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Robinhood lays off 23% of staff

wsj.com

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Re: Robinhood lays off 23% of staff

#31

Post by t_mann »

rossdavidh wrote: post #7

"Last year, we staffed many of our operations functions under the assumption that the heightened retail engagement we had been seeing with the stock and crypto markets in the COVID era would persist into 2022..." We are now at the point when we will find out which of the changes to behavior (financial and otherwise) that came about with the onset of the covid-19 pandemic are going to be lasting, and which are not. I…

Just saying, the ones who might end up being surprised are those who think that the crazy days of 20/21 are definitely over. For all we know, it's just summer now. Not that I don't dread further lockdowns or even necessarily expect them, but I have them on my list of possible scenarios.

Re: Robinhood lays off 23% of staff

#32

Post by t_mann »

mumblemumble wrote: post #28
georgeecollins wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This happened in 1998-1999 too. People got online trading accounts, did great and then decided to try to invest for a living. You should not take investment advice from people who have been doing it less than a decade. It takes time to sort out the lucky from the smart.

I would even argue that a decade isn't necessarily enough time. The decade in question might have been the 1990s.

Or the 2010's.

Re: Robinhood lays off 23% of staff

#33

Post by Bluecobra »

llaolleh wrote: post #24

That's a lot of staff - it means 1/5th of your coworkers got laid off... I'm very bearish on Robinhood - I don't know if they have enough of a moat to defend themselves from other free stock trading apps. People have forgiven so many outages. The Gamestop saga was the straw that broke the camel's back for many.

Not to mention they are screwed if congress passes legislation to ban selling order flow to firms like Citidel.

Re: Robinhood lays off 23% of staff

#34

Post by yuan43 »

Why not cut pay across the board?

I know this is not the cultural norm, but I am curious how long this norm can persist.

Without the ability to cut pay, layoffs are the only option for companies burning cash and losing altitude. That locks pay increases at the same inflated point that the bubble supported but which reality does not.

To go one step further, is there a single advanced economy in which pay cuts, rather than layoffs, are the norm?

Re: Robinhood lays off 23% of staff

#37

Post by pcurve »

paxys wrote: post #29

> As CEO, I approved and took responsibility for our ambitious staffing trajectory—this is on me Reminder that Vlad Tenev received $800M in compensation in 2021. In the same year the company made terrible bets on crypto and banking, took an irreversible reputation hit among its core user base because of the GME fiasco, had multiple user data breaches, was subject to several investigations and was fined hundreds of mi…

Yep, talk is cheap. Of course he's responsible, whether he admits it or not.

If not willing to step down, then give up pay.

Re: Robinhood lays off 23% of staff

#38

Post by robertlagrant »

redredrobot wrote: post #23
88840-8855 wrote: post #5

What they write: "As CEO, I approved and took responsibility for our ambitious staffing trajectory – this is on me. " What he totally forgot to mention: "I also take a pay cut to reduce the opex burden on the company and to retain as many FTE as possible"

Are you complaining that when they cut their pay from 400k to 32k that wasn’t enough? Or are you complaining that they didn’t cut their 32k salaries down further?

Which people did that?

Re: Robinhood lays off 23% of staff

#39

Post by 14 »

t_mann wrote: post #31
rossdavidh wrote: post #7

"Last year, we staffed many of our operations functions under the assumption that the heightened retail engagement we had been seeing with the stock and crypto markets in the COVID era would persist into 2022..." We are now at the point when we will find out which of the changes to behavior (financial and otherwise) that came about with the onset of the covid-19 pandemic are going to be lasting, and which are not. I…

Just saying, the ones who might end up being surprised are those who think that the crazy days of 20/21 are definitely over. For all we know, it's just summer now. Not that I don't dread further lockdowns or even necessarily expect them, but I have them on my list of possible scenarios.

Oh we will be getting locked down again in the fall I am sure of that. Canada didn’t upgrade it’s definition of fully vaccinated for no reason. Come fall those “fully vaccinated” will be allowed to enter restaurants and work while those who oppose further shots will be told stay home

Re: Robinhood lays off 23% of staff

#40

Post by this_user »

yuan43 wrote: post #34

Why not cut pay across the board? I know this is not the cultural norm, but I am curious how long this norm can persist. Without the ability to cut pay, layoffs are the only option for companies burning cash and losing altitude. That locks pay increases at the same inflated point that the bubble supported but which reality does not. To go one step further, is there a single advanced economy in which pay cuts, rather…

Because then you'd still have more people than you need, except now everyone is poorly motivated, and your best people will just leave.

Germany does actually have a model called "Kurzarbeit" (literally "short work") to reduce hours across the board while some of the wage losses are being offset by payment from the unemployment insurance system. The idea is to avoid layoffs during times of recession etc. which would allow the companies to bounce back more quickly once the situation has picked up again.

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