for both parties that focuses on individual freedom and responsibility. It also helps make it easy for entrepreneurs to start companies and create jobs in the US and is a direct reason why we don't see the same innovation in regulation-heavy regi…

Sweden and Germany, for example, are heavily regulated but have more innovation in terms of GDP% than the USA.

If you're talking about why we don't see more visible commercial innovation from European countries then it's more about access to the enormous amounts of capital to build a big name startup like Uber etc.

Nobody notices the legions of small bootstrapped or seed to profitable software businesses across the EU.

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

#567

Post by matchagaucho »

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?

It’s an essential part of the Silicon Valley formula to encourage risk taking.

Grow fast and flame out? That’s ok. Shut it down as gracefully as possible and try again.

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

#568

Post by ryanbrunner »

agensaequivocum wrote: post #547
cecilpl2 wrote: post #523

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You own a factory. Your employees don't. There's a power imbalance in the employment relationship. Most people (who don't own things like factories) need a regular, predictable, stable income to survive, and finding new employment is not always easy. Therefore, people in most developed countries have agreed that by taking on an employee, it is contingent on the employer to provide some guarantee of stability. This is…

> The USA is an aberration in this regard - even the workers seem to value the rights of the employers far above the rights of the employees. No one has a right to payment if they do not provide services.

If it's specified in their employment contract, they absolutely do. A severance package is really at the root of it just something laid out in an employment contract that says that absent cause, an employer needs to compensate the employee for terminating the contract. Clauses like that are super common in all kinds of contracts.

The main difference, of course, is that in countries that require this sort of thing, it's required - but requiring certain implicit terms in employment contracts is a regular thing in the U.S. as well - there's all kinds of regulations and case law on what sorts of employment contracts are valid. Saying that something like severance is a necessary requirement is a difference of degree, not of kind.

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

#569

Post by jklein11 »

cecilpl2 wrote: post #523
jklein11 wrote: post #513

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't downvote the OP but I am picking up a tone of indignation that I don't quite understand. I find this pretty interesting. Here is my take on the situation: Let's say I own a widget factory and you are highly skilled at turning paper clips into widgets. We agree on a price for your time and I hire you to start making widgets. Things are going gangbusters, you produce a ton of widgets and I pay you for the time…

You own a factory. Your employees don't. There's a power imbalance in the employment relationship. Most people (who don't own things like factories) need a regular, predictable, stable income to survive, and finding new employment is not always easy. Therefore, people in most developed countries have agreed that by taking on an employee, it is contingent on the employer to provide some guarantee of stability. This is…

I understand the policy and I don't think it is an entirely unreasonable way to combat wealth inequality. The only point I was trying to make is that it feels disingenuous to be surprised a company has a say in the severance they pay.

I do think there are a few places where this policy breaks down. For example, the additional transaction cost makes hiring decisions "stickier." I think this hurts the employee as well as the employer.

I don't quite understand the power imbalance here. My employer requires my labor and I am willing to trade my labor for money. If I'm not happy with the arrangement I'm free to find someone else to trade with.

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

#570

Post by RussianCow »

paulcole wrote: post #482
nicesave wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many times employers will make statements like this for better PR (always leaving out that they were required to)

Can you name a single time this has happened?

Almost literally every company that had to make changes in compliance with COVID-19 health and safety guidelines.
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