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

Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

coindesk.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

451–460 of 1001 posts

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#451

Post by synaesthesisx »

thethimble wrote: post #382
babyshake wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if doing huge amounts of hiring during good times and quickly pivoting to doing large layoffs during bad times is ethical, it sure does seem wasteful and not indicative of great leadership. Although it does seem to be the norm now, if recent years are any indication.

Well it’s not clear that anyone could have predicted the timing of this downturn. Just a few months ago people were painting a very rosy picture for the future. In that context, metering investment can have a huge opportunity cost as well. I’m not advocating for CB - just suggesting that it’s harder to predict the future than you are implying.

We knew that rates going up was inevitable, and that crypto is essentially a sponge for excess liquidity. We knew that inflation was inevitable (to an extent) given the Fed's actions over the last two years. Upon observation of the current macroeconomic environment, it appears that either markets did not properly price in rate hikes, or there is something far worse happening that will ultimately trigger a valuations reset.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#452

Post by Bluecobra »

antihero wrote: post #426
ausbah wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I think if employees feel slighted by being fired, they're fooling themselves. The best mindset is that you could be gone tomorrow. It gives you clarity and purpose. It also happens to be the truth. sorry but this reads like you drank the whole bowl of US corporate kool-aid. the insecurity and stress the comes from not knowing if you'll have a job tomorrow in literal insanity. 14 weeks severance shouldn't be seen an…

Get paid for two months to party/holiday/rest, the have another whole month (paid) to lazily job hunt in a crazy hot market and walk into the next place with a 10-30k raise. Happened to me a few times, was fucking awesome. Lack of healthcare would have been a worry but I’m in the U.K. where we get it free. How hard is it to fund your own US insurance on a tech salary to tide you over?

> How hard is it to fund your own US insurance on a tech salary to tide you over?

Healthcare is NOT cheap if you want to maintain the same plan. I had to pay $2K a month for a family plan under COBRA several years ago. This is the same as a mortgage payment for me. Typically your employer bears the majority of your insurance cost, but you pay all of it under COBRA.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#453

Post by flashgordon »

biofox wrote: post #158
flashgordon wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok let me take a stab at it. I actually am on the fence on this so purely a thought exercise for me. Plus as someone getting into midlife crisis this has been on top of mind for me. How about take (in no order): 1. 1 or 2 fancy cars/suvs 2. Be able to travel business class (say once a month) for vacations and stay in decent hotels 3. Nice education (say 2 degrees at a top college) 4. Nice house (say 2 rooms per famil…

What if I have all that, but also have a great idea for a business. Let's say I want to try it out, but to do so I'll need to hire some industrial space, expensive equipment, 5-10 engineers, and some business / marketing people to get it going. Should I have to risk my standard of living to do that? What if I have 10 ideas that require that?

That's a great point. I wasn't suggesting people shouldn't desire things. We talk as if billionaires are not a zero sum game. But is that really true? #billionaires has gone up but the basic line around housing, education, healthcare, pollution have all been declining no? If I was to venture a hypothesis, will the billionaire's ability to realize the billions actually be viable if it wasn't for the workers who desperately need to cover (the stripped down basic form of) needs 1-7 above?

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#454

Post by ggpsv »

chrisseaton wrote: post #150
xtracto wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There are plenty of people in the world who would think that anything over $500/month is way more than enough for one person. Should your compensation be reduced to that amount? Disclaimer: I live in a 3rd world country and my salary is 1/3 of what the standard US salary is. YES, I do believe that everybody's compensation (including mine) who are in the top 10% of the population should be decreased/limited. Provide…

> The top 10% of the population hold 70% of the total wealth. That's just crazy and unsustainable. Been sustained so far throughout all of human history.

Quite the opposite actually. "all of human history" spans at least 160,000 years and the inequality that you and the parent comment to are alluding to is a rather modern artifact.

I'm not trying to be pedantic, but this comment contributes to pernicious myths about the human condition. If you're interested in this subject I would recommend the book "The Dawn of Everything" by David Graeber and David Wengrow.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#455

Post by nickstinemates »

sillysaurusx wrote: post #15

I think if employees feel slighted by being fired, they're fooling themselves. The best mindset is that you could be gone tomorrow. It gives you clarity and purpose. It also happens to be the truth. Coinbase was also extremely generous with severance. 12 weeks plus two for every one year at the company, I think. I've had the experience of being let go without notice and without severance. Devs seem a little more griz…

> Three and a half months of dev salary is pretty incredible.

