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Ask HN: Who Is Firing?

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Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?

#301
post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same could be said about a CEO who cuts everybody with 10% and gets a huge bonus at the same time. I'm not disagreeing with you, though.

It was not at the same time. The bonus was paid in December, before the pandemic.

Regardless of timing or events, the 30mil individual bonus was still taken while 10% of employee's salaries were cut. That's excessive and a slap in the face to those employees.

Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?

#302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

edit: comment below is correct, this was 2019 (leaving original comment intact for transparency): ____ also a $14M Series A the same month: https://twitter.com/voipsipguruPB/status/1094042447070613504

No, the $14M series A was February 2019.

vouched for this comment, you're correct, sorry I bungled the date and thanks for correcting

Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?

#303
post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they take the dismissal they get paid out immediately and they can immediately start getting government unemployment benefits. I think?

You don't get government unemployment benefits in the UK if you have >16k in savings (i.e. most programmers, presumably)

London developers do not get paid well vs cost of living. I interviewed for a city based senior data engineer role at a large insurer and was supprised that they choked at 45K basic not much package.

Generally uk dev pay is very bad compared to US or even other Europe.

Contract work used to be basically the only way to make good money but this has now been nobbled. Not a good city to work in.

As a result permie developers generally don't have a huge amount of a savings.

Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?

#304
post #292
post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The developer in SF might be financially better off, but the developer in Berlin is better off in general.

The developer in SF will be financially better off thanks to policies that have worsened inequalities more than in any other developed countries.

Sure but if devs were paid half but then the other half went to healthcare or more lucrative unemployment insurance etc perhaps the cost of living in SF and the surrounding areas wouldn’t be so great... as a free market economist by training I can’t believe I’m saying this I just know that for the vast majority of us not in the 1% of their fields when we get let go having these safety nets is really nice.

Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?

#305

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.

The theory of weaker led on severance is: 1 - If you make it too hard to let people go, companies will be less willing to hire. (You’ve added a cost to the employee) 2 - If you make the cost of severance too high, it will kill companies that might otherwise have a chance to squeak through. There are plenty of good arguments on the other side (companies offloading social costs to the govt, etc) but these two are consi…

Yea, economic theories that all assume that consumers are rational actors. Thank you, next.

Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?

#306

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.

Americans are amazing like that. "Free healthcare? That's communism!!!"

Can we stop calling this free healthcare? It's not free.

It's just vastly better organized in a way that (largely) protects consumers from capitalism where it doesn't belong.

Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?

#307
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…

Your article actually makes a different distinction to the one you intended:

> There is a difference between being laid off and fired.

> Generally, we treat your job loss as a layoff if your employer is not replacing you, and you'll qualify for unemployment benefits if you meet all of the eligibility criteria.

> If your employer is replacing you, we generally will treat you as being fired.

Some companies here are firing people so that they can replace them with people willing to work at a lower salary.

The article also allows the concept of no-fault firing:

> If you were fired through no fault of your own, such as not having the skills to do the job, you may be eligible for unemployment benefits.

So I think from a dictionary definition, it's an OK title; from an emotional perspective, I can understand how someone telling you that you were fired can be jarring.

However, we should remember that the shame is placed squarely on the shoulders of the company - in any case of firing, the company can always be seen as partially at fault, as it is usually caused by lack of forward thinking, agility, engagement or empathy.

So remember: Whether they laid you off or fired you, it is our job as a community to stand with you.

Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?

#309
post #56

a quote i remembered from twitter: "This is the best time to get rid of employees". a startup based in London just fired 10% of their workforce. all were given two options: government's furlough scheme where the state pays 80% of the salary, or outright dismissal. interestingly, half chose to quit.

Good luck getting a job in the upcoming massive recession.

Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?

#310

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...

Can you expand a bit more on this, how can they let go without severance? How big was the loss? Was it contractors?

I'm in the final stages interviews and up until now have generally been looking forward to the prospect of working there. This is troubling. Thanks in advance.

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