I work for a big company in the news. We are still waiting on hearing about furlough details next week. Not a clue what will happen. There is no "what happens in a pandemic" page in the employee handbook. I have a feeling every top level exec everywhere has no idea what to do in such a situation. At least we are unlikely to lose our jobs in the long run, but who knows how long the short run will be.
Ask HN: Who has been laid off?
131–140 of 333 posts
Re: Ask HN: Who has been laid off?
#132Re: Ask HN: Who has been laid off?
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's a great advice. Yes I am in the US.I will start that application right now. I panic paid off my car insurance just in case things get worse. I'll shop for a cheaper phone plan. Gym memberships, online streaming and frivolous stuff will go. Capitalism for the win.
Before you cut everything , keep in mind that you're still a human being and have psychological needs. If that streaming service brings you hours of joy, it might be cheaper to keep it than the bills for your mental health treatment down the line. Don't just cut everything out of your life cold turkey. Keep something that brings you joy.
HBO is offering free streaming of some shows on hbonow.com
No signups or credit card entry. Just click and watch.
Re: Ask HN: Who has been laid off?
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
Before you cut everything , keep in mind that you're still a human being and have psychological needs. If that streaming service brings you hours of joy, it might be cheaper to keep it than the bills for your mental health treatment down the line. Don't just cut everything out of your life cold turkey. Keep something that brings you joy.
Having just basic internet and youtube can go a long way. So you can get creative during a crisis and learn to work with a bit less to get almost as much.
Even a deck of playing cards can kill plenty of time. Pencils and paper are cheap as well.
Re: Ask HN: Who has been laid off?
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
Where can people volunteer with tech skills? Is there a demand for it?
https://crowdfightcovid19.org/ This is aimed at scientists, but my wife is on the list and tells me that they are looking for UX designers and software developers.
Any idea what kinds of software development skills they're looking for?
I guess if they're also looking for UX designers, they aren't looking for just data analysis code?
Re: Ask HN: Who has been laid off?
#136I was supposed to intern at Shopify Canada this summer. I'm free for next three months and would love to work on some interesting projects or remotely. https://github.com/shashanoid
Did shopify cancel co-ops?
Pretty sure he still is doing the internship but I think his current gig was cancelled and he's looking for something to fill the next 3 months.
Re: Ask HN: Who has been laid off?
#137Earlier quoted context omitted.
Interesting. It's a private document so it's hard to pull any stats out. I did manage to get the top ten companies (back of the napkin hack so take it with a pinch of salt): amazon | 13 thumbtack | 10 student | 8 wework | 8 wayfair | 6 google | 6 uber | 5 cisco | 4 oracle | 4 adobe | 3 Surprised to see Amazon at the top. I thought they were the best poised against this. Again, it may not be signal of a wider problem…
Amazon is almost certainly using this opportunity to "trim the fat." Not saying these people are bad developers, but Amazon seems to require a very specific personality type.
Isn't this more reflective of Amazon running right on the wire operationally and needing to fire people to stay there? Why would they need an excuse to trim the fat from a purely fit point of view?
Re: Ask HN: Who has been laid off?
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can stop your student loans completely. I went a very long time without paying them when I was unemployed.
I believe if the loans are non-stafford interest accrues. I had to pause my repayments this month because of job-hunt.
They dropped the interest rate to 0% on all Federal student loans. So you won't accrue interest while in deferment right now.
Re: Ask HN: Who has been laid off?
#139The company I work at is trying to avoid laying off people by asking everyone across the board to take a pay cut. I had recently received a raise, so they paid me at my raised rate up until the end of the month, but they let me know they would need to revert me to my un-raised salary moving forward. All in all, a reduction of about $7,000 to my salary. Some of the other devs (the most expensive ones) took a 30% pay cut.
They are hoping they can qualify for some of the $2 trillion stimulus and can recoup some of the losses (and if the economy recovers, they might be able to give us some of our reduced salaries back as bonuses at the end of the year), but we will just have to see.
Ultimately, I'm grateful that we aren't all getting laid off right now. I think more companies should offer salary cuts as an option instead of just blindly laying off people.
Re: Ask HN: Who has been laid off?
#140I was supposed to intern at Shopify Canada this summer. I'm free for next three months and would love to work on some interesting projects or remotely. https://github.com/shashanoid
DM me if interested - we are doubling our engineering intern class this summer, I believe 50-75 more seats, to try and help out folks who've had their summer plans canceled. This would be at least partially remote, but we are considering bring folks to the Bay Area if shelter in place ends early in the summer.
(posted publicly in case others are in the same boat)