Discover more from Bursts of Color

Bursts of Color is a newsletter for start-up leaders who work with Burst Capital. It's meant to include products, people and ideas that I think are interesting and maybe relevant for you.

Bursts of Color - If Layoffs Are Necessary

Geoff Donaker

Apr 16, 2020

Layoffs are awful. Sometimes they are also necessary for a business's survival. If and when those times come, I find there are a few things that can make a layoff relatively better... or worse.

Exhibit A: Yelp

My friends at Yelp went through a brutal layoff last week. My heart goes out to all involved. Based on what I can see from the outside, I'm impressed with the clear and classy communication. This published letter from Jeremy clarifies the rationale, timing, numbers and benefits... all with a healthy dose of empathy.

BTW, if you're hiring: many well-trained Yelp salespeople and others are now available.

Keep It Simple

If you have to lay people off, my headline advice is to keep it simple by avoiding exceptions and complications. This means things like:

All impacted people hear the same news at the same time, preferably in a single group meeting with the CEO
No separation of impacted people into "performance reasons" or other buckets
Severance calculations and benefits are super simple
Same departure day & method for everyone
ASAP after departures, host a single meeting with remaining employees to explain yourself and layout a path forward

Related Blog Posts from A16Z

Ben Horowitz wrote The Right Way to Lay People Off in 2010. This month, his partner added a detailed post on Planning and Managing Layoffs with references to remote management.

Financial Planning Deck from Rob

Rob recently spoke to a group of CFOs about Financial Planning in the Age of Covid-19. You or your finance lead may enjoy flipping through his slides.