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Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

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Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#451

Post by tasuki »

jtaft wrote: post #429
tasuki wrote: post #401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is wrong with using the word "retarded"? It means slowed down. I could understand your objections if jesuscript called something/someone retarded, but they explicitly wrote "But you see, Stripe isn’t retarded." I think that whether a word is offensive or not depends on the context in which it is used. About the article you linked... perhaps I'm mentally disabled, but despite its "Why Use of the R-Word Needs to S…

Here’s another article that may be helpful https://www.pacer.org/bullying/info/students-with-disabiliti...

Nope, I still don't get it. And I'm somewhat offended that you're just sending me random links instead of clearly explaining your position.

So, there are certain... specific... groups of people with specific characteristics who are sometimes not well thought of by some other people. And there's a word to refer to this specific group of people, and it's considered a Bad Word. And then we as a society come up with a new word for these people, which is now a Good Word. But in a couple of years, it starts being used as a slur (by the other people who dislike the specific people) and quickly becomes a Bad Word. This process keeps repeating ad infinitum and you're not going to solve it by successively banning each subsequent word and coming up with a new one which is now politically correct.

I don't think the words themselves are the problem here? The problem is that some people don't think well of some specific groups of people and whatever term is being used to refer to the specific group of people quickly becomes a Bad Word. And I don't think we'll solve this problem by banning the Bad Word and replacing it with the Good Word.

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#452

Post by throwaway9191aa »

jesuscript wrote: post #415
throwaway9191aa wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had "trouble" finding work over the summer. But the actual details are that I was asking for $275k and $300k at two companies. Both gave me a verbal offers, but hiring froze. The third company, gasp, wanted me to come into their office (20 minutes down the street). I also lived through 2001 and 2008. I think the last 12 years of perpetual growth have created some amazing expectations from people. I can only hope th…

Listen, Software Developers should not give up whatever we got so far. If we pushed for these salaries and quality of life, hold on to it. Don’t sit here and tell the tribe “some of you want too much”. Few professions earned this quality of life, doctors and lawyers, and I can promise they aren’t sitting around going “maybe we’re spoiled, maybe we oughtta curtail our expectations”. No, take the life you have and don’…

> should not give up whatever we got so far.

Absolutely! I declined multiple offers this summer because they would have been pay cuts. We agree.

> Few professions earned this quality of life

Well that is a can of worms. I'm going to guess Doctors deserve much better. I think the unfortunate reality is that, maybe, tech workers haven't earned this quality of life. Instead, we are the lucky recipients of decades of growth. This is something that isn't even shared in Canada or Europe, much less Asia, in terms of salary.

> This is the stuff the car industry did when they just offshored jobs,

Agree, this is going to be bad. Now that we have shown productivity with work from home, how tied are companies to these high USA salaries?

I'm not ok with it. But I also remember that when I'm running around looking for a job, the people with that job are making the demands. This is something that tech workers haven't actually experienced for a decade, but every other industry has.

> okay with these levels of lay offs and still revere these companies

Revere these companies? Founders are taking risks to make a LOT of money. They aren't here to make employees money. I don't revere these companies, and I don't put any stock in their Family Friendly or work life balance encouraged, marketing nonsense.

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#453

Post by dxbydt »

mbreese wrote: post #133
BaseballPhysics wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That first point is key, and I think they're being... less than honest. The reality is there's very little evidence for an actual "broader slowdown". GDP growth in the US was decent in the last quarter despite a huge decline in home sales and headwinds from inflation, and unemployment remains at record lows. There's certainly some signs for concern, but the only real, persistent decline has been in the stock market (…

> The reality is there's very little evidence for an actual "broader slowdown". GDP growth in the US was decent in the last quarter despite a huge decline in home sales and headwinds from inflation, and unemployment remains at record lows. I thinks as a payment processor, they are in a better position than most to predict sales trends. This effect might be restricted to their segment of the market. But if the payment…

> if the payments they process are down significantly, then does it matter

Closest comparable is Adyen, processes 516B with 2500 employees.

Stripe processes 640B with 7000 employees.

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#454

Post by melony »

thunkle wrote: post #298

I work for Stripe and got laid off this morning. Sucks because my manager was only told this morning, and didn't have a chance to talk about how well I was doing or take any part in the decision making. We'll at least I'll get a break. I worked nights and weekends all of October.

