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Zoom lays off 15% of employees

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Re: Zoom lays off 15% of employees

#161

Post by deltree7 »

ITB wrote: post #87

Why do people in HN get so upset that companies hire and fire employees? It sucks as an individual to have to deal with a layoff, but it’s the dynamic of an economy. Optimal growth comes from over and under dampening, not from steady state.

Yep, The amount of 'intelligent' people who are so out of touch with reality of economics, supply/demand, interest rates is mind-boggling.

How did an entire generation become so entitled? Yep, these are the same people who jump companies if the other company offers $10k extra TC. So, it's not that they are saints when it comes to loyalty or money.

Re: Zoom lays off 15% of employees

#162

Post by [deleted] »

DoneWithAllThat wrote: post #123

I find it kind of funny, kind of disappointing how in every one of these threads a bunch of the highly voted comments are complaining about some aspect of the layoff, like the goalposts keep moving. The way the layoffs were communicated, the fact that they were staggered, the fact that they weren’t staggered, that the ceo/founder doesn’t take responsibility, that they do but they don’t take action to punish themselve…

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Re: Zoom lays off 15% of employees

#163

Post by recursive »

sneak wrote: post #22
luismedel wrote: post #14

I find the use of infantile terms like 'zoomie' insulting. Please, treat your employees with due respect. You're giving them life-changing news.

Changing jobs should not be life-changing.

This is a should-be vs is-actually confusion. While you're working to create the future you hope to see, you still need to exist in the world as it actually is.

Re: Zoom lays off 15% of employees

#164

Post by [deleted] »

justapassenger wrote: post #144
haswell wrote: post #8

> As the CEO and founder of Zoom, I am accountable for these mistakes and the actions we take today– and I want to show accountability not just in words but in my own actions. To that end, I am reducing my salary for the coming fiscal year by 98% and foregoing my FY23 corporate bonus. Members of my executive leadership team will reduce their base salaries by 20% for the coming fiscal year while also forfeiting their…

Salary and bonus are tiny part of the compensation for folks at their level. Are they also forfeiting their equity grants for FY23?

[deleted]

Re: Zoom lays off 15% of employees

#166

Post by bombcar »

the_mitsuhiko wrote: post #125
brk wrote: post #78

"Zoomies" Just fucking stop with this already. Quit pretending like your employees are so aligned with the company that some kind of special terminology is needed, or even logical. The recent tech layoffs have clearly demonstrated, again (again, as in we've seen this play out a few times in the 2000's), that employees are basically assets that are scaled up and down as needed, like all the rest of corporate infrastru…

> Just fucking stop with this already. Quit pretending like your employees are so aligned with the company that some kind of special terminology is needed, or even logical. I cannot judge how Zoom works internally but a lot of companies (ours included) has a term to refer to employees. They are usually not born out of some leader making up a ridiculous term, but out of some sort of chaotic process where the origin of…

Some of them are legitimate, but even then there should be a form of respect where the term isn't used (though I observe they avoided the "hard-r" Zoomer because of the connotations).

And especially shouldn't be used in a case where you're laying off some of them.

Re: Zoom lays off 15% of employees

#167

Post by maerF0x0 »

chippiewill wrote: post #117
olliej wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not how much he owns, it’s that executive comp is often heavily weighted to equity not salary: dropping your salary by 98% only matters if that salary represents a significant amount of your actual income.

With the proportion of the business he owns the majority of his comp will be in growing the stock price. He'll be taking a massive hit without the salary decrease from market conditions.

Likely earning ~50% less in the past year due to stock valuation decline. Possibly much less from underwater options.

Re: Zoom lays off 15% of employees

#168

Post by compiler-guy »

crazygringo wrote: post #134
resource0x wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Googler" may sound cute for the 7-year old. Calling an adult person "googler" is weird IMO.

What's even weirder is Googlers being given rainbow propeller beanies during orientation week that they're expected to wear. Between that and the Lego bins and slides, it can be kind of hard to tell if you've joined an elite engineering org or a kindergarten.

Slides have been closed for almost a decade.

Re: Zoom lays off 15% of employees

#169

Post by gwbrooks »

jonathankoren wrote: post #70
pastor_bob wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, but it's a lot easier for a Founder CEO with 22% ownership of the company to do. It's completely not comparable to a CEO hired with no initial equity stake. Just for illustration. The 10% stock price jump this message caused just earned him $500+ million

That’s why you clawback the equity as well

"You" who? He's the largest shareholder both by share count and, even more so, via his super-voting shares.

As another commenter noted, the layoffs made shareholders money. Assuming the board is largely made up of equity holders, a clawback would punish exactly the sort of behavior and performance they want.

Equity confers different responsibilities, rights and, yes, paydays than labor. Acting like every hit the latter takes should somehow mean a haircut to the former ignores that.

Re: Zoom lays off 15% of employees

#170

Post by [deleted] »

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