Don't be fooled. Your work is not your family.
I’ve been insanely busy lately and have wanted to write but haven’t found the time. We have a ton of new Substack subscribers, and I feel like I’m already letting you down. Fortunately, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev just announced (in the most disgusting way possible) they’re laying off 23% of employees, and it triggered me so bad that I had to take a minute to sit down and write this.
This may be a harsh reality for you to hear, but your work is not your family. If you’re lucky, some of your coworkers legitimately care about you. But, at the end of the day, you’re just a number, and I beg of you not to ever forget this. My son is only 13, and I’m already explaining this to him.
In his companywide blog post, Vlad started it out in such a despicable way that really highlights what I aim to point out in this piece. Are you ready for it? I don’t think you are:
Dear Robinhoodies,
That’s right. This dude had the audacity to use this word right before the following introductory sentence.
As part of a broader company reorganization into a General Manager (GM) structure, I just announced that we are reducing our headcount by approximately 23%.
I don’t know if there’s a better example that comes to recent memory as to how twisted capitalism is and how many people are oblivious to it.
One of the reasons I’ve been itching to write something is because the other day, somebody said to me that the only (not one of) problem with capitalism is worker exploitation. This is a common misconception that leads to people thinking A) Marxism is some boogieman here to destroy the Western world and B) that so-called anticapitalists should be able to hoard wealth.
The psychology of how you’re getting played
I don’t know about you, but I hate getting manipulated. Being manipulated is such an insult to our intelligence that I don’t understand why it’s not called out more.
I’ll give you a quick story later in this piece, but take my word for it, the people at the top of your company don’t care about you. They care about profits. That’s what capitalism is. If it doesn’t help profits, it’s something that needs to go.
I almost wrote a caveat that this may be different at small companies, but it’s really not. I know this from experience.
Since the only thing that matters is profit, do you think it’d be advantageous for the people at the top to let you know they don’t care about you and that you’re disposable?
Of course not!
In fact, the best thing a company can do is make you feel like family and create a sense of community. I recently read the book Work Pray Code: When Work Becomes Religion in Silicon Valley by sociologist Carolyn Chen. She put into words something that I’ve noticed for a long time, which is that work has replaced religion.
I’m an atheistic millennial, and the number of atheists continues to rise. But, one of the reasons we even evolved for religion was because it gives us purpose, meaning, and community. In her book, Chen explains how although the majority of Silicon Valley people are atheists, work has become their new religion.
She spent years researching this topic, and it’s almost disturbing. She gives a detailed history of when work started providing food, dedicating spaces for naps, games and much more. Most of this is just to get you to feel as comfortable at work as you do anywhere else so you can work more, but the family aspect is where they get you.
It’s not just Silicon Valley. I’ve worked for a variety of tech companies, and at each one, there are so many events and gatherings. They have you work all day and then you’re expected to hang out after hours. The line between work and your outside life becomes blurred, and your coworkers become your friends. The bosses show up so they seem cool and part of the family as well.
I fell for this trick more times than I can count, and it’s not good.
I want to make it very clear that this is a one-way relationship. This is designed to get you to care about the company and not the other way around. But the company is what creates this narrative and you’re just the one getting played.
It’d be impressive if it wasn’t so disgusting.
How many times have you wanted to quit or known someone who wants to quit but can’t because you’d be “abandoning your coworkers”. Because they’ve been made to feel like your family, you now feel guilt that traps you. This is even worse when it’s an extremely toxic workplace. At that point, it’s like an abusive relationship.
You have to understand that we evolved for this, and there’s so much research out there on the topic of tribalism and being part of the ingroup. If you think this is just political, you’re sorely mistaken. When everyone at your place of work is acting like family, you’re less likely to do something against the group. You feel pressured to go to every event so people don’t think you’re diverging from the group.
Starting to sound a lot like tribalism, isn’t it?
What’s crazy about groupishness and how tribalism works is that it can be really good or really bad. I first started studying the topic to learn about the ugly side of tribalism, conformity, and unity. When discussing Nazi Germany, they discuss how the rituals of goosestepping, doing the Nazi salute, and all those other things psychologically made people more connected.
