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Patreon Lays off 17% of Staff

blog.patreon.com

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Re: Patreon Lays off 17% of Staff

#41

Post by Groxx »

codegeek wrote: post #23

A blog post was done other than Instagram: https://blog.patreon.com/a-note-from-jack "but as the world began recovering from the pandemic and enduring a broader economic slowdown, that plan is no longer the right path forward for Patreon" So basically, they overhired to meet demands during Pandemic and now as less people are using the platform (??), there is no need for the 17% of people. Interesting.

>In the US, teammates leaving Patreon will be given three months severance plus an additional two weeks for each half year of tenure beyond the first year.

Pretty decent IMO.

>You’ll also receive COBRA health care coverage through the end of the year.

Odd that that doesn't match the pay period, but oh well.

Re: Patreon Lays off 17% of Staff

#42

Post by BryanBeshore »

Full post from Jack Conte's Instagram post:

"Hi everyone - I have some sad news to share: today, Patreon is doing a layoff of about 80 employees, about 17% of our team. This was ultimately my decision, so I wanted you all to hear directly from me about the reasoning.

Before I do, I want to say two things: first, today will be painful for many people, and I am deeply sorry to the incredible teammates who will be leaving Patreon - they are good, kind, creator-first, exceptionally talented, and smart people.

And second, I remember how nerve-racking it was when I was a full time creator - before starting Patreon - to watch companies that I depended on go through moments like this. So for those of you who rely on Patreon for your business and communities: I want to assure you that the company is making this move precisely for that reason - so we can continue to be a rock for your business.

As the world has recovered from COVID lockdowns and entered a broader economic slowdown, it has become clear that the original plan we built doe he year, to support outsized growth through the pandemic, is no longer the right plan for the company.

I take full responsibility for choosing that original path forward, and for the resulting changes today, which will be so difficult for our team.

It's important to me that we continue to deliver for our creators and patrons with new features and products like native video, new content creation and organization tools, a wold-class mobile experience, and new ways for creators to grow their membership and strengthen their communities. To ensure that we make progress on that roadmap, we are increasing our investment in product, engineering, and design, which means decreasing our spend on other ares of the company.

Ad difficult as this is fo our team, I know this is the right thing to do for Patreon, because it ensures that the company maintains a position of strength, even through an economic downturn, while continuing to deliver for our creators.

If you want to read more about this decision, I just published the internal note I sent to our team this morning, and it's linked in my bio. I'm going to stop posting here for a while to be 100% present internally for our teammates at the company. But I promise to come back in a bit - I will see you all soon.

- Jack"

Re: Patreon Lays off 17% of Staff

#44

Post by Groxx »

csmpltn wrote: post #31

> "... I’m more confident than ever that the world needs a better economic system for creative people, and Patreon will keep building that system for creators over the decades ahead. However, the pandemic introduced volatility to the broader trend, starting with a rapid acceleration during COVID lockdowns. In response, we built an operating plan to support this outsized growth, but as the world began recovering from…

I wonder how much of it may just be "keeping up with competitors". You can lose a lot of ground in a year or two, and recovering that ground may be more costly than the additional hiring-and-firing cost.

Re: Patreon Lays off 17% of Staff

#46

Post by rdl »

darth_avocado wrote: post #15

What does “taking full responsibility” even mean? Like people lose their livelihood and you can get away with “I take full responsibility”. Taking full responsibility mean taking a pay cut or stepping down or basically taking consequences for yourself first before others have to.

The main significance here is "please hire the people we're letting go as if they were normal Patreon employees you'd want to poach; they weren't let go for performance or other individual reasons".

Re: Patreon Lays off 17% of Staff

#47

Post by lovich »

bombcar wrote: post #33
lovich wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What, pray tell, qualifies a job as a "real" job?

I'd say something like people are actually willing to pay the average or even the worst job-doer something resembling a living wage. If the stats from things like Patreon are to believed (and filtering out the "dead weight" of creators who don't post or have given up without closing their account) there's a serious "top 1% of creators make XX% of the revenue" problem. Which means that for a small fraction, it's a job…

Do you not believe working in retail or restaurants are real jobs? Because the vast majority of them are not paid a living wage in the US and have to rely on having multiple jobs or welfare. Walmart even teaches you how to sign up for welfare as an employee

Re: Patreon Lays off 17% of Staff

#48

Post by q7xvh97o2pDhNrh »

subsubzero wrote: post #21
seibelj wrote: post #10

I've heard rumors that Meta and Google have massive layoffs coming as well. Good luck out there

I've heard the same, Meta for sure, and a few folks at Goog have told me as well they are coming. For google this will be the first time they have ever done layoffs in the company history(2009 had 200 folks leave so not really layoffs so to speak) so that tells you the scale of this tech downturn.

That's genuinely anxiety-inducing to hear. I have several friends who have signed offers with Google, with start dates set within the next few weeks/months.

Really hoping they don't start pulling offers. I can't put my finger on why, but somehow that seems like it'd be even more cruel than layoffs.

Re: Patreon Lays off 17% of Staff

#49

Post by unity1001 »

darth_avocado wrote: post #15

What does “taking full responsibility” even mean? Like people lose their livelihood and you can get away with “I take full responsibility”. Taking full responsibility mean taking a pay cut or stepping down or basically taking consequences for yourself first before others have to.

Nobody looks like they are going to lose their livelihood over this:

https://blog.patreon.com/a-note-from-jack

3 months' of pay + longer depending on tenure at the company. Healthcare until the end of the year. Mental care up to 6 months. They contracted a placement company to place the laid off staff to other companies in the sector. A lot of those people will already get hooked up by a company within a week or so, even without the placement company being able to take action.

This looks as decent as layoffs go.

Re: Patreon Lays off 17% of Staff

#50

Post by saos »

darth_avocado wrote: post #15

What does “taking full responsibility” even mean? Like people lose their livelihood and you can get away with “I take full responsibility”. Taking full responsibility mean taking a pay cut or stepping down or basically taking consequences for yourself first before others have to.

He said the same thing last year lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MV-3GgU6rlo

It seems to be what most CEO are saying lately.

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