Hacker News Reader

Comment by x86_64Ubuntu | Hacker News Reader

It's nice that they are offering 1 months severance, but still, it's got to be crushing to have an offer rescinded like this.

View on HN

they must be offering different severance to different people, someone posted their email on blind and they were offered 2 months.

It's less nice and more that they're paying people to sign away their right to sue.

Imagine you've left your job, you probably don't want to go back there. You have to start a new job search. You're likely out more than one month's salary. Plus the intangibles of a job search while unemployed vs. employed.

Imagine you declined COBRA, or even with COBRA, you might end up with a period of being responsible for your own health insurance payments, too.

You have a gap in your employment record where you otherwise wouldn't have had one. That affects credit decisions.

COBRA is actually a terrible deal if you had a nice plan. You could pay a third to get a decent marketplace plan in most places

> COBRA is actually a terrible deal if you had a nice plan. You could pay a third to get a decent marketplace plan in most places

Unless you qualify for marketplace subsidies, marketplace plans aren't a better deal like for like, than the best deals on employer group plans. If you had a good employer plan, a minimal marketplace plan will be far cheaper, but switching insurers can have a nonfinancial transitional cost associated with networks changes that you may not want to deal with when transitioning to job hunting, and while for the average consumer a cheaper plan will usually also be lower cost, you may not be the average consumer; a cheaper plan that covers less may, as well as being a transitional headache, increase your total insurance + out of pocket cost.

The last time I looked at marketplace plans (in my state ymv). I couldn’t find a single one that had good enough coverage for this to be worth it. The person I was looking for hits their out of pocket max every year though, so it just depends on your usage. The best I could find was like 1k a month + a 12k out of pocket max, so 24k a year total. But ymmv

No credit decision is based on a gap in your employment.

1 month is no where near enough. Folks probably left money on the table at the previous job to join Coinbase and now are going to be at a significant disadvantage negotiating for their next position.

Some folks may have spouses or partners change jobs at the same time in preparation for a move. Coinbase should have paid a lot more than 1 month.

And what is this nonsense about paying severance in cash? Do they believe in crypto or do they not?

It's a grift.

One month severance is perfectly reasonable. They're under no obligation to make sure people are in a better position than they were before, and if someone walked away from options, etc at a previous company that's their business. One month is enough time to find a job if you aren't choosy.

You have to draw the line somewhere. When the economy goes south, guess what? People will be out of work. I don't know why white collar workers seem to think they need to be isolated from all bad events.

The article says they're paying out two months severance.

The only way 1 month severance is acceptable is if it becomes acceptable to give zero days notice to your old job, so you can ensure that you actually do start the new job

there actually is legal precedent that they are under obligation to not cause losses through lying. Promissory estoppel is the term and basically it means that if you incurred expenses or lost gains as a result of a false promise (like a rescinded job offer) the party making that false promise may have to make you whole.

So things like lost bonuses or options or moving expenses are very much something that Coinbase need worry about

Reply on news.ycombinator.com