Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce • Hacker News Board

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#81

Post by ulfw » Thu, Nov 03, 2022, 2:04 PM UTC

eganist wrote: post #47

Hey pc, if you're around: > John and I are fully responsible for the decisions leading up to it. What are the two of you doing to show accountability? Are you slashing your own future stock grants, cutting your own salaries, diluting your positions with stock grants to everyone else? What's the consequence for this decision on your end that shows you're accountable for what happened, not just responsible for it? Sinc…

There's zero responsibility. Just empty words that frankly are unnecessary in the situation.

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#82

Post by pastor_bob » Thu, Nov 03, 2022, 2:04 PM UTC

jesuscript wrote: post #38

benjaminwootton wrote: post #18

“On Tuesday we set a new record for total daily transaction volume processed.” How does a company breaking records 36 hours ago conclude they need to lay off 14% of the workforce? Even with economic storm clouds on the horizon that seems very jumpy.

They are doing what any company does whether the slow down in the economy impacts them or not. They lie and say it impacts them and use it to do a purge. I worked at companies that were in no way impacted by the 2008 financial crisis (in fact, business was booming). Leadership managed to use it as an excuse to do a hiring freeze and plead with existing employees that they are the lucky ones and they need to work hard…

100%

Look at all the openings they have: https://stripe.com/jobs/search

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#83

Post by jagtesh » Thu, Nov 03, 2022, 2:05 PM UTC

JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #31

skidev wrote: post #27

14% seems like a very high number to me to axe at once, how have you got 1 in 7 employees that your business doesn't need to function when it is growing.

Money was cheap to borrow and get from investors and now it isn’t.

Ah. It all makes sense now. It is cheaper for them to layoff with a decent 3 month severance than it is to pay high interest on the debt that is funding their salaries (interest rate will stay high > 1 year, going by Powell’s comments).

I am glad they did it transparently, but I wish they had been more open about this fact. Shifts the entire perspective IMO.

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#84

Post by jesuscript » Thu, Nov 03, 2022, 2:05 PM UTC

BaseballPhysics wrote: post #64

pid-1 wrote: post #20

> In making these changes, you might reasonably wonder whether Stripe’s leadership made some errors of judgment. We’d go further than that. In our view, we made two very consequential mistakes, and we want to highlight them here since they’re important: > - We were much too optimistic about the internet economy’s near-term growth in 2022 and 2023 and underestimated both the likelihood and impact of a broader slowdown…

That first point is key, and I think they're being... less than honest. The reality is there's very little evidence for an actual "broader slowdown". GDP growth in the US was decent in the last quarter despite a huge decline in home sales and headwinds from inflation, and unemployment remains at record lows. There's certainly some signs for concern, but the only real, persistent decline has been in the stock market (…

The stock market didn’t really decline. There was a speculative play at the beginning of the pandemic that allowed the shitheads that run that game to do a reallocation of capital from “pandemic hit” industries to tech. That’s why tech ballooned to stupid levels. I say speculative because while it may have been right to reallocate away from, say, Airlines stocks, there was no good reason to run up tech to those absurd levels.

Tech didn’t get hit by interest rates, it’s just a reallocation of that influx of money back to other sectors. People didn’t stop using tech. Now they reallocated out of tech (the way it was supposed to be around 2019), and all these shithead companies are saying “we’re fucked, our stock tanked”. No, your stock went back to healthy levels, your stock was just a bank for two years, that’s all.

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#85

Post by ohmanjjj » Thu, Nov 03, 2022, 2:06 PM UTC

tempsy wrote: post #36

I feel bad for employees that have waited a decade to cash out. No reason why Stripe couldn’t have gone public in 2020-2021 at a huge valuation but from past interviews it sounds like the decision to remain private was just a founder preference thing because “focus” or something. Now the IPO market is completely frozen and its valuation is likely cut in half from peak, at least.

They couldn’t IPO. Stripe is a bubble. They don’t want their financials under a microscope.

