
Airbnb Was Like a Family, Until the Layoffs Started - PLenz
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/17/technology/airbnb-coronavirus-layoffs-.html
======
tyingq
_" Then came the May 5 layoffs. To blunt the shock, Airbnb’s severance
packages included three months of salary and a year of health benefits, which
was more generous than many other start-ups doing layoffs."_

That's not terrible.

~~~
save_ferris
Yes, the severance package is decent, but that’s not what this is about.

Startups have been creating these cultures of “family” for years in order to
have a closer relationship to their employees than ever before. This
closeness, as many other dynamics of the current labor system in the US,
benefit the companies far more than the employees.

The culture of “startup family” made it possible for companies like Theranos
to lie to investors for so long while keeping their employees quiet.

The “startup family” culture made it possible for companies like Uber to
devolve into a misogynistic, harassment-driven behemoth coming from the top.

The “startup family” culture convinced millions of employees to take lower
salaries with the hope that their dead-last-liquidation-preference common
shares would turn into a nest egg someday, while 99% of them never did. Most
people never even ask or understand the terms of these agreements. That
doesn’t sound like family to me.

~~~
nojvek
Startup family culture has some truth that you spend more time at your
workplace than at home. But some SV companies take it way too far.

At the end of the day every company gets your skill and in return compensate
with stocks and salary. That’s all there is to it. If they don’t value your
skill, you’re fired.

You don’t disown your kids because you don’t value their skill. Family is for
life (mostly). Jobs aren’t.

------
InfiniteRand
I work for a family owned company that does have a little of that "we are all
family" sense of things and I think the distinguishing marks are:

1\. You are not fully trusted until the founder's son personally has some
trust in you (this usually involves proving yourself professionally but also
making an impression)

2\. If you are not fully trusted, the company loyalty is about the same as any
other company

3\. If you are fully trusted, the company will go out of its way to avoid
firing you even if you become ineffective, ie, they will shift you between
positions, change you from full-time to part-time, sometimes even completely
change your department.

4\. Sometimes this trust gets to the point of not really paying attention to
what so-and-so is doing

5\. The downside is our company is heavily top-heavy, with a lot of people in
vague senior positions with ill-defined zones of responsibility. People who
are not able to stabilize somewhere into a new senior position usually move on
but that can take a while

6\. Partly because of #5, the exact responsibilities of senior people can be
vague and the chain of command for certain things can be confusing

7\. There is a lot of hiring within family and friends, not necessarily
resulting in incompetence, but sometimes you wonder if there might be better
people for some positions

8\. The company is slow moving and stays relatively small, procedures are
highly informal

9\. Raises are probably below industry average, bonuses are probably above
industry average

Altogether, for me personally, the trade-offs are worth it. That being said, I
can understand why most companies do not structure themselves this way.

~~~
spaced-out
>Altogether, for me personally, the trade-offs are worth it.

Really, because all the things you listed seem negative. What are the
positives?

~~~
InfiniteRand
#3, the company going out of its way to avoid firing you if you get their
trust. They don’t ignore incompetence but they are willing to be flexible. The
extra feeling of security is generally nice especially when company fortunes
go up and down. They have also supported a shift in my job responsibilities
toward more of a development focus, despite that being outside my original job
description, and have overlooked some strange behavior on my part (not filing
certain reports, avoiding certain customer interactions, etc), without needing
a real explanation (the real explanation would require going into my mental
heath history which is something I’d rather avoid).

------
rs1234
Why can't Airbnb do furloughs - take the amount they hope to save through a
layoff, and have all employees not work for some x number of days each
(staggered so as to not disrupt operations), so that the pain is shared,
rather than borne by the laid-off few?

~~~
nness
I was thinking that maybe it had do with regulation, or its effect on moral
and productivity, etc.

But I would just wager its far easier to do lay-offs. The path of least
resistance...

~~~
citizenkeen
Ah yes, the path of least resistance. How very family-like.

------
lkrubner
"We are family" is only meaningful if everyone has a meaningful share of
equity, and that does not scale very well. An actual family shares resources.
I personally know that I will inherit some property from my parents. My
parents took care of me when I was young, I have helped them in recent years.
That is family. Among commercial relationships, the only thing that comes
close is a partnership where everyone has some significant amount of equity.
And that doesn't scale. A partnership of ten people is often like an actual
family, in the economic aspects, and maybe you could stretch that to a hundred
people. But you could you stretch that to 1,000 people? Or 10,000 people? At
some point it is just not possible.

Also, many workers enjoy working from home, but in terms of approaching the
feeling of true alliance that is implied by "We are family" the only places
(that I've been at) that have come close have been small startups where
everyone had equity and everyone was working in one office.

