3 ms·

> Though the bottom 14% is a pretty big amount to cut, almost certainly some decent performers in that group. I don't think you can only cut "poor performers"

> Though the bottom 14% is a pretty big amount to cut, almost certainly some decent performers in that group. I don't think you can only cut "poor performers" in any sort of bulk layoffs. You can avoid it in aggregate, but there will be enough mistakes, enough teams that need to cut a number but don't have enough poor performers, or even enough high performers who are just on teams that are deemed no longer necessary.

MichaelZuo 4y ago
High performers on redundant teams would almost certainly be transferred, assuming there isn't some odd middle management infighting going on.
- danpalmer 4y ago
  I'd hope so, but it's a lot harder to identify the high performers, figure out where to transfer them to, cut low performers from the teams they're moving to, etc. Unfortunately much easier to just cut teams as the company cuts scope.
  - ghaff 4y ago
    It’s very easy to have people who are widely regarded as high performers. But transfers are often limited when layoffs are happening and, in practice, execs often don’t want to transfer headcount to other teams even if it’s probably the right thing to do from an overall company perspective.
  - xfitm3 4y ago
    Identifying high performers can be subjective, just look at Google's promotion practices. Productive engineers also tend to get paid more, making them an attractive target when reducing payroll spend.
  - ghaff 4y ago
    Yep. You have someone who the mythical company “they” think is awesome but their team was disbanded, there’s no ideal and obvious role for them, transfers are mostly on hold anyway, etc. At some point a bunch of people are sorry they couldn’t find a way to keep the person but they can’t really do anything. And parking them somewhere they aren’t really a good fit isn’t ideal anyway.
- okaram 4y ago
  That's a pretty big assumption :) There's always management infighting, especially in lean times.
  - MichaelZuo 4y ago
    When the infighting gets serious enough to be obvious to an outside observer is my threshold. If it's just some folks getting miffed because someone from another department stepped on their toes or made some unkind comments about their team, then that shouldn't be too serious. I'm assuming it's mostly the latter at Stripe...
- shagie 4y ago
  Transferring a high performer often implies laying off another person in the target team. The time to do that would have been in a reorg (Stripe's philosophy for that is at https://stripe.com/guides/atlas/organizations-and-hypergrowth https://stripe.com/guides/atlas/organizations-and-hypergrowt... ) prior to layoffs. During a layoff, if you want to transfer to a different team, apply for a job on that team if they've still got some open headcount.
hnbad 4y ago
I've seen a company's culture effectively be killed overnight because one "low performer" was cut off. Not every impact an employee has is directly represented in their own bottom line. The company in question was able to stomach this because it would go on to undergo significant structural changes anway but it basically had to start building a new company culture from scratch and doing it top-down is much harder than building on something you've developed organically via your early hires. EDIT: Since I'm rate-limited right now, I'll elaborate here: it was a company with a number of employees in the low 2 digits at the time and the employee in question had been involved (indirectly via another venture in the same office space and later directly) since before the company even got off the ground. They were in a non-technical role at a tech company but on good terms with most employees and genuinely cheerful about company branding and everyone being "the company" rather than just working on cool tech that happened to be sold by that company. Basically they acted as social glue, both between other employees but also between those employees and the company. Some other (higher performing) employees left after them but I doubt most could point at what it was that pushed them to quit even though this employee's departure was likely a major contributing factor. I could go into more detail but I want to preserve the anonymity of everyone involved, especially those no longer working at the company.
- stackbutterflow 4y ago
  Could you expand on that? I'm curious to know how one employee can single-handedly carry the company's culture.
  - ceejayoz 4y ago
    I've seen individuals who are the primary connection between two important departments; say IT and sales, speaking both languages enough to translate. On paper, not much work done; in reality, critical for smooth operation.
    - bink 4y ago
      "I have people skills!" I get what you're saying and have worked with people like that. But I see that as a different management problem that also needs to be solved.

MichaelZuo 4y ago

High performers on redundant teams would almost certainly be transferred, assuming there isn't some odd middle management infighting going on.

danpalmer 4y ago
I'd hope so, but it's a lot harder to identify the high performers, figure out where to transfer them to, cut low performers from the teams they're moving to, etc. Unfortunately much easier to just cut teams as the company cuts scope.
- ghaff 4y ago
  It’s very easy to have people who are widely regarded as high performers. But transfers are often limited when layoffs are happening and, in practice, execs often don’t want to transfer headcount to other teams even if it’s probably the right thing to do from an overall company perspective.
- xfitm3 4y ago
  Identifying high performers can be subjective, just look at Google's promotion practices. Productive engineers also tend to get paid more, making them an attractive target when reducing payroll spend.
- ghaff 4y ago
  Yep. You have someone who the mythical company “they” think is awesome but their team was disbanded, there’s no ideal and obvious role for them, transfers are mostly on hold anyway, etc. At some point a bunch of people are sorry they couldn’t find a way to keep the person but they can’t really do anything. And parking them somewhere they aren’t really a good fit isn’t ideal anyway.
okaram 4y ago
That's a pretty big assumption :) There's always management infighting, especially in lean times.
- MichaelZuo 4y ago
  When the infighting gets serious enough to be obvious to an outside observer is my threshold. If it's just some folks getting miffed because someone from another department stepped on their toes or made some unkind comments about their team, then that shouldn't be too serious. I'm assuming it's mostly the latter at Stripe...
shagie 4y ago
Transferring a high performer often implies laying off another person in the target team. The time to do that would have been in a reorg (Stripe's philosophy for that is at https://stripe.com/guides/atlas/organizations-and-hypergrowth https://stripe.com/guides/atlas/organizations-and-hypergrowt... ) prior to layoffs. During a layoff, if you want to transfer to a different team, apply for a job on that team if they've still got some open headcount.

hnbad 4y ago

I've seen a company's culture effectively be killed overnight because one "low performer" was cut off. Not every impact an employee has is directly represented in their own bottom line. The company in question was able to stomach this because it would go on to undergo significant structural changes anway but it basically had to start building a new company culture from scratch and doing it top-down is much harder than building on something you've developed organically via your early hires. EDIT: Since I'm rate-limited right now, I'll elaborate here: it was a company with a number of employees in the low 2 digits at the time and the employee in question had been involved (indirectly via another venture in the same office space and later directly) since before the company even got off the ground. They were in a non-technical role at a tech company but on good terms with most employees and genuinely cheerful about company branding and everyone being "the company" rather than just working on cool tech that happened to be sold by that company. Basically they acted as social glue, both between other employees but also between those employees and the company. Some other (higher performing) employees left after them but I doubt most could point at what it was that pushed them to quit even though this employee's departure was likely a major contributing factor. I could go into more detail but I want to preserve the anonymity of everyone involved, especially those no longer working at the company.

stackbutterflow 4y ago
Could you expand on that? I'm curious to know how one employee can single-handedly carry the company's culture.
- ceejayoz 4y ago
  I've seen individuals who are the primary connection between two important departments; say IT and sales, speaking both languages enough to translate. On paper, not much work done; in reality, critical for smooth operation.
  - bink 4y ago
    "I have people skills!" I get what you're saying and have worked with people like that. But I see that as a different management problem that also needs to be solved.