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Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

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Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#801

Post by pm90 »

FerociousTimes wrote: post #696
system2 wrote: post #661

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would anyone go back and work at an office where they were laid off?

Definitely me. I don't take these events personally, it's strictly business after all, esp when the termination agreement is generous enough, and conduct is kept professional and decent between the employer and employees. It's like a breakup but on very amicable terms, it sucks at first esp when it's abrupt but you get used to it, and there's always the chance of you getting back together. No hard feelings!

The crucial part is how its handled.

If the company shows generosity during the separation, going beyond what was expected, I would certainly consider going back. If they only do the minimal required or less, probably not.

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#802

Post by lmm »

thunkle wrote: post #417
thunkle wrote: post #298

I work for Stripe and got laid off this morning. Sucks because my manager was only told this morning, and didn't have a chance to talk about how well I was doing or take any part in the decision making. We'll at least I'll get a break. I worked nights and weekends all of October.

Ya'll are hyper focusing on the nights and weekends. That was my personal decision, not part of the culture.

So you chose to undermine your colleagues and a somewhat decent culture, to gain a lead in a race to the bottom? That's even worse than enabling a company that's already shitty.

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#803

Post by swyx »

thunky wrote: post #427
joegahona wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have an example handy of a CEO who has provided acceptable accountability in a situation like this?

The former CEO of Netflix, Patty McCord, who helped create a culture of firing people "when it was time", was fired as a result of said culture: https://www.fastcompany.com/3056662/she-created-netflixs-cul... Remember, “companies don’t exist to make you happy. You know that, right? The business doesn’t exist to serve you. The business exists to serve your customers,” reminds McCord.

*former head of HR of Netflix

she was apparently a big deal but i think you gave her more credit than deserved there heheh

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#804

Post by snotrockets »

bombcar wrote: post #368
rexreed wrote: post #245

Stripe stresses me out. I really cringe worrying about having too many financial eggs in the Stripe basket. But Paypal is no alternative and traditional CC processors are awful. How does one hedge their bets with Stripe? I worry one day we'll hit some transaction "trigger" and then all our money will get locked up in Stripe with no customer support recourse. I fear being "too successful" with no recourse if I depend…

Integrate Apple Pay and Google Pay and/or whatever Samsung is doing these days. Add PayPal, too. Have established policies about draining the processor funds into accounts, and work with your bank on how to set these up properly. There is really no reason to have a single payment provider these days.

Apple/Google/Samsung Pay are not payment processors.

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#805

Post by lmm »

SoftTalker wrote: post #602
mengibar10 wrote: post #560

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a well position and well oiled company is in fear of losing business and firing people how come you expect to find jobs let alone stable jobs. You give your 4-5 years to a company and the company dumps you at the first sight of hardship. I think Stripe made a bad choice when firing people. They should have decreased salaries, percentage wise more at the management level and try to keep their workers. I wouldn't wa…

> You give your 4-5 years to a company and the company dumps you at the first sight of hardship. You got paid every month for those 4-5 years right? That's the settlement of what the company owes you for the time you gave them. I've had this point of view for a long time. Every payday, you and your employer are even. If you feel that you are giving your employer more than they are giving you, you need to negotiate a…

Does that mean you quit without notice and feel zero guilt about it, or are you a one-sided corporate simp?

To me the world is a better place when an employment relationship is not purely contractual, on both sides, and I'm glad I live in a country that supports that.

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#806

Post by nullc »

mik3y wrote: post #469
TorKlingberg wrote: post #418

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sucks because my manager was only told this morning As a manager I find their really curious. I guess they were trying to avoid leaks. I wonder how they chose who to lay off. Most recent performance rating? Next level managers impression?

Yes, it's normal for layoffs to be planned and executed by a very small group, typically to avoid leaks or creating hysteria ahead of decisions being finalized. This in turn means less-than-perfect information is available, and so less-than-scientific cuts are made. "Ideally", your layoff strategy dictates some cuts regardless of performance: Say we're shutting down the self-driving car division, folding up recruitin…

> , typically to avoid leaks or creating hysteria ahead of decisions being finalized

When a layoff is known to be coming, the best and most employable people will often head for the doors quickly... leaving the company with a greater concentration of less desirable employees.

If it's by surprise then you'll lose fewer of the people you wanted to keep.

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#807

Post by lmm »

danielmarkbruce wrote: post #569
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…

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…

"We have to let them go" is absoultely distancing and dodging responsibility. "We have decided to lay them off" would be the responsible thing to say.

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#808

Post by ununoctium87 »

acjohnson55 wrote: post #757
oblio wrote: post #747

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I feel most decent engineers can get rehired elsewhere with 14 weeks of runway. Oh, sweet summer children and children of recession free economies for IT. If job openings fall to 10-20-30% of current ones and tens, hundreds of thousands of IT workers are fired, good luck getting hired quickly, when any of the few good remaining job opening has hundreds of good applicants. We'll be back to the days of: Sure, you can…

I think that scenario is increasingly unlikely. Unlike the past two downturns, there are vastly more mature companies with devs essential to their business models.

And there are vastly more engineers to compete against

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#809

Post by ketzo »

okaram wrote: post #775
ketzo wrote: post #688

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Meh ... From their announcement: we will hire backfills to replace employees who move on to new opportunities, and there are some targeted places where we will continue to hire people incrementally

Yeah, I don’t think it’s doom and gloom.

But I also don’t think it’s prudent to say “don’t worry about that layoff, you’ll get a new BigTech job tomorrow!”

Times are weird.

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#810

Post by mk89 »

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…

And this is the public language. Imagine the beautiful language they use inside.

My company got recently through some layoffs as well and well, ... it almost seemed from the speech they gave that the people fired were a burden. "Accelerate", "transform" and all that. Softening the blow as if you were dealing with a fucking bunch of idiots that don't know what's happening around them. It gets really surreal.

You can give them all the money you want, and that's really noble of some companies to do so, but please don't bullshit!

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