News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Tell HN: Confluent laying off 8% of staff by germinalphrase on Thursday January 26, 2023 @10:26AM (#34532837)
"Reducing comp as punishment would also not make sense, for obvious reasons."

If leadership is financially incentivized for positive outcomes, why shouldn't they carry downside financial risk as well?

Re:Tell HN: Confluent laying off 8% of staff by andsoitis on Thursday January 26, 2023 @10:31AM (#34532912)
If a leader makes poor decision after another, they will be penalized (either in job prospects, having this job, or compensation).

Ultimately, the comp for the CEO is set by the board and that is determined by supply/demand (which inputes performance of the CEO). Penalizing someone for one mistake in anticipating the future would make a company so risk averse that returns would be very low - not a good outcome for the owners.

Re:Tell HN: Confluent laying off 8% of staff by snotrockets on Thursday January 26, 2023 @04:09PM (#34538881)
If that leader is a founder of a company with a dual-class stock, they won't
Re:Tell HN: Confluent laying off 8% of staff by andsoitis on Thursday January 26, 2023 @04:54PM (#34539426)
In that case, there's a natural incentive for the leader to do things that make the business successful long-term. It is in their best interest.
Re:Tell HN: Confluent laying off 8% of staff by ketchupdebugger on Thursday January 26, 2023 @10:38AM (#34533041)
leadership's financial incentive is basically stocks which does carry the downside of losing value when the stock price goes down. The problem for us normals is that leadership gets paid life changing amounts of money every year, so losing a couple of millions is not that big of a deal.