5 ms·

A company like yelp making 1 billion revenue per year, I'd except they could have their employees back, for at least a couple months, maybe furlough them with 8

by flr03 7y ago

A company like yelp making 1 billion revenue per year, I'd except they could have their employees back, for at least a couple months, maybe furlough them with 80% of their salaries...

jiveturkey 7y ago
and take a huge earnings hit? WHY? when you can just let people go. it's a company with shitty business ethics, so why would you even suggest that they do right by their employees?
- twunde 7y ago
  Look layoffs are always shitty, and Yelp in many ways is not an ethical company. However if you read the actual post, the leadership is at least trying. The CEO is taking no pay, execs are taking pay cuts. They've cancelled projects. My guess is that their revenue has tanked to near 0 and that since many of their clients are closing, possibly for good they're expecting significantly lower revenue for the next 2 years.
  - CydeWeys 7y ago
    Yup. I don't like Yelp, but in this situation the choice isn't between layoffs and no layoffs, it's between layoffs and bankruptcy. And in bankruptcy you'd see massive layoffs anyway. There's not really even a choice here.
    - flr03 7y ago
      The choice is to build an emergency fund, just like you would do for yourself, so you can pay your rent, your bills if an accident in your life happens. Yet, financial crashes happens quite regurlarly but companies expect the gouvernment (citizens) to pay the rescue bill. And I'm not going to cry for the execs taking a 20-30% pay cut.
      - twblalock 7y ago
        I don't really expect companies to plan for the government ordering the majority of economic activity to halt for an undefined length of time. This isn't just some "rainy day" to save for. This is unprecedented, and it's only necessary because the government did not take steps to contain the outbreak sooner. Money given to companies after this is not a bailout in the 2008 sense. It should be viewed as compensation for damages caused by the government's bungled response to the virus.
        CydeWeys 7y ago
        I'm not defending the US's response at all, but pretty much every country has shut down over this. It's not clear how that could have been prevented. Yes, it would have prevented a lot of deaths, but the total shutdown seems to have been inevitable everywhere.
        twblalock 7y ago
        Look at South Korea and Singapore and Taiwan as examples of countries that applied testing early and haven't needed to tell everyone to shelter in place. They have seen some economic disruption, but nothing like the what the US and the EU are experiencing.
        zaroth 7y ago
        > This is unprecedented, and it's only necessary because the government did not take steps to contain the outbreak sooner. The whole world is shut down over COVID. Even with borders closed as much as possible it has spread. There is no intervention by the US government that could have been done in January that would mean the country would be open for business today.
        twblalock 7y ago
        > There is no intervention by the US government that could have been done in January that would mean the country would be open for business today. Sure there was. Other countries did it. The US and the EU were caught unprepared but several countries in Asia did the right thing, probably because they had previous experience with SARS. A total societal lockdown is not the only viable response to a disease like COVID-19. It might be the only viable late-stage response, but early testing, tracing, and quarantining has worked in other countries and it could have worked here if our government had been on the ball.
asnyder 7y ago
That would be nice, but most companies most likely prioritize profit for shareholders and rather lay you off/furlough and let government / unemployment / rescue bills pick up the cost.
rossdavidh 7y ago
If, like say Facebook, they expected their revenues to come back once the lockdown-forced recession is over, that's probably what they would have done. Yelp had problems before this, so this is just what's forcing them to do it now as opposed to later.

by flr03 7y ago

A company like yelp making 1 billion revenue per year, I'd except they could have their employees back, for at least a couple months, maybe furlough them with 80% of their salaries...

jiveturkey 7y ago

and take a huge earnings hit? WHY? when you can just let people go. it's a company with shitty business ethics, so why would you even suggest that they do right by their employees?

twunde 7y ago
Look layoffs are always shitty, and Yelp in many ways is not an ethical company. However if you read the actual post, the leadership is at least trying. The CEO is taking no pay, execs are taking pay cuts. They've cancelled projects. My guess is that their revenue has tanked to near 0 and that since many of their clients are closing, possibly for good they're expecting significantly lower revenue for the next 2 years.
- CydeWeys 7y ago
  Yup. I don't like Yelp, but in this situation the choice isn't between layoffs and no layoffs, it's between layoffs and bankruptcy. And in bankruptcy you'd see massive layoffs anyway. There's not really even a choice here.
  - flr03 7y ago
    The choice is to build an emergency fund, just like you would do for yourself, so you can pay your rent, your bills if an accident in your life happens. Yet, financial crashes happens quite regurlarly but companies expect the gouvernment (citizens) to pay the rescue bill. And I'm not going to cry for the execs taking a 20-30% pay cut.
    - twblalock 7y ago
      I don't really expect companies to plan for the government ordering the majority of economic activity to halt for an undefined length of time. This isn't just some "rainy day" to save for. This is unprecedented, and it's only necessary because the government did not take steps to contain the outbreak sooner. Money given to companies after this is not a bailout in the 2008 sense. It should be viewed as compensation for damages caused by the government's bungled response to the virus.
      - CydeWeys 7y ago
        I'm not defending the US's response at all, but pretty much every country has shut down over this. It's not clear how that could have been prevented. Yes, it would have prevented a lot of deaths, but the total shutdown seems to have been inevitable everywhere.
        twblalock 7y ago
        Look at South Korea and Singapore and Taiwan as examples of countries that applied testing early and haven't needed to tell everyone to shelter in place. They have seen some economic disruption, but nothing like the what the US and the EU are experiencing.
      - zaroth 7y ago
        > This is unprecedented, and it's only necessary because the government did not take steps to contain the outbreak sooner. The whole world is shut down over COVID. Even with borders closed as much as possible it has spread. There is no intervention by the US government that could have been done in January that would mean the country would be open for business today.
        twblalock 7y ago
        > There is no intervention by the US government that could have been done in January that would mean the country would be open for business today. Sure there was. Other countries did it. The US and the EU were caught unprepared but several countries in Asia did the right thing, probably because they had previous experience with SARS. A total societal lockdown is not the only viable response to a disease like COVID-19. It might be the only viable late-stage response, but early testing, tracing, and quarantining has worked in other countries and it could have worked here if our government had been on the ball.

asnyder 7y ago

That would be nice, but most companies most likely prioritize profit for shareholders and rather lay you off/furlough and let government / unemployment / rescue bills pick up the cost.

rossdavidh 7y ago

If, like say Facebook, they expected their revenues to come back once the lockdown-forced recession is over, that's probably what they would have done. Yelp had problems before this, so this is just what's forcing them to do it now as opposed to later.