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Apollo Layoffs

apollographql.com

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Re: Apollo Layoffs

#71

Post by amrocha »

ibejoeb wrote: post #53
rubyist5eva wrote: post #3

> I am very sad to make this decision. It’s a consequence of the approach that Matt and I took in scaling the company over the last year, and we take full responsibility for the impact that will have on the lives of our departing team members. Why do CEO's always say this empty nonsense. If you accept responsibility, you accept consequences - what consequences is Geoff Schmidt going to be facing? Hurt feelings? Give…

At the same time, everyone in the startup game needs to know that this is a fairly likely outcome. It's just not as safe as being at an institution that can weather the storm. I tell potential hires explicitly that this can fail, and that there's a runway, and that it's uncertain. I've seen so many places try to sell people that it's just kicking ass all the way to the bank. So, when a CEO makes this kind of statemen…

"Institutions that can weather the storm" like Google? Like Facebook? Amazon?

The entire industry has had layoffs, regardless of size. In fact, in my experience there's plenty of startups that are still growing and hiring the laid off talent from the big institutions. Apollo was not one of those companies, but it doesn't seem like it being a startup had any impact.

Re: Apollo Layoffs

#72

Post by lfittl »

jackson1442 wrote: post #8

Layoffs are going to suck regardless, but this is one of the best severance packages I've seen in this wave: * 15 weeks base pay + 1 week per year of employment * 6 months COBRA + $300 mental health * no 1-yr cliff, options can be exercised thru next year * you can keep all your equipment

The "$300 mental health" seems odd - for any kind of counseling/therapy/etc sessions this is a drop in the bucket in terms of cost.

It will easily cost 10x to work with a mental health professional (and insurance companies sadly pay a very small amount of it). So why add this to an otherwise reasonable package?

Re: Apollo Layoffs

#73

Post by vault »

I'm curious to know from some (ex?) employee how badly this was managed. In my experience it's really hard to fire 15% of employees by personally talk to each of them, without massive delays (e.g. one is on holiday, different timezones, etc). The first 2 or 3 that get their accounts deactivated, usually trigger mass panic in the company.

Re: Apollo Layoffs

#74

Post by johnvanommen »

jrib wrote: post #29
robofanatic wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

just curious, can one collect unemployment during severance?

not an expert, but my understanding is it depends on how the severance is paid off. If the company keeps you on payroll and pays you weekly, then you cannot collect unemployment. If the company gives you a lump sum then you may be able to. If a condition of the severance is that you sign a document saying you are quitting instead of being fired, then you cannot collect unemployment. My understanding comes from recent…

I had a layoff like that, they gave me the option of choosing. Lump sum or "stay on the payroll but have no access."

I went with the latter because it paid better.

For a while I was always stressed out about background checks, because it showed that I was working two jobs. (I got a job to replace it almost immediately, but continued to get paid by the old place.)

Re: Apollo Layoffs

#75

Post by johnvanommen »

VWWHFSfQ wrote: post #65
datalopers wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No it's not. Severance is extremely common, while this package is quite generous.

Severance is definitely not common in startups. They'll usually burn the cash right up until the very last investor says 'no more' and then call it quits. They might have one more pay period (or two) in the bank.

I got hired by a place, and my first paycheck bounced.

The owners are now billionaires.

(They sold the company to a Fortune 100 about 18 months later.)

Re: Apollo Layoffs

#76

Post by bastardoperator »

gamblor956 wrote: post #56
jrib wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

not an expert, but my understanding is it depends on how the severance is paid off. If the company keeps you on payroll and pays you weekly, then you cannot collect unemployment. If the company gives you a lump sum then you may be able to. If a condition of the severance is that you sign a document saying you are quitting instead of being fired, then you cannot collect unemployment. My understanding comes from recent…

If a condition of the severance is that you sign a document saying you are quitting instead of being fired, then you cannot collect unemployment. This is false. If a company makes you sign a statement that you are quitting instead of being fired as a condition of getting severance, they are committing unemployment insurance fraud and are subject to civil and criminal sanction in most states. (The point of trying to m…

This is how people get caught for fraud in quite a few cases too. They create a one sided contract that outlines their fraud and then they distribute it to people who run straight to lawyers, as they should.

Re: Apollo Layoffs

#77

Post by Aeolun »

tshaddox wrote: post #16
Rooster61 wrote: post #5

Why are software companies still grappling with the mythical man month? You'd think by now we'd have learned our lesson. More hands /= more productivity, at least on a linear scale

If you're talking about Brooks's law, that's a pretty specific observation that doesn't seem like it applies here. It's very specifically about adding workers to a project that is already behind schedule. It doesn't certainly doesn't mean anything as broad as "a company cannot do more things by increasing its employee count."

I’m fairly certain that even without them all working on the same thing, 2.5x more employees will never be 2.5x faster.

Re: Apollo Layoffs

#78

Post by xwdv »

johnvanommen wrote: post #74
jrib wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

not an expert, but my understanding is it depends on how the severance is paid off. If the company keeps you on payroll and pays you weekly, then you cannot collect unemployment. If the company gives you a lump sum then you may be able to. If a condition of the severance is that you sign a document saying you are quitting instead of being fired, then you cannot collect unemployment. My understanding comes from recent…

I had a layoff like that, they gave me the option of choosing. Lump sum or "stay on the payroll but have no access." I went with the latter because it paid better. For a while I was always stressed out about background checks, because it showed that I was working two jobs. (I got a job to replace it almost immediately, but continued to get paid by the old place.)

Sorry but where exactly would a background check show you have two jobs?

Re: Apollo Layoffs

#79

Post by sergiotapia »

trollerator23 wrote: post #39

I have no idea what Apollo Graph QL is, but it was interesting to search by URL and see the progression of related HN titles and their engagement. 2018 July. Apollo server 2 released woo! (mostly ignored) 2019 Feb. We switched away from Slack woo! . . . (Some PRs everybody ignored) 2019 June. We got a $22M investment woo! . . . (Many PRs everybody ignored) 2022 Dec. Oops, we are laying of lots of people...

Apollo is synonymous with Graphql at this point.

If you need you consume a Graphql API you most certainly reach out for Apollo on the clientside to query data.

Re: Apollo Layoffs

#80

Post by Aeolun »

pcurve wrote: post #54

This is one of the more straightforward announcements with minimal sugarcoating. Letting employees keep the equipment is a nice touch, since honestly they're not worth much to the company anyway. Wish those impacted best of luck.

To be honest, they said “we take full responsibility” 3 times, so it got a bit old.
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