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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

#652

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose it would be "instead of". Unemployment insurance isn't really a thing here.

Then the situation is maybe not so different? It's an amount you're entitled to when laid off, set by the government, which your employer has to fund proactively (payroll taxes). Because it's set by the government, it caps out at well below a typical tech worker's burn rate, so it's little more than a brake on the depletion of our savings. When a tech company offers severance it's typically much, much more than what…

It's fulfilling the same role, definitely.

In our case, the payout is defined as 4-12 weeks of salary (plus 1-4 weeks notice), based on length of tenure. Since this scales with what people earn, there's little need for tech companies (or other well-paid fields) to offer anything extra.

On a related note, Australians are also entitled to 4 weeks paid leave per yer, which accrues if not taken. Employers are also required to pay out any leave balance (even if the employee leave voluntarily), which means most workers will have at least a couple of additional weeks paid out on top of the severance.

It's the same here, in that you get the full amount regardless of how long you're unemployed after they let you go.

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

#653
post #612

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you provide some references for your claims? Don't know much about Germany but that sounds totally made up as limitation of liability is the key concept behind the invention of companies. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gesellschaft_mit_beschr%C3%A4n... I would imagine if a director breaks the law, only then he could be personally liable. And in that case I would imagine Germany does have higher standards than US.

https://www.mondaq.com/germany/CorporateCommercial-Law/64529... "If the company is in crisis special obligations arise for a managing director the breach of which may lead to a personal liability of the managing director."

In theory I like this system. What are some of the downsides?

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

#654

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

You say that before you need to find a new job in this environment

I have a feeling engineers who managed to find employment at AirBnB in the first place will turn out just fine. It's not exactly your local no-name web dev company.

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

#655

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?

Labor day is celebrated on May 1st around the world in honor of the events of the Haymarket Affair, where the Chicago police attacked striking workers. But in the US it is celebrated at the end of summer. This is not an accident, and is directly connected to your question.

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

#656
post #594

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Administrators above them though are beginning to see their desire to travel isn’t actual justified in greater business value, so their mere preference or their assertion is less likely to be believed.

Travel for current or prospective customers has some of the best ROI of nearly any expense at the company, and this is well understood. To the contrary, everyone up the chain including the CEO is even more eager to resume sales travel.

This is precisely the falsehood the present time is dispelling.

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

#657

If Airbnb is willing to pay 14 weeks (3.25 months) of severance, they must believe this is going to go on significantly longer than that. Or they're using this as an opportunity to cut underperformers at the same time. Because if they believed things would start to recover by fall, wouldn't you just pay the people as normal and make a judgement call around then? You're spending the payroll money either way -- 14 week…

When Warren Buffett completely divests Berkshire Hathaway of all airline stocks, as he recently did, I think it's a reasonable bet that travel is going to be down for a while.

Airlines are very capital-intensive, and those are exactly the type of industries that do not weather recessions very well. One does not simply lay off a 50 million dollar jet. It needs to be maintained -- regardless of whether or not it is in the air, making you money, or it's grounded in a hanger.

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

#658

Earlier quoted context omitted.

London isn’t more expensive than SF. And I have colleagues who make £450k+

> London isn’t more expensive than SF. Zurich is. > And I have colleagues who make £450k+ Just as there are American devs pocketing 7 figures annually. Again, the number of European devs making >$100k is a fraction of a percent. You can be making $100k in the US after a 6 month bootcamp or in AU/CA with a couple of years experience.

> Zurich is Not when you factor in the tax differential

I doubt that $100k is the 99th percentile for London developers, maybe it is for European in general.

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

#659

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.

Snap does monthly no cliff as well.

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

#660

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also find it really interesting that no one seems interested in pricing in a second wave of any size. It doesn't even have to be global, just a regional second wave in a tourist hot spot could crush tourism globally.

J.P. Morgan's timeline has a forecasted second wave during mid-late winter 2020-2021. [0] [0] https://www.morganstanley.com/ideas/coronavirus-peak-recover...

Their analysis has new case rates falling off the peak as quickly as we arrived at it. And new case rates almost zero by end of June? This is wildly optimistic. Italy’s chart looks nothing like their forecast for the US.
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