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Ask HN: Who is firing?

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Re: Ask HN: Who is firing?

#401

Post by jdale27 »

more_corn wrote: post #344
jdale27 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, as they say: "This time it's different!"

Isn't the quote "This time... will be different!!!" And then when the corn kills him again and: "That's not different at all now, is it Steve?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TMOMTtAMBI We are all Steve and this time will not be different.

Uh, I wasn't familiar with that little tidbit of culture...

Rather, it was a reference to the fact that in the last few years, any time someone suggests that we might be in another tech bubble, there's always someone waiting to point out how "this time it's different", because now the web is mature and all the stupid startups are not really as stupid as they seem (not like in the first dot-com bubble).

Actually, it's a bit of a double entendre in that sense -- even the first dot-com bubble was rife with statements about how everything is different now, and we're in a "new economy" and all those "old economy" concepts like revenue and profit are totally obsolete. Plus ça change...

Re: Ask HN: Who is firing?

#402

Post by jknoepfler »

beachy wrote: post #391
jknoepfler wrote: post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For the record, I am neither employed in or near Silicon Valley (not that it should matter), nor do I have any strong beliefs about whether or not actively weeding out developers is a good tactic for a business (five years ago I would have said it wasn't, now I'm agnostic). Whatever my beliefs or situation though, it's not hard for anyone to understand how a medium-to-large scale organization with a high hiring bar c…

If I had a dollar for every time someone said "why don't we hire like Google does"? Answer: Google can do what they do because of their scale, culture, systems, access to pots of money etc. Google are Google. The rest of us are not and can't calibrate our hiring process to turn up only false negatives. We'd never hire anyone.

I agree, it's not a feasible strategy for most companies. It's not even that innovative, it's just repeating a test with a high error rate repeatedly. This doesn't reduce error, but it does change the type of errors they make. I think that's pretty interesting. (From speaking with co-workers, it also damages Google's image considerably and reduces the probability that people will spend time and energy applying there; the their applicant pool seems large enough anyway).

Re: Ask HN: Who is firing?

#404

Post by toomuchtodo »

tbrownaw wrote: post #395
vertex-four wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Instead of adding friction to the employment market, implement a decent social safety net that includes provisions for voc ed / retraining. Sure, except that nobody wants to do that for some abstract reason of "fairness", so the problem needs to be mitigated another way.

Really? I thought it was that it smells a bit too much like communism. Which seems to be gradually becoming less of a problem over time, even here in the USA.

Socialism, not communism.

And systematiclly dismantling the middle class through public policy and economic upheaval does that to a country.

Full speed ahead on stronger safety nets, even if it means higher taxes.

Re: Ask HN: Who is firing?

#405

Post by throwawaythrow1 »

I'm really surprised this hasn't hit the UK news, but the government department that regulates welfare (the DWP) just discovered a £350 Million deficit that is proactively not being acknowledged by the leadership team. Despite maybe 1000+ people losing their job. Granted, a lot of these job losses probably affect contractors and suppliers (IBM, Accenture, CapGemini) more than anyone. But the general perception is that the department is a sinking ship trying to shed weight as fast and as ruthlessly as possible. Many of these people were given only an hour or two notice.

They will no doubt get more money in April but many projects (100s) have been "paused" and I really doubt that the Subject Matter Experts will have the appetite to return to a department that screwed up their budget to such a huge degree.

Re: Ask HN: Who is firing?

#406

Post by phrotoma »

debunn wrote: post #294
eswat wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Yes - we've discussed amongst ourselves (those affected) about what RBC did, and how they were lambasted in the media for abusing the visas. In our particular case, TCS seems to already have a number of local assets they're involving, with most of the work to be sourced by India based teams. I'm sure OTPP is trying to avoid similar negative press in regards to abusing visas, but I've been surprised how little coverag…

I worked at RBC during that time and can add a bit of context. Rumour was the CIO at the time (Morteza Mahjour) had staked his job on reducing operating costs of the tech services & operations division by bringing in an offshore firm called iGate. I wasn't laid off but plenty folks I know were and I left anyway.

The cost savings plan turned out to be a bust, projects ran over budget or never got off the ground at all and Morteza left. Apparently the new guy is turning things around. Some old colleagues have gone back after being offered hefty raises.

Edit: also, does the teachers union know this is happening? Isn't that retirement fund worth a fortune?

Re: Ask HN: Who is firing?

#407

Post by johnnyfaehell »

germanthrowaway wrote: post #264
Ashwinning wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any proof?

no proof that would not make it so that peoples' future is not ruined. they all depend on not pissing off the wrong people in order to get the money they are owed. reality is that no one within crytek trusts the management since they have lied for several months about what is going on. i heard that a sister studio in bulgaria no longer has management because of the disconnection in the company.

In Germany not paying on time results in a default 40 euro fee being owed. Also any costs incurred because of not being paid on time are also owed.

Further more withholding pay all together is a criminal offence which I believe carries serious jail time.

After months of not getting paid you should lawyer up. The legal system is very much on the side of the employee, if you get fired for getting a lawyer, you'll get even more money and possibly rehired. (I know one person who got their job back after going to a lawyer, it was very much not the outcome they wanted.)

Re: Ask HN: Who is firing?

#409

Post by thrwwy315341 »

johnschrom wrote: post #296
FuNe wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is also glassdoor.com but it's not specially geared towards layoffs. But you can get a decent idea of how well a company does.

Glassdoor can be (and is) easily tainted by submitting fake positive reviews. They have a policy of not letting employers remove negative reviews, but that doesn't stop the company from flooding with "it's a fast-paced work environment, so some people clearly can't handle the heat in the kitchen" style "positive reviews" to reframe the legitimate negative ones. So, it can sometimes be difficult to get a proper read o…

I've seen this happen. Some of my colleagues had written bad reviews for a company I had worked at. My employer found out eventually. They ended up flooding glassdoor with fake positive reviews, down to changing tone and typing style between posts to throw people off.

I would take glassdoor with a grain of salt.

Re: Ask HN: Who is firing?

#410

Post by [deleted] »

johnschrom wrote: post #296
FuNe wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is also glassdoor.com but it's not specially geared towards layoffs. But you can get a decent idea of how well a company does.

Glassdoor can be (and is) easily tainted by submitting fake positive reviews. They have a policy of not letting employers remove negative reviews, but that doesn't stop the company from flooding with "it's a fast-paced work environment, so some people clearly can't handle the heat in the kitchen" style "positive reviews" to reframe the legitimate negative ones. So, it can sometimes be difficult to get a proper read o…

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