Grab Asks Staff to Take No-Pay Leave to Cut Costs

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-30/softbank-backed-grab-asks-staff-to-take-no-pay-leave-to-cut-cost

by jinonoel • 6 years ago

47 18 6 years ago

They are becoming way too haughty in recent years.

Expanded from ride sharing to meal deliveries to coupons to VC fund (yup, a startup with it's own VC fund, ironic), to digital banks etc.

Cut the crap and focus.

hello_moto• 6 years ago

They will die if they just ride-share.

See Uber and Gojek (Gojek expanded to more businesses than Uber).

sfifs• 6 years ago

They're not a startup. They're a giant owned by some of the richest business families in the region that essentially kicked Uber's ass out of South East Asia because they execute a lot better in a market where BOTH legacy Taxis and public transport are really good :-)

We took a vacation in Bay Area last year and were shocked how poor transport and food delivery options were compared to the big cities in Asia.

mirimir• 6 years ago

Why not issue vouchers, at least to staff they'd rather not lose?

chemeng2• 6 years ago

And if not some sort of withheld wage to be paid later, issue equity in lieu of pay.

namanaggarwal2• 6 years ago

They are issuing RSUs in lieu of pay.

namanaggarwal2• 6 years ago

Unlike other companies, the no-pay leave is voluntary, they are not forcing people to take leave(atleast till now). Also the amount of pay cut is replaced by RSU. I think Grab is doing good enough job to support workers and drivers and to support it's business.

P.S used to work for Grab till last week. Left because of personal reasons. Opinions are my own

envolt• 6 years ago

Softbank backed OYO has done the same thing. While these kind of leaves are voluntary on paper, they are the only option offered. Formally company present this option to you, you show interest, you accept what they are offering.

Informally, the company asks you to accept whatever they are offering. You can always resist, you're very much likely to have the legal advantage. But you don't want to go through the trouble.

Edit - the only good part of the offer was 0 day notice period. They are betting on major chunk of employees to not come back, so they can bring back the one who are left (IMO 80% will leave)

nerdbaggy2• 6 years ago

“And, beginning in May, the ride-hailing company will reportedly put forward a 30 percent reduction in pay for executive leadership, 20 percent for vice presidents and 10 percent for all other staffers who are exempt per a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing.”

This stuff grinds my gears. I think they could take a bigger pay cut. I see this everywhere not just with Grab. The CEO Anthony Tan is in the top 50 riches people in Malaysia.

Jommi• 6 years ago

You do realize that % based cuts are already progressive right?

nerdbaggy2• 6 years ago

Hmmm yeah I can’t find a solid source for any for how much anybody is getting their pay cut. I saw some articles from around April 1 that said the executives were getting up 20% pay cut. Some of the current articles are saying 30% for the execute and some are saying up to 20. I’m not sure

mikekchar• 6 years ago

Going to get myself in trouble again :-) Just to make sure I don't come across the wrong way, I applaud this kind of measure. Voluntarily taking a 30% pay cut is a difficult thing to do. Also, I'm going to say this without knowing anything about Grab (no idea how much the executive gets paid or what their life situations are like). However, it is very possible that a 10% cut at the low end of the pay scale can mean that you literally can't make ends meet, while a 30% cut at the top end can mean almost nothing to your day to day needs.

I mean it would be crazy to say, "Well some of our staff won't be able to make their mortgage payments or pay their rent, so I'll reduce my salary to the point where I also can't make my mortgage payments". However, it's probably not wrong to say that for many executives, such a cut is mainly a show of solidarity as opposed to something that will put them in the same situation as other employees.

willcipriano• 6 years ago

The nature of executive compensation is often different than rank and file employees. A common trick is to say "The leadership team took a 30% paycut, so the 10% paycut you are taking isn't so bad" however executive pay is often split between equity, bonus and base compensation with equity and bonus making up more than 50% of the total comp. Often when they say 30% they are talking about 30% of base.

econcon2• 6 years ago

Ideally VC mothership should pay for their continuation through crisis. Or none of the VCs included Corona like risk in their calculation?

twblalock• 6 years ago

Nobody included that risk in their calculation.

econcon2• 6 years ago

Taleb did

Grab Asks Staff to Take No-Pay Leave to Cut Costs

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