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Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

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Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#561

Post by Quai »

abeppu wrote: post #525

I know this isn't new or unique to Stripe, but the language used in these announcements to distance leadership from their choices is always so slimy. "We're not 'firing' or 'terminating' anyone; some people are just 'impacted' by our announcement that we have to 'say goodbye'." It makes repeated mentions of those who are "leaving" (the subject is the former employee) and avoids active verbs where the founders are the…

During the first larger round of layoffs that happened in the "original" Opera Software, the Head of HR stood in front of the employees and managed to say something like "We are not 'downsizing', we are just 'right-sizing'".

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#562

Post by orangepurple »

abeppu wrote: post #525

I know this isn't new or unique to Stripe, but the language used in these announcements to distance leadership from their choices is always so slimy. "We're not 'firing' or 'terminating' anyone; some people are just 'impacted' by our announcement that we have to 'say goodbye'." It makes repeated mentions of those who are "leaving" (the subject is the former employee) and avoids active verbs where the founders are the…

They are simply recycling their biomass

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#563

Post by jwithington »

radu_floricica wrote: post #552
abeppu wrote: post #525

I know this isn't new or unique to Stripe, but the language used in these announcements to distance leadership from their choices is always so slimy. "We're not 'firing' or 'terminating' anyone; some people are just 'impacted' by our announcement that we have to 'say goodbye'." It makes repeated mentions of those who are "leaving" (the subject is the former employee) and avoids active verbs where the founders are the…

No offence, but they're not putting anybody in the electric chair. They're letting people go with pay until almost March - if you can't find a new job in 4 months, it's on you, and maybe they weren't wrong to give you up. A dynamic job market includes hiring and firings. At most they have to apologize for some disruption, and they more than made up for that with the severance packages. And about the language - "fire"…

this reply escalated quickly

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#564

Post by verst »

jgoodhcg wrote: post #558
radu_floricica wrote: post #552

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No offence, but they're not putting anybody in the electric chair. They're letting people go with pay until almost March - if you can't find a new job in 4 months, it's on you, and maybe they weren't wrong to give you up. A dynamic job market includes hiring and firings. At most they have to apologize for some disruption, and they more than made up for that with the severance packages. And about the language - "fire"…

4 months is relatively generous but... > if you can't find a new job in 4 months, it's on you, This statement feels _wrong_. We are all subject to macro trends that we don't have control over. They impact our lives. Even the well off tech people but especially people in other industries.

Good luck finding a job in this economy now. It's tough for everyone, even the most skilled. Many companies have outright hiring freezes. I just read that Amazon now has a hiring freeze for all corporate jobs, previously this only impacted retail, stores etc

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#565

Post by dangerwill »

anonym29 wrote: post #311

I would like to offer some tips for those faced with the potential of layoffs that I have compiled. I understand much of these come too late for those already affected, but for those worried about the prospect, these can help to ease the pain if it does happen: • Check if your company pays out unused PTO, sick days, etc as cash. If they do, do not use any of the applicable type(s) unless you are going to lose it. • H…

"Build up a rolodex of recruiters." - Given the sheer amount of LinkedIn spam I get from all over the world and for all kinds of roles, I doubt that most recruiters see any individual SWE on LinkedIn as anything other than a cell in a spreadsheet, no matter how friendly you are to them over email.

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#566

Post by ThrowawayR2 »

wnolens wrote: post #115
pmoriarty wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are rarely if ever any serious consequences to top execs screwing up wealthy companies. Such execs are usually already so wealthy that they never have to work another day in their life, no matter what happens or how much they screw up. They can always find other prestigious, high paid jobs, and sometimes even get rewarded with huge amounts of money from the very companies they screwed over.

> sometimes even get rewarded with huge amounts of money from the very companies they screwed over. This is the norm I've witnessed. They're rewarded for making bold bets, whether or not they pay off.

> "They're rewarded for making bold bets, whether or not they pay off."

If leaders were rewarded for being conservative instead of making bold bets, Linux and open source would never have taken off, nor would most tech startups.

