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

Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

stripe.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

681–690 of 1001 posts

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#681

Post by Grazester »

jcadam wrote: post #677
gzer0 wrote: post #633

* 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 tha…

I was laid off at the beginning of October and still can’t find anything. It’s definitely a buyer’s market for senior level engineering talent.

Amazon and Google are always calling, even now I gets emails from both. Amazon recruiters just spam me. Shoot your shot there if interested

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#682

Post by jasmer »

jedberg wrote: post #378
jasmer wrote: post #202

This is the part I don't like. Stripe is a hugely successful company and they have no urgent material need to let people go. This is an optimization effort. I actually do believe that 'pruning' is a healthy thing for organizations, to enable them to be nimble and dynamic - however - obviously this comes at great social cost. The benefits of 'pruning' come at the cost of externalizing regular, creating real human chal…

The problem with that is that in some cases there's really nothing else someone can do. If they are a recruiter, and the company is no longer hiring, keeping that person around doesn't help anyone, including that person. Honestly the way Stripe is handling this seems pretty good. They are telling you now that you have until March to find a new job. They are essentially doing what you suggest, without making them come…

It's important to understand that growing companies are not laying off because they have 'nothing for staff to do'.

This isn't likely a situation of 'Ford Motorcars had a bad 3 quarters, and sales forecasts are way down, we have to close two plants'.

They are laying off to improve efficiencies on paper, capture some excess value created by those staffers (hey - you built that thing, great, bye, don't need you! For now ...), and likely to bulk up the balance sheet before a transaction, like an IPO etc. - and as an excuse to get rid of what they perceive to be lower performing staff (who may or may not be adding value).

It's a supposed 'optimization' not a 'necessary' thing.

I suggest that in these scenarios, that there could be better alternatives, if we put our heads together and thought about it a bit.

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#684

Post by throwaway16273 »

cragfar wrote: post #577
pc86 wrote: post #485

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it "really weird," though? Layoffs, especially when you start talking about entire teams, divisions, products, etc. is about revenue, profitability, and righting the ship (or safeguarding the ship so you don't have to right it 6 months from now). Whether Jim got "exceeds expectations" or "greatly exceeds expectations" is irrelevant when an EVP needs to trim $12M off their budget and Jim's department lost $9M last…

A common sentiment you see on the internet (especially from younger people who haven't experience a tough labor market) is that only the low performers get laid off. So I can see how they think it's really weird if managers aren't involved.

I was part of lay offs some years ago. Managers didn’t know until the day of, and it wasn’t based on performance. All the performance reviews were already done months before. Some people were even due for promotions.

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#685

Post by InCityDreams »

anm89 wrote: post #495
mandeepj wrote: post #462

Quoted post unavailable.

Yeah, so you're going to go march in there and do something? What exactly are you proposing here? It's a layoff. It happens. It's ironically a sign of them being good executives and doing what they need to do to keep their company viable so they can keep the ship running going forward for the remaining sustainable head count.

Apparently it's not a layoff until the eighth paragraph.

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#686

Post by musha68k »

midhhhthrow wrote: post #638
jasmer wrote: post #202

This is the part I don't like. Stripe is a hugely successful company and they have no urgent material need to let people go. This is an optimization effort. I actually do believe that 'pruning' is a healthy thing for organizations, to enable them to be nimble and dynamic - however - obviously this comes at great social cost. The benefits of 'pruning' come at the cost of externalizing regular, creating real human chal…

It’s not about the people that get laid off. It’s about the other 85%. Companies figure that a higher level of fear will increase people’s willingness to work overtime on weekends and nights too. Most people don’t even realize it but that’s whTs going on the employees subconsciously

Or it makes them quit themselves.. I have done that before as the company changed character / culture got hit by layoffs.

People and general positive vibe is what makes me want to put in the good work for my team. Fear culture is for exploitative / loser companies IMO. I wouldn’t want to work for such a company anymore.

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#687

Post by danielmarkbruce »

abeppu wrote: post #652
danielmarkbruce wrote: post #569

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There doesn't appear to be any attempt to distance themselves. He basically said: "We hired too many people. The decision to hire them was ours. It was a mistake. We have to let them go. We are at least going to cover salaries/healthcare for a decent amount of time." There is probably too much business jargon, but that's how people actually talk in many companies (certainly in Stripe there is overuse of jargon). It's…

"Let them go" is itself a euphemism, in that if it is taken literally, it presumes "they" _would_ go if "let". The active party making an intentional choice describes their actions in a way that places agency with everyone else. > The email is to the staff, not to you. No, it's on the 'newsroom' section of their public website. Though it is _addressed_ to staff (or former staff) it is _for_ a dual audience.

Yep, it is. Lot's of jargon. But it's the jargon used every day, by everyone up and down an org, in an attempt to be polite. It's not an attempt to use new language in a way as to absolve themselves of responsibility. Give them a break, they probably (rightly) have their egos and lives wrapped up in this business and feel kind of stupid right now. Just because they are successful it doesn't mean they are robots.

It's really not, they just knew it would be leaked and are getting ahead of it. They aren't fools.

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#688

Post by ketzo »

Grazester wrote: post #681
jcadam wrote: post #677

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was laid off at the beginning of October and still can’t find anything. It’s definitely a buyer’s market for senior level engineering talent.

Amazon and Google are always calling, even now I gets emails from both. Amazon recruiters just spam me. Shoot your shot there if interested

Amazon announced a corporate-level hiring freeze just today, FYI.

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#689

Post by abeppu »

radu_floricica wrote: post #552
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…

No offence, but they're not putting anybody in the electric chair. They're letting people go with pay until almost March - if you can't find a new job in 4 months, it's on you, and maybe they weren't wrong to give you up. A dynamic job market includes hiring and firings. At most they have to apologize for some disruption, and they more than made up for that with the severance packages. And about the language - "fire"…

> they're not putting anybody in the electric chair.

I think you're reacting to hyperbole that is simply not present in the post to which you've responded. I have not compared this situation to any sort of life and death situation. I agree that Stripe's treatment of the people they've laid off is better than some other companies. I have merely commented on the language used in this and similar announcements.

> Being terminated or let go suggests a business decision first, and your performance second. They used the right word.

... except they never say in the active voice, "We're laying off ..." or "We're terminating ...". They repeatedly choose phrasing that make the former employees the subject. And "let go" is itself a euphemism invented for this purpose. "_they're_ going; we just let them"

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#690

Post by jcadam »

WFHRenaissance wrote: post #678
jcadam wrote: post #677

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was laid off at the beginning of October and still can’t find anything. It’s definitely a buyer’s market for senior level engineering talent.

What sort of engineer are you and how many years of experience?

16 years. Working at the Senior/Staff level.

Most recently Clojure work. I’ve done a lot of Java of course, although I’ve been rejected from some of those jobs because I spent the last year doing Clojure full time instead of Java.

Post reply on HN