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“About one-third of Basecamp employees accepted buyouts today”

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Re: “About one-third of Basecamp employees accepted buyouts today”

#21

Post by dagw »

TigeriusKirk wrote: post #10

If a third of the people were willing to leave the company over a decision, it sounds like there was a real, meaningful mismatch in priorities. Which is fine, but it's for the best for everyone to end that mismatch.

it sounds like there was a real, meaningful mismatch in priorities.

Or it was just a good deal. Do we know what the "buy-out" deal was? I mean I like my job and the company I work for well enough, but if they offered a decent enough deal and I'll happily walk away tomorrow and not look back.

Re: “About one-third of Basecamp employees accepted buyouts today”

#22

Post by kutenai »

geofft wrote: post #14
kutenai wrote: post #13

The employees that left probably spent most of their time protesting. The next article will be “Influx of resume’s for talent that prefers to work and be free from the thought police”

30% of the company spent most of their time protesting instead of doing their job?? That speaks pretty poorly of DHH and Jason's business skills, doesn't it? Shouldn't they have noticed this problem earlier?

You are right. "most" was the wrong word to use. "some", not zero, might be better.. it is just speculation anyway.

Regardless of how much time they spent, they may have made others uncomfortable. I've heard that any kind of speech that makes someone uncomfortable is bad.

Re: “About one-third of Basecamp employees accepted buyouts today”

#23

Post by aaomidi »

danjac wrote: post #18

I wouldn't be surprised if this will become a case study in future in how to self-destruct a successful company with a single bad communication, much like Gerald Ratner (although this may be due to long-term grievances we're not aware of).

They had many opportunities to reverse that blog post. They didn't and doubled down.

Re: “About one-third of Basecamp employees accepted buyouts today”

#25

Post by ptrkcsk »

the-dude wrote: post #2

"Changes at Basecamp" : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26944192 ( 4 days ago, 774 comments ). Which is a feel good piece about management philosophy ( a bit back to our roots ) and does not mention layoffs once.

> Yesterday, we offered everyone at Basecamp an option of a severance package worth up to six months salary for those who've been with the company over three years, and three months salary for those at the company less than that. No hard feelings, no questions asked. For those who cannot see a future at Basecamp under this new direction, we'll help them in every which way we can to land somewhere else.

https://world.hey.com/dhh/let-it-all-out-78485e8e

Re: “About one-third of Basecamp employees accepted buyouts today”

#26

Post by bombtrack »

dagw wrote: post #21
TigeriusKirk wrote: post #10

If a third of the people were willing to leave the company over a decision, it sounds like there was a real, meaningful mismatch in priorities. Which is fine, but it's for the best for everyone to end that mismatch.

it sounds like there was a real, meaningful mismatch in priorities. Or it was just a good deal. Do we know what the "buy-out" deal was? I mean I like my job and the company I work for well enough, but if they offered a decent enough deal and I'll happily walk away tomorrow and not look back.

DHH stated it in his "Let it all out" follow up post.

> Yesterday, we offered everyone at Basecamp an option of a severance package worth up to six months salary for those who've been with the company over three years, and three months salary for those at the company less than that. No hard feelings, no questions asked. For those who cannot see a future at Basecamp under this new direction, we'll help them in every which way we can to land somewhere else.

https://world.hey.com/dhh/let-it-all-out-78485e8e

Re: “About one-third of Basecamp employees accepted buyouts today”

#27

Post by Trasmatta »

dbt00 wrote: post #19
TigeriusKirk wrote: post #10

If a third of the people were willing to leave the company over a decision, it sounds like there was a real, meaningful mismatch in priorities. Which is fine, but it's for the best for everyone to end that mismatch.

If more than a third of your employees think that a single policy change is enough for them to leave, then maybe your policy change is dumb.

Yeah, this is my take. I feel like a huge amount of the blowback here is the insensitive way in which it was handled. They announced it all publicly on their blog, meaning most employees heard about it first on Twitter. It could / should have been handled carefully and tactfully first.

The resignations feel less less like a result of a mismatch and more like result of a slap in the face from mismanagement.

Re: “About one-third of Basecamp employees accepted buyouts today”

#29

Post by marbletiles »

danjac wrote: post #18

I wouldn't be surprised if this will become a case study in future in how to self-destruct a successful company with a single bad communication, much like Gerald Ratner (although this may be due to long-term grievances we're not aware of).

“If you liked “How to build a blog in 15 minutes with Rails,” check out the sequel, ‘How to destroy Rails in 15 minutes with a blog.’”(From https://twitter.com/sandofsky/status/1388174804985868289 )

Re: “About one-third of Basecamp employees accepted buyouts today”

#30

Post by Trasmatta »

danjac wrote: post #18

I wouldn't be surprised if this will become a case study in future in how to self-destruct a successful company with a single bad communication, much like Gerald Ratner (although this may be due to long-term grievances we're not aware of).

It's awfully ironic, given how Basecamp has built their entire brand off of good management, and running a non-toxic workplace.

Regardless of what people think of the specifics of the policy, it's a good case study in how not to do something like this. Releasing a blog post that results in 1/3rd+ of your employees resigning is bad management.

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