What was your role?

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#455

Post by mbesto »

eganist wrote: post #155
lefstathiou wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What more do you want? They are paying out millions in cash ("out of the goodness in their heart"... ie they don't have to and people shouldnt expect) which is directly reducing the value of the equity, which impacts them more than anyone else by a huge proportion. Handing out equity grants makes no little sense to me and is unlikely what these employees want... "hey you're fired, here's some stock at our latest valu…

I don't want anything; I have no intention of working for stripe. But in the face of fundraising headwinds, a decision to cut costs like this only improves (or stabilizes anyway) their ability to raise at a valuation closer to what they're looking for in this down market. The severance package here only deferred the benefit to the bottom line, but it wasn't a consequence for over-hiring and potentially disrupting liv…

So what should they avoided doing? Hiring those people in the first place..?

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#456

Post by neivin »

tempsy wrote: post #36

I feel bad for employees that have waited a decade to cash out. No reason why Stripe couldn’t have gone public in 2020-2021 at a huge valuation but from past interviews it sounds like the decision to remain private was just a founder preference thing because “focus” or something. Now the IPO market is completely frozen and its valuation is likely cut in half from peak, at least.

Anyone who has been there for a decade had options and has already cashed out.

Folks who are getting screwed are the ones that joined in ~2017 when they started issuing RSUs instead of ISOs.

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#457

Post by giantrobot »

higlen22 wrote: post #420
xadhominemx wrote: post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There has not really been a broader slowdown in credit card processing volumes. Visa and MasterCard had good earnings and guidance last week. What’s really happened is exactly what BaseballPhysics said - the pace of Stripes share gain has slowed dramatically post-COVID.

How do you know more than Stripe's entire leadership team? Someone should hire you.

What senior management says publicly, what they say internally, and what the actual truth is are not necessarily the same thing. The GP I think is suggesting what they're saying publicly is not necessarily the truth.

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#458

Post by BoorishBears »

whimsicalism wrote: post #422
BoorishBears wrote: post #410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'd rather stay at a dead-end position until a lack of money forces you to be laid off by a broke company that can't afford cushy terms? The alternative is being fired early, given several months of pay, months of free healthcare, early grants, help if you're an H1B holder, and help from your old company in getting a new job... There are bad layoffs and there are ok layoffs, I'd say this is an ok one.

Seems like the option of continuing to "work" for your employer while finding another job is net better than that option. And good luck finding another job if you are a recruiter right now.

> Seems like the option of continuing to "work" for your employer while finding another job is net better than that option.

I guess it depends on the person. My mental health would be 100% better knowing I have guaranteed income for X months and can freely spend my time working on getting a job and decompressing. As opposed to knowing I'm on a sinking ship but still having to half-ass 8 hour days for appearances.

Also recruiters who have been let go now are in a way better place than recruiters who are on ghost ships right now and will be let go deeper in the thick of the brewing storm...

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#459

Post by umeshunni »

brentm wrote: post #153
tempsy wrote: post #36

I feel bad for employees that have waited a decade to cash out. No reason why Stripe couldn’t have gone public in 2020-2021 at a huge valuation but from past interviews it sounds like the decision to remain private was just a founder preference thing because “focus” or something. Now the IPO market is completely frozen and its valuation is likely cut in half from peak, at least.

The trend of companies taking huge late stage rounds was always going to blow up the public tech IPO market. Many companies get too used to free money and operating with little inspection. By the time they feel like they "have to go public" the growth rate has peaked and they haven't learned to operate with any level of financial scrutiny. Result is private market investors do great and all too frequently public mark…

Yup! This has been the trend for the last 10 years. Facebook was probably the last well run company to go public, probably because it grew during the pre-Zirp era.

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#460

Post by ceras »

mandeepj wrote: post #450
thunkle wrote: post #298

I work for Stripe and got laid off this morning. Sucks because my manager was only told this morning, and didn't have a chance to talk about how well I was doing or take any part in the decision making. We'll at least I'll get a break. I worked nights and weekends all of October.

Quoted post unavailable.

Layoffs do sometimes happen this way. I was an EM at a company with layoffs where line managers were not told at all about layoffs or included in deciding who to lay off: all discussions happened at the director level and up.
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