This isn’t limited to the Nazis, either. It’s just the example that comes to mind. All militaries do this. When you all move together, you start to feel like you’re one person and will take a bullet for your fellow soldier.
Then, I learned about the beautiful side of it. In her book The Joy of Movement, psychologist Jane McGonigal has a chapter on dancing. Although I hate dancing, she helped make it make sense. Tribes have danced together for thousands of years in ritual. Why? The same reason as above. We become one.
Why did I start talking about this?
I’ll never forget being a teenager, going to Best Buy right when they opened for a new CD or video game, and I saw all of the employees gathered in a circle. Right when I wondered what the hell they were doing, they started doing this chant that reminded me of what we did in huddles before football games.
Later, I realized this is actually pretty common. These companies (that don’t care about you) develop these little rituals for what we’re talking about. It makes you feel part of the group and like this is your family.
It’s not your family, and they don’t care about you. I know I just said that, and I’m sorry if it hurts your feelings, but they don’t.
Company nicknames are another manipulation
I forgot to say it earlier in this piece, but I have a job that I absolutely love. I love the people I work with, and it’s probably the best company I’ve ever worked for…Actually, it is the best company I’ve ever worked for. Everyone I work with is so cool and so helpful and kind, it’s amazing. But, I’m also able to compartmentalize this stuff. So, don’t think I’m some curmudgeon at work. I’m friendly as fuck.
But back to Vlad, this fool said, “Dear Robinhoodies”. What a scumbag move.
Companies give their employees these names as another way to foster a sense of community. When you’re given this nickname, you’re part of a team. Think about it. What were you before that? Just your title or maybe even just an “employee”. Giving employees a singular name is like being on a sports team. You’re no longer a quarterback, tight end, lineman, and wide receiver; you’re the panthers.
What do you do when you’re on a team? You fight for your teammates, and you support your teammates however you can. More importantly, you defend the team and what the team stands for. You have pride in your team, and you’ll dropkick anyone who disrespects your team.
How does this benefit management? Well, you’re now exactly where they want you. You’re loyal.
Although you’re loyal, when someone in management calls you by this name, it almost feels like a term of endearment. Or, it may even feel like they’re the coach and you’re one of the players. Coaches care about their players and don’t want to see them get hurt.
Then again, maybe coaches are a bad analogy because they’re a lot like profit-hungry CEOs due to the fact that they mainly just want to win.
So, this mother fucker Vlad has the audacity to start out a public letter laying off 23% of people by saying, “Dear Robinhoodies”…
I’m sure most of them are working from home, but if I was in the office, I’d want to break something. But don’t worry, the letter gets better.
Everyone will receive an email and a Slack message with your status - with resources and support if you are leaving. We’re sending everyone a message immediately after this meeting so you don’t have to wait for clarity. Departing Robinhoodies will be offered the opportunity to remain employed with Robinhood through October 1, 2022 and receive their regular pay and benefits (including equity vesting).
This dude did it again while saying, “Don’t worry. We’ll let you know immediately because as you’ve sat there thinking everything was fine, we’ve been carefully and meticulously discussing who the most disposable people are.”
Oh, you thought it stopped? How wrong you were.
Each impacted Hoodie will be able to schedule time with our people team to discuss their specific situation live. We know that this news is tough for all Robinhoodies, and we are also offering wellness support to those who would like it.
I’d have a question for Vlad, how long am I a “Robinhoodie”? Is it until my benefits run out or as soon as I get the layoff Slack message? Actually, since they’re a family, they’d probably tell me that I’ll “always be a Robinhoodie”.
Why Robinhood is laying so many people off
Because they don’t matter. Like you, they don’t care about their employees.
I don’t even know why I made a section for this because you should know this by now. So, I guess it’s time to tell you that story I mentioned.
We always hear about how people got indoctrinated to the right. They went down some rabbit hole or watched too much Tucker Carlson. But one day, I came across a TikTok of this guy saying, “How I became a socialist.”