Mind you, when I say equity, I mean actual equity, not stock options. And to
get actual equity, typically a worker needs to bring something to the table,
other than a willingness to commit future hours. Typically they need to invest
their own money, and become a true partner, or invest something else of value
(one of my partners had inherited an old farmhouse and donated that, which
became our office).

~~~
pnutjam
BS, labor value should be equivalent to or more then capital value.

~~~
remmargorp64
I agree. I think it's bullshit that for me to get equity, I have to put
hundreds of thousands of dollars in... But my hundreds of thousands of dollars
worth of time is apparently worthless?

------
TimSchumann
[http://archive.is/NONc3](http://archive.is/NONc3)

------
rswskg
"New employees, who were screened for empathy in job interviews, were welcomed
“home” and told: “You belong here.”" \- What a distrubing quote, was it a
cult?!?!

------
joejohnson
Every startup I ever worked at was like a family until the money started to
run out; then you very quickly realize this “we’re a family” rhetoric works
exactly one way and those 60 hour weeks you were pulling for free lunches and
a significantly below-market salary were never going to be rewarded by
anything.

~~~
slovette
That’s because you can’t buy culture. Bigger business has never been good at
that and the youthfulness of the tech leadership world over the last 15-20
years is why this is a thing. We’ve attached the pretty-ness and warm feelings
of realism to a hollow/fake implementation idea. Catered meals matter to those
that haven’t quite grown up yet. What really matters is your boss dropping by
the hospital when your child is born, you showing up and standing quietly by
his side when some one he loves passes away, colleagues poking fun and
reminding you how old you are your birthdays, dropping their tasks on a dime
to come rescue you when your broke down on the side of the road. That’s life
baby and they’re by your side as we all trudge through it.

You don’t build “the family” on the concept of it’s value is purely what
you’re getting out of it. You base it on sacrifice and the understanding that
the work part is only the mission, the team is the reason you’re there and is
probably what matters most.

We have forgotten that the things that matter most in life and the things that
build that kind of culture everyone mocks as “not real”, its all built on
necessary sacrifice and substance that can not ever be quantified on profit &
loss spreadsheet.

Maybe the issue is that people SAY they want a culture that cares, but really
it’s just not something you really want to work for. Do your job, collect a
paycheck and go home. Maybe people should just be ok with the fact that in
reality, that’s all they want. Otherwise, move to a rural area, take a job
that pays a little less on a team that has these family qualities. We do
exist, I think it’s just not something g you REALLY want or value.

~~~
AlexandrB
> That’s because you can’t buy culture.

Well maybe you can - by giving everyone _significant_ equity - but no one is
willing to write that cheque.

~~~
LunaSea
Because no VC would touch that company with a 10 foot pole and with reason.

~~~
Analemma_
Sure, we all understand _why_ it has to be this way. Doesn't change the fact
that I'm never going to feel emotional loyalty to a startup that I know is
giving me as little equity as it can get away with (and what there is will
probably be whittled away by dilution, sketchy clawback terms, etc.) Loyalty
is a two-way street.

------
jrootabega
Much of the time, when companies say things, it's because they're not true,
but they need you to believe they are. The things that are true don't need as
much saying. The stated aspects of a company's culture are no exception. If
they say their culture is one way, it's probably because it's distinctly not.

------
wolfgke
If AirBnB is so certain in its "we are family" speeches: Why not give every
current employee who has to be laid off because of the current situation an
option to get back to AirBnB as soon as the economic situation of AirBnB
improves again?

~~~
basseq
Explicitly, the mechanism for that would be a furlough.

Not so explicit, but most laid-off employees are "eligible for re-hire". That
assumes, a) the company re-opens your same position, b) you still want to work
for the company and haven't found a job in the interim, and c) that "economic
situation" improves quickly to allow for the above, which it probably won't.

------
mikeshank
What about legal adoption as part of onboarding?

------
einpoklum
Your employer is not your family nor like your family. It isn't your parent,
nor brother, nor cousin. It isn't your friend, in the sense that even if your
boss may personally be your friend - the company has an interest that's
contradictory to yours: Making more profit off of your work.

\---

As for AirBnB - I really dislike them. They eats away at the supply of
apartments available to people for actual rent - you know, to live in - in
favor to catering to rich(er) tourists. This naturally drives rents up. So,
the employees were part of a somewhat nasty "family".

