Ask HN: Who Is Firing? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?

#141

Post by croon » Thu, Apr 16, 2020, 10:43 AM UTC

Zenst wrote: post #14

anonymousci wrote: post #7

CircleCI. Last week during covid crisis, all while announcing a $100m Series E round of financing, they let some employees go and did not offer any severance. Disorganized management, and with some teams, passive-aggressive management style. Would not recommend joining...

Looks like their chatbot needs to sanitize input - "All set! I've sent an email confirmation to sales@circleci.com." that will be interesting.

Thanks for the great idea!

I have a fairly rare surname, but have {surname} at gmail, so I get a lot of "spam" from companies that sign me up before verifying if the user inputting my email is the person owning the email.

In the most egregious/spammy cases I'm gonna find some higher-up emails and sign them up for their own services in hopes that the practice will stop.

TL;DR: email confirmation or get egged.

Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?

#142

Post by hmottestad » Thu, Apr 16, 2020, 10:44 AM UTC

roadbeats wrote: post #100

Can we say that the layoffs are mostly happening in US ? I can't see that trend in Europe, correct me if I'm wrong.

Norway is seeing its share of layoffs. I think it's mostly related to corona affected businesses like bars, restaurants, travel, retail and also oil & gas since the oil price fell like a rock.

Norway went from 65 000 to 290 000 unemployed since beginning of March.

We also have something called "permittering" where you don't loose your job, but you stop working and get aid from the state. It's meant for temporary dips where there is less work for your company but you think it'll pick up within the next 6 months. Pay is usually ~66% of your regular salary.

For "permitteringer" we went from 1 000 - 2 000 per month on average to 345 000 in the last 1 1/2 months.

In Norway we have around 2.67 million people in work. So we have seen a reduction of our workforce by 10% since beginning of March.

Sources: - https://e24.no/spesial/2020/coronaviruset/permitteringer - https://www.ssb.no/arbeid-og-lonn/statistikker/arblonn

Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?

#143

Post by mardifoufs » Thu, Apr 16, 2020, 10:45 AM UTC

bsanr2 wrote: post #39

lukax wrote: post #12

In some companies it feels like they are firing the people that they could not easily get rid of otherwise - cutting of the bottom 25% of staff (based on low performance reviews or personal grudges).

Statistically-speaking, this will disproportionately effect women and minorities (low performance reviews !necessarily= low performance when implicit bias is present, which again, statistically-speaking, it is). Certainly these times suck for everyone, but there go the careers of black, brown, and female millennials with yet another black mark on their CVs before they've hit their 40s.

I'm sorry but I (as a minority myself) genuinely feel a little bit insulted by your assumption that minorities score worst in performance test. There's no basis for that belief, a part from your personal biases and they are shockingly regressive even if well intentioned. Are you yourself a minority?

Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?

#144

Post by Swifty » Thu, Apr 16, 2020, 10:45 AM UTC

mothsonasloth wrote: post #95

elric wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mandatory exercise? How does that work?

In the UK you are only allowed out once a day for 1 hour maximum

This is not true, the guidance is: "one form of exercise a day, for example a run, walk, or cycle - alone or with members of your household" There is no time limit on how long you can be out exercising for.

Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?

#145

Post by chipaca » Thu, Apr 16, 2020, 10:46 AM UTC

mothsonasloth wrote: post #95

elric wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mandatory exercise? How does that work?

In the UK you are only allowed out once a day for 1 hour maximum

I've seen nothing about a "1 hour maximum" rule; where are you getting that from?

Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?

#146

Post by PopeDotNinja » Thu, Apr 16, 2020, 10:46 AM UTC

onychomys wrote: post #136

Hospitals are having a surprisingly tough time of things. I work for a very famous hospital in a small town in the American midwest, and we've (our IT department, that is) laid off all our contractors and the rest of us have mandatory furloughs coming up too. They're doing everything they can to not let us go, but some of us will probably end up getting sacked. And this is maybe the richest and most well-connected ho…

This is kind of depressing.

Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?

#147

Post by Rastonbury » Thu, Apr 16, 2020, 10:46 AM UTC

damidekronik wrote: post #78

alinde wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have an idea if they chose to quit because they expect finding new jobs is easy right now, or any other aspect?

It's definitely not easy, more candidates on the market -> higher competiton. As a side note, furlough only covers up to a certain salary level (2500 pounds I think).

Demand side decrease as well

Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?

#148

Post by zwirbl » Thu, Apr 16, 2020, 10:47 AM UTC

kofejnik wrote: post #118

WhyNotHugo wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surprisingly, severance is also mandatory in Argentina and many other "under development" countries. I'm absolutely amazed at how people in the US are so against severance being mandatory.

interesting... what if mandatory severance and other (supposedly) nice things are the reason those countries are underdeveloped?

those countries like Germany, Austria, etc?

Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?

#149

Post by bsmth » Thu, Apr 16, 2020, 10:47 AM UTC

bnt wrote: post #126

roadbeats wrote: post #100

Can we say that the layoffs are mostly happening in US ? I can't see that trend in Europe, correct me if I'm wrong.

Berlin is pretty nuts, lots of firing going on.

Are you able to mention who or what kind of companies? I could guess mobility / scooter sharing off the bat, but have not heard from many being let go.

Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?

#150

Post by sfsylvester » Thu, Apr 16, 2020, 10:48 AM UTC

petercooper wrote: post #72

pjc50 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mandatory consulting period for UK redundancies is 30 days or 45 days for larger employers - while some may have started it won't be hitting yet. It's the small companies to watch out for; can't have a consultation if you're insolvent.

I suspect many will not bother with consulting periods given the circumstances. It opens them to possible tribunal action, but rulings and penalties are usually mild, tribunals take ages to go through, and very few people bother or even know that you have to start the process within 3 months. (If morbidly curious, you can keep an eye on tribunal outcomes at https://www.gov.uk/employment-tribunal-decisions .. I just c…

Found any interesting ones? https://www.gov.uk/employment-tribunal-decisions/ms-j-mee-v-... was like reading a novel.