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Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

blog.coinbase.com

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Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#111

Post by rvz »

symlinkk wrote: post #64
hftthrowaway22 wrote: post #26

It’s been pretty interesting watching YC backed Coinbase get absolutely crushed by FTX, which has a higher % of crypto trading volume despite having less than 10% of the headcount. Crypto is a zero sum game, and the old Paul Graham essays and other tired VC dogmas really only work in positive sum games. FTX was founded by traders which is valuable when the ultimate purpose of the crypto industry is to separate uninfo…

I have never heard of FTX until reading your comment just now. Is it really crushing Coinbase?

Those who have too much head count and hire aggressively, also fire aggressively.

I'm guessing FTX kept their head count low, so not impacted as hard as Coinbase is.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#112

Post by atlasunshrugged »

duxup wrote: post #104
atlasunshrugged wrote: post #71

> If you are affected, you will receive this notification in your personal email, because we made the decision to cut access to Coinbase systems for affected employees. I realize that removal of access will feel sudden and unexpected, and this is not the experience I wanted for you. Given the number of employees who have access to sensitive customer information, it was unfortunately the only practical choice, to ensu…

I’ve had video conference calls worse than a cold email with the facts.

Absolutely, both awful, but I don't know, I personally would at least want to be "told live" what was happening and in an avenue where I could potentially ask some followup questions synchronously.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#113

Post by chrisco255 »

hcmacro wrote: post #83
capableweb wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coinbase has survived something like 4 downturns before, the previous ones on the same strategy that they are employing now. So not sure what lessons they are not applying, that others are?

In which prior downturn did the valuation of Coinbase (and other unicorns) get nuked -90%?

Coinbase is the only publicly traded exchange that I know of? Coinbase wasn't public until early '21. So sure, VCs might have piled more money into Coinbase at higher valuations, but all of that VC activity and valuation is an inexact science without a liquid market.

At any rate, off the top of my head, the dot com era had a similar vibe. And several tech firms are down 75+% this year so far (Netflix included).

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#114

Post by sen »

Barrera wrote: post #60

> If you are affected, you will receive this notification in your personal email, because we made the decision to cut access to Coinbase systems for affected employees. I realize that removal of access will feel sudden and unexpected, and this is not the experience I wanted for you. Given the number of employees who have access to sensitive customer information, it was unfortunately the only practical choice, to ensu…

Common in lots of jobs. I’ve seen people get fired from Gov IT and F500 IT teams where they only find out they’re fired when they rock up to work and their pass doesn’t let them in. Security has their stuff in a box to give to them along with a letter explaining everything.

To be fair, getting fired from those companies meant you actually did something wrong. There wasn’t these mass culls that crypto/startup type companies are famous for.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#116

Post by Maxious »

PhoenixReborn wrote: post #101
xnorswap wrote: post #96

Seems absurd that 18% can be laid off without an extended consultation period, proper notice, proper protocol of who should be laid off, etc. If any UK staff are affected, then I would talk to citizens' advice (or a solicitor if you can afford it) asap. Know your rights: https://www.gov.uk/redundancy-your-rights/consultation You’re entitled to a consultation with your employer if you’re being made redundant. This inv…

I suspect most of the layoffs are in the US, where no such protections apply.

> California’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN Act). Under this Act, the right of employers to lay workers off for reasons bordering on business necessity is curtailed. Employers who plan to lay 50 or more employees off within a 30-day period must give them a 60-day notice before taking such actions.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#117

Post by Melting_Harps »

greatpostman wrote: post #75
llamaimperative wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you make of Sam Bankman-Fried describing his business as a literal Ponzi scheme on Odd Lots podcast? The commentary isn’t necessary to see the insanity but here’s fastest way to get to the relevant content: https://youtu.be/C6nAxiym9oc Edit: To clarify, though not sure how much a mitigation this is, yes SBF is describing much of the underlying activity he takes commission on as a Ponzi scheme. Sure, he’s not…

I listened to that, he even predicted the Luna crash in that interview. When that guy talks, it’s very clear he understands markets. Very different approach to Bryan Armstrong, who’s more of a Bitcoin “believer”. I think the blatant description of a ponzi scheme was a rare window into an insiders thoughts.

No post body was provided.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#118

Post by bombcar »

lkramer wrote: post #82
nojito wrote: post #12

>If you are affected, you will receive this notification in your personal email, because we made the decision to cut access to Coinbase systems for affected employees. I realize that removal of access will feel sudden and unexpected, and this is not the experience I wanted for you. Given the number of employees who have access to sensitive customer information, it was unfortunately the only practical choice, to ensur…

Isn't this practice pretty common in Finance? I've heard of people who when they resigned (or fired) immediately got their access revoked and were escorted out the door by security (or if they were lucky, swing by their desk to pick up their stuff).

It's very common in Finance or anywhere where employees have "potentially unreasonable access". Often you get perp-walked or called to the boss's office, and someone boxes up everything in your desk for you, and you'll be escorted offsite afterwards.

Most will pay you your two weeks or whatever in cash, the risk of an employee using their access to do harm is considered too great.

For many other types of jobs, including potentially software development, the risk is considered minor (all code is backed up, everything is in Git, transitions need to happen, etc).

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#119

Post by parasubvert »

londons_explore wrote: post #42
jstx1 wrote: post #3

If we follow the weekly updates: 1. First a hiring "slowdown". 2. Hiring freeze and rescinded offers. 3. 18% layoffs. What's the reason behind announcing it in stages? Don't they receive much more negative publicity this way? Or are they really making decisions from one week for the next?

I think you're really asking about a continuous vs discrete management approach. In a continuous approach, you run the company according to control-theory like laws. Ie. you want to maximize profits, so you adjust the workforce up and down gradually to maximize profits. If labor prices go down 3% you might increase headcount by 1.5% to stay at optimal profitability. All parts of the company get optimized to the best…

In practice if you fired people weekly/monthly/quarterly (pick a small enough discrete period to approximate “continuously”) at % you wouldn’t be maximizing profits due to other costs. “Non-linear effects” is carrying a lot in your description.

Take a high performing team, fire them, and then rehire tor it, retrain, etc. the cost it took to get to the previous level of productivity is the “knowledge capital” that was squandered. It usually will be more than the labor savings, unless we are talking about huge disparities based on decades of seniority: older workers with higher pay and defined benefit pensions etc vs younger workers with defined contribution pensions, is about the only case I’ve seen this make sense, and it was a once-in 30 years kind of thing.

Then there’s the reputation and morale hit: people won’t want to work for you if you have a reputation for regular layoffs.

Amazon for example is struggling with employee turnover and morale because of its aggressive approach to annual PIP and layoffs.

Labor costs also tend to be sticky downwards - people will accept getting laid off but won’t accept a pay cut.

Of course there are industries with seasonal or overflow workers etc where this is an understood job characteristic, but that tends not to be the norm…

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