[rtpg]

For people on the lower end of the pay spectrum, 20% is a lot. I don't know exactly the wage distribution, but it's not like the customer support people being laid off are getting SWE salaries. So "let's just uniformly cut salaries" can be a much harder proposition.

And then you get into the difficulties where the highest paid people tend to be paid with stock, so _they already are having pay cuts from drops_. When you're looking at "cash on hand" problems it's hard to get everything balanced right. Though I do think it's worth it to try and make something work.

Personally I'm a bit of the opinion that larger companies have a responsibility to bank in employee costs more long term than in growth phases. Especially places with higher attrition, if you're able to run the clock for a year hiring freezes + shutting down teams that you want to shut down anyways feels like it would be less demotivating. But I don't know