If leadership decides to use the remaining funds on salaries rather than severance - then they should be judged on that! What good is buying one extra month for a doomed company? That month is more valuable to individual employees who can use it to look for new jobs
You don't know it's doomed. Plenty of companies have turned around while running on fumes. This is fundamental to start-ups.
> month is more valuable to individual employees who can use it to look for new jobs
Everyone who lost their jobs at Convoy is eligible for unemployment. The same unemployment most workers get when they're fired. Perhaps the discussion should be around improving this benefit for everyone?
It's swell when people gamble with employees well-being on the miniscule odds of a miracle. And even better idea is to offer severance, and those employees with the same appetite for risk can get additional options from the folks who leave. That'd be a win/win, except for the leadership who would rather gamble using other peoples chips but keep most of the winnings.
> Everyone who lost their jobs at Convoy is eligible for unemployment
Unemployment benefits don't come anywhere close to tech salaries! They take time to process.
> Perhaps the discussion should be around improving this benefit for everyone?
We can multitask. What is in my power to control is to avoid working with anyone associated with this decision and encourage everyone else to do the same - board-members and the entire C-Suite. We have a - let's call it poor culture fit
You don't know the odds ex ante! Again, they would have been roundly criticized if they'd prioritized severance (which means more for the highly paid) and preferred stockholders over their rank-and-file common holders.
> Unemployment benefits don't come anywhere close to tech salaries! They take time to process
You're arguing for special treatment of well-paid tech workers over e.g. truck drivers [1].
> What is in my power to control is to avoid working with anyone associated with this decision and encourage everyone else to do the same
The solution is to not work for a start-up. That, or gain empathy for the tens of millions of Americans who work for a restaurant or with variable hours or on contracts that provide them with zero heads up when business conditions change or their employer goes under.
[1] https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/08/09/51c3-a09.html
If you want employment stability join a profitable company or the federal government.
> That'd be a win/win, except for the leadership who would rather gamble using other peoples chips but keep most of the winnings.
It’s a startup! You’re there to try to make the options work out as an employee as well. I would 100% rather ride to the end with any chance that it will take off.
They failed to get a loan in time, it’s not like they knew it was a fantasy that could never work out. They had a viable business and got caught in counter-party risk.
I think you can take out private unemployment insurance, if you are worried about that? (Or just have savings.)
Red herring
You're participating in mental gymnastics to validate what is essentially poor leadership. Why?
We don't have enough information to know if it was reckless leadership. If the CEO had an email from a reputable lender saying we'll have funds in your bank account in two weeks, it would have been irresponsible for him to shut down the company to pay off creditors, preferred shareholders and severances.
I'm not advocating for the CEO. Just against condemning him while in the maelstrom. More fundamentally, there is a thread through this discussion which essentially holds that tech workers--we're highly paid!--should have post-termination benefits others don't.
I think the big question is how well communicated the risks are. In our case I believe everyone knew, and there'd have been no hard feelings if people had chosen to look for new jobs once funds got tight.
In other countries they would have to pay the salaries.
There’s no perfect set point and the trade offs will always have downsides.
Given the risks of working for a company in the stage Convoy was in I’m not exactly sure this is a bad outcome.
