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Ask HN: How many of you have been impacted by a layoff?

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Re: Ask HN: How many of you have been impacted by a layoff?

#111

Post by mooreds »

steve_adams_86 wrote: post #46

I was laid off around 7 years ago. It was a massive hit to my self esteem and confidence and I actually considered leaving tech and going back to wood working (I used to build furniture). I managed to bounce back somewhat accidentally. A guy needed help with a Wordpress store he used to sell his woodworking products, so I did some stuff for him. He was so happy with what I did, he ended up telling other people. They…

Awesome story. Always good to get a reminder that running your own business is not the same as being good at doing what your business does.

A friend of mine once told me that there are three equally important things for a contractor/consultant/small business owner to do:

* find the work

* do the work

* get paid for the work

All necessary.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you have been impacted by a layoff?

#112

Post by mooreds »

meheleventyone wrote: post #58

I work in games sooooo... First job was at a small games startup making J2ME games. Folded after six months. Got paid what I was owed. Then I worked at Realtime Worlds which folded after the launch of APB. Company crashed and burnt leaving me out of pocket. Worked for CCP Games and went through many rounds of layoffs over the years I was there. I get jittery about unannounced all hands thanks to this. Was never laid…

> As a positive I’ve seen too many good people get laid off to think it’s any indicator of lack of skill or desirability.

100%. From the one time I saw layoffs it looked like an excel spreadsheet calculation. (I wasn't laid off, survived two during the dot bomb era.)

I actually have sympathy for folks on both sides of the table. I can't imagine thinking you have a job and being told you don't. And I can't imagine having to go through a list of team members (some of whom you might have recruited or worked with) and telling them the same.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you have been impacted by a layoff?

#113

Post by hiram112 »

mtnGoat wrote: post #93
jkp56 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The way you said it - "join a union" - made me think that unions may be a good idea in software if anyone can join and leave any time. This would be like insurance that funds a big nonprofit with very motivated (and well paid) lawyers. 250 usd / month shouldn't bankrupt a software dev and 100k such devs (a large corp) would bring 250 M/year. There's definitely a room for a few unions in the US with 200-500 m/year bud…

Although the idea is promising, 250 a month is too high. At 100k, your bring home is roughly 70(varies greatly by state). And then you'd pay almost 5% of that to a union to help insure your job. My mom's Union fees were well below 1% of her bring home.

Should be deductible at least. Unfortunately, I did Google it, and they are not, though they were before the recent tax law (though they were counted employer expenses which meant almost no 'normal employee' would be able to do so).

That being said, we're a smart group. We should easily be able to find some loophole just like all the big corps do. Couldn't we form a LLC, all become members, and use the fees as an investment loss each year? When it pays out a severance, pay taxes on the income as you would with employer provided disability insurance.

But yeah, even a $100 / month would be enough, I think, to start it off.

Let's get 1000 members * $100 * 12 and that's $1.2M a year. To start, hire two very good lawyers at $250K / year and a few other auxiliary staff, create a union-only forum that's easily searchable, and start populating it with anecdotes.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you have been impacted by a layoff?

#114

Post by madengr »

sizzzzlerz wrote: post #87
madengr wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I not in SV, but an EE working same place for 24 years. Been through 2 rounds of layoffs, stack ranking, etc. Still here. The older I get the less I give a crap. I have zero debt (no mortgage) and 6 figure college savings for 2x kids. I’m really just here for the health insurance and technical challenge. Maybe I’ll get lucky with the next round of layoffs and get a buyout, then start a job-shop or consulting business…

You sound like my alter ego. I'm biding my time, looking for a good point to pull the plug. Like you, health care is my primary reason for staying even though I do like my job. If I was to be let go tomorrow, I don't think I'd really care all that much.

I’m probably in the same line of work as you. Specific skill set (embedded RF/Microwave/Antenna) with a small group of customers. It’s not SV FU money, but still pays very well.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you have been impacted by a layoff?

#117

Post by linkregister »

madengr wrote: post #53
ido wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want to state how amazing it is that you could have a 40 years career as an engineer in SV while working in only 3 companies (I assume you are in your early 60s). I'm 36 and the longest I ever stayed in a single job was 4 years.

I not in SV, but an EE working same place for 24 years. Been through 2 rounds of layoffs, stack ranking, etc. Still here. The older I get the less I give a crap. I have zero debt (no mortgage) and 6 figure college savings for 2x kids. I’m really just here for the health insurance and technical challenge. Maybe I’ll get lucky with the next round of layoffs and get a buyout, then start a job-shop or consulting business…

> I have zero debt (no mortgage) and 6 figure college savings for 2x kids

Looks like you've hit the best scenario most people can get in SV, really. Unless they bought their houses years ago.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you have been impacted by a layoff?

#118

Post by eikenberry »

I've never been laid-off, but back in the early 2000s when the internet bubble popped our company was going to have to lay off some people. They instead opted to let us decide whether to lay off some people or for everyone to take a 20% pay cut. We opted for the latter. So while no one was laid-off, I was impacted by a possible layoff.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you have been impacted by a layoff?

#119

Post by jefurii »

My wife and I have experienced three layoffs between us, two of them after the 2008 financial crash. We used to lean left but were not at all politically involved. We had comfortable positions with cushy benefits. After getting laid off the positions we found paid less and did not include benefits. This experience really opened our eyes to what life is like for average working people in this country.

We both have personal connections to Asian countries that have socialized medicine, but here in the supposedly advanced U.S. we were only able to get insurance because of Obamacare, and that insurance is so expensive and has such a high deductable that we may as well have been pouring our money down a toilet. Things are better now but the feeling doesn't go away.

These experiences radicalized us. They made us really cynical about our capitalist system and receptive to the voices of progressives like Bernie Sanders and movements like Occupy. It's made us really have sympathy with the concerns of poor and marginalized and working people.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you have been impacted by a layoff?

#120

Post by d2xdy2 »

I narrowly avoided layoffs when I worked in the enterprise space for years; finally got spooked enough after a very large merger that I left to go work in the start-up space.

Got laid off two weeks ago with not much to walk away with except a weeks salary. There were severe cash-flow problems, and I get the impression that those that remained at work are potentially facing some more layoffs soon.

Sort of freaked out for a day or so and started grinding through the "find a new job ASAP" process. Thankfully the market where I live seems to be doing well, so I have a new gig to walk into next week.

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