311–320 of 596 posts
TLDR: We have made the tough but necessary decision to reduce our team by approximately 15% and say goodbye to around 1,300 hardworking, talented colleagues. Macroeconomic changes have made it impossible for me to want to pay you. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34515267 ZM stock: 83.26 +6.19 (+8.03%) - thats a profit of 400mil on the day for the CEO.
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> If you are a US-based employee who is impacted, you will receive an email to your Zoom and personal inboxes in the next 30 minutes that reads [IMPACTED] Departing Zoom: What You Need to Know. This is the way to notify people of a layoff. Immediate binary yes/no. Although there is no great way to do it, this layoff seems pretty respectful and well done.
I think the best way is: - invite everyone 2 weeks before to a townhall named [REQUIRED] An update on your employment - read the names of the fired people from a fancy envelope - when someone is called, their corp access is revoked in real time and they are kicked off the call
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I think they're fun. Feels like summer camp, or college "Go banana slugs!" . But please never call us family, unless you're going to back it up with what a healthy family does. Else, That's just psychological abuse.
They're fun when you work there. Every one of those titles was used in a layoff letter addressed to employees or a press release announcing layoffs. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vSdHsrGdZPnI...
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It's a gesture, but the issue is that salary and bonus are often a smaller part of executive compensation. The equity grant that they receive is often millions more than the salary and the company performance bonus. I think forgoing the equity and instead adding it to the severance pool would be truly owning up to the decisions made by executive management.
Looking at SEC filings, he received a grant of 612,499 shares of stock on July 8, vesting quarterly over 4 years. That means ~153k shares will vest in 2023. Zoom stock is up $4 based on the announcement, making his RSUs worth over $600k more. He gave up just over $300k in cash compensation to do so. That's an ROI of 100% in one day.
It's not that I think the guy is a saint or anything, but many CEOs conduct layoffs and write about how sad they are without making any financial sacrifice. So even a limited gesture of giving up ~30% of his potential gains this year is unusual by prevailing norms.
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.
Really? Then why are people hoping for a "soft landing" from the Fed's interest rate dance?
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I think "used" is fine, but it doesn't imply any gross injustice. I use a worker to build my house, but that doesn't mean I am abusing them. They are using me too. no hard feelings.
> I think "used" is fine, but it doesn't imply any gross injustice. One of the primary definitions of that word describes a scenario where one person exploits another person for their own gain. Any time the word is used to describe the nature of one’s relationship with another person, that definition is going to come to mind. I can’t agree that there is no implication of injustice.
It all comes down to social expectations of if the nature of the transaction.
"I used Bob the contractor to build my house" has no implication of injustice.
"My ex-wife used me for money" has significant implications.
Used has no negative implication if used to describe a honest and mutually beneficial transaction.
> 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…
He owns billions in founder's stock so this is immaterial. It's not like Satya Nadella or another hired CEO.
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The big thing would be for Mr. Yuan to forgo his equity grant for FY23 and also take his equity grant from FY22 and distribute that as severance for the employees who lives are impacted negatively due to the decisions of executives in the organization. That truly means "taking ownership" of what happened. The individuals leaving were not the ones who hired or authorized the hires without the evaluation of long-term v…
They haven't released 2022 financials, but for 2021 base + bonus for Mr. Yuan was about $313,000 and he received ~8400 RSUs (about $670k at today's price), which fully vest on April 8. Additionally, it looks like he received an RSU grant of 612,000 shares on July 8, that vest quarterly over 4 years. So, for those keeping track, Mr. Yuan is giving up about $300k in cash, but still receiving about $13M in stock. That's…
> We have made the tough but necessary decision to reduce our team by approximately 15% and say goodbye to around 1,300 hardworking, talented colleagues. https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/ZM/zoom-video-comm... Zoom Video Communications total number of employees in 2022 was 6,787, a 53.48% increase from 2021. Zoom Video Communications total number of employees in 2021 was 4,422, a 74.64% increase from 2020. Zo…
>I'd really like to learn the truth to why this statement is wrong: I can steel man that. The pandemic was a once in a lifetime moment for the the adoption of video meetings. Market share captured during those couple years will largely define the players for decades to come. It would be financially responsible not make every effort to seize the opportunity. If this means massive temporary staffing, so be it.
Instead, air travel is pretty much back to pre-pandemic levels in spite of economic headwinds.