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#567

Post by true_religion »

jgoodhcg wrote: post #558
radu_floricica wrote: post #552

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No offence, but they're not putting anybody in the electric chair. They're letting people go with pay until almost March - if you can't find a new job in 4 months, it's on you, and maybe they weren't wrong to give you up. A dynamic job market includes hiring and firings. At most they have to apologize for some disruption, and they more than made up for that with the severance packages. And about the language - "fire"…

4 months is relatively generous but... > if you can't find a new job in 4 months, it's on you, This statement feels _wrong_. We are all subject to macro trends that we don't have control over. They impact our lives. Even the well off tech people but especially people in other industries.

I think what they mean is that morally, people need to take care of themselves. After four months, a past employer shouldn't still be on the hook for taking care of a person.

The past employer has new employees and that money needs to go to them.

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#568

Post by reikonomusha »

luxcem wrote: post #275
anonymouse008 wrote: post #60

> We were much too optimistic about the internet economy’s near-term growth in 2022 and 2023 and underestimated both the likelihood and impact of a broader slowdown. This is one of the most interesting statements ever written. If you ran a 'Idea Fourier' on this signal, so many things fall out: cheap interest rates pushes crazy valuations and estimations, believing the low interest fantasy was a requirement to gettin…

Can you explain the "Idea Fourier"?

It's a somewhat humorous misappropriation of a mathematical term being applied conceptually.

Roughly speaking, a Fourier transform takes as input a signal (like audio) and produces a spectrogram (the signal's component frequencies).

So "Idea Fourier" is a roundabout way of saying "take the component ideas from a statement". But really, GP just suggested making inferences or deductions, which has nothing to do with Fourier transforms.

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#569

Post by danielmarkbruce »

abeppu wrote: post #525

I know this isn't new or unique to Stripe, but the language used in these announcements to distance leadership from their choices is always so slimy. "We're not 'firing' or 'terminating' anyone; some people are just 'impacted' by our announcement that we have to 'say goodbye'." It makes repeated mentions of those who are "leaving" (the subject is the former employee) and avoids active verbs where the founders are the…

There doesn't appear to be any attempt to distance themselves. He basically said: "We hired too many people. The decision to hire them was ours. It was a mistake. We have to let them go. We are at least going to cover salaries/healthcare for a decent amount of time."

There is probably too much business jargon, but that's how people actually talk in many companies (certainly in Stripe there is overuse of jargon). It's not a deliberate attempt to do anything, it's just the language of the world they are in. The email is to the staff, not to you.

Re: Stripe laying off around 14% of workforce

#570

Post by allarm »

memish wrote: post #90
eganist wrote: post #47

Hey pc, if you're around: > John and I are fully responsible for the decisions leading up to it. What are the two of you doing to show accountability? Are you slashing your own future stock grants, cutting your own salaries, diluting your positions with stock grants to everyone else? What's the consequence for this decision on your end that shows you're accountable for what happened, not just responsible for it? Sinc…

That's in the email: Severance pay. We will pay 14 weeks of severance for all departing employees, and more for those with longer tenure. That is, those departing will be paid until at least February 21st 2023. Bonus. We will pay our 2022 annual bonus for all departing employees, regardless of their departure date. (It will be prorated for people hired in 2022.) PTO. We’ll pay for all unused PTO time (including in re…

> Immigration support

I was in a somewhat similar situation - got laid off in 2020, with a great severance pay etc. I was on a working visa which got canceled within a couple of weeks (not sure how it works in the US, I was working in a different part of the world). The market was low so it was difficult to find something quickly to get another job visa. On top of that I couldn't get back to my home country, since the borders were closed due to COVVID. I had to live for several months on short-term visitor visas and had to renew the visas constantly - it was a separate bueracratic hell. Eventually I found a job and got a permanent visa, but these months cost me and my family a lot.

So here's the question - would it be (legally?) possible to put the visa holders on garden leave and pay them i.e. $1/m until they found a new job? Or at least do it temporary, for like 3 months or so. Because honestly, I didn't care at all about the money and stuff, the visa problem was absolute hell.

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