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Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

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Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#941

Post by wanderingmind »

schemester wrote: post #936
wanderingmind wrote: post #847

The hypocrisy of HN is mindblowing. I have seen thread after thread people vouching they won't hire candidates who jump multiple times to optimize their paycheck and benefits, but have no problem with mass layoffs in name of optimisation. You can't have two different scales for the two sides.

Both are instances of trying to get the best deal, just as employees do when negotiating salary, so there isn’t anything hypocritical there.

The shaming of employees when they jump multiple times while simultaneously celebrating companies doing mass layoff is the textbook definition of hypocrisy.

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#942

Post by [deleted] »

refurb wrote: post #923
ddyevf635372 wrote: post #850

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is time to apply jobs in New Zealand. Economy is strong, easy pathway to be permanent resident. Oh, and it is a beautiful country with super friendly people. https://www.immigration.govt.nz/new-zealand-visas/apply-for-...

Low salaries, super expensive and poorly built housing, are just some of the complaints I’ve heard. I mean there is a reason why so many Kiwi’s go work in Australia.

[deleted]

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#943

Post by ZephyrBlu »

refurb wrote: post #923
ddyevf635372 wrote: post #850

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is time to apply jobs in New Zealand. Economy is strong, easy pathway to be permanent resident. Oh, and it is a beautiful country with super friendly people. https://www.immigration.govt.nz/new-zealand-visas/apply-for-...

Low salaries, super expensive and poorly built housing, are just some of the complaints I’ve heard. I mean there is a reason why so many Kiwi’s go work in Australia.

Yeah I wouldn’t advise a SWE to come to NZ unless you are fine with a big pay cut and expensive housing + food.

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#945

Post by RowanH »

ddyevf635372 wrote: post #850
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.

It is time to apply jobs in New Zealand. Economy is strong, easy pathway to be permanent resident. Oh, and it is a beautiful country with super friendly people. https://www.immigration.govt.nz/new-zealand-visas/apply-for-...

The economy is anything but strong. Housing skyrocketed across 20/21/22 in particular, and now coming back down with a thump, combined with big cost of living hikes things are looking grim for your average salaried worker (especially if they have a big/recent mortgage, there's some negative equity love to be had). The only thing that might save us this summer from a very dark outlook is finally the tourists are coming back.. so that might soften the landing.

For context a lot of mortgages of recent times people got at very low rates fixed for 1-2 years (https://www.asb.co.nz/documents/economic-research/home-loan-... ) and now (https://www.asb.co.nz/home-loans-mortgages/interest-rates-fe...) that's a brutal shift for people that had budgeted at 2.5% when their food bills are heading for the moon as well along with other living expenses.

Not discounting that most countries are having these problems, but it's fairly extreme here.

"Wellington continues to have the greatest proportion, with 38% of first home buyers who bought during the last three months of 2021 now in negative equity." https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/property/129611585/first-ho...

Job prospect wise: Devs are (and have been) enjoying a very strong market, but I think (personally) we're going to see some challenging times ahead once the retail reality of Christmas flows through. The banks had been on hiring binges (hey just like US tech co's) and they're going to wind off just as quickly as they wound on.

So come, but eyes wide open if you do. If you've got a sh*tload of money to bring with you, can get over the cost of living, there's probably some deals to be had in a year or two...

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#946

Post by Klonoar »

whimsicalism wrote: post #468
thunkle wrote: post #417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

The culture is the product of many personal decisions. If I was working nights and (especially) weekends at my current employer (another big tech company), I would be told to stop.

There are absolutely teams at Stripe where they would tell you to stop doing that and work normal hours.

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#947

Post by jasmer »

theptip wrote: post #397
whimsicalism wrote: post #387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> keeping that person around doesn't help anyone, including that person. Seems to me it obviously helps that person, but I generally don't understand corporate-speak so I might be missing something.

It’s better to get generous severance than to have to come in and do bullshit made-up work.

Yeah, no, this is a privileged position. Even if I might opt to take that posture myself, it's not a normal position.

Most people have a need for an income and also, don't hugely differentiate between their work being BS or not. Also, many people who think they are not doing BS work, might very well be doing BS work.

Most people have families, responsibilities, children, parents that need support, mortgage payments, car payments, healthcare needs etc. - and work for the money, not some notion of 'impact'.

They generally want their jobs.

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#948

Post by jasmer »

BoorishBears wrote: post #410
whimsicalism wrote: post #387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> keeping that person around doesn't help anyone, including that person. Seems to me it obviously helps that person, but I generally don't understand corporate-speak so I might be missing something.

You'd rather stay at a dead-end position until a lack of money forces you to be laid off by a broke company that can't afford cushy terms? The alternative is being fired early, given several months of pay, months of free healthcare, early grants, help if you're an H1B holder, and help from your old company in getting a new job... There are bad layoffs and there are ok layoffs, I'd say this is an ok one.

I loathe to hint to you that 90% of jobs are 'dead end jobs'. There is no 'promotion' waiting for you arbitrarily. It's a steep hierarchy and most people don't want to perform to compete.

Moreover, in a downturn, it's rare that people are going to just jump off to a promotion, and rolling the dice is quite risky. Responsibilities, family, mortgages, etc..

I think a lot of the posture here is coming from young people in tech jobs who have a somewhat different situation than others, and, who might not realize how much risk is involved here.

It's almost always better to have the option to keep a job than not. If people don't want to stay they can leave.

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#949

Post by DeathArrow »

In many EU countries if you are fired without being your fault or there is a mass lay-off, the law demands the company pays you some compensation. The law also demands the company to give you a notice period, so you are able to find another employment.

It seems many people are woved because Stripe has the generosity of granting severance pay to people they laid off.

It doesn't seem like a generosity to me, it's more PR on one hand and on the other hand they want the developers good will if there is going to be a market growth in the near future and they will go again on a hiring spree.

It's Stripe's management fault they did wrong calculations betting on explosive growth, going on a hiring spree to support that falsely accounted growth and the going to fire some hard working fault. But somehow they manage to turn this into a PR success and painting their mess as a win. It's not a win, it's a loss. And I would think twice before applying to Stripe in the future.

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#950

Post by tjpnz »

refurb wrote: post #923
ddyevf635372 wrote: post #850

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is time to apply jobs in New Zealand. Economy is strong, easy pathway to be permanent resident. Oh, and it is a beautiful country with super friendly people. https://www.immigration.govt.nz/new-zealand-visas/apply-for-...

Low salaries, super expensive and poorly built housing, are just some of the complaints I’ve heard. I mean there is a reason why so many Kiwi’s go work in Australia.

I'm working at a company with a large cohort of Kiwi devs in Tokyo. We're literally everywhere but New Zealand.
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