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

531–540 of 616 posts

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#531

Post by ohgodplsno »

jefftk wrote: post #249
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…

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.

The core reasons are:

* as an employee, you sign a contract that exchanges your time for both a salary and a job. Refusing to provide either of those is a breach of contract. It's one thing to say "things are a bit slow right now, so do whatever". It is an entirely other one to not give your employee tools, access to things they'd need to do their job, or even leave them wondering if they even have a job still. Doubly worse if you require them to come to the office to not know what to do. Hence, the common solution to that is to change their job to something that just puts them in the corner on mostly useless tasks. They're technically working, but you can't fire them unless you have a good reason to. It's then hoped that the boredom makes you leave. However, that goes in to point two:

* Putting people in such a position is alienating and potentially damaging mentally. You are seen as the guy who does fuck all by your colleagues, you are not allowed to take another job in the mean time, itb is mentally unfulfilling and morally discouraging. Do so at your own risks, because there have been plenty of instances where the employer has had to pay damages.

Basically, if you want to fire someone, either do it and pay the (quite expensive if the employee has been here for a while) indemnities, or don't. The halfway solution of boring them until they quit is illegal.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#533

Post by sillysaurusx »

puranjay wrote: post #325
blocked_again wrote: post #284

Is there a single YC company which is doing good in public market? It seems like all YC companies are net loss making investment for the retail investors have they bought the stocks in IPO.

YC was peak funny money. I work extensively with startups and it was increasingly apparent in the last few years that the main objective of the startup was to raise funding, not to build product or deliver value. The number of "unicorns" that will be around in a decade is likely in the low double digits at best.

Starting one unicorn is a big achievement. Helping start 12 is incredible.

That’s over 12 billion dollars by definition.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#535

Post by itronitron »

dgfitz wrote: post #219
UncleMeat wrote: post #208

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.

When RSA Data Security was acquired in the mid `90's they laid off a bunch of people, presumably to sweeten the deal, and security was waiting outside in the morning to block people from coming into the building.

One of my former colleagues, who showed up to work early, inadvertently freaked out one of the executives when they saw them in the hall. Naturally they (not the executive) were soon escorted out of the building and told they had been laid off.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#536

Post by xtracto »

wp381640 wrote: post #209
puranjay wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

and Crypto.com laid off 5% of its workforce just yesterday

It's crazy how much of a marketing footprint they have considering they're only the 19/20th largest exchange I think the chances of them seeing out their stadium sponsorship are near 0%

I was amazed they are so prevalent in the Formula 1 races. I've seen them and OKX plastered around race track and cars.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#537

Post by 999900000999 »

refracture wrote: post #373
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.

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 w…

He also knew if you quit,even if verbally told your out anyway, unemployment is basically impossible to get.

In my younger days I literally got unemployment 100% of the time I applied. In California unless you get arrested at work, your getting UI.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#538

Post by puranjay »

dopeboy wrote: post #527
puranjay wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the problem - your expenses (salaries, rent, hosting, etc.) are paid in USD. Meanwhile, your revenue is in ETH. Even if you can maintain the same volume, your revenue can drop drastically if ETH price drops. A 100 ETH sale earns you 2.5 ETH. In January, this was worth $7.5k. Now, its worth $3k. Your revenue dropped by over 50% but your expenses are going to stay the same. I can't see how the economics of busin…

Unless you're immediately converting crypto to fiat.

how does that matter in this situation? You get paid in ETH. ETH was $3k in January. Its $1.2k now. Ergo, your income is now $1.2k, not $3k since your fee is fixed.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#539

Post by ihumanable »

le-mark wrote: post #462
hnbear wrote: post #454

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a lot of commentary on this, but people seem to be conflating a couple of points - namely that this cut all access - everything, and emailed to personal email and not just access to "secure" systems. That is pretty unusual, and not something I've seen. Typically access to sensitive systems is cut, but cutting everything and notifying to personal email seems unusual. Sensitive information should always be segr…

> Sensitive information should always be segregated and subject to tight controls, which is easy to sever This, very few people should have access to production data. This is a shocking revelation. I’m reevaluating being a customer of theirs.

In this episode of Coinbase they learn that authentication and authorization are two different things :D

I was similarly shocked that the only control plane they had to limit access to sensitive information was literally terminating everything. They don't have any kind of access control that would allow them to keep an employee in their system but limit their access. How exactly are they running a "finance company" if they don't have these basic protections.

I could see if they were an early stage startup and just haven't gotten around to it, but they are multiple thousands of employees at this point. In every start up I've worked in, implementing access controls ends up being a priority around 100 employees.

I've never used Coinbase but this revelation makes me not want to ever use them in the future.

Re: Coinbase Announces 18% Layoffs

#540

Post by puranjay »

santiagobasulto wrote: post #521
puranjay wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the problem - your expenses (salaries, rent, hosting, etc.) are paid in USD. Meanwhile, your revenue is in ETH. Even if you can maintain the same volume, your revenue can drop drastically if ETH price drops. A 100 ETH sale earns you 2.5 ETH. In January, this was worth $7.5k. Now, its worth $3k. Your revenue dropped by over 50% but your expenses are going to stay the same. I can't see how the economics of busin…

> your expenses (salaries, rent, hosting, etc.) are paid in USD. nobody (sane at least) would mix expenses and long term, high volatility investment as crypto. I own some crypto and I don't care today's price, it's a 10y investment.

Except in this case, its unavoidable - unless your employees and landlords and hosting companies accept crypto. Your revenue will always be in ETH (or other native tokens). Your expenses will always be in USD (or local currency). Which is what makes this model unsustainable.
Post reply on HN