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Ask HN: Offer of Employment retracted

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Re: Ask HN: Offer of Employment retracted

#141

Post by pyre »

millz wrote: post #107
earl wrote: post #72

After talking to a lawyer, burn the company. Post here and on a blog and email TC. Assholes should be called out, and fucking with someone's life like this is indefensible, doubly so when he or she has visa requirements. Remember in the US, truth is a defense to libel. And you're doing this not for yourself, but for karma, helping all the future employees this company will screw over. Finally, if you want an sf area…

It may be satisfying to, as you suggest, "burn" the company; but it's also unprofessional. Granted, the startup that rescinded the job offer was behaving unprofessionally, and may even be civilly liable for it's actions, but that does does not mean that you should respond in kind.

"Naming them and shaming them" is not unprofessional. If you act in an unprofessional way towards me, why is it 'unprofessional' of me to tell the world about it?

Granted, it would definitely be unprofessional to post a large rant filled with swear words and name-calling to your blog, but approaching journalists that might want to pick up the story, or just posting the facts to your blog (and possibly posting that to sites like reddit, digg, hn, etc) is not the same thing.

Re: Ask HN: Offer of Employment retracted

#142

Post by stretchwithme »

nl wrote: post #29
joboffer wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't want to make a decision for my current company. They may even let me have it back. I'm on very good terms with my team too and they were in fact, disappointed to see me go. I'd just hate myself to go back with my head hung in shame telling them that 'oh my job didn't work out'...take me back. I had a farewell lunch yesterday. Everyone in my extended team knows I'm leaving. My exit interview is planned for ear…

If you aren't terribly unhappy there, tell them what has happened and ask to come back. There is no shame in that at all - in fact it puts you in a pretty good position at your old job (because they now know your skills are valued elsewhere). Another possibility is telling them what has happened, but say you still planning on moving so offering to stay for another month. OTOH, there is plenty of RoR work around, so I…

Totally. Put your resume on Dice or hotjobs and you'll have interest within a few days. Even if you go back, it won't hurt to have more confidence about your marketability

Re: Ask HN: Offer of Employment retracted

#143

Post by retube »

patio11 wrote: post #2

Talk to a lawyer and ask what "detrimental reliance" means. (Short version: what you just did owing to representation that they had a job for you. Comes with damages.) Let your old company tell you you can't have your job back, don't make that decision for them.

> Let your old company tell you you can't have your job back, don't make that decision for them.

This. If you were leaving on good terms, and were a valued member of the firm, there's absolutely no reason why they wouldn't take you back. In fact, they should be glad to keep you!

There's no shame in having wanted to try something new. People move shops all the time. So this time you got unlucky with the move, but no biggy. Just be upfront with your current employer and tell them what's happened.

Re: Ask HN: Offer of Employment retracted

#145

Post by pierrefar »

noonespecial wrote: post #48
frossie wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a farewell lunch yesterday. Make a joke of it. If you get your job back, take all the same people out to lunch. Play up the funny side. Give a "take me back" speech, "what was I thinking" etc etc. Laugh at yourself, and the world with laugh with you. With your immigration status at stake, this is not the time to stand on some misplaced ego thing.

Every once in a while you've got to double-take and say to yourself 'damn, there's some good advice floating around HN' . This is one of those times. The process of leaving a job makes it feel so very final. A bunch of people made an effort to give you a good send off and just coming back seems like making a mockery of that. They gave you a good send off because they cared. You are the one who made the most effort an…

You can return the favor. Throw an "anti farewell party" after they have you back and invite everyone on the extended team. Maybe not necessarily a party, but you get the idea.

Re: Ask HN: Offer of Employment retracted

#146

Post by loewenskind »

>my commitment will be questioned as well

Why? If they laid you off and then said "oh, we found the money and we need you to stay" would you doubt their commitment more? It should be the same before as after. We work to make money, you didn't marry this company.

Re: Ask HN: Offer of Employment retracted

#147

Post by tzs »

earl wrote: post #72

After talking to a lawyer, burn the company. Post here and on a blog and email TC. Assholes should be called out, and fucking with someone's life like this is indefensible, doubly so when he or she has visa requirements. Remember in the US, truth is a defense to libel. And you're doing this not for yourself, but for karma, helping all the future employees this company will screw over. Finally, if you want an sf area…

For someone without data, you sure are inferring a lot.

Re: Ask HN: Offer of Employment retracted

#148

Post by nivertech »

I don't know the situation in the US (I'm from Israel) and frankly last time I was employee of someone others company was 8 years ago. But several times I was hired before it was like this:

* If you know a person who hiring you - you shake a hand and consider it done (you sign employment, NDA and stock options contracts on the first days of your work).

* Otherwise you don't give a notice at your current place of work, until you sign a contract. Contract specify a mutual notice period, which can be somewhere from 2 weeks to 2 months. Usually it's 1 month. Once both sides signed the contracts, even if they don't hire you at the end - they owe you the notice period salary.

Going to lawyers is never a good solution - better to explain to them your situation and ask for some compensation.

Re: Ask HN: Offer of Employment retracted

#149

Post by jdbeast00 »

jdbeast00 wrote: post #78
suhail wrote: post #66

We're hiring, email us: jobs@mixpanel.com

i know working for the man isn't popular around these parts, but if someone is looking for a programming job in DC let me know. Its a govt job but I love working here. Lots of freedom to work on projects that you want.

sorry, in hindsight that was overly vague. My email is jconline at the domain of gmail, I will send you a link to the job posting when it comes out. Also, we haven't done any Rails dev yet, to date we are all .NET / PHP, so if you only want to do RoR, it may not be a good fit. We will be doing a lot of drupal in the near future as well.

Re: Ask HN: Offer of Employment retracted

#150

Post by apgwoz »

Terretta wrote: post #25
tptacek wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Careful about paying a lawyer up front, though, because it's apparently very hard to make a detrimental reliance claim about a rescinded at-will job offer; it appears to be impossible in several states (at least Florida, Louisiana) and very hard elsewhere. In the US, most jobs are at-will (you can be fired for no reason, and you're not supposed to rely on your employer maintaining your job); a Rails dev job certainly…

The "at will" issue is not as cut and dried if on a company sponsored visa.

I'm wondering if they discovered later that sponsoring a visa is more work than they originally thought, and that's what happened.
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