Why are any of those things necessary? Are those people unable to get other jobs or go launch their own startup (putting that massive severance package to good use)?
These risks come with the territory; there's a whole rest of the world outside of Silicon Valley where things move a lot slower; beyond that, there's still another rest of the world where people are literally struggling to put food in their mouths.
Working in a startup and getting big salaries and stock options, but possibly losing said options, are all part of the risk of doing a startup, and the people who took the initial risks will always deserve a bigger piece of the pie.
Given the labor market you could even argue those getting laid off are coming out ahead of those they're keeping. Getting laid off into a super tight labor market with that kind of severance package is almost like winning the lottery.
I want to make it clear that i'm 100% supportive of what Stripe is doing though. It's exceptionally generous and unorthodox to do this for your (soon to be former) employees.
These risks come with the territory; there's a whole rest of the world outside of Silicon Valley where things move a lot slower; beyond that, there's still another rest of the world where people are literally struggling to put food in their mouths.
Working in a startup and getting big salaries and stock options, but possibly losing said options, are all part of the risk of doing a startup, and the people who took the initial risks will always deserve a bigger piece of the pie.