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Patreon Lays off 17% of Staff

blog.patreon.com

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Re: Patreon Lays off 17% of Staff

#411

Post by encryptluks2 »

zinekeller wrote: post #364
encryptluks2 wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is like the killer admitting to killing someone and it was their fault but they don't want to deal any jail time.

I don't know if it this is the case here but I have seen real power struggles with the boardroom (and the then-CEO departing because the board says so). I was "fun" knowing that the company imploded pretty much after that because they removed the golden eggs from the company.

It is sort of fun to watch someone shoot themselves in the foot over and over while thinking it is someone elses fault. However, they also hurt a lot of people in the process and so it would be even more idealistic to watch them lose everything for a while until they may actually be capable of feeling real guilt and remorse and not just some PR campaign.

Re: Patreon Lays off 17% of Staff

#412

Post by weregiraffe »

sharmi wrote: post #371
COGlory wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I take full responsibility for choosing that original path forward, and for the resulting changes today, which will be so difficult for our team. What does "take full responsibility" mean? Is he laying himself off instead of the employees? Is he paying the employees he's laying off out of his pocket? Is he resigning so this doesn't happen again? I'm confused how you can just say "I take full responsibility" without…

Consider this in contrast to claiming: 1. We are laying off underperformers to strengthen the company (Has happened) 2. We are laying off poorly performing divisions (again, indirectly foisting the responsibility on the employees, because their division is underperforming) 3. We are laying off to cut costs and keep the company profitable (This may be the truth, but it treats employees like they are replaceable cogs i…

>Ideally, no one should get laid off.

In this ideal world of yours, are people allowed to quit?

Re: Patreon Lays off 17% of Staff

#413

Post by Aachen »

capableweb wrote: post #221
Aachen wrote: post #213

Recently signed up for patreon but couldn't figure out a payment method. The only option available, paypal, would succeed and I'd be redirected back to the merchant (patreon) but then neither show up in my patreon account nor on the paypal side - and I'd rather avoid giving paypal a cut so this was already a last resort. Open source liberapay was a no brainer (for K9 and F-Droid iirc) but very few creators have a lib…

Maybe that depends on your location? I can use card (debit/credit) and also PayPal. You don't see "add card" in the payment methods page?

For that I'd need to first get a credit card. Most people here don't have one because you never need it here, but indeed for paying for american stuff I tried getting one. Happened to be after moving to Germany. Was denied, don't have a credit score (not here at least, and afaik the Netherlands doesn't have this system of random magic score calculations without actually being indebted) and neutral wasn't good enough. Like I said, paypal really was the last resort. I'd be happy for them to just draw from my IBAN directly (basically everyone in Europe has this, banks in Germany are required to give you one regardless of credit score because, indeed, it's essential for modern life) or to send them cash in the mail like mulvad or use the here-common iDeal system, or manually transfer it or...

Re: Patreon Lays off 17% of Staff

#414

Post by nazavo »

quickthrower2 wrote: post #314

> We are offering our nine Dublin engineering teammates relocation packages to join these US-based teams. Do they get a payrise to match US salaries?

I would argue this is a "soft redundancy" for non US-based teams. There would be salary adjustments for sure, but even that rarely makes a convincing argument to uproot your whole life and move countries.

Re: Patreon Lays off 17% of Staff

#415

Post by sharmi »

weregiraffe wrote: post #412
sharmi wrote: post #371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consider this in contrast to claiming: 1. We are laying off underperformers to strengthen the company (Has happened) 2. We are laying off poorly performing divisions (again, indirectly foisting the responsibility on the employees, because their division is underperforming) 3. We are laying off to cut costs and keep the company profitable (This may be the truth, but it treats employees like they are replaceable cogs i…

>Ideally, no one should get laid off. In this ideal world of yours, are people allowed to quit?

Trust me, as someone who got laid off at 1.5 months into the first job, the way that was handled was a jarring experience. I would vastly prefer the above response.

As you spend more time in the industry, you see lots of badly handled layoffs and some better managed ones. You hear the stories of other veterans and learn a little more.

