We Paid 20% Of Our Employees $25,000 To Quit
A company offered $25,000 to employees willing to quit, resulting in six departures. The CEO aims to realign company culture and values while focusing on building a secure messaging network.
Read original article
Last month, a company offered $25,000 to each employee willing to quit, resulting in six employees accepting the offer. The decision stemmed from the CEO's acknowledgment of missteps in communicating the company's culture and expectations, particularly after recruiting talent from larger tech firms. The company had recently achieved significant milestones, including surpassing two million identities on its messaging protocol and raising $50 million in funding. To address internal issues, the CEO revised the company's values and culture, emphasizing the importance of secure communication for all and the need for radical ownership among team members. The offer to quit was intended to support those who felt misaligned with the company's mission and to ensure that only committed individuals remained. Feedback from both departing and staying employees was largely positive, with many expressing appreciation for the transparency of the process. The CEO expressed regret for not implementing this strategy sooner and highlighted the importance of respectful exits for maintaining positive relationships. The company is now focused on its ambitious goal of creating a decentralized and secure messaging network, emphasizing the need for a dedicated team willing to tackle significant challenges. The CEO's vision has shifted from a "mature startup" concept to one that recognizes the sacrifices required to succeed in a startup environment, urging potential employees to join only if they are passionate about the mission. The company continues to seek talented individuals to join its efforts.
Related
15 commentsI’m getting mixed signals; the company name is Ephemera - with “ephemeral”, meaning “lasting a very short time”[1].
Meanwhile the driftwood stays put.
Excellent way to dilute your talent pool.
COBRA costs are a couple thousand dollars for families, and even that’s not available to employees who choose to voluntarily quit. Either the CEO is ignorant of the reality or employees will wind up paying a fairly expensive cost for that $25k one-time cashout. I hope they know this.
If I were in the position of wanting to quit like that, I’d ask the employer to sweeten the deal by throwing in 6mo or so of health insurance coverage.
https://paragraph.xyz/@ephemera/converse
Presumably some of the newly acquired employees don't share the same goals or ideals, or are entirely redundant. Offering bonuses for voluntary resignations relieves some of the pressure with onboarding, trying to find new positions, or a morale-sapping layoff.
Telegram also kinda tried something like this with the TON blockchain, and more recently with Mini Apps. It’s even quite easy to make TON payments with their telegram wallet. Buuuut they recently launched Telegram Stars, a more traditional non-blockchain premium currency, and their terms of service are that all payments for digital goods must be through stars (so not cryptocurrencies), because this allows them to give Apple and Google a cut, to not break the App Store/Play Store rules about digital goods/services.
So I imagine this messenger would run into similar problems: if you want to be on the apps stores, they probably can’t use cryptocurrencies, because Apple and Google want their 30%
Although I'm sure it sounds a lot more hip and start-up-y to avoid the "r" word.
Uh huh, cool, let's look at that app's terms and conditions agreement:
> 3. Unshut Labs may terminate your access to the app at any time and for any reason, without notice.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think thats what we in the bussiness call "not decentralized". This whole startup seems like a sham, and 25k being low makes a lot of sense.
Receipts: https://converseapp.notion.site/Terms-and-conditions-004036a...