I’ve never related so much. I won’t tell my whole story, but I’ll tell you a small piece.
It’s 2008, and I find out my girlfriend is pregnant with my son. I’m unemployed when we find out, and I bust my ass to find a job. I ended up getting the best-paying job I’ve ever had, and I was killing it. It was in the service department at a car dealership.
As mentioned, it’s 2008, so the entire economy is imploding (because of the rigged capitalist system). Due to all of the shady practices of banks and everything going to hell, nobody could get approved to buy a new car. This meant instead of buying a new car, people had to fix their cars. I was paid commission, so I was balling out of control. My son wasn’t due until the end of 2008, so I was excited that I could save all this money.
Then, the layoffs started happening.
I figured I was fine. Sales wasn’t selling, but our business was booming in service. Each day, people were getting taken out like fish in a barrell. What would happen was that you would login to the timeclock system in the morning, and you’d just get a message to see HR. We all dreaded that message.
It’s about two months before my son is born, and I got that message. Due to pure luck, my coworker was about to quit, so he told them to let me have his job. It was awesome.
The layoffs continued, but one day, they said they could make it stop. They said that if we all agreed to a 10% pay cut, they’d stop the layoffs. Did we really have any other options? Of course not, so we all agreed.
Less than two weeks later, the layoffs started back up.
My son was born New Year’s Eve 2008. In mid-February, I was laid off for real, and we struggled for a long time after that.
This doesn’t really explain what made me realize how capitalism works. So, let me tell you about the owner of the car dealership.
This man was a multi-millionaire. He owned car dealerships around the country. Even as the economy collapsed, he’d show up to the dealership in a limo or a luxury car when he was in town to “check in on things”. He had 4 or 5 houses in the United States and a house in Italy. On top of that, he owned a private jet.
This man was richer than most of us could ever imagine. If he lost half of his wealth, he’d still be insanely rich. But did he even consider giving something up to save numerous jobs of people who supported their families? Of course not.
He saw that he was not making as much money as he wanted and started making cuts. I talked to that dude multiple times, and I guarantee he never knew my name.
A byproduct of capitalism is materialism. We cannot lose our things. We need to keep our things and feel the need to acquire more things. Once we get to a certain standard of living, nothing better get in the way of that. Even if it can help a lot of people.
I’m not sure, but I don’t think that guy’s chain of dealerships were publicly traded, but Robinhood is.
The way capitalism works is that your shareholders are your top priority. If you’re not making them money on their shares of stocks, you’re in a lot of trouble. Capitalism requires constant profits, or you go under.
So, is Vlad really at fault, or is he just another victim of capitalism?…
LMAO. Are you kidding me? Did you think I was serious? Of course, he’s at fault. Vlad is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and he’s laying off people who make annual salaries of much, much less.
Let’s have fun with math real quick.
According to the Economic Policy Institute, the pay gap between CEOs and the median worker is 351 to 1. This means for every $1 an employee makes, the CEO makes $351.
According to Glassdoor, base pay for a software engineer is $145,690. If you’re a customer experience representative (the people who took all the shit when Robinhood halted trading), you’re making $50,692.
If Vlad is making 351x more than employees, that’d be $71 mil or $17 mil per year.
In addition to this, he also receive almost $800 million in compensation last year as the stock fell.
Let’s say Vlad only makes a measly $17 mil per year. That’d mean he could sacrifice is the salary for a year and pay the salaries of 351 customer service employees.
What a piece of shit, right? And he made them think they’re family.
Listen, I don’t want to be a buzzkill. But I just want everyone to realize what’s going on. I hate being manipulated, and I hate seeing people get manipulated. Again, I love my job and work my ass off, but I left those days of breaking my back and ruining personal relationships for my job. We work more hours than ever before while wages don’t rise and inflation is skyrocketing.
Have fun at work, and if your coworkers and boss are cool, embrace it. Most people don’t even have that. But also don’t get blindsided when you realize you didn’t matter to that company. No company has ever collapsed just because one person left. We’re all disposable.
Just recognize the game they’re playing and don’t be the one getting played.
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