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SpaceX to lay off 10% of Workforce

latimes.com

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Re: SpaceX to lay off 10% of Workforce

#101

Post by chomp »

cyberferret wrote: post #57
mulmen wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's less cruel? Face to face meetings? Layoffs suck, how is this particularly egregious?

Seriously, if you cannot see that "fire by email" is far more impersonal and disconnecting than compassionately meeting with the employee 1 on 1 and giving them a definitive exit path along with the financial support to do so, then please do not ever work in HR or be responsible for employing people in the future. To subject ALL your employees to the 50/50 prospect that they will have a job come next working day is t…

The logistics of laying off 6000 people makes it very difficult to hold one on ones. Assuming 30 minutes per person, 8 hours in a day to hold meetings and 5 day work week, that's 75 person-weeks (!) just to hold one on ones.

On top of that, there are security concerns with hanging onto employees and letting them have access to company property during a time that they know they will be fired. Especially for a company that performs services for top secret government projects.

The easiest (though you won't catch me arguing that it's the best) way is to hold a staff meeting, and then let corp IT churn through the 6000 person list over the weekend and remove access.

Re: SpaceX to lay off 10% of Workforce

#102

Post by m0zg »

viraptor wrote: post #39
Deimorz wrote: post #27

According to some comments from employees, the company had an all-hands meeting where everyone was sent home and told to check their email over the weekend to find out if they're being laid off or not: https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/af1n7f/spacex_will_...

Whatever the reasons for the workforce reduction, this way of doing it is just unnecessarily cruel.

I disagree. What would be more cruel is to keep people guessing for weeks, or to do several smaller layoffs. That's how it's usually done, and it utterly decimates the morale, and causes the best people to leave.

The best way to do a layoff is to cut once, cut deep, and do it quickly. And of course to not be an asshole and offer severance compensation to folks who were laid off.

Re: SpaceX to lay off 10% of Workforce

#103

Post by SampleBourgeois »

zamadatix wrote: post #90
cyberferret wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously, if you cannot see that "fire by email" is far more impersonal and disconnecting than compassionately meeting with the employee 1 on 1 and giving them a definitive exit path along with the financial support to do so, then please do not ever work in HR or be responsible for employing people in the future. To subject ALL your employees to the 50/50 prospect that they will have a job come next working day is t…

"Fire by email" isn't a bad option for layoffs in the double digit percentage as long as the delay between notification and sending the emails is low. Meeting 1 on 1 only works in non targeted low scale layoffs, anywhere else and it just creates hysteria. Also fire by email doesn't mean there isn't a definitive exit path or no financial support. The article itself states the email claimed a minimum of 8 weeks of pay…

Elon Musk is sticking to the Roman definition of decimation

Re: SpaceX to lay off 10% of Workforce

#104

Post by mulmen »

chomp wrote: post #101
cyberferret wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously, if you cannot see that "fire by email" is far more impersonal and disconnecting than compassionately meeting with the employee 1 on 1 and giving them a definitive exit path along with the financial support to do so, then please do not ever work in HR or be responsible for employing people in the future. To subject ALL your employees to the 50/50 prospect that they will have a job come next working day is t…

The logistics of laying off 6000 people makes it very difficult to hold one on ones. Assuming 30 minutes per person, 8 hours in a day to hold meetings and 5 day work week, that's 75 person-weeks (!) just to hold one on ones. On top of that, there are security concerns with hanging onto employees and letting them have access to company property during a time that they know they will be fired. Especially for a company…

They're laying off 10% of 6,000 employees. Not everyone.

Re: SpaceX to lay off 10% of Workforce

#105

Post by protomyth »

Deimorz wrote: post #27

According to some comments from employees, the company had an all-hands meeting where everyone was sent home and told to check their email over the weekend to find out if they're being laid off or not: https://www.reddit.com/r/spacex/comments/af1n7f/spacex_will_...

That would be a horrible e-mail to get caught in a spam filter.

Re: SpaceX to lay off 10% of Workforce

#106

Post by refurb »

bredren wrote: post #82
cyberferret wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously, if you cannot see that "fire by email" is far more impersonal and disconnecting than compassionately meeting with the employee 1 on 1 and giving them a definitive exit path along with the financial support to do so, then please do not ever work in HR or be responsible for employing people in the future. To subject ALL your employees to the 50/50 prospect that they will have a job come next working day is t…

Why? People are hired by email all of the time. Full time positions are more transactional now than ever before. There is no real loyalty either way.

Because firing is a much different experience for employees than being hired? That should be obvious.

Having gone through many layoffs, there is no way to do it where it doesn’t suck for everyone involved (those that stay or go).

However, doing it in a way that show management understands the gravity of the situation goes really far in reducing how unpleasant the experience is.

Re: SpaceX to lay off 10% of Workforce

#107

Post by glitchc »

mulmen wrote: post #64
glitchc wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wonderful, all hail Elon, the next Howard Hughes. Seriously, can modern CEOs actually grow a pair and actually face their employees rather than hide behind tech?

Presumably the all hands meeting was the face to face part?

Are you serious?

Re: SpaceX to lay off 10% of Workforce

#109

Post by cycrutchfield »

fzeroracer wrote: post #86
cycrutchfield wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They already get 8 weeks severance. Keeping them around for 2 weeks to mope doesn’t help anything.

Except keeping people around for two weeks longer allows people to say goodbye to their coworkers and people they might've worked with for years. It allows them to impart their knowledge to anyone else that might need it, document things that need documenting and more importantly: It means the company treats you like an actual human being. Acting like people are just gonna sit around and mope is not only highly disin…

It's also a good way to get a disgruntled worker who still has system privileges or physical access to cause all kinds of havoc. Not worth the risk, even if you think it's more humane.

Re: SpaceX to lay off 10% of Workforce

#110

Post by viraptor »

m0zg wrote: post #102
viraptor wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whatever the reasons for the workforce reduction, this way of doing it is just unnecessarily cruel.

I disagree. What would be more cruel is to keep people guessing for weeks, or to do several smaller layoffs. That's how it's usually done, and it utterly decimates the morale, and causes the best people to leave. The best way to do a layoff is to cut once, cut deep, and do it quickly. And of course to not be an asshole and offer severance compensation to folks who were laid off.

You can still tell everyone immediately at the end of the day. Or just send the email on the weekend. You don't have to say you're going to do it first and keep everyone worried.
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