I'm sure the people losing their jobs will find plenty of solace that they're not "fired," they're just a Departing Bird™!
I’m willing to bet this was completely unexpected from an employee side.
Just fire your people that you no longer need and get on with your day.
Companies think that they are much more important than they are.
Stop writing blogs (hello Sequoia) and just try and provide a good service for your customers, especially if you are not a public company.
Robert Vis' virtue signalling here is so cringe and useless.
If the company doesn't get on the front foot to control the narrative, they will wake up to an email from a journalist saying that they are writing an article about 30pc cuts.
At that point, the journalist is likely to have heard the news -- and largely written the story. The company will be able to provide a quote, but by that point they will have lost control of the narrative. They won't be able to put their own headline on it -- as the start-up has done with this blog post.
One story becomes two. Becomes three. Becomes four. Etc. Then a media narrative sets in that the company is on the way to bankruptcy, etc, etc. Investors start calling the CEO, etc, etc.
I know that people find these types of announcements cringe and think that PR is a waste of time. But there is a reason most companies use this playbook: it is safer and it works (most of the time).
For the avoidance of doubt, this isn't a justification for all the language and messaging in this announcement, but a broader justification of the general strategy of communicating openly and in your own voice when you have bad news.
Publicity. Both potential customers but also potential employees.
I'm continually appalled by the level of entitlement in the tech bros community, apparently layoff has no right to exist. Just because company is still making money they have to keep sharing it with you, some person who knows how to code. Someone please tell them about capitalism and the concept of "job".
Who the fuck does this?
Let's announce a layoff on our fucking blog before we tell our employees that we have to let them go. It's heartless, glib and mean.
>For those of you leaving: I’m very sorry to be taking this step and I take full responsibility for the decisions leading up to it
I HATE when people start saying "I take full responsibility." Okay, if you do, then how are you being held accountable? Are you losing your bonus? Are you losing shares? Or is it just the social media equivalent of saying "Oh, my bad!"
I want concrete examples of how you are holding yourself responsible, not just lip service.
[1]:https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lifestyle/arts/nintendo-ce...
Wait, what? Is this for real? Why have I never heard of them?
I think it's reasonable to say that if you do all of those quoted things, probably some of the texts you've gotten have gone through MessageBird, but certainly not all of them.
Then again, the wording of that is ambiguous enough.. that's what it could have meant, even though it's worded to sound more expansive.
"during Black Friday processed a whopping 254 million emails every hour and 3.3 billion during the day"
Also, if they're laying off 31%, how come "We're hiring!" is still next to their careers link in the footer?
Separately, well before all of these layoffs that are in the news...like many months ago, i have begun to see little things like what you reported, where companies are not keeping up with small areas to update. I remarked this to a friend and they believed that they started seeing this both online and offline during around the worst of the pandemic - when most things were on super lock down...And if so, then i can imagine this being pandemic-driven....but NOW with these layoffs, i imagine we'll be seeing this alot more. Granted as a customer (or job candidate in this case), its a minor inconvenience, especially since real people are being more severely impactedf by layoffs. But of course the guess for why this is happening is likely due to simeply a lack of people, or a diverting of attention top others areas of a business. Yeesh!
I know I'm being pessimistic, but the CEO isn't the one having to spend the next few months trying to find a good job when everyone is on a hiring freeze.
None of these blogs ever talk specifics or examples of what they're offering in terms of immigration support.
Doesn't laying people off sort of contribute to a recession becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy?
Yes, but self preservation of an oncoming reality is usually taken with higher priority that trying to influence a tsunami by removing a cup of water from the ocean.
Without exception, every person I have ever heard or read saying this has been a moron.
There is nothing special about the time in which we currently live.
So it will happen, whether you choose to get ahead of it or not. The smart ones will act in advance of the actual recession
Just for once I wanna see an honest company with a "we're FIRING" badge.
There is nothing more distasteful to me than the CEO harping on about how hard these lay-offs are for them.
- "Settlement - We will pay 3 months of compensation for all departing employees, and more for those with longer tenure."
- "Bonus. We will pay a prorated bonus to all eligible departing employees"
- "Individual & career support. We’ll do our best to connect departing employees with other companies and professional networks as well as other useful sources that may help you navigate through this difficult time"
- "Immigration support. We know that this situation is particularly tough for departing employees who currently work on a visa. We have made individual arrangements for you in order to accommodate better for your particular situation"
I don't get why people on this site have such a strong reaction to CEO's expressing sadness and regret when they lay people off
MessageBird seems located in The Netherlands. For those living in NL health insurance costs €1500-1800/year & deductibles €385/year, employed or on social benefits. They are never paid by the employer.
I think they’re European?
I wonder whether there is already a 'Musk effect' at play. His taking the axe to the payroll in unprecedented style at Twitter might have pushed the boundaries as to what is acceptable to do, so has increase the range of permissible action for CEO's. 25-30% cuts might now be the new normal, rather than 5-10%
Tech valuations and headcount grew ridiculously in the last few years. Ex: FB head count: https://www.statista.com/statistics/273563/number-of-faceboo...
If people are surprised at the size of layoffs, I'm guessing its their first recession?
And they certainly don't from a theoretical perspective. Whether they can successfully transition from inefficient+large to efficient+small is another question
Is that the current estimate? I'm curious, but I kind of lost track after the Saturday-of-code-reviews thing.
