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Stack Overflow reducing headcount by 20%

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Re: Stack Overflow reducing headcount by 20%

#131
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I'm sure they make TONS of money from ad revenue. An old news article said they only get ~33% from banner ads. Most revenue comes from from job listings: http://fortune.com/2015/01/20/stack-exchange-40-million/

Right, although I personally would consider job listings ads

True enough, but the details are different. And surely SO will have different internal departments and processes for managing each.

Re: Stack Overflow reducing headcount by 20%

#132
post #43
post #15

Why would you fire people on such a short notice? No need to hand over things? No interest in providing at least some time to look for a new job? EDIT: To clarify that a bit, I am interested in what the upsides are except for possibly saving some money. An orderly shutdown usually seems preferable to me over quickly killing the process, for both sides.

Depends on country too. In EU our work laws regulate how your employee may be laid off. My country (poland) says that employee has to be notified about termination: - week ahead if he or she was employed for less than month - month ahead if he or she was employed for less than three years - three months ahead if he or she was employed for more than three years This goes both ways however, as employee has to notify hi…

I’m quite surprised to hear one must give their employer notice. Doesn’t Poland or the EU have laws against forced labor? In the US, for example, all employment by private corporations is “at will.”

Anyone can quit at a moments notice, for any or no reason at all. For the sake of one’s colleagues and reputation it is widely considered good practice to give no less than 2 weeks notice, though this is merely custom.

Re: Stack Overflow reducing headcount by 20%

#133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. I was there. There wasn't even a google. I would stumble along on deja.com in the late 90s until it died a slow painful death and got scooped up by Google [1] [1] Source: [2002] https://www.cnet.com/news/google-buys-remaining-deja-com-bus...

Bahahaha. That wasn't even the worst of it. Imagine this scenario, you have to install linux on a pc. There's no stackoverflow, there's no google. The linux distro you're using doesn't even have a package manager. And currently it doesn't have a working ethernet driver either. Also, it's the only computer that exists in your entire house.

I bought a book and had some floppies with SlackWare on it. The book didn't have install instructions, but it explained the basics of Unix and Linux. And SlackWare was pretty easy to install and worked well.

Also I was a teenage nerd with lots of time for home computing.

Re: Stack Overflow reducing headcount by 20%

#134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same in France and the majority of EU countries.

Three months seems like way too long to know you're being laid off but I guess maybe the purpose is that it gives you time to find new work? In the US, it's just assumed that the ex-employee will be as malicious as possible and so it's best to get rid of them fast as possible.

If the employer is worried for security reasons, they can send the employee home but must pay his salary for 3 months (in France at least, I don't know for other EU countries).

Re: Stack Overflow reducing headcount by 20%

#135
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on country too. In EU our work laws regulate how your employee may be laid off. My country (poland) says that employee has to be notified about termination: - week ahead if he or she was employed for less than month - month ahead if he or she was employed for less than three years - three months ahead if he or she was employed for more than three years This goes both ways however, as employee has to notify hi…

I’m quite surprised to hear one must give their employer notice. Doesn’t Poland or the EU have laws against forced labor? In the US, for example, all employment by private corporations is “at will.” Anyone can quit at a moments notice, for any or no reason at all. For the sake of one’s colleagues and reputation it is widely considered good practice to give no less than 2 weeks notice, though this is merely custom.

It's very similar in most EU countries I know.

Responsibilities go both ways.

No one can "force" you to continue working somewhere, of course, but you may lose compensation for extra vacation time and could be liable for financial damage you cause for your employer. But I've never actually heard about that being an issue.

It's very common to just mutually agree to part ways right away.

And of course there are provisions both ways that allow immediate termination, like gross negligence from the employee or the employer not paying out your salary.

Re: Stack Overflow reducing headcount by 20%

#136
post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Three months seems like way too long to know you're being laid off but I guess maybe the purpose is that it gives you time to find new work? In the US, it's just assumed that the ex-employee will be as malicious as possible and so it's best to get rid of them fast as possible.

If the employer is worried for security reasons, they can send the employee home but must pay his salary for 3 months (in France at least, I don't know for other EU countries).

It’s called gardening leave in the UK

Re: Stack Overflow reducing headcount by 20%

#137
post #15

Why would you fire people on such a short notice? No need to hand over things? No interest in providing at least some time to look for a new job? EDIT: To clarify that a bit, I am interested in what the upsides are except for possibly saving some money. An orderly shutdown usually seems preferable to me over quickly killing the process, for both sides.

Companies benefit from terminating with zero notice, and subsequently providing money and services to facilitate the employees transitions. Labor seeks regulations that makes it difficult to be suddenly terminated. The primary downside is that companies are reluctant to hire employees.

I'm OK being "instantly" terminated as long as you pay me for the duration of the notice period.

Re: Stack Overflow reducing headcount by 20%

#138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Companies benefit from terminating with zero notice, and subsequently providing money and services to facilitate the employees transitions. Labor seeks regulations that makes it difficult to be suddenly terminated. The primary downside is that companies are reluctant to hire employees.

I'm OK being "instantly" terminated as long as you pay me for the duration of the notice period.

I agree with you, but many people do not share our view.

The general counter argument is that if you make it difficult for companies to terminate employees, then companies will search for alternate mechanisms to sustain profitability. For example, instead of terminating an employee, the company might reduce executive pay, or pass the increased expenses on to customers.

Again, I agree with you.

Re: Stack Overflow reducing headcount by 20%

#139
post #50

I remember reaching out to them a bunch of years ago (2012 or so) in order to ask them to host a stack overflow sub-site for our product (from a sizeable company). We were willing to pay quite a lot (because they had the premier UX for this kind of thing), but they weren't at all interested. They just told us to try to grow things "organically", because they had decided to focus 100% on open stuff. We weren't really…

If I understand correctly, they offer this now, your private instance for your own product(s) & team(s): https://www.stackoverflowbusiness.com/enterprise Edit: while interesting, this (private internal instance for your team) is not what johansch is after (separate public instance dedicated to your product, for your users)

I looked into using their Enterprise product for my employer about 6 months ago. It seemed to be a nice product but was shockingly expensive compared to its counterparts in the space. Also, when they say "enterprise" they meant it. They are targeting large companies with 10s of thousands of employees; our 300 user company was really on the low side. Of course this is a pretty new product and this type of thing tells me that it's not quite mature yet and probably difficult to support.

Re: Stack Overflow reducing headcount by 20%

#140
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on country too. In EU our work laws regulate how your employee may be laid off. My country (poland) says that employee has to be notified about termination: - week ahead if he or she was employed for less than month - month ahead if he or she was employed for less than three years - three months ahead if he or she was employed for more than three years This goes both ways however, as employee has to notify hi…

I’m quite surprised to hear one must give their employer notice. Doesn’t Poland or the EU have laws against forced labor? In the US, for example, all employment by private corporations is “at will.” Anyone can quit at a moments notice, for any or no reason at all. For the sake of one’s colleagues and reputation it is widely considered good practice to give no less than 2 weeks notice, though this is merely custom.

> forced labor

You're breaking a signed contract, not escaping slavery. The notice period is usually in the contract, too (or at least it is here in Australia)

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