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

Twitter Layoff Started Today

linkedin.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

231–240 of 355 posts

Re: Twitter Layoff Started Today

#231

Post by cecilpl2 »

gwerbret wrote: post #200

> So- in addition to losing their jobs, which Twitter assured employees would not happen I'm not that old, but even I remember a time when companies, at least in principle, would invest in their employees (via stable employment, regular raises, mutual trust) in return for employees investing in the companies (innovation, extra effort, dedication, championing the company brand). Today, we have this: - Companies using…

In the past there were companies that treated their employees well, and also companies that didn't. I am pretty sure that all the points you mentioned are not new developments of the last 20 years.

In the present there are also both kinds of companies. Are you sure you aren't comparing the worst of today's companies to the best of the past's?

Re: Twitter Layoff Started Today

#232

Post by thrown321 »

sokoloff wrote: post #158
onionisafruit wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last time I was at a company that had blackout periods for employee trading, it didn't apply to former employees. I quit on a Friday and exercised then sold all my options the next Monday while my former coworkers were still in their blackout periods. Hopefully it is the same at Twitter.

The blackout policies are a tiny part an employer policy and a large part an anti-insider trading policy. If you learned of what might be material, non-public information while an employee, then got fired/laid off/quit, that only puts you in the clear with respect to the employer's policy (what are they going to do? fire you a second time?) but does not put you in the clear with the SEC.

The SEC won’t do shit in this case with respect to your personal shares in a company you just left.

Re: Twitter Layoff Started Today

#233

Post by twblalock »

mathgladiator wrote: post #144
jpollock wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many people are extended enough that their stock is considered part of their compensation for buying a house. I know many people that sell all of their stock every month to make sure they have enough to live in the Bay Area. What's the mortgage on a USD$2m 1300sqft house? Looks to be $11k/mo? So, total comp should be at least US$400k to be considered affordable. Using South Bay, I don't know where a Twitter engineer…

Holy shit, seems like bad personal finance. I never consider stock in my budget, how did this come to be?

If you have enough emergency savings then it can make sense, particularly when the majority of your income comes from stock. I'm talking about enough savings to live for a year or two even if you lose your job and your company's stock goes to zero.

At really high incomes, especially with stock vesting only a few times a year rather than every month, you can operate more like a business than a month-to-month budgeter. Keep enough cash on hand to smooth out the spikes in income. If your income is high enough to do this, you won't have a problem building the initial cushion.

What's irresponsible is living off your stock when you don't have that emergency fund.

Re: Twitter Layoff Started Today

#234

Post by cecilpl2 »

ribosometronome wrote: post #214
fleddr wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Not everyone was taught financial literacy" That's not how adulthood works. The world doesn't care if you learned it nor will it teach you. Besides, it doesn't take a course in finance to understand basic financial responsibility.

I don't understand the utility of this viewpoint. Adults can teach themselves most things given the right tools and incentive. Your viewpoint essentially means nothing is ever problematic ever. Invasive rhinos released onto SF streets causing property damage? Why didn't SF residents learn to defend themselves and their property damage. The world doesn't care if you learn or not. Climate change leading to drought and…

You seem to be suggesting that basic adult skills like financial literacy and planning for the possibility of a layoff are completely unnecessary in today's world?

Re: Twitter Layoff Started Today

#235

Post by twblalock »

loeg wrote: post #161
stocknoob wrote: post #2

“ many of these folks won’t be able to sell the shares they earned. The money they need pay bills and keep them afloat if and until they get new employment. When severance ends, that’s it.” It’s Twitter’s responsibility to not only offer severance, but make sure employees keep an emergency fund?

Aren't vested shares in a public company just shares? Once they're no longer employees, they shouldn't be subject to any trading blackout.

Depends on the terms of the stock plan agreement.

