Back in the first dotcom bubble, we had FuckedCompany.com. It tracked these sorts of things on a daily basis.
is there a second bubble?
Ask HN: Who is firing?
251–260 of 454 posts
Re: Ask HN: Who is firing?
#252At one of the bigger cable companies. My contract was recently terminated, I was told end of September it would end by December 30th. Luckily I knew this was coming, as my project wasn't feasible. Oddily enough this is my second contract with the company. Same thing happened the first time around. On to greener pastures I hope.
Isn't constructive dismissal supposed to protect you from being put on a failing project/team just so they can fire you?
Re: Ask HN: Who is firing?
#253Re: Ask HN: Who is firing?
#254Earlier quoted context omitted.
Damn. That's more than I got when I started in London. Should have picked Berlin instead.
When it comes to software development, London (and the UK) certainly seem to have a low pay culture.
Can you make 6 figures in Berlin? (In London, it's doable)
I hope you're not saying "low pay" because you compare to the USA. The Europe and the USA are not in the same league, they shouldnt be compared.
Re: Ask HN: Who is firing?
#255Re: Ask HN: Who is firing?
#256Earlier quoted context omitted.
I did a double-take when I saw Twitter posting[0] in the Who's Hiring thread. What's the rationale here? Why are they firing and hiring at the same time? [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12851502
Because having a mass layoff is an easy way to reduce non productive people. Otherwise you have to go through a complicated process for each individual, with a higher risk to be sued.
Mass layoffs in companies that answer to shareholders/investors is almost always a way to reduce costs and to increase ROI on investment.
It has absolutely nothing to do with productivity of the people getting laid off, it's more to do with a failure of some kind in management.
Re: Ask HN: Who is firing?
#257I was fired from Wickr.com a few months after their layoffs. I was fired from Wickr a few months ago. The given reason was they considered me not a Senior Android Developer and that was my title - I asked too many questions apparently. My manager indicated that if my title had been Android Developer there probably would not have been a problem. I don't care about titles really. I was hired in 2014 as a contractor for…
Hand of fate is moving and its finger points to you
It throws you on the street; now what's next for you?
Your options: worthless, and you're bound by NDA
Pied Piper seems quite cushy, best update your resume
-- Iron Maiden, "The Wickr Man"
Re: Ask HN: Who is firing?
#258Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've heard that that practise (what a name!) Is relatively common in Japan: I've never heard of it in the UK before. I have heard of "gardening leave" though: where you're left on full salary but kept out of the building for your notice period, to stop you passing up to date market info to your new company. (It's the only legal way I know of in the UK to implement a non-compete clause.)
I love the fact that no one seems to know why we say "sent to Coventry" as well.
Probably related to Coventry being "ignored" in WWII by British officials so that German wouldn't catch on that the enigma machine was broken.
Re: Ask HN: Who is firing?
#259Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the UK, "getting fired" or "getting the sack" means you were incompetent (or commited misconduct) and are sent home. For incompentance, they can only do this after a "performance review" (they have to give you 3 months to improve, I think). "Laid off" is called being "made redundant". The company can do this much more easily to a bunch of people, but it generally has to pay them ~6 months salary and can't hire new…
You forgot about being 'sent to Coventry' - i.e. the company doesn't want to pay you redundancy, and can't fire you for incompetence, so you get ignored, not given any work, get put in a useless role, etc until you wise up and quit/find another job. British passive aggressiveness at its finest! Being American. I would have had no problem with being fired aka 'you're now surplus' and it would have been far more helpfu…
Japan does something similar, called "chasing-out rooms": http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/17/business/global/layoffs-il...
Re: Ask HN: Who is firing?
#260Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sorry to dump on your aside, but the media arm isn't affected. The Finance/Risk news (for financial clients) division is the one being downsized, and they were profitable. The parent mentions it, but here's the brief from their outlet: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-thomsonreuters-results-idU...
Hey, accurate info is good info, I appreciate that. Which does though raise the question of how it is newswires (Reuters, UPI, AP) are succeeding where direct media outlets aren't. Or is it just that the pain is there but less than (in T/R's case) the finance/risk arm?
The two big TR business units are legal and financial, and both industries pay for access to information when it helps their businesses.
I worked on some of the legal products, and customers were much more sensitive to completeness and accuracy of information they could obtain than the average person with a newspaper. Even with "free" news products people would also pay for alerts.