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#86

Post by bryant » Thu, Nov 03, 2022, 2:06 PM UTC

strikelaserclaw wrote: post #66

eganist wrote: post #47

Hey pc, if you're around: > John and I are fully responsible for the decisions leading up to it. What are the two of you doing to show accountability? Are you slashing your own future stock grants, cutting your own salaries, diluting your positions with stock grants to everyone else? What's the consequence for this decision on your end that shows you're accountable for what happened, not just responsible for it? Sinc…

i hate this trend of ceos saying they take responsibility. Reminds me of lord farquuad, "some of you may die, but that is a price i'm willing to pay"

They know what accountability is. That's why they never use the word.

Yeah we know you're responsible for it, but how are you being held accountable for it?

No one will remember in two years time, but my hope is it'll factor into candidates' decisions around whether to pursue a career with Stripe. If I've got senior executives without accountability, it's a distraction to my ability to deliver the product as well as to lead my own teams supporting their vision because it means I can't rely on them, and this outcome with absolutely no accountability behind it is a good enough reason for me to never want to join Stripe in the future.

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#87

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Nov 03, 2022, 2:06 PM UTC

eganist wrote: post #47

Hey pc, if you're around: > John and I are fully responsible for the decisions leading up to it. What are the two of you doing to show accountability? Are you slashing your own future stock grants, cutting your own salaries, diluting your positions with stock grants to everyone else? What's the consequence for this decision on your end that shows you're accountable for what happened, not just responsible for it? Sinc…

[deleted]

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#88

Post by heliodor » Thu, Nov 03, 2022, 2:06 PM UTC

thomasjudge wrote: post #41

jesuscript wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are doing what any company does whether the slow down in the economy impacts them or not. They lie and say it impacts them and use it to do a purge. I worked at companies that were in no way impacted by the 2008 financial crisis (in fact, business was booming). Leadership managed to use it as an excuse to do a hiring freeze and plead with existing employees that they are the lucky ones and they need to work hard…

Just like companies are using the cover of "inflation" to jack up prices (and profits) regardless of if they have cost increases or not

Who doesn't have cost increases?

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#89

Post by tempsy » Thu, Nov 03, 2022, 2:06 PM UTC

eganist wrote: post #47

Hey pc, if you're around: > John and I are fully responsible for the decisions leading up to it. What are the two of you doing to show accountability? Are you slashing your own future stock grants, cutting your own salaries, diluting your positions with stock grants to everyone else? What's the consequence for this decision on your end that shows you're accountable for what happened, not just responsible for it? Sinc…

I would honestly be more annoyed as an employee that the company didn’t go public at a $150B market cap when it had the chance.

I believe the company’s revenue is heavily tied to Shopify whose stock is down -75% ytd…

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#90

Post by memish » Thu, Nov 03, 2022, 2:06 PM UTC

eganist wrote: post #47

Hey pc, if you're around: > John and I are fully responsible for the decisions leading up to it. What are the two of you doing to show accountability? Are you slashing your own future stock grants, cutting your own salaries, diluting your positions with stock grants to everyone else? What's the consequence for this decision on your end that shows you're accountable for what happened, not just responsible for it? Sinc…

That's in the email:

Severance pay. We will pay 14 weeks of severance for all departing employees, and more for those with longer tenure. That is, those departing will be paid until at least February 21st 2023.

Bonus. We will pay our 2022 annual bonus for all departing employees, regardless of their departure date. (It will be prorated for people hired in 2022.)

PTO. We’ll pay for all unused PTO time (including in regions where that’s not legally required).

Healthcare. We’ll pay the cash equivalent of 6 months of existing healthcare premiums or healthcare continuation.

RSU vesting. We’ll accelerate everyone who has already reached their one-year vesting cliff to the February 2023 vesting date (or longer, depending on departure date). For those who haven’t reached their vesting cliffs, we'll waive the cliff.

Career support. We’ll cover career support, and do our best to connect departing employees with other companies. We’re also creating a new tier of extra large Stripe discounts for anyone who decides to start a new business now or in the future.

Immigration support. We know that this situation is particularly tough if you’re a visa holder. We have extensive dedicated support lined up for those of you here on visas (you’ll receive an email setting up a consultation within a few hours), and we’ll be supporting transitions to non-employment visas wherever we can.