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Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

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Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#641

Post by IanPBann »

ergocoder wrote: post #465
jesuscript wrote: post #442

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This might sound wild, but maybe the decent thing to do is if the company warns the team months in advance that a purge is coming. Let those who need to leave, leave. Quietly tell those who you really want to remain that they should not fear.

It does sound wild. Letting people who are likely angry having access to company resources and financials being able to make real damages to Stripe's customers. Companies want to keep high performers. Voluntary layoffs is a very dumb move.

I have to disagree with your opinion on voluntary layoffs.

Here in the UK an employer has to inform the government and go through a mandatory redundancy process when laying off more than a given number of employees (I think it's 100 off the top of my head). At my last role I was put at risk of redundancy and went through the process. One of the first steps of that process was offering voluntary redundancy which had a higher redundancy package than if you received compulsory redundancy.

If someone was considering leaving, or was close to retirement leaving voluntarily gave them the opportunity to leave early and with a nice payout. Or if you had skills high in demand it gave you the opportunity to get a lump sum and walk into a new job.

This significantly reduced the need for the company to make compulsory redundancies.

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#642

Post by aeturnum »

abeppu wrote: post #525

I know this isn't new or unique to Stripe, but the language used in these announcements to distance leadership from their choices is always so slimy. "We're not 'firing' or 'terminating' anyone; some people are just 'impacted' by our announcement that we have to 'say goodbye'." It makes repeated mentions of those who are "leaving" (the subject is the former employee) and avoids active verbs where the founders are the…

The reason they aren't 'firing' or 'terminating' anyone is that they are seeking to avoid the appearance (rightly or wrongly) that the people being impacted are at fault. The company is changing direction and that new direction needs fewer people - one should not imagine that those who were impacted were bad at what they were doing (or even that they would be bad at working on the new direction). Instead, we are meant to understand that they made their best effort at how many people they needed and who at the company would best fill those slots. The fact that one person kept a job and another lost theirs has more to do with local realities as Stripe, a particular company, than the marketability or skills of the people impacted.

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#643

Post by pastor_bob »

roflyear wrote: post #524
pastor_bob wrote: post #73

They have almost 700 jobs listed on their careers page: https://stripe.com/jobs/search Seems like a move to just dump some redundant people and blame the macro situation

Most interesting, is they seem to not care about the recent NYC law (see: https://stripe.com/jobs/listing/backend-engineer-enterprise-... ), so yeah - they haven't updated this part of their business or paid much attention to it in a while. Likely, everyone has been busy with the layoffs.

Well this is their response to the CO law:

>For candidates or potential candidates based in Colorado, please reach out to colorado-wages@stripe.com to request compensation and benefits information regarding particular roles. Please include the city in Colorado where you reside and the titles of the applicable roles and/or links to the roles along with your request.

which seems to be a violation of the CO law[0]:

>Effective January 1, 2021, Part 2 of the Equal Pay for Equal Work Act, C.R.S. § 8-5-101 et seq., requires employers to include compensation in job postings

So I doubt they care either way. I'm guessing they'll pursue a similar strategy if challenged.

[0] https://cdle.colorado.gov/equalpaytransparency

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#644

Post by twblalock »

LightG wrote: post #640
twblalock wrote: post #471

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We expect our companies to be efficient and competitive -- and that is the correct expectation to have in a market economy! Giving people busywork will hurt companies, and thus the overall economy, in the long run. That will make everything worse, including school funding and homelessness and inequality. After all, if you want to redistribute wealth, you have to generate wealth! It would also mean companies would be…

Japan isn't the only other example of difference out there. Odd that you should have chosen such an extreme example.

I didn't choose Japan as an example. The person I was responding to did.

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#645

Post by anyfoo »

BayesianDice wrote: post #632
anyfoo wrote: post #601

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Say we're shutting down the self-driving car division, folding up recruiting, or choosing to accept the risk that comes with getting rid of the whole security team. Did you intend this to be a spit take? The sentence read about the same as “Say you’re taking a stroll around town, visit a few cafés, or decide to end the day by jumping into an active volcano.”

I'm guessing a reference to Patreon in September this year: https://techcrunch.com/2022/09/09/patreon-security-layoffs/

Wow, thanks for the link, I did not know. That's... bad.

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#646

Post by musha68k »

Looking forward to the released creativity though.

Remember: especially when getting laid off in tech - eventually this will commonly be very good for personal growth. Lots of opportunities in the coming downturn as in full tandem with ever-ongoing neoliberal capitalism: software is still eating the world.

Don’t be sad. Take the ticket - and maybe do something that’s more interesting / pressingly needed than… payment processing…

The world is literally on fire, you are smart and hard working why not do something about that instead?

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#647

Post by thesandlord »

melvinmelih wrote: post #498
neivin wrote: post #456

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone who has been there for a decade had options and has already cashed out. Folks who are getting screwed are the ones that joined in ~2017 when they started issuing RSUs instead of ISOs.

Why? I always thought RSUs were better than ISOs

RSUs typically expire if the company doesn't go public in X years

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#648

Post by ergocoder »

kyawzazaw wrote: post #610
ergocoder wrote: post #465

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does sound wild. Letting people who are likely angry having access to company resources and financials being able to make real damages to Stripe's customers. Companies want to keep high performers. Voluntary layoffs is a very dumb move.

Voluntary layoffs has happened before in other companies.

I didn't say it never happened before. I say it is a bad idea.

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#649

Post by seanmcdirmid »

musha68k wrote: post #646

Looking forward to the released creativity though. Remember: especially when getting laid off in tech - eventually this will commonly be very good for personal growth. Lots of opportunities in the coming downturn as in full tandem with ever-ongoing neoliberal capitalism: software is still eating the world. Don’t be sad. Take the ticket - and maybe do something that’s more interesting / pressingly needed than… payment…

> Remember: especially when getting laid off in tech - eventually this will commonly be very good for personal growth. Lots of opportunities in the coming downturn as in full tandem with ever-ongoing neoliberal capitalism: software is still eating the world.

This is true when you don't have a family to support and/or have a second more reliable income, but it is extremely stressful if you don't have a decent cushion and have responsibilities. I mean, you are partially right, but it depends on the situation.

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#650

Post by ergocoder »

IanPBann wrote: post #641
ergocoder wrote: post #465

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does sound wild. Letting people who are likely angry having access to company resources and financials being able to make real damages to Stripe's customers. Companies want to keep high performers. Voluntary layoffs is a very dumb move.

I have to disagree with your opinion on voluntary layoffs. Here in the UK an employer has to inform the government and go through a mandatory redundancy process when laying off more than a given number of employees (I think it's 100 off the top of my head). At my last role I was put at risk of redundancy and went through the process. One of the first steps of that process was offering voluntary redundancy which had a…

Your point doesn't contradict mine though.

It is a bad idea for the company to do voluntary layoff.

Your point focuses entirely on what is good for employees, which is unrealistic. Companies do what is good for themselves, not employees. Sometimes they overlap, but sometimes they don't.

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