“About one-third of Basecamp employees accepted buyouts today”

Re:“About one-third of Basecamp employees accepted buyouts t... by astrange on Friday April 30, 2021 @10:13PM (#27002287)

Is the company still going to exist after this? That's quite a lot of severance, unless they manage to renegotiate it all.

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Re:“About one-third of Basecamp employees accepted buyouts t... by ashtonkem on Friday April 30, 2021 @11:52PM (#27002916)

They’ll live. They just kneecapped themselves for no obvious reason, but they’ve got enough cash, remaining talent, and customers to live. Especially since they’re not VC backed, and slowing growth isn’t fatal.

I’d wait until you hear about customers quitting before you assume that they’re in trouble, and I don’t think it’ll happen.

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Re:“About one-third of Basecamp employees accepted buyouts t... by wyclif on Saturday May 01, 2021 @02:52AM (#27003934)

I don't think they kneecapped themselves, I think they're just not letting a good crisis go to waste.

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Re:“About one-third of Basecamp employees accepted buyouts t... by ashtonkem on Saturday May 01, 2021 @02:56AM (#27003955)

I’m not sure how losing 1/3rd of your staff, including the head of design and the entire iOS team could be seen as anything other than a massive issue.

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Re:“About one-third of Basecamp employees accepted buyouts t... by wyclif on Saturday May 01, 2021 @03:50AM (#27004251)

An issue, yes, but we don't know what else could be going on behind the scenes at Basecamp. You can replace a head of design and an iOS team quickly at a company that small (58 employees before the purge).

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Re:“About one-third of Basecamp employees accepted buyouts t... by ashtonkem on Saturday May 01, 2021 @08:59AM (#27005944)

If anything else is going on behind the scenes that makes losing 1/3 of the company a better outcome, I would lay blame for that directly at the feet of leadership for letting it get that bad.

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Re:“About one-third of Basecamp employees accepted buyouts t... by riffraff on Saturday May 01, 2021 @01:00AM (#27003285)

Some people have said they'll abandon basecamp products because of this. My gut feeling is that this won't be a significant number but it is happening

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Re:“About one-third of Basecamp employees accepted buyouts t... by rzz3 on Saturday May 01, 2021 @01:35AM (#27003476)

People always say that though. A few weeks go by, hype dies down, no one cares. Boycotts are rarely effective. Most people just want software that works, and migrating creates time and effort that affects business. I’m sure most people who cancelled were already on the verge of it before.

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Re:“About one-third of Basecamp employees accepted buyouts t... by ashtonkem on Saturday May 01, 2021 @02:55AM (#27003945)

Tools like Basecamp are much harder to boycott than consumer goods because they’re so sticky. I’m not even sure “boycott” is the right word here, as I think if they lose any customers it’ll be more of a “loss of faith” problem than a political one.

Personally, while I’d find the list of “funny” names offputting, I wouldn’t cancel. I however would take the buyout if I worked there; leadership there seems genuinely incompetent, and it’s not like remote jobs are rare anymore.

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Re:“About one-third of Basecamp employees accepted buyouts t... by astrange on Saturday May 01, 2021 @12:27AM (#27003091)

They lost the entire iOS app team. If they live I think it'll be because they convince the people to stay, not because they replace them.

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