At some point you realize it is something everyone inevitably goes through and just a part and parcel of working in the private sector. You learn to plan ahead financially and mentally to handle such surprises.

Nowhere here do I talk about quitting (other than in the context of the forced one),

Re: Patreon Lays off 17% of Staff

#416

Post by kamaal »

pc86 wrote: post #368
kamaal wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is the equivalent of resigning first[firing yourself] before you do to that to others?

What does him resigning achieve? Everyone still gets laid off. The board hires another CEO. Maybe they're better, maybe they're worse. Maybe they save a little bit of money. Nobody who was laid off today gets their job back. The knee-jerk "oh yeah you should quit if you feel bad!!1" reaction is ill-informed and boring, but unfortunately very predictable.

>>What does him resigning achieve?

The next CEO is more responsible with the money. If you earn high, stakes should be high, else there is no stopping from making decisions that are harmful to all the parties: investors, employees and the company itself.

Taking personal responsibility and resigning fixes lots of things.

>>oh yeah you should quit if you feel bad

He should quit for making wrong decisions, for which he had many many weeks to months to deliberate upon. And also had the choice to not continue with the bad decisions for nearly the same time if not more.

Re: Patreon Lays off 17% of Staff

#417

Post by KaiserPro »

COGlory wrote: post #290
BryanBeshore wrote: post #42

Full post from Jack Conte's Instagram post: "Hi everyone - I have some sad news to share: today, Patreon is doing a layoff of about 80 employees, about 17% of our team. This was ultimately my decision, so I wanted you all to hear directly from me about the reasoning. Before I do, I want to say two things: first, today will be painful for many people, and I am deeply sorry to the incredible teammates who will be leavi…

>I take full responsibility for choosing that original path forward, and for the resulting changes today, which will be so difficult for our team. What does "take full responsibility" mean? Is he laying himself off instead of the employees? Is he paying the employees he's laying off out of his pocket? Is he resigning so this doesn't happen again? I'm confused how you can just say "I take full responsibility" without…

Instead of saying things like "there are a lot of coasters" and "some of you don't belong here" it is refreshing to see someone actually say "I made a choice, and it did not work out. It was no-one else's fault but mine."

I've been through a bunch of layoff, and most of them are steeped in legal noise, mainly because in the UK layoffs need to follow a legally proscribed route. so the explanations are normally a lot less honest.

Re: Patreon Lays off 17% of Staff

#418

Post by rendaw »

cfeduke wrote: post #381
xenadu02 wrote: post #341

I subscribe to a single Patreon. It's an artist publishing an online comic. I pay for day-ahead access vs the public site. Reading the thing I pay for is fucking _painful_ on Patreon. So is trying to use their comment system to interact with the creator or other fans. Everything is slow-loading infinite scroll with tons of "load more" links. It is absolutely dreadful and every time I interact with the site I'm remind…

100% this. I subscribe to a couple dozen digital sculptors who provide monthly STL file drops. Patreon's platform is terrible. Their billing is amateur. Their customer support is pathetic. The UI is... just impossible once you get above a few creators. The alternative in this monthly subscription digital sculpting space, MyMiniFactory, is also not great, but it's eating Patreon's lunch by not being actively hostile t…

Digital sculpture sounds really cool. Are the STL files so you can print it? I've looked for something like that a couple times (communities, etc). Can you provide any links?

Re: Patreon Lays off 17% of Staff

#419

Post by niek_pas »

Aachen wrote: post #413
capableweb wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe that depends on your location? I can use card (debit/credit) and also PayPal. You don't see "add card" in the payment methods page?

For that I'd need to first get a credit card. Most people here don't have one because you never need it here, but indeed for paying for american stuff I tried getting one. Happened to be after moving to Germany. Was denied, don't have a credit score (not here at least, and afaik the Netherlands doesn't have this system of random magic score calculations without actually being indebted) and neutral wasn't good enough.…

It's not very clear from your comment where exactly you are, but in The Netherlands credit cards are quite common — almost everyone I know has one, and I was raised here.
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