Completely agree. Layoffs suck and I hope no one reading this ever has to go through them. But, it could have been done a lot worse than this, that is for sure.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#456

Post by SahAssar »

antihero wrote: post #426
ausbah wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I think if employees feel slighted by being fired, they're fooling themselves. The best mindset is that you could be gone tomorrow. It gives you clarity and purpose. It also happens to be the truth. sorry but this reads like you drank the whole bowl of US corporate kool-aid. the insecurity and stress the comes from not knowing if you'll have a job tomorrow in literal insanity. 14 weeks severance shouldn't be seen an…

Get paid for two months to party/holiday/rest, the have another whole month (paid) to lazily job hunt in a crazy hot market and walk into the next place with a 10-30k raise. Happened to me a few times, was fucking awesome. Lack of healthcare would have been a worry but I’m in the U.K. where we get it free. How hard is it to fund your own US insurance on a tech salary to tide you over?

The reason to have guaranteed severance for a long-ish time (3 months or so) is to soften your landing when the market/economy does not guarantee you a more well-paid job within that time. We might be entering one of those times, we might not, either way you should be prepared for it. If your employer has already made sure that you are prepared for it then that is less stress for you, which is good for everyone. It also means more predictable (although maybe higher) costs for the employer, which is usually good for them too.

It seems like tech-workers assume that things will always be easy on them when history clearly doesn't bear that out.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#457

Post by cupofpython »

usefulcat wrote: post #448
ausbah wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I think if employees feel slighted by being fired, they're fooling themselves. The best mindset is that you could be gone tomorrow. It gives you clarity and purpose. It also happens to be the truth. sorry but this reads like you drank the whole bowl of US corporate kool-aid. the insecurity and stress the comes from not knowing if you'll have a job tomorrow in literal insanity. 14 weeks severance shouldn't be seen an…

Sincere question: would you give up your right to quit "on a whim" if your employer gave up their right to fire you "on a whim"?

I would, yes. 30 day terms would work for me as it does for many business to business agreements. I dont agree with the other commentators entitlement to 14 weeks of severance pay in any situation, however

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#458

Post by rocgf »

daenz wrote: post #419
alphabetam wrote: post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

c) European.

According to this[0], the absolute most generous package is the Netherlands, which offers 1/3 of your monthly salary for each year of employment. To receive 14 weeks of salary, you'd need to work at a company for 10 years. Coinbase was founded in 2012. Other "European" countries have much worse severance packages. So what Coinbase offered seems to be better than even the best country in Europe. 0. https://www.claimsa…

You are comparing apples and orages.

Coinbase was generous, it could have chosen to give them exactly 0 and that would have been legal.

You're taking the best case scenario in one case and comparing it to the norm in another country.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#459

Post by svachalek »

antihero wrote: post #426
ausbah wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I think if employees feel slighted by being fired, they're fooling themselves. The best mindset is that you could be gone tomorrow. It gives you clarity and purpose. It also happens to be the truth. sorry but this reads like you drank the whole bowl of US corporate kool-aid. the insecurity and stress the comes from not knowing if you'll have a job tomorrow in literal insanity. 14 weeks severance shouldn't be seen an…

Get paid for two months to party/holiday/rest, the have another whole month (paid) to lazily job hunt in a crazy hot market and walk into the next place with a 10-30k raise. Happened to me a few times, was fucking awesome. Lack of healthcare would have been a worry but I’m in the U.K. where we get it free. How hard is it to fund your own US insurance on a tech salary to tide you over?

In the US there is something called COBRA, which allows you to continue the company plan for a year by paying the full amount (most companies will pay all/some of it while you are employed). It really depends on what kind of coverage and whether it's an individual or a family but it ranges from several hundred to over $1000 per month.

The whole system sucks really, but in today's economy I think most of these people will be just fine just because so many companies are hiring.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#460

Post by flashgordon »

tomcam wrote: post #343
flashgordon wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok let me take a stab at it. I actually am on the fence on this so purely a thought exercise for me. Plus as someone getting into midlife crisis this has been on top of mind for me. How about take (in no order): 1. 1 or 2 fancy cars/suvs 2. Be able to travel business class (say once a month) for vacations and stay in decent hotels 3. Nice education (say 2 degrees at a top college) 4. Nice house (say 2 rooms per famil…

Can you describe the new governmental Department of Hobby Restrictions? I study music history, transcribe old popular songs, and play many different instruments. Does this count as one hobby called music or does it count as three different hobbies? What would be the penalty for an asshole like me having three hobbies instead of the two allowed under your plan? Am I allowed to have one flute, or if I play professional…

So the #hobbies is really up to you. At some point personal responsibility would need to kick in to support things beyond some level of basic necessities no?
Post reply on HN