Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Who Is Firing?

news.ycombinator.com

171–180 of 593 posts

Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?

#171

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.

I agree. In Spain most people are getting ERTEs, which allow you to keep the job, the state pays 80% of your salary.

Also firing people is now temporaly banned (technically not, but it's much much more difficult to do until we're out of the state of alarm).

Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?

#172
post #27

Can someone please change the title of this - just as with other similar posts - to use "laid-off" instead of "fired"? Regardless of how loose some may be with language, there's a clear distinction between these terms. For example, my home state's Employment Security Department: https://esd.wa.gov/unemployment/laid-off-or-fired Given that there are non-US readers here, maybe there's another pair of phrases that Hacke…

This is just grammatical nitpicking. People are not working in company X any more against their will. One can call it "removing", "laying off", "dismissing", "number cutting" or whatever corporate BS speak says is correct these days, but reality is that they're fired.

So what should we call it when someone loses their job due to their own misconduct rather than budgets or whatever?

Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?

#173

No severance?! I, as an expat, am absolutely grateful and have changed my tune on the “European welfare state” trope to “this just makes sense”. I got let go from a Berlin based fintech and got 3 months pay plus a small severance. They did this likely because funding fell apart during the pandemic but it could have also been to cull people that they didn’t need but they did do right by us.

> No severance?! I agree that no severance sucks. Although keep in mind that in theory, higher salaries should equal hire savings. The average developer in SF makes more than the average developer in Berlin (how much more... maybe 2X)? If you could make 100% more & forego a severance package, would you? It's not a real world choice, I'm just trying to offer context that one way to look at higher salaries is that you…

I don’t think you can use raw salary in that comparison, it ignores cost of living differences

Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?

#174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Australia apparently saw a minor rise in employment[0] for now. https://www.msn.com/en-us/finance/markets/australia-unexpect...

Our government basically hasn't shut down our economy. To quote, "all jobs are essential services".

I'm an Australian living in Europe.

What's it actually like there? It sounds like you're under strict lockdown but everyone seems to be saying the government is doing a terrible job (even though the test positive rate is low and the relative number of cases, even the absolute number of cases, is low). Here you say the economy is still humming along but other people say there's queues outside of Centrelink and down the street and around the corner.

Are shops like Bunnings and Big W still open? Bike shops? Hobby stores? Gift shops? These are considered non essential here in Germany some of which has caused me difficulty and some of which have not (somewhere may be non essential this week, but over a long enough period of time, everywhere is essential; we just moved a fortnight before the lockdown and fortunately I bought the things I needed for a new home just before they were shut down as non-essential).

Restaurants I gather are closed to in house meals same as here. But same as here they're open for takeaway.

Factories and such businesses were closed in Italy, but I don't think they were shut down here.

Cinemas I take it are closed. Prisons in Victoria at least do not accept inperson visitors which causes prisoners severe isolation but is obviously better then getting them all infected. I understand prisoners are still working - if they're isolated and healthy I guess there's no reason to stop them from working.

Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?

#175
post #117

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.

It’s a violation of consent. Consent can be withdrawn at any time, with no further obligations or liability. That’s key in a free society. Employment is a transaction, like any other. Doing some business yesterday is no guarantee of business tomorrow.

By that logic, all contracts are violations of consent.

You'll forgive us for not being convinced by your argument.

Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?

#176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a Frenchman I can recommend light protests, from home. Instead of burning a few wooden pallets and having a BBQ while blocking the company entrance, you guys could perhaps put a firewall rule to drop all incoming traffic to the VPN and having an online video party.

> you guys could perhaps put a firewall rule to drop all incoming traffic to the VPN How could you ever trust an employee who did this with their access privileges?

Hurting the company is the point of this kind of protests, but you shouldn't do it alone with your company credentials for sure.

Some employers may want to fire the people who organize the protests, but in France the employees representatives are more protected than others and you can't fire them easily. It has pros and cons.

Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?

#177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We've seen great results since switching from Circle to Buildkite, not the least of which is cost, but you have to be willing to do a little bit of your own IT work.

I second Buildkite, one of the best choices we made at my previous company.

Buildkite is awesome. Thirded. Love the clear UI, yaml based dynamic pipelines and ease of integration.

Coupled with Terraform for us.

Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?

#178
post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s a violation of consent. Consent can be withdrawn at any time, with no further obligations or liability. That’s key in a free society. Employment is a transaction, like any other. Doing some business yesterday is no guarantee of business tomorrow.

Employees are in a much weaker position than companies, they are not in an equal position so consent doesn't come into the equation, as far as I'm concerned.

Yes, that’s the common argument for it (which of course does not address the violation of consent issue). I was simply replying to WhyNotHugo’s amazement and trying to clarify why many people feel the way that they do.

Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?

#179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a Frenchman I can recommend light protests, from home. Instead of burning a few wooden pallets and having a BBQ while blocking the company entrance, you guys could perhaps put a firewall rule to drop all incoming traffic to the VPN and having an online video party.

> you guys could perhaps put a firewall rule to drop all incoming traffic to the VPN How could you ever trust an employee who did this with their access privileges?

How could you ever trust an employer who cuts salaries, but awards themselves a bonus?

Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?

#180

No severance?! I, as an expat, am absolutely grateful and have changed my tune on the “European welfare state” trope to “this just makes sense”. I got let go from a Berlin based fintech and got 3 months pay plus a small severance. They did this likely because funding fell apart during the pandemic but it could have also been to cull people that they didn’t need but they did do right by us.

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.

I'm not very familiar with the topic. But my current and previous US companies both provide decent severance to let go employees. They do it mostly to ensure employees don't talk or try to sue. I assume most good companies in the US follow.

It's also important that people can get unemployment benefits for at least 6 months after losing their job. I'm not sure how that works in the US. I'm guessing it changes per state like everything else in the US.

Post reply on HN