Idk, getting laid off from a douche-fest like Bolt seems like a gift. We should be celebrating, not criticizing.
Bolt announces layoffs
201–210 of 564 posts
Re: Bolt announces layoffs
#202I am one of those let go today. It's especially bad, because they seem to have messed up the invite templates. I received one to the Town Hall meeting, even before Majus letter was published, only to get the invitation cancelled and receive and invitation to "Bolt Restructuring". What an emotional rollercoaster. Extremely anxious about the future, as this is my first time being laid off, especially in the current mar…
According to Ryan Brewslow, > There IS risk to the employee; they now have a real loan outstanding and 100% personal recourse, so if the common stock becomes less than exercise price, their personal assets are on the hook So I suppose the bank will be after your personal assets?
It's usually quite rare for startups to offer good equity.
HOPEFULLY this loan isn't a lot more than OP's salary. And theoretically, they can be sold for a decent percentage of the principal.
Re: Bolt announces layoffs
#203The founder also encouraged employees to take on what was effectively personal debt at an ~11B valuation when they only did $5.2M in Q1…
> There IS risk to the employee; they now have a real loan outstanding and 100% personal recourse, so if the common stock becomes less than exercise price, their personal assets are on the hook https://twitter.com/theryanking/status/1493390184897032201 HOLY CRAP. How is this even legal???
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Re: Bolt announces layoffs
#204Earlier quoted context omitted.
Came here to say this, it's one of the first things I investigate about a company. If the company does habitual layoffs or has done rather large ones in the past five years, I'll move on 90% of the time.
I disagree. I think it's healthy and more humane than firing people for cause. Hiring is hard and you mess up, or people grow out of their role. Everyone knows people at work that are incompetent. It's tough to get rid of them because they may not be grossly incompetent or malicious, but just not up to standard. The layoffs I've seen usually let people go that are not effective and frankly not very happy. They get a…
You can't fire someone for cause just because your money losing business ran out of money.
Firing for cause is when the employee screwed up, not when the CEO did.
Re: Bolt announces layoffs
#205Why do CEOs feel compelled to say “this is the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make.” Hoping a CEO can chime in here… is the decision really that hard? It seems like they are just trying to not seem like a dick, when we all know they’re just looking out for their own best interests (not saying this is wrong, but not saying this is right either). Just genuinely curious how much “fluff” that statement contains.
It sucks. It means you failed everyone. Feels like total shit if you’re a good human.
Re: Bolt announces layoffs
#206Earlier quoted context omitted.
Came here to say this, it's one of the first things I investigate about a company. If the company does habitual layoffs or has done rather large ones in the past five years, I'll move on 90% of the time.
I disagree. I think it's healthy and more humane than firing people for cause. Hiring is hard and you mess up, or people grow out of their role. Everyone knows people at work that are incompetent. It's tough to get rid of them because they may not be grossly incompetent or malicious, but just not up to standard. The layoffs I've seen usually let people go that are not effective and frankly not very happy. They get a…
It isn't just about the employee abuse.
A nonseasonal (or similar) company that has a large swing in employee-counts has a problem. If swings happen repeatedly, the problem isn't getting fixed.
Re: Bolt announces layoffs
#207Between them and Treehouse, hope no one tries to spin this to attack companies experimenting with the four-day workweek.
I talked to them, IMO they weren't really 4 day work week
Re: Bolt announces layoffs
#208For those who’ve seen layoffs first hand: do lower performers generally get laid off first, or is it more random?
It's complicated. You're basically targeting an optimal team structure on the other side. That means you're likely saving high performers, but that's not always the case.
We had to let a really great UI engineer go because we didn't have the team size to support his position any more. He found a job quickly and we gave recommendations - including clearly communicating it was just an unfortunate draw for him.
Re: Bolt announces layoffs
#209The funny thing about recessions, and macroeconomics as a whole; much of the time, we eat the food we cook. If there is an upcoming recession, the most likely root cause is that a bunch of people believed there will be an upcoming recession.
Recession happens when all the people who thought they were working on the next big thing realises that they wont be the next big thing, that all the work they put in was just a waste. You can't avoid that by just thinking positive thoughts, reality isn't an optimist and will hit you sooner or later no matter how hard you try to ignore it.
Trying to delay a recession just means all that waste work gets even deeper entangled into your economy, making the recession hit harder and wider.
Re: Bolt announces layoffs
#210I was in the middle of an interview loop with Bolt mid-Apr, they canceled my onsite so they could (supposedly) prioritize onboarding people they'd already hired. Dodged a bullet there. Also did calls with Coinbase, Uber, and Twitter, who all now have hiring freezes. Boggles my mind how companies flip on a dime between "hire as fast as possible" and "the sky is falling, we're laying people off." In the case of Bolt an…
Uber does not have a hiring freeze