CUBE LIFE! Office Etiquette

[sancarlos]

This is bad...

NanoString (NSTG) received a notice from The Nasdaq Stock Market this week after failing to satisfy a continued listing rule of standard. It has until July 2, 2024 to regain compliance with the $1.00 per share minimum bid price listing requirement.

Circling the drain...

Guessing the next step will be a reverse stock split to increase the price per share.

[DaveInSeattle]

Sorry to hear that DiS. Hope you can find something better soon!

I'm not going anywhere, for now. I've told my manager that as long as my card key keeps letting me in the building, I'll keep showing up.

It sucks, because we do have a good product, and good people, but we've now gone way beyond "cutting to the bone"...we are now digging into the marrow.

[DaveInSeattle]

Just got the Sunday night email from our CEO that we are going into Chapter 11 restructuring...

[govmentchedda]

Just got the Sunday night email from our CEO that we are going into Chapter 11 restructuring...

Sucks man. At least it's not chapter 7?

[Shirley]

Just got the Sunday night email from our CEO that we are going into Chapter 11 restructuring...

Oh man. Good luck.

[rass]

Yeah, good luck DiS.

[DaveInSeattle]

Yeah, good luck DiS.

Thanks....all hands meeting at 11. Should be interesting.

And I guess I don't know the difference between Chapter 11 and Chapter 7.

[MaxWebster]

...Chapter 4?

(sorry sorry)

Chapter 11 bankruptcy is a reorganization bankruptcy usually filed by businesses. In contrast to chapter 7, the debtor remains in control of business operations and doesn’t sell off all of its assets. Instead, the businesses will attempt to change the terms on debts, such as interest rates and minimum payment amounts, so it can come out of bankruptcy as a healthy business.

https://www.nfcc.org/blog/different-cha ... explained/

Yeah, good luck DiS.

Thanks....all hands meeting at 11. Should be interesting.

And I guess I don't know the difference between Chapter 11 and Chapter 7.

[Nonlinear FC]

The startup cybersecurity company I worked for went Chapter 11 and eventually wound up surviving and got sold to Norton (or something like that.)

[DaveInSeattle]

The startup cybersecurity company I worked for went Chapter 11 and eventually wound up surviving and got sold to Norton (or something like that.)

I think that's what they are hoping for...to be bought up by some other bio-tech company.

[sancarlos]

Yep. Chapter 7 means kaput. Chapter 11 bankruptcies often continue on.

Good luck, Dave.

[DaveInSeattle]

Well....that was...something....

Lots of hand-waving, mixed with flop sweat, from our CEO. Saying that Chap. 11 will allow us to continue our business while they figure out next steps. The 31 million dollar patent lawsuit is due to be payed by March, and this shelters us from that, for now.

So they are looking to sell off a product line (our original instrument is about a $60 million/annual business), find a buyer to take us over, or both.

At least they paid out our yearly bonuses early...on Friday...before all this went down.

[Steve of phpBB]

Good luck, Dave.

I'll echo what others have said - filing Chapter 11 doesn't necessarily have to be the end of the company. It basically lets the company shave debt and carry the business forward, either under the same owners or new ones.

[DaveInSeattle]

So...for about the last 6 months, my main responsibility is handling the escalations that come over to R&D when a customer calls into our CX department and they can't resolve the issue. This mainly entails coordinating between Salesforce and ADO, and running daily triage meetings...one for our older instrument, and one for our newer platform. It's a pain, but things have calmed down to the point where I'm able to change the cadence of triage meetings to twice a week.

Anyways, the issue is this one guy, a developer, about my age, who is currently the only person who is tasked with providing support for the older instrument. It's 100% of his time, and he's not happy about it. And, because I am the PM running the triage, I get to be his sounding board for him to bitch and moan and whine about how the company isn't supporting that platform, how he deserves a raise, how he doesn't think the CX guys know what they are doing, etc.

And its not just on occasion...when I'm in the office, he comes over to my desk at least 3 or 4 times a day to go through all this. Really makes me not want to go into the office at all. And when I'm working from home, he'll hit me on Teams with "Are you coming into the office today? I need to talk to you".

