If you want to be coddled and showered with benefits, go join a Fortune 500. Startups are not for you.
This is not normal behavior for any company, and you should run away from anyone trying to convince you otherwise. The people responsible should be treated like pariahs.
Think for a moment how far $260 million gets you when you have 1500 tech employee salaries in Seattle to pay. Plus operating expenses. Don't forget to add 15.3% for payroll tax. Median software engineer compensation in Seattle is 219k. Infrastructure and office space isn't free either. Seattle office space averages $43/sqft and the average employee space is 150-175 sqft.
That. Money. Is. Long. Gone. It's not a bad take, you just won't do basic math.
Raising $260M doesn't mean you're rich. The investors expect you to spend that money and otherwise why are you raising that much?
They spent 4 months looking for a buyer and had already shed 1000 employees before shutting down operations. It's not like current employees were clueless about what was going on.
Functionally there's little difference between operating up until now or giving 500 "chosen, lucky" people severance 3 months ago.
I'm sure very few of the people whose continued work they were depending on for a sale would have stayed this long if they realized they were going to be treated like this.
Actions and comments like this are how you kill an ecosystem.
Now healthcare shouldn't be tied to employment, and it's not in my country. But this is the political choices of Americans in America. Not the fault of the individual companies who are subject to the system.
And you aren't being "let go" - the entire company is going under. If you are laid off and the company stays healthy, it makes sense to have some concessions. But if the entire business ceases to exist. I don't know why would you expect anything from it.
So you could work for Bezos, or you could work for these guys. I've made my choice.
They want to be able to hire good people tomorrow so they pay you severance today.
The company in question here is dead. There is no more money coming in and no business to operate.
The business (Convoy) should have shut down in e.g. August of 2023 when it was clear that they still had enough cash to pay out severance and still cover the expenses of winding down the business. They did not take this option, choosing to instead risk it all that they could bring in an infusion of cash without firing folks.
This is not "boilerplate vapid moralizing nonsense"; to take such a risk when you have a company of 500+ employees is a poor business choice.
A lot of even large companies never leave the startup phase.
