Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

blog.coinbase.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

431–440 of 616 posts

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#431

Post by michaelt »

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 Hiring freeze and rescinded offers. 3. 18% layoffs.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?

There's two ways you can announce a big corporate change:

1. A fully formed announcement, where everyone learns their fate on day 1. People will complain that it came out of nowhere, they weren't consulted, and that skulking managers sharpened their knives in secret.

2. A gradual announcement, where everybody knows well before the big announcement that something is coming. People will complain about uncertainty and sleepless nights spent fearing for their jobs.

(Neither option is complaint-free, because there's no way of firing 18% of your workforce without putting people in the mood to complain)

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#432

Post by heretogetout »

avrionov wrote: post #95
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…

This is very typical. He is talking about cutting now former employees access to email, source code repositories, internal systems. It is done all the time. It looks very harsh.

And if I were a customer, I'd be concerned if they didn't cut off access immediately.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#433

Post by [deleted] »

melling wrote: post #28
atlasunshrugged wrote: post #14

It is fascinating just how quickly sentiments can change (both in the broader market but in crypto it seems to be exacerbated). That said, it's obvious that companies like these dramatically overhired and overspent on talent and were growing far beyond what the market could bear except in an extremely bull run subsidized by government largesse. Now that investors are losing their shirts on crypto and retail people wh…

“It is fascinating just how quickly sentiments can change” Sounds like a classic bubble that people have been warning about. Tulips all over again? https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2022/05/02/warren-buffett-wouldnt-s...

[deleted]

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#435

Post by paulgb »

dvt wrote: post #385
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…

> his business as a literal Ponzi scheme Imagine being this uninformed and wanting to seriously have a conversation about crypto and the underlying fundamentals. We get it, you hate crypto. Why even bother at this point?

Matt Levine is pretty informed IMHO, and he interpreted SBF's explanation of yield farming as describing a Ponzi scheme.

> I think of myself as like a fairly cynical person. And that was so much more cynical than how I would've described farming. You're just like, well, I'm in the Ponzi business and it's pretty good.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#436

Post by [deleted] »

xyzzyz wrote: post #254
ohgodplsno wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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…

So if you want to lay someone off in France, you have to allow them access to company facilities and systems and allow them to work? You cannot just pay them through their severance period, but tell them to stay home? If so, that’s absurd, and I don’t see what purpose it would serve.

[deleted]

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#437

Post by giantrobot »

CydeWeys wrote: post #333
timmg wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those charts look way less dire than I would have expected. June isn't halfway through yet. So I'm not sure what to think of that. But prior to June, they had been doing ~$200M in "fees" monthly -- fairly consistently, for almost a year. That's more of a "business" (and more stable) than I would have guessed.

Most of those $200M in fees are Ethereum gas fees that are being burnt on-chain. Those aren't income for OpenSea, they're costs incurred by all parties as part of doing business.

Even then the dollar value is only the magic fantasy price you'd get if you could turn those coins into dollars but not affect the price by the fact of that sale.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#438

Post by xeromal »

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 don't really understand why anyone would want to continue working for a company that doesn't want you.

Give me my severance (14 weeks for Coinbase) and let me go find something better to do.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#439

Post by TheCoelacanth »

coldcode wrote: post #130
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…

As a public company, are they not required to plan layoffs in advance? i.e. does the WARN act not apply here?

They are giving everyone at least 14 weeks of severance, so that fulfills the requirements of the notice period.

Effectively, they are still employed, just not being given any work to do.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#440

Post by zeroonetwothree »

ohgodplsno wrote: post #224
nemo44x wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Quoted post unavailable.

Health care for my family of four is $5000/yr at my employee, although that’s pre-tax. If I were single it would be free. This covers essentially everything, I’ve had $10s of thousands of surgery for which I paid nothing myself. I never have to wait for medical care, I can just go same day whenever I want. Prescriptions cost me $0.

Health care in the US is only expensive if you are poor and unemployed, sad to say.

Post reply on HN