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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

#711

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From what I've seen 12 months pay in Germany is probably equivalent to 3.5 months pay in the US.

Pardon my frankness but that's BS. What are you referring to here? How much money buys you? Aka: costs of living? How much you make, converting EUR to USD? What industry? IT? I worked in a leadership position at a multi-national in Berlin for almost five years. I know the salaries the engineers had in CA & Chicago vs Germany. US was maybe 20% more max. In terms of what it buys you ... not so much. See below. Cost of…

I assumed what was meant was how generous it was compared to a normal severance package in the country. Ie, if a normal package would be 2 months in the US and this is 3.5, then saying it's like a 12 month package in Germany implies that a normal German package would be just under 7 months.

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

#712

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they're going to poach a ton of business away from hotels once things start opening back up. It's way easier to maintain social distance in an AirBnb (hotels have check-in processes, hallways where you have to pass other guests, etc), and I think more people will be travelling to rural areas where Airbnbs have an advantage.

Yeah but do you trust someone to sanitize their home properly after the previous guest or would you trust a hotel to do that correctly? Thats the question my friend circle has been thinking about...

I trust that I will sanitize it properly vs. a minimum wage housekeeper who prob needs to clean 50 rooms a day. Thats my plan is all airbnb and when I get there will do all the cleaning myself.

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

#713

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good point. If they're wanting to part ways with 25% of the workforce now, covering 3 months of full salary and 12 months of expensive healthcare, they must be expecting fundamental market shifts. Also, the debt they took on may have been partly to cover these lavish severance packages while also extending the runway. And yes, this is extremely lavish. Paying severance that appears roughly equal to the median annual…

It is generous by US standards, but it's just nice for many other western countries, where the standard is a few months of salary, or e.g. one month salary for each year worked (that is, if you had worked for the company for 5 years, you get at least 5 months salary on termination -- Israel mandates that one by law, for example, and NOT paying it is considered a criminal violation performed by the employer)

My understanding is that tech jobs also pay a lot more (relatively) in the US than most everywhere else in the west.

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

#714

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Iirc a German friend got more than 12 months severance for a lay-off in SAP. It’s interesting to Compare differences in norms around the world.

The US workers, at least in IT make much more money than their European counterparts, while paying less taxes. A wise person could in theory save 20% or more every month to create own safety net, while still enjoying a high standard of living. Alas this is not the American way of life, where it is not uncommon to spend even over 100K per year on a lavish lifestyle and living in debt.

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

#715

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From what I've seen 12 months pay in Germany is probably equivalent to 3.5 months pay in the US.

Pardon my frankness but that's BS. What are you referring to here? How much money buys you? Aka: costs of living? How much you make, converting EUR to USD? What industry? IT? I worked in a leadership position at a multi-national in Berlin for almost five years. I know the salaries the engineers had in CA & Chicago vs Germany. US was maybe 20% more max. In terms of what it buys you ... not so much. See below. Cost of…

It’s worth making 4x in the states and paying less taxes to boot. Forget cost of living, only rent is more expensive so tack on an extra $2k a month if you don’t want to live with roommates.

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

#716

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

A lot of big tech companies continue to hire, AirBnB was at the rough intersection of discretionary leisure travel, the gig economy, COVID and tech. aka "the big oof"

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

#717

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…

Isn't there much better way? Many big cities are projected to start opening up in June. I would expect life coming back to normal around August end. So that's basically 4 months. Why not just keep paying instead of doing severance and lose all these well-trained talent? If you are doubtful if 4 months will be enough, you can still offer option of continued employment at 50% or 75% pay? I feel move like this tarnishes stability aspect of companies. Does anyone now want to sell their houses and move to where AirBnB is so they have their job in future?

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

#718

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…

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

It's not. In this economy 3 months will pass by in split seconds and you may still not have job.

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

#719
post #479

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…

All indications are that we are going to experience a not-so-great depression. Not a recession, an honest-to-goodness depression. 2020 will be down YoY in terms economic output probably across the world, and it wouldn't surprise me if that's not only true for Q2-Q4, but if it also lingers into Q1. My guess is that we will feel like things are growing again this time next year. Some economists are hoping for a better…

The world can always get worse. There's a lot of things/governments/societies that are propped up on the idea of basically forever growth.

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

#720
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By most American standards

Where do you live that companies will give 14 weeks' severance pay to people who've only been there a year?

When Texas Instruments closed their offices in Nice (somewhere around 2016?), the package was one month per year worked. Most people had worked there for between 10 and 20 years. From what I heard, Hewlett Packard was even more generous when they shut down
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