Hopefully somewhere here or at similar companies, solving some of the important issues of our times.
Ask HN: Where are laid off employees gathering?
121–130 of 342 posts
Re: Ask HN: Where are laid off employees gathering?
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
I didn't think the OP described a comp structure. The org-wide decisions being put to a vote already happens in a lot of public companies, and it would be the employees voting if they were the shareholders. It's a really straightforward idea.
Well, I know there's more to life than comp but when it comes to deciding what to do for work, its a huge factor. I'm just wondering how you would get a similar comp in OPs system.
The co-op makes and offer, and I guess you'd negotiate, then accept it if they offered enough. Voting shares would be a major part of your compensation like with most companies. You might offer them a premium because you'd expect to be exempt from industry-wide anti-labor actions like the recent layoffs and those old anti-poaching agreements, but that would be for you to decide.
Re: Ask HN: Where are laid off employees gathering?
#123It just occurred to me that so many people were laid off, we could start the world's largest software co-op (and arguably one of the largest tech orgs, period). We could build software products that every industry needs, that every worker owns a part of and can vote on org-wide decisions. Literally everyone you need was laid off... Tech people, business people, marketing, sales, etc. We just need a forum and some vol…
Can I contract for the co-op?
Re: Ask HN: Where are laid off employees gathering?
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
> We all know what products companies/individuals would pay for, because we used to build/buy them. I disagree. Knowing what to build is the hardest part of the tech industry. It's why the industry funds a constant stream of failing startups: it's the trial and error process of finding out what the world actually needs built. Worker coops will work great for the successful products, but most are failures. Who pays fo…
> Worker coops will work great for the successful products, but most are failures. Who pays for those? The people who invested to start them. A co-op is just when the stakeholders get together to buy something (shares in the startup, in this case) instead of having a handful of not-so-informed and partially disinterested investors provide liquidity.
So in this example, are the laid-off workers investing money to the coop? Are they getting paid? Who contributes the money for the marketing budget, for example?
And if the people investing aren't the workers, how is it different than the VC model?
Re: Ask HN: Where are laid off employees gathering?
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Worker coops will work great for the successful products, but most are failures. Who pays for those? The people who invested to start them. A co-op is just when the stakeholders get together to buy something (shares in the startup, in this case) instead of having a handful of not-so-informed and partially disinterested investors provide liquidity.
So in this example, are the laid-off workers investing money to the coop? Are they getting paid? Who contributes the money for the marketing budget, for example? And if the people investing aren't the workers, how is it different than the VC model?
The people investing are the workers, and (I am including all co-ops here, not just the one that we're discussing) sometimes the customers.
Re: Ask HN: Where are laid off employees gathering?
#126It just occurred to me that so many people were laid off, we could start the world's largest software co-op (and arguably one of the largest tech orgs, period). We could build software products that every industry needs, that every worker owns a part of and can vote on org-wide decisions. Literally everyone you need was laid off... Tech people, business people, marketing, sales, etc. We just need a forum and some vol…
Teaming up with a bunch of recruiters, product managers, and rest-and-vest engineers sounds like a winning strategy.
Re: Ask HN: Where are laid off employees gathering?
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, I know there's more to life than comp but when it comes to deciding what to do for work, its a huge factor. I'm just wondering how you would get a similar comp in OPs system.
The co-op makes and offer, and I guess you'd negotiate, then accept it if they offered enough. Voting shares would be a major part of your compensation like with most companies. You might offer them a premium because you'd expect to be exempt from industry-wide anti-labor actions like the recent layoffs and those old anti-poaching agreements, but that would be for you to decide.
Makes sense. I suppose that may be enticing for some. I just don't know how many people would sign up for it when there's tons of companies dangling RSUs and insane bonuses or the opportunity to do a startup and get acquired. I would wish this theoretical structure luck though.
Re: Ask HN: Where are laid off employees gathering?
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
So in this example, are the laid-off workers investing money to the coop? Are they getting paid? Who contributes the money for the marketing budget, for example? And if the people investing aren't the workers, how is it different than the VC model?
The people investing are the workers, and (I am including all co-ops here, not just the one that we're discussing) sometimes the customers.
So this model only works if the laid-off employees can self-fund the new company, right? and they can afford to lose the invested capital if the startup fails?
Re: Ask HN: Where are laid off employees gathering?
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
SAG doesn't require a degree in screen acting. It's a little convoluted but they basically operate mainly on proof of work. That sort of system would probably give self taught engineers who spent their years from 18-22 doing actual work a huge leg up compared to those who were in school during that time doing no work on any projects for any company.
Those people have a huge leg up right now in large swaths of the industry anyway. The issue with the "proof of work" standard is it sets up a difficult conundrum. You need to work to join the guild, and you need to be a guild member to get most work.
You can get hired for guild work as a non guild member, usually you join the guild after though.
Re: Ask HN: Where are laid off employees gathering?
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ok, show me a single example of this model working for a software business that makes a profit. Just one. I honestly can't find any.
[flagged]
Usually if you're going to go the snarky LMGTFY route, you'd link to the Google SERP for the phrase rather than a GitHub page.