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Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

blog.coinbase.com

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Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#181

Post by ak217 »

Maxious wrote: post #116
PhoenixReborn wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Employers typically get around this by giving the laid off employees 60 or 90 days worth of severance pay+benefits.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#182

Post by parasubvert »

bambax wrote: post #52
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…

Wow. The language is nice but the behavior is horrendous. Also illegal in many parts of the world: IDK if they have employees in Europe but if they do it will be a big mess. Suddenly cutting off an employee from a company, with no way to even say goodbye to their former colleagues, is despicable. It really shows who you are. Let's hope they will have a hard time hiring back anyone in the future. Edit: as pointed out…

It’s incredibly common to walk employees out in a layoffs in North America, like 90% of the time. You might get a chance to pack your belongings, but sometimes they’ll pack them for you and mail them, or you can book an appointment to do this. given the pandemic, this is less of an issue.

Not saying it’s great, but this policy is the result of historical sabotage other problems of prolonged layoffs.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#183

Post by viraptor »

a_chris wrote: post #131
nemo44x wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty standard to not let terminated employees hang around. It feels cold but it’s just the way it has to be. Sone places will even do this when an employee submits a resignation on good terms. Just a way for the company to cover themselves.

This is absolutely untrue. In Europe we work several days/weeks after the layoff notice. You can fire people from the night to the morning only in US

It depends on the company/position more than the country. People with high access levels / dealing with lots of money will be treated differently than receptionists for example.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#184

Post by lancesells »

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…

I think it's typical and I would honestly prefer this if I worked somewhere. Our working relationship is over and you've let me go so let's call it a day.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#186

Post by eganist »

kodah wrote: post #152
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…

I've worked on security products as a SWE and as a SRE over critical systems, I've never seen this kind of behavior. This says a lot about the relationship Bryan and his team have with the people that work with them, imo. Edit: not sure what's up with the current iteration of the HN crowd, but downvote is not equal to "I disagree".

It's as old as time. Or at least as old as the first few times mass layoffs and networked employee devices co-existed.

https://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/21/jobs/laid-off-and-locked-...

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#187

Post by garethrowlands »

wahnfrieden wrote: post #106
golergka wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Crypto is a zero sum game How come? The same network effects that work for social networks work here, as more people and businesses use crypto, it's value proposition raises quadratically.

bc there’s not much current use beyond speculative trading on future utility

speculative trading on future price, not utility

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#188

Post by nemo44x »

a_chris wrote: post #131
nemo44x wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty standard to not let terminated employees hang around. It feels cold but it’s just the way it has to be. Sone places will even do this when an employee submits a resignation on good terms. Just a way for the company to cover themselves.

This is absolutely untrue. In Europe we work several days/weeks after the layoff notice. You can fire people from the night to the morning only in US

Did you see the severance the ex-employees are getting? It’s super generous and amounts to months of work. Id rather that than face the humiliation of having to come in for weeks to a company that has fired me.

Flexible labor laws are also a major reason Americans are paid considerably more than euros.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#189

Post by t_mann »

a_chris wrote: post #131
nemo44x wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty standard to not let terminated employees hang around. It feels cold but it’s just the way it has to be. Sone places will even do this when an employee submits a resignation on good terms. Just a way for the company to cover themselves.

This is absolutely untrue. In Europe we work several days/weeks after the layoff notice. You can fire people from the night to the morning only in US

Those people's contracts aren't invalidated by revoking access. Those companies are basically saying you're not expected to do any more work except react to our emails until the end of whatever the notice period is. And the same thing might be less common but can definitely happen to you in Europe as well, it mostly depends on which sector/roles you work in.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#190

Post by kylecordes »

samwillis wrote: post #128
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…

To be honest this is the more concerning thing in that quoted statement: > "Given the number of employees who have access to sensitive customer information" Surly they should have very very few employs that have access to that type of information?

From a customers point of view, sensitive is a fairly broad term. Every customer service agent (of which they're hopefully quite a lot) has access to sensitive information.
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