[mikeevans]

Describing it as a “party” feels misleading. It was a company-wide offsite for an essentially fully remote organization.

Was it necessary? Probably not. But I found the in-person time valuable, especially with teammates I’d never met face to face.

Source: I was there

[darth_avocado]

And was the in person time more valuable than not having those people you met in your team moving forward?

[guywithahat]

I will say, to his credit, he has tried to make it clear the cuts weren't about money but do to tech and organizational shifts. https://x.com/jack/status/2027129697092731343?s=20

He phrases it as due to redundant overhead for cashapp and square, plus a move to smaller, flatter teams as a result of AI. Not saying he's going to be right just that they're profitable and I believe this isn't a money thing.

[darth_avocado]

> I believe this isn't a money thing.

What are you even talking about? Why does ANY business get rid of people? For funsies? X_X

[xnx]

> Why does ANY business get rid of people?

Some people are negative value even if their salary was $0.

[darth_avocado]

Sure. Hard to imagine 40% of your company is that.

[kermatt]

If 40% of your company has ever been negative value than the problem starts at the top.

[upmind]

How did they manage to spend 68M on it? Genuinely asking or is the number not accurate as it is clumped together with other stuff?

[mikeevans]

I don't know what event planning costs but running an event for ~10k people that includes flights, hotels, food, event space, etc. is expensive I guess.

[mizzao]

At $6.8k/head, that's inefficient (a startup wouldn't spend like that) but not egregious if it was for e.g. a weeklong event or something.

[thesurlydev]

Like any good company off-site. Strippers and steaks

[dang]

Ok, we've taken the party out of the title above. Thanks for the first-hand information.

[croes]

What does the wording matter?

The crucial point is, was it an unnecessary expense?

[ta9000]

Were you laid off?

[darth_avocado]

I’m going to take a wild guess that the answer is no