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Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

blog.coinbase.com

241–250 of 616 posts

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#241
post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Europe you have to keep paying the person, but it's not uncommon for them to be told not to come in anymore.

This is true in the US as well. While in some cases you can lay someone off, and immediately stop paying, most of the time there is a period where the former employee will be paid and not have to come to work (or really, allowed to).

It's also what Coinbase seems to be doing here (they are paying people for fourteen weeks or more).

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every tier 1 support rep needs to be able to pull up at least some of my account information. Sure IT and other internal teams shouldn't have direct access, but when your business is managing other people's accounts/money a lot of people will need to have access to customer data.

But you can still restrict that. Make it so every access must be tied to a specific open ticket. Don't just say "well, this person sometimes needs access to a specific customer's information so they can have permanent always-on access to all customer information."

That's a mitigation strategy but there are many open tickets at any one time. The employee can just go through open tickets and wreak havoc.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#243
post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Friendly, smiley, fake. My father had to lay off a bunch of people in 2008. I am now a manager. He told me that if I am ever forced to do this to not ever do this crap to my team. Tell them that this is bullshit. Tell them that you are upset. Tell them that you haven't slept. Tell them that the are right to be mad, disappointed, and even to hate you for choosing their head to roll. Anything better than fake smiles…

Company I worked at had a layoff in 2012, security manager escorted 200 people out of the building. At the end of the day, he was escorted out of the building. It was quite shitty for that fellow, I felt terrible for him.

One place I worked at briefly would call the cops and have them escourt you out if they thought there was any risk of "disruption or back talk" (their words). I decided not to work for assholes who lay off little old ladies and then to add insult to injury, call the cops on them.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#244
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?

Unfortunately, least privilege access is not common practice in the industry yet. It's coming along, but it's a huge lift to get everything and everyone onboarded, especially if you have a bunch of legacy systems you need to retrofit. At companies where least privilege is a thing you can just revoke most of a person's permissions while leaving them access to, say, internal email and Slack. Without pervasive RBAC or ABAC that's basically impossible.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#245
post #171
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…

In finance it's pretty common practice (and in that sense Coinbase is similar to a broker). I remember stories about how half (?) the people working at UBS London came to work one morning to find that their badges didn't unlock the entrance gates anymore. And lots of stories like that in the years following the 2008 crash.

Wouldn't their Blackberries be remotely deactivated first?

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#246
post #53

Why has the crypto boom and bust lined up so closely with the COVID pandemic? Is it a coincidence or is there some underlying cause?

When covid started sporting events were cancelled and the general population received cash stimulus and with the ease of use of iPhone apps a lot of people that were used to gambling on sporting events switched to crypto. This led to an increase price which then attracted the second set of people and so forth.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We may be mixing things up. You can definitely be paid laid off employee for a period of time, while having your access revoked. They're completely orthogonal. Depends on role, company, situation. It's an assessment and tradeoff - is it worth / do I need the next two weeks of work and KT from this person, vs the risk of having access. The notion of revoking security access to limit risk is definitely not a US thing.

>You can definitely be paid laid off employee for a period of time, while having your access revoked. In France, this is a breach of contract as you are not providing your employees with the means to work, and you can be sued for it if it is not done as a disciplinary measure (which you can also be sued for if not done in good faith) EDIT: my dudes stop trying to link legifrance articles to me, I have literally been…

Doesn't seem correct "Upon termination of employment, the employer may release the employee from working during all or part of the notice period and pay him an indemnity in lieu of notice"

https://knowledge.leglobal.org/restrictive-covenants-in-fran...

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We may be mixing things up. You can definitely be paid laid off employee for a period of time, while having your access revoked. They're completely orthogonal. Depends on role, company, situation. It's an assessment and tradeoff - is it worth / do I need the next two weeks of work and KT from this person, vs the risk of having access. The notion of revoking security access to limit risk is definitely not a US thing.

>You can definitely be paid laid off employee for a period of time, while having your access revoked. In France, this is a breach of contract as you are not providing your employees with the means to work, and you can be sued for it if it is not done as a disciplinary measure (which you can also be sued for if not done in good faith) EDIT: my dudes stop trying to link legifrance articles to me, I have literally been…

>not providing your employees with the means to work

Logic would dictate that providing the exact same pay/benefits as one would get for the work ought to be sufficient. But, ...

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We may be mixing things up. You can definitely be paid laid off employee for a period of time, while having your access revoked. They're completely orthogonal. Depends on role, company, situation. It's an assessment and tradeoff - is it worth / do I need the next two weeks of work and KT from this person, vs the risk of having access. The notion of revoking security access to limit risk is definitely not a US thing.

>You can definitely be paid laid off employee for a period of time, while having your access revoked. In France, this is a breach of contract as you are not providing your employees with the means to work, and you can be sued for it if it is not done as a disciplinary measure (which you can also be sued for if not done in good faith) EDIT: my dudes stop trying to link legifrance articles to me, I have literally been…

Coming from an American perspective, that is super interesting. I don't think I understand why it is seen as harm to the employee? They are getting full pay, but aren't required to do anything for it.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#250
post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some companies do it, sure, but I wouldn't call it normal or acceptable. In fact, it's kind sleezy.

Mass-scale layoffs it's almost guaranteed. When you're talking even a single percentage point of employees departing, it's more normal than you might expect. Some companies even do it after an employee submits notice on their end (paying through the end of the term but disabling access earlier than expected, or even immediately), though this is far less common.

You can keep saying it, but it doesn't make it more true or acceptable. Anyway, the current HN crowd has been disappointing lately, so time to take a break.
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