Re: Twitter Layoff Started Today

#236

Post by abeppu »

thrown321 wrote: post #229
abeppu wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You and a bunch of others in the thread are starting from the presumption that these people were very well compensated. But we don't have to make _only_ assumptions, you can look up some perhaps stale and perhaps biased self-reported numbers. The most convenient of these to access for recruiters at twitter (who seem to be the ones impacted) guess a median compensation of 137K, with around 94k of that as base. I think…

h1binfo will capture prevailing wages.

In the same spirit of "we can actually look at this stuff", I have to point out that:

- I think in general _recruiters_ are not on H1Bs. And even for jobs held by people who _are_ on H1Bs, that can be a biased data source for salaries.

- And sure enough of the info for twitter H1Bs, I see no recruiters. Plenty of engineers, a bunch of data scientists, some managers and directors, but no recruiters. https://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=Twitter+Inc&job=&city=&yea...

Re: Twitter Layoff Started Today

#237

Post by cecilpl2 »

xienze wrote: post #91
filoleg wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> $25-30k in liquid cash hanging around all the time That's like 3-4 months of post-tax pay for a twitter engineer (and not a senior one at all). Yeah, i would expect them to be able to have that much in savings. If someone cant accumulate roughly 15% of their annual compensation in savings, while earning $200-400k/yr, then I have no idea what else could be done here to help.

> If someone cant accumulate roughly 15% of their annual compensation in savings, while earning $200-400k/yr, then I have no idea what else could be done here to help. The thing with those crazy Valley salaries that you hear about here is that a lot of the time a good amount is in the form of stock that vests on a rolling basis. So maybe you get $150K in cash and $75K in stock. After 401k, California and federal taxe…

> The thing with those crazy Valley salaries that you hear about here is that a lot of the time a good amount is in the form of stock that vests on a rolling basis.

This doesn't make any sense. Yes, your stock "vests on a rolling basis" the same way your salary "vests" every two weeks.

If you are making 150k in cash and 75k in stock, then you get access to 225k (minus tax) of liquid cash every year. The vesting schedule is irrelevant.

Re: Twitter Layoff Started Today

#238

Post by throwaway5959 »

ribosometronome wrote: post #214
fleddr wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Not everyone was taught financial literacy" That's not how adulthood works. The world doesn't care if you learned it nor will it teach you. Besides, it doesn't take a course in finance to understand basic financial responsibility.

I don't understand the utility of this viewpoint. Adults can teach themselves most things given the right tools and incentive. Your viewpoint essentially means nothing is ever problematic ever. Invasive rhinos released onto SF streets causing property damage? Why didn't SF residents learn to defend themselves and their property damage. The world doesn't care if you learn or not. Climate change leading to drought and…

Do you expect us to teach adults how to do laundry and cook dinner as well? When you’re an adult, financial planning becomes your responsibility.

Re: Twitter Layoff Started Today

#239

Post by saagarjha »

refurb wrote: post #155
vorpalhex wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think treating our fellow humans like humans is more valuable than assuming they aren't capable of basic finance. Put another way, people will behave as you treat them. Treat them like they are fools who can't do finances and they will behave that way. Expect them to do basic financial behavior and they will. We literally make financial literacy courses free, online, without any need to even sign up. They will teac…

Treating people like human beings (adults) also means letting them feel the consequences of poor choices. If someone is making $200,000 a year and is financial trouble when they get laid off (with severance), well, I reserve my tears for people who never see that kind of income their entire life.

I don’t get why you feel the need to reserve your tears at all.

Re: Twitter Layoff Started Today

#240

Post by saagarjha »

throwaway5959 wrote: post #238
ribosometronome wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand the utility of this viewpoint. Adults can teach themselves most things given the right tools and incentive. Your viewpoint essentially means nothing is ever problematic ever. Invasive rhinos released onto SF streets causing property damage? Why didn't SF residents learn to defend themselves and their property damage. The world doesn't care if you learn or not. Climate change leading to drought and…

Do you expect us to teach adults how to do laundry and cook dinner as well? When you’re an adult, financial planning becomes your responsibility.

Lots of places have classes for this, yes. Some would suggest making them mandatory, or emphasizing them more.
Post reply on HN