HN Theater @HNTheaterMonth

⬐ aleksiy123

On the bright side, now is not the worst time to be layed off with the current market for SWEs. Wouldn't be suprised if a decent amount of people end up increasing their salary. Though I empathize with being forced into it.

⬐ throwaheyy

Not surprised, they were offering the lowest re-fi rates of any company and on top of that were offering $2k cashback through Amex. Didn’t seem very sustainable for them.

⬐ toomuchtodo

Pumping volume before their IPO. Supposedly the layoffs were a condition of the latest funding round with Softbank.

> The layoffs come as the company received a $750 million cash injection from its biggest backer, Softbank, ahead of its plans to go public through a SPAC merger with Aurora Acquisition Corp., giving it $1 billion in cash on its balance sheet.

https://www.protocol.com/bulletins/better-com-layoffs

⬐ mmmeff

Whew, just started talking with them about a mortgage. Never mind!

⬐ ALittleLight

The advice I've heard for giving bad news is that you should come directly to the point and explain clearly. I doubt the people listening care how hard this may be for the CEO.

That said, I don't know how better people would feel even if this news was adroitly delivered.

⬐ Laremere

C suites tend to want to personalize messages by adding context to how they feel, but in cases of such severely negative news it's always going to come off badly. "Firing people hurts my feelings" is a moot point unless you've slashed your and the rest of leadership's paychecks.

I'm mixed on the method of putting a bunch of people in a meeting and the CEO telling them directly they're being laid off. In some ways, I think it's much better than slowly pulling employees in and letting them know 1:1. In those cases, word about the layoffs travel much quicker than the layoffs, and people will spend all day with dread about whether they are laid off or not.