Flexport is laying off 20% of its workforce • Hacker News Board

Re: Flexport is laying off 20% of its workforce

#81

Post by lowbloodsugar » Fri, Oct 13, 2023, 5:55 PM UTC

supernova87a wrote: post #77

DannyPage wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And by the way, 9 weeks of severance on pretty good tech job salaries is far richer than many get. It's drastically shorter than their cohort of tech companies, which is the comparison they sell themselves as. Between that and the rescinded offers, if they do ever make it out of this trough, they'll have a hard reputation to shake and have to pay up with signing bonuses.

Possibly. But personally, I don't think the generosity of any severance package is a deal-breaking factor in most people's decisions to work for a company or not. Or for most people getting a job offer, that the company has reneged on some recent offers -- there are far more fundamental questions than those specific actions.

It is when the ship is sinking and the remaining people are deciding if they too should jump.

Re: Flexport is laying off 20% of its workforce

#82

Post by dangus » Sat, Oct 14, 2023, 4:19 AM UTC

supernova87a wrote: post #15

dangus wrote: post #8

Apparently they’ll have a billion in net cash after this change, which is over a million dollars per “departing flexporter.” And yet the employees get a barebones 9 week severance. Lame.

What's the logic, that if a company has cash available then it should just go to the employees? If the money is all borrowed and meant to keep the company running, why would employees get more than is a reasonable severance package? And by the way, 9 weeks of severance on pretty good tech job salaries is far more than many are lucky enough to get, lest you live in too much of a bubble to realize.

One part of my logic is that I believe all employees should be given around 3 months or more of severance for layoffs.

Just because that isn’t common practice doesn’t mean I don’t think something like 9 weeks isn’t unacceptably short.

It’s nearly impossible to get another job and receive your first paycheck within 9 weeks.

I think it’s just that little bit extra pathetic when it’s a large and successful company with revenue in the billions that can’t even find the money to round up severance to an even number of weeks.

And I am struggling to think of how applying the WARN Act to all layoff situations wouldn’t be a net benefit to most employees.

Re: Flexport is laying off 20% of its workforce

#83

Post by dangus » Sat, Oct 14, 2023, 4:34 AM UTC

peyton wrote: post #25

dangus wrote: post #8

Apparently they’ll have a billion in net cash after this change, which is over a million dollars per “departing flexporter.” And yet the employees get a barebones 9 week severance. Lame.

What about the other 80%? That’s what, 250k per? Not a lot of runway.

I mean, sure, if you’re assuming revenue is $0 that’s not a lot of runway.

Re: Flexport is laying off 20% of its workforce

#84

Post by antonvs » Sat, Oct 14, 2023, 9:00 PM UTC

paulddraper wrote: post #74

antonvs wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Neither of those are discussion sites. The real issue is one of expectations: those kind of job ads are shoehorned into the site’s format, but then seem out of place because they don’t offer one of the most basic and central features that this site offers.

LinkedIn is as much a discussion site as this

Presumably you can’t be referring to the constant stream of self-serving posts with all the substance of an MLM marketing pitch. So what have I missed about LinkedIn? Can you point me to an example of one of the discussions?

Re: Flexport is laying off 20% of its workforce

#85

Post by supernova87a » Sun, Oct 15, 2023, 5:00 AM UTC

lowbloodsugar wrote: post #81

supernova87a wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Possibly. But personally, I don't think the generosity of any severance package is a deal-breaking factor in most people's decisions to work for a company or not. Or for most people getting a job offer, that the company has reneged on some recent offers -- there are far more fundamental questions than those specific actions.

It is when the ship is sinking and the remaining people are deciding if they too should jump.

People who jump ship don't get severance.