And I've had it....I want to tell him that if he keeps riding my ass like this, OSHA is going to make me install hand rails. I want to tell him "I am not your manager...if you aren't happy, talk to your manager. Or quit"...but I can't/won't do that. Because if he left the company, we'd really be screwed on providing that customer support. And I get it...as a former developer, I would have hated to be stuck doing these reactive calls. And I've tried to get other people freed up to help out so he can work on other things, but I've been shot down. And just now, I got another teams message "Are you coming in today?" and then a meeting invite to talk at 9am.

Sorry...needed to vent...before I go into this meeting with him and tell him to back the fuck off.

[Shirley]

I sent a congrats to a former coworker after LinkedIn told me it was his 4-year anniversary at Meta. He used to work for me as a developer at a small company where he was underpaid. We were chatting about how he's thinking of leaving. He casually mentioned that he's now making 6X what he was making at our common company. So that means Meta is paying him a bit over $600K. Not bad work if you can get it.

[EnochRoot]

I sent a congrats to a former coworker after LinkedIn told me it was his 4-year anniversary at Meta. He used to work for me as a developer at a small company where he was underpaid. We were chatting about how he's thinking of leaving. He casually mentioned that he's now making 6X what he was making at our common company. So that means Meta is paying him a bit over $600K. Not bad work if you can get it.

DId he say why he's leaving? Soul-sucking, demoralizing work life?

[Shirley]

I sent a congrats to a former coworker after LinkedIn told me it was his 4-year anniversary at Meta. He used to work for me as a developer at a small company where he was underpaid. We were chatting about how he's thinking of leaving. He casually mentioned that he's now making 6X what he was making at our common company. So that means Meta is paying him a bit over $600K. Not bad work if you can get it.

DId he say why he's leaving? Soul-sucking, demoralizing work life?

No, I think he rather likes it. He's thinking of moving to Denmark, where his current boyfriend is from (and maybe lives?). Apparently Denmark is not on the list of countries that they support remote work from.

[sancarlos]

I wonder if there are many other companies that would value him at $600k.

[mister d]

$600K annually seems like enough that after a few years you wouldn't need your next company to offer nearly that much.

[sancarlos]

$600K annually seems like enough that after a few years you wouldn't need your next company to offer nearly that much.

Good point. I knew a guy - he didn’t earn close to that, but he made good money. And then, he tried his hand at being a mailman. Didn’t stick, tho.

[HaulCitgo]

I grab a dog... and I choke him, and I kick the shit out of him... and I... All day long, my foot up a dog's ass. Just bang, bang, bang up his ass.

[Nonlinear FC]

wtf

[Giff]

Yeah he was a dog-catcher, not a mailman.

[The Sybian]

Got an email from the managing partner a few hours ago saying there will be a RIF at the firm today. Considering I would normally do most of the work for a RIF, I think there is a good chance I'm getting the ax. Totally did not see this coming. Lots of big firms had RIFs last year, and I did a lot of research just in case, but all indications from leadership was that we survived the downturn in the legal market, did better than most, and things were looking good for 2024.

[Giff]

Ugh, good luck man.

[rass]

Good luck Syb

[mister d]

Fingers crossed.

[govmentchedda]

Good luck, Syb.

[Shirley]

Shit. Good luck, man.

[Johnny Carwash]

Best wishes, man.

[Steve of phpBB]

Damn, Syb. That must be so stressful. Good luck.

[The Sybian]

Yup. I would have been leading this, so I knew. 13 weeks severance and COBRA and career outplacement services, plus a ton of unused PTO. After the initial shock, I’m ok. Been seeing a lot of jobs I would have been interested in coming in through LinkedIn, so cautiously optimistic. 10% staff reduction and every department had to reduce. My department is me, my manager (Assistant General Counsel), and General Counsel who is a senior partner, so no other option but me.

[GoodKarma]

Good luck Syb...definitely nerve-racking

[govmentchedda]

Sounds like they're doing somewhat right by you with the outgoing package. Best of luck with the search.

[Pruitt IV]

That's awful Syb.

Hope that a couple of months from now this seems like it was an opportunity for you.

[Nonlinear FC]

Sorry to hear, man.

[HaulCitgo]

Sorry dawg. I hope to hear more youth soccer exploits now.

[Johnnie]

Fuck, man. I'm sorry to hear that.

[Johnny Carwash]

Sorry man.

[sancarlos]

Sorry, bud. Make it a priority at your next job that they also include west coast business trips.