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   Chris Ferdinandi ⚓️ (cferdinandi@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 30-Jun-2024 23:12:07 JST Chris Ferdinandi ⚓️

   • Emma Builds 🚀

   @emma Wait, Glitch did this too!? I expected better from Anil Dash.

   • Embed this notice
     Anil Dash (anildash@me.dm)'s status on Sunday, 30-Jun-2024 23:12:07 JST Anil Dash

     in reply to

     • Emma Builds 🚀

     @cferdinandi @emma we had a layoff at the beginning of covid that was already in motion prior to our workers organizing; that’s part of why I was supportive of the move because we knew it was a risk since we were a startup in a tough fundraising environment. I don’t want to speak on behalf of the workers who organized, but I believe that was a driver for them as well.

   • Embed this notice
     Anil Dash (anildash@me.dm)'s status on Sunday, 30-Jun-2024 23:14:05 JST Anil Dash

     in reply to

     • Emma Builds 🚀

     @cferdinandi @emma We did end up talking through terms of severance with their union even though the agreement wasn’t in place yet, which I hope was seen as the sign of good faith it was intended to be, including recall rights for those who were laid off. Obviously, fault for the layoff lies with me as a leader, and certainly I deserve any criticism people have around that.

   • Embed this notice
     Anil Dash (anildash@me.dm)'s status on Monday, 01-Jul-2024 07:37:33 JST Anil Dash

     in reply to

     • ✌🏿✍🏿
     • Emma Builds 🚀

     @jalcine @cferdinandi @emma agreed on all these points — and please do share them. In particular, I think the partial gag was unnecessary and shouldn’t have happened; it was a vestige of legacy contracts. Most of those other options were discussed within management, but honestly one of the reasons we weren’t able to do more is that I didn’t have full buy-in at the management or board level, and that would have made it possible to go with less common options.

     Appreciate you adding context.

   • Embed this notice
     ✌🏿✍🏿 (jalcine@todon.eu)'s status on Monday, 01-Jul-2024 07:37:34 JST ✌🏿✍🏿

     in reply to

     • Anil Dash
     • Emma Builds 🚀

     @cferdinandi I got called back (on a contract basis).

     The rest of this is risky for me to say, but I'll do it anyway:

     Layoffs are still the heaviest hammer that can be deployed, strongly recommended by boards, and conventionally the sole option that leadership take. It's rare to see furloughs in SV tech (more in the NGO + civic tech space, but even then, it's usually closer to federal roles).

     Other options like job sharing, pay cuts, four-day work week at four-day pay, cutting fringe benefits, voluntary layoffs (I remember one person doing this, my manager's manager IIRC), furloughs, etc weren't discussed (folks were concerned about stability). Staff tends to be the most expensive part of a business (but again, hard to tell without numbers and what part of staffing contributes to burn).A tight reminder that our severance was contingent on a partial gag (Section 11–13 of our agreements held that, with the "reopener" of Section 14).

     What's done now is done, and it's left the mark it had. I still wish the board showed their face in these conversations. And I'm looking to see how executives aim to lean into other options, versus running to the one that looks like a quick fix.

     @anildash @emma