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Robinhood lays off 23% of staff

wsj.com

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Re: Robinhood lays off 23% of staff

#231

Post by fleddr »

xyst wrote: post #127
fleddr wrote: post #85

We live in such morally bankrupt times. You can just say "you take responsibility" without actually taking responsibility at all. Our expectations have become so low and we've become so complacent that just the statement is enough. In similar vain, "we care about your mental health" as is the common internal email from HR. No actual care is offered though. Giving staff a day off is a tangible example of doing at leas…

This is where we balance it out with unions. Unions have historically gotten us everything today that most people think is just SOP. Limited work weeks (40 hrs). Monday thru Friday as business days. Paid vacations. Family and medical leave. Breaks. Paid holidays. Sick leave. It’s a shame there’s been a massive push from corporations pushing anti-union propaganda. We have been complacent. We need unions to make our vo…

I agree, unions and legislation. The devil is in the details but those are the main instruments, if only we were more willing and motivated.

Re: Robinhood lays off 23% of staff

#232

Post by bobthechef »

manquer wrote: post #87
jrochkind1 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I realize it's not something that happens, but I would say "taking responsibility" would mean taking, oh, I dunno, $50M of that $800M in compensation in 2021, and distributing it to those laid off? (How the hell is your life different with $750M instead of $800M anyway?)

The rich don’t see it that way. At its core wealth accumulation is a scoring contest so every penny counts for those care. Also if you have all the material needs that is satisfied, then you go after the rare hard to get high value exclusive money drain this is human nature. For your specific example what that 50m might make difference it maybe a bigger jet that flies further or a second jet for the family or a yatch…

No post body was provided.

Re: Robinhood lays off 23% of staff

#233

Post by throwaway_1928 »

xoxodave wrote: post #106
niyazpk wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but also, none of my (investing) friends use Tastyworks, and almost all of them are using RH as their primary investing platform! Companies in hyper-growth stages may hire/fire differently than others.

Tastyworks was founded by the founders, CTO, and CFO of Thinkorswim. I worked on thinkorswim institutional desk for several years back in the mid-2000s. Not great brand recognition but a company built for traders by traders.

No post body was provided.

Re: Robinhood lays off 23% of staff

#234

Post by ab_testing »

niyazpk wrote: post #64
ab_testing wrote: post #47

Somehow I feel that all these VC backed firms just add employees for the sake of adding employees. I use Tastyworks - another free online brokerage that it almost at feature parity with Robinhood. They have stocks, options, futures and even some selective crypto. They also make money using PFOF just like Robinhood. However on Linkedin, their employee count is less than 100 (99 to be precise) On the other hand, Robinh…

Sure, but also, none of my (investing) friends use Tastyworks, and almost all of them are using RH as their primary investing platform! Companies in hyper-growth stages may hire/fire differently than others.

Does that matter with brokerages. I don’t know if Robinhood has a chat feature that lets you chat with your friends while trading.

Re: Robinhood lays off 23% of staff

#235

Post by remflight »

yuan43 wrote: post #34

Why not cut pay across the board? I know this is not the cultural norm, but I am curious how long this norm can persist. Without the ability to cut pay, layoffs are the only option for companies burning cash and losing altitude. That locks pay increases at the same inflated point that the bubble supported but which reality does not. To go one step further, is there a single advanced economy in which pay cuts, rather…

You never cut salary. That’s the best way to get people to leave. If they are good they can find another job with a raise.

Re: Robinhood lays off 23% of staff

#236

Post by dls2016 »

PheonixPharts wrote: post #172
KMnO4 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Frustrating to see the incredibly common conflation of equity and salary. Even though it’s always correctly suffixed with “compensation”, people assume that means “a bank account with 8 zeros”.

It's even more bizarre/frustrating for someone, especially in tech where many of our TC is largely RSUs, not understand that wealth is almost never held in cash. When I was young (and poor) I also believed that being rich meant having Scrooge McDuck piles of cash to swim in. After my first big RSU payout I quickly realized that nobody with more than a few 100k in assets keeps anything close to the majority of them in…

It does happen, though it’s a newsworthy event: https://nypost.com/2011/06/30/atm-receipt-showing-astounding...

Re: Robinhood lays off 23% of staff

#237

Post by AussieWog93 »

jrochkind1 wrote: post #45
paxys wrote: post #29

> As CEO, I approved and took responsibility for our ambitious staffing trajectory—this is on me Reminder that Vlad Tenev received $800M in compensation in 2021. In the same year the company made terrible bets on crypto and banking, took an irreversible reputation hit among its core user base because of the GME fiasco, had multiple user data breaches, was subject to several investigations and was fined hundreds of mi…

I realize it's not something that happens, but I would say "taking responsibility" would mean taking, oh, I dunno, $50M of that $800M in compensation in 2021, and distributing it to those laid off? (How the hell is your life different with $750M instead of $800M anyway?)

>I realize it's not something that happens

It definitely happens in some cultures. I remember reading about the CEO of Nintendo taking a temporary pay cut after the botched launch of the Wii U. At the time, people were talking about other Japanese CEOs that had done this too.

Re: Robinhood lays off 23% of staff

#238

Post by slickrick216 »

buscoquadnary wrote: post #230

So several times I've had the opportunity to join fast growing startups that offered quite a bit more compensation, and equity as well. One of the things that I always took consideration of was the stability of the company vs where I was at. Many of these people made a bet that working for Robinhood would pay off, it didn't that is part of the risk that came with the SV salaries, and the stock. I get that it sucks, b…

Oracle is also doing layoffs today and would somewhat be in the stable class. It’s just like nature it just is. Think the thing to do is just take Larry Ellisons advice and GTFM.

Re: Robinhood lays off 23% of staff

#240

Post by mylons »

paxys wrote: post #29

> As CEO, I approved and took responsibility for our ambitious staffing trajectory—this is on me Reminder that Vlad Tenev received $800M in compensation in 2021. In the same year the company made terrible bets on crypto and banking, took an irreversible reputation hit among its core user base because of the GME fiasco, had multiple user data breaches, was subject to several investigations and was fined hundreds of mi…

i’m positive vlad feels like he did something hard by “taking responsibility.” but he loses nothing and some former employees are now in a precarious financial situation. his skin in the game is nothing compared to theirs.
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