~~~
dragonwriter
> It isn't your friend, in the sense that even if your boss may personally be
> your friend - the company has an interest that's contradictory to yours:

This depends on who your employer is: if your boss _is_ your employer, and not
just a higher ranked employee of the employer’s, your employer can be exactly
as much of a friend as your boss is.

~~~
einpoklum
Actually, it doesn't. If your boss is your employer, than he is not-your-
friend on that deep level of conflicting interests.

------
throwaway_USD
How much did AirBnB have to pay for this PR piece?

>it built a reputation as the polar opposite of its sharing economy peers such
as Uber, which prized ruthless competition, and WeWork, which collapsed under
a partying culture and its founder’s self-dealing.

>instead, Airbnb stood for earnest idealism.

As I recall, just like Uber, Airbnb created a platform that facilitated
breaking laws and regulations in many jurisdictions...and ultimately caused
damages to many owners whose property values went down as a result of their
neighbors running illegal short term rentals.

~~~
logicchains
>ultimately caused damages to many owners whose property values went down as a
result of their neighbors running illegal short term rentals

Nobody is entitled to their property remaining a certain value. The same kind
of argument is why NIMBYs try to stop the development of new housing,
artificially propping up property prices and making it hard for new residents
of a city to afford homes.

~~~
adrianN
Artificially occupied apartments also make it hard for new residents to afford
homes.

~~~
ideamotor
Airbnb absolutely increases home prices. Many cities did decide to allow it,
but only after owners broke local zoning intent, visitors became used to
Airbnb availability, and cities became used to increased taxes. As with many
recent changes, this is all great for everyone except those without assets.

------
exabrial
No it wasn't. It was illegal hostels with subpar safety standards.

------
the-dude
“Part of the compensation is being part of this family,”

I grew up in the 80ies and communities were much stronger then. We had a
community run iceskating course during winter, community run
'neighbourhood'-house with games, music etc. We supplemented our schools
budget by collecting old paper every six weeks, people just showed up and did
the work together ( teachers, parents & kids ).

Our municipality had a very nice pool-complex and library. All gone. Somehow
this is all too expensive now.

~~~
lallysingh
We have that where I am. The taxes are actually quite high (~40% of my monthly
mortgage is tax escrow) compared to wherever else I've lived.

~~~
the-dude
The pool & library or the community?

~~~
lallysingh
All of the above, actually.

------
0000011111
It sounds like you can be a family as long as your making money.

------
throwaway40483
I give you labour. You give me money.

GTFO with that family shit.

------
kanox
> It’s not a family. It’s a workplace.

It's better when companies and managers are honest about the nature of the
employment relationship.

------
Ozzie_osman
A friend who worked at one of these companies described it as: "it went from
being all kool-aid to being all punch".

------
bearjaws
Hate for Airbnb aside. I have to commend the CEO for directly addressing
everyone in a meeting. Giving bad news like layoffs is extremely hard unless
you are a sociopath.

My current CEO left it for all the directors to tell the rest of the team, a
trend I've seen several times in my career. I wish there was a name for a CEO
who only gives the good news and leaves the bad news for middle management.

~~~
lordnacho
I was one of those director people who had to give the bad news once. The big
boss chickened out of firing everyone, except his brother. So I got left with
the task of letting go of the guy with the pregnant wife, as well as the whole
rest of the team. In addition, he didn't call to apologize to any of the
investors (he'd blown up a hedge fund), he had our investor relations guy go
that. Some of those investors literally said "ok I'm gonna lose my job when I
tell my boss about this".

So yeah, we need a name for that kind of abdication.

~~~
xnyan
See hospadar's comment, the word you are looking for is "coward".

------
lm28469
It reminds me of one of my first jobs. "We're a family" yadda yadda yadda...
They told me my contract wouldn't be renewed during a meeting which was
initially planned to talk about a salary raise. Adding insult to injury they
waited until they were legally obligated to tell me even though they knew much
earlier that it was going to happen, what a great family.

A job is a job, that's it. You'll be treated like waste as soon as the money
runs out.

> "Mr. Chesky aspired to a capitalism that had an “infinite time horizon” and
> was good for society."

Ah ah ah, what a time to be alive

------
saos
Oh dear. I wish people would get the "family" idea out of their heads when it
comes to working a job at a company. I'm at X company to offer my skills, help
others grow, grow my own skills and making money so I support my actual family
after 5pm. on the dot.

~~~
eschulz
Exactly. The company is many things, but it's not a family. Find family
elsewhere.

[https://m.signalvnoise.com/the-company-isnt-a-
family/](https://m.signalvnoise.com/the-company-isnt-a-family/)

~~~
saos
> The best companies aren’t families. They’re supporters of families. Allies
> of families. There to provide healthy, fulfilling work environments so when
> workers shut their laptops at a reasonable hour, they’re the best husbands,
> wives, parents, siblings, and children they can be.

Kudos

