Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Who is firing?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

301–310 of 454 posts

Re: Ask HN: Who is firing?

#301

Post by epynonymous »

stevetursi wrote: post #289

Hertz laid off nearly the entirety of their rank and file IT staff earlier this year. https://news.slashdot.org/story/16/02/13/1630244/hertz-is-pu... In order to receive our severance, we were forced to train our IBM replacements, who were in India. Hertz's strategy of IBM and Austerity is the new SMT's solution for a balance sheet that's in shambles, yet they have rewarded themselves by increasing executive compensa…

really sorry about your past experience with hertz, but it sounds like you ended up with a better deal.

your post piqued my interest because i've been a long time business user of hertz (not by choice i can assure you), and i can't say that i'm at all impressed with any of their services. probably not your team's doing, but about a year ago, i got off a 12 hour flight in sfo to stand in line at hertz only to be ushered to a kiosk where i had to do a video conference with some remote teller. this was the biggest garbage service in the world, i cannot believe they actually spent money on this solution, i ended up getting ushered back to a teller at the desk where i was already standing in line. perhaps you were in the twilight zone at hertz doing wonderful things, but i think that company is rotten and should rot in hell.

Re: Ask HN: Who is firing?

#302

Post by Bartweiss »

eswat wrote: post #284
debunn wrote: post #279

The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (OTPP) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada is currently laying off over 100+ (union, management and contractor) IT folks from the Enterprise Technology Solutions (IT operations) and Testing teams. All of the affected positions are being transferred to Tata Consultancy Services (TCS - India based offshoring service company), with those who are affected being mandated to knowledge transfer wi…

This reminds me of the RBC debacle a few years ago, where they abused the Temporary Foreign Worker Program to replace capable, salaried Canadian IT workers with offshore services. That stint hurt not just those workers but other companies that were trying to hire the best in the world, only for the feds to deny visas due to one bad apple spoiling the bunch. http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/news/rbc-temporary-foreign-work…

This seems like a really good reminder that while actual immigration may not hurt domestic workers, poorly-executed foreigner worker programs definitely do.

Adding new employees to the primary labor pool by immigration isn't a huge deal, if you can handle population growth you can probably handle immigration. But I constantly see governments "address" fears about that with limited visa programs, which is hilariously counterproductive.

It really ought to be obvious that employees who face deportation if they leave their jobs aren't part of a competitive, efficient labor market. They're not free to ask for raises, they're not free to object to working conditions or unreasonable hours, they certainly can't leave a bad company to join a competitor or start a new business. All of which makes them great candidates for an employer looking to avoid paying market rates or treating employees decently.

It's crappy for the visa workers and domestic workers alike, and I honestly think the situation could be greatly improved by just expanding real immigration - maybe maintaining initial sponsor requirements if people are worried about unemployed immigrants, but abandoning the ongoing-sponsorship rules in favor of real green-card/citizenship status.

Re: Ask HN: Who is firing?

#303

Post by 1474295912 »

1474295912 wrote: post #96

VisualMeta GmbH in Berlin. They're a 'start-up' backed by Axel Springer, Berlin. They fired about 60-70 people recently, some of them on their first day of work. Most of their devs come from non-existent countries (China/Eritrea/Pakistan etc) and they're paid abysmally (€32-34k). It's a surprise that this news wasn't covered at all in Berlin start-up press.

Edit: I meant "Non-EU" countries, not non-existent.

Re: Ask HN: Who is firing?

#304

Post by throwaway642012 »

gnipgnip wrote: post #244
1474295912 wrote: post #96

VisualMeta GmbH in Berlin. They're a 'start-up' backed by Axel Springer, Berlin. They fired about 60-70 people recently, some of them on their first day of work. Most of their devs come from non-existent countries (China/Eritrea/Pakistan etc) and they're paid abysmally (€32-34k). It's a surprise that this news wasn't covered at all in Berlin start-up press.

"non-existent" ?

I think she meant non-EU countries.

Re: Ask HN: Who is firing?

#305

Post by lardissone »

Gravity4 laid off a large number of remote contract employees back in March, and also paid less than the total of the owed money. No reasons provided. Anyway you shouldn't expect much of the company of that guy with that criminal record.

Re: Ask HN: Who is firing?

#306

Post by rybosome »

stevetursi wrote: post #289

Hertz laid off nearly the entirety of their rank and file IT staff earlier this year. https://news.slashdot.org/story/16/02/13/1630244/hertz-is-pu... In order to receive our severance, we were forced to train our IBM replacements, who were in India. Hertz's strategy of IBM and Austerity is the new SMT's solution for a balance sheet that's in shambles, yet they have rewarded themselves by increasing executive compensa…

The failing business and laid off workers combined with executive compensation increases/bonuses is very much an example of why Sanders and Trump are so popular, and why candidates like them (or more extreme) will come out of the woodwork in 4 years.

Re: Ask HN: Who is firing?

#308

Post by AlwaysRock »

stevetursi wrote: post #289

Hertz laid off nearly the entirety of their rank and file IT staff earlier this year. https://news.slashdot.org/story/16/02/13/1630244/hertz-is-pu... In order to receive our severance, we were forced to train our IBM replacements, who were in India. Hertz's strategy of IBM and Austerity is the new SMT's solution for a balance sheet that's in shambles, yet they have rewarded themselves by increasing executive compensa…

Recruiter here: I placed a developer or two who were laid off from Donlen (owned by Hertz) earlier this year. It didnt seam like they were laying off everyone though. Might be time to check in with all my other contacts though. Thanks.

Re: Ask HN: Who is firing?

#309

Post by epynonymous »

throw1988_9121 wrote: post #79

The company where I work has been going through problems and for the past few months people keep being let go. After 4 months of watching an average of 2 people loose their jobs per month, I had the idea to register dayssincelastlayoff.com. My idea was to have a 'X Days Since Last Injury' kind of image on the site that would just show this stat for various companies. My thinking was that knowing how frequently a comp…

this is often times done on purpose, for companies listed on the nasdaq or nyse, i believe they have to announce publicly if they're laying off x% (i think it's like 7 or 9%). if they're less than x% then they can totally disregard public notification which helps with morale.

Re: Ask HN: Who is firing?

#310

Post by willismichael »

malbs wrote: post #91
bbcbasic wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Oh, don't worry about that, thats just our american parent company" Translation: "don't worry about that, that's just the company you are applying for"

I was young and really wanted the job! It was easy to overlook the obvious

It's possible that you made the right decision - you were young, you got the job, you got experience on your resume.
Post reply on HN