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Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

blog.coinbase.com

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Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#371

Post by avinassh »

Brian also posted a short explanation on twitter:

> 1/ Today I shared that I've made the difficult decision to reduce the size of our team at Coinbase by about 18%. The broader market downturn means that we need to be more mindful of costs as we head into a potential recession.

> 2/ We also grew quite quickly over the past two years and have begun to operate less efficiently at our new size. It will take us some time to adjust to this new scale before growing again.

> 3/ We've put some key programs in place to try and minimize the impact to our affected employees. Here is a note that I sent to the company earlier today with more information

https://nitter.net/brian_armstrong/status/153668976014760345...

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#372

Post by Patrol8394 »

Their business is mostly based on tx fees, whereas in the “old” financial system tx fees are no more.

Orange is the new black?

I don’t see how they can build a long term sustainable business. They were lucky enough to go IPO during a BTC super hyped bull cycle. It is all downhill from here.

If I was working at CB I would have probably cashed out post-IPO and moved on. I see no reason to work there post-IPO.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#373

Post by refracture »

nemo44x wrote: post #72
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…

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.

I used to work as a contractor at a help desk, the company was based on the east coast while the office we were at was back west.

We hired a guy that while nice enough was not a good fit; he couldn't do the work. HQ decided that we would terminate him on Friday. I have no idea why, but the on site supervisor had gotten the perception that we had the go ahead to inform this guy he was terminated, and right before he was going to get escorted out he realized this was premature.

We basically had to tell this guy, "You're fired, oh wait you're fired on Friday, carry on until then unless you want to quit before that.." it was a Monday or a Tuesday. We practically begged the company to move it up, our supervisor even asking to give the guy his own leave for the rest of the week to get him out of here. They didn't budge. Because of all the bureaucracy we couldn't revoke his building access or even his computer access; we risked getting in trouble just by disabling all of his administrator related privileges just because we didn't know what he was going to do if left to his own devices.

The guy was a mess, he had left a decent job to have a shorter commute and it blew up in his face horribly. I felt awful because he wasn't a bad guy or lazy or anything.. he just wasn't a good fit and couldn't contribute. I remember talking to him later and him saying how humiliating it was to be sitting there knowing full well he was 'a failure' and just 'waiting to be fired', browsing the internet looking for jobs while at 'work'.. but wasn't willing to quit before hand because he needed as big a pay check as possible to support his family. I don't believe it was just because of this but do I do firmly believe this awful experience may have been a contributing factor to him taking his life later that year.

It was such a garbage company. We had the reverse happen with another employee; local management was planning to let him go on Friday; somebody from payroll sent an email telling him to fill out his time card so they could process his termination.

Cold? Maybe, but frankly to me it's a million times better than my experience with the inverse. I do NOT want people who know they're about to get canned hanging around. In the best case they are miserable and just wanting to leave.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#374

Post by automatic6131 »

danuker wrote: post #172
hansonkd13 wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main value proposition is to sell to the next person for more than you paid. Everything else about banking the unbanked or other vague goals about being better than fiat are to convince the next bag holder.

> The main value proposition is to sell to the next person for more than you paid. I agree. But I genuinely believe "bagholders" will be better off compared to saving in their own national currency - provided they manage their risk correctly. This is because national currencies keep inflating, so even a decreasing demand might maintain the same price, given the supply inflation difference. Since the pandemic, BTC has…

>This is because national currencies keep inflating Now consider the (dominating) 2nd order effect that the price of the "bag" was inflated by leverage and speculation.

Definitely worse than most national currencies outside of select countries.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#375

Post by mbg721 »

ghaff wrote: post #360
mytailorisrich wrote: post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firing someone is the result of poor performance or unacceptable behaviour. In many jurisdictions (not in the US I suppose), before firing someone for poor performance they must be told that their performance is inadequate and be given a chance to improve. Bottom line, in general being fired is fully on the person being fired so no need to sugar-coat or to feel bad.

>In many jurisdictions (not in the US I suppose), before firing someone for poor performance they must be told that their performance is inadequate and be given a chance to improve. Performance Improvement Plans are a thing at larger companies. That said, once someone is on a PIP, the handwriting is almost certainly on the wall. I've also worked with people who were incredibly oblivious about the quality of their wor…

The PIP thing varies. Some companies just use them as a risk reducing tool to fire people, but a few really believe in them and will keep employees who've gone through them. I take a dim view of that, personally, just because it ends up feeling like management-by-fear.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#376

Post by tallanvor »

wil421 wrote: post #347
synu wrote: 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.

It’s the exact same in the US. Most companies pay a decent severance that is tied to tenure and is meant to avoid lawsuits. If you resign and they don’t want you to stay for 2 weeks then they will still pay you.

Severance is different, though. My contract, for example, requires the employer to give me 3 month's notice (well, potentially up to 4 since the 3 month timer doesn't start until the first day of the month after notice was given), and without a very good reason to do so (we think we might run into cash problems if we don't do this wouldn't count), they'd have to offer a significant amount of money to get me to leave voluntarily - often times that ends up being about a month's pay per year worked.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#377

Post by tomp »

UncleMeat wrote: post #208
NikolaNovak wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately it's common enough. It's harsh, it's cold, but ultimately for companies it's a real necessity. The explanation is blunt and correct - even a single malicious actor can enact HUGE devastating harm. It doesn't have to be hot wallet / cold storage. Source code, business plans, revenue & profit statements, SSH to servers, physical access to datacentre, client contact lists, etc etc... there's a myriad thing…

> 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…

To me, saying that "you don't want to be doing it" (paraphrased as "you are upset" or "you haven't slept"), is much more of a fake bullshit than the other thing. Be an adult take responsibility for your actions, don't blame "the guy" (your boss, your company, the economy, whatever).

If you really hated doing it, you wouldn't be doing it. Quitting yourself is always an option.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#378

Post by nsxwolf »

aaronsimpson wrote: post #352

> Minimum of 14 weeks of severance plus an additional 2 weeks for every year of employment beyond 1 year. This feels super generous to me. Is it standard par for growing companies and Silicon Valley?

Yeah that seems huge. After 3 years at an SF-area company (not SV), I got 4 weeks severance. Barely enough to make it until unemployment kicks in, or get the ball rolling on interviews.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#379

Post by dvt »

jakebasile wrote: post #323
andyjohnson0 wrote: post #293

What struck me about this announcement was that the CEO states a couple of times that he is accountable for the decision, but doesn't say what form that accountability takes. I try not to be cynical, but I suspect in this case that there will be no actual, real accountability.

It's his fault and the buck stops with him, but guess who is remaining employed?

I mean, it's his company. Kind of a weird comment to make.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#380

Post by ethanbond »

rvz wrote: post #138
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…

> What do you make of Sam Bankman-Fried describing his business as a literal Ponzi scheme Strawman. He described DeFi yield farming as a ponzi scheme. [0] Not his own business. Nice try though and thanks for playing. [0] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-04-25/sam-bankm...

No need for the snark, thank you for the clarification though!
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