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Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

coindesk.com

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Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#461
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"?

Yes? The power imbalance there is obvious. Employers have much greater access to wealth, capital, and lobbyists. As an individual I have no such agency. So yes, trading away risk in exchange for fixed contracts is a great deal in most circumstances. Most of modern finance exists to exchange risk for dollars in some sense.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#462
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 don't think that's equivalent. it's tremendously easier for a company to fill a position than a person get another position somewhere else. this is a billion+ company. some developers probably live paycheck to paycheck.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#463
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"?

No, because humans and their needs are much more important than companies and the profits of their owners.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#464

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not as wealthy as them but I have never, ever had this feeling: "It hurts to see Bezos and Musk in yachts" Why does that hurt anyone? Doesn't it just help the people that make yachts and work on them?

> Why does that hurt anyone? Because those yachts were bought with money skimmed off our labor.

Ah yes the famed 0 sum game.

If that was the case, it should work both ways: when Bezos "lost" $20 billions of May 1st, how many skimmed labourers suddenly were able to afford $1 million houses ?

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#465
post #316

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…

>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…

Someone could come along and ruin your life by framing you for some morally-awful social-presumption-of-guilt crime. Or a nuclear war could start tomorrow with a strike on your city. Or a tiny little meteorite could happen to fall directly on you. Or God could stop+terminate the VM containing the universe mid-run.

The insecurity and stress are the human condition, my friend. That's what it means to be sentient.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#466
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?

Depends on your age and dependents, but in the US the cost of health insurance can easily be in the same price range as housing. Employees are often not aware of the actual cost since most or all of the premiums are often paid by the employer.

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#467

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no such thing as too big to fail in democratic politics and it is not a deterministic process of knowing people in "The Machine." FWIW, most wealthy people are wealthy because of inherited holdings and 60% of all wealth in the US is inherited.

> 60% of all wealth in the US is inherited Source? This fails the sniff test, as the amount of wealth has grown at such a rapid rate this seems almost impossible.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2019/02/06/people-l...

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#468
post #419

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Don’t mistake the legal statutory minimums with normal practice.

Are you suggesting that European countries regularly offer severances to all employees that exceed what is legally required? Can you provide a source?

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#469
post #100
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm struggling to find a good analogy to these crypto boom/bust cycles, where the market continues to survive/thrive after the busts. The closest I can come up with is real estate, but there is a core underlying value in real estate in that people need space to live/work/shop/whatever -- so when speculative bubbles burst, there is pretty significant underlying demand. I have a hard time drawing that parallel the cryp…

Not an asset class, but I'd draw parallels to Texas Hold 'Em. In 2003, Chris Moneymaker wins $2.5 million at the WSOP as an amateur who qualified through the internet; within a year, everyone is talking about hold 'em, their bankroll strategy, having poker nights with their buddies, how they're playing 12 tables at once online, etc. Culminates in massive mainstream acceptance, ads for Pokerstars running on major netw…

The flaw with your analogy is that poker continues to be hugely popular worldwide. Check WSOP.com any time this month

Re: Coinbase lays off around 1,100 employees

#470
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think billionaires should exist, but I also don't think these employees have been wronged. That is a pretty generous severance package.

How much money should people be allowed to have?

How much should people be allowed to spend on a share of a company? How do you limit it?
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