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Ask HN: How many of you have been impacted by a layoff?

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Re: Ask HN: How many of you have been impacted by a layoff?

#41

Post by alchemism »

trollied wrote: post #23

I took voluntarily redundancy 15 years ago & got an ok payout. The company that let me go paid me handsomely at a contract rate for many years after Laws are different to America though. In the UK you’ll get a bit of cash & they have to give you notice. France basically have to give you a few years wages to get rid of you. I guess America essentially is a zero hours contract, because you don’t get any compensation if…

In the US, you are legally obliged to nothing more than the right to quit freely, and the right to be fired freely.

Though ‘Severance Packages’ are very common for skilled/high-salaried employees, where you receive a payout of x weeks or months, negotiable but usually based on length of employment. This is done in part so the employer does not get a bad reputation in the market for skilled/high-salary talent. For a startup, let’s say that maybe 1-2 months of ‘severance’ would be perceived as Very Generous to its Employees.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you have been impacted by a layoff?

#42

Post by edent »

Yup. Happened to me. Big corporate decided most of our floor were surplus to requirements. Got an email on Sunday telling us to be in early on Monday for an off-site meeting.

Got handed my redundancy / compromise agreement and told not to return to the office. And, the kicker, told my non-compete meant I couldn't work for a competitor during the redundancy process.

It was devastating and emotionally wrecking. It was like being dumped, out of the blue, from a multi-year relationship. And being told you couldn't see anyone else. I went through all the classic stages of grief.

And then...

I contacted my Trade Union and explained the situation. They took a look at the contract I'd been given, passed it to a very expensive lawyer, who made a couple of phone calls.

The next week I was free to work for whoever I wanted and was paid ~7 months salary (tax free).

Join. A. Union.

Your employer has more lawyers than you do. Pay a couple of quid per month to have decent legal representation on hand when you need it.

That layoff was the best thing to happen to me. Shook me out of my cosy job, forced me into building my own consultancy, and taught me the power of solidarity.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you have been impacted by a layoff?

#43

Post by poooogles »

Got laid off in March. Spent all summer on holiday doing what I wanted (which was mostly just fucking around in a few different countries and doing nothing related to technology). I got laid off in 2008 as well which was a very different story and was the reason I went to university.

Depending upon where you are in your life it can be liberating or a death sentence and anywhere in between.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you have been impacted by a layoff?

#44

Post by bitcoinmoney »

edent wrote: post #42

Yup. Happened to me. Big corporate decided most of our floor were surplus to requirements. Got an email on Sunday telling us to be in early on Monday for an off-site meeting. Got handed my redundancy / compromise agreement and told not to return to the office. And, the kicker, told my non-compete meant I couldn't work for a competitor during the redundancy process. It was devastating and emotionally wrecking. It was…

Are there unions for software devs?

Re: Ask HN: How many of you have been impacted by a layoff?

#45

Post by Marsymars »

yellowapple wrote: post #4

I've been laid-off a couple times (and in one case was on the verge of possibly being laid off, but thankfully found employment elsewhere before that had a chance of happening). I "bounced back" with a combination of persistence, patience, a decent support network, networking, unemployment benefits, and a hell of a lot of luck. I will say that it absolutely sucks all around. The longer you go without finding a new jo…

> The longer you go without finding a new job, the harder it becomes to get past the suspicious-looking gap in your employment history.

I lucked out once here at an software interview - my parents had bought a house that they were having renovated, and I spent a few months between jobs acting as a general contractor, and doing some of the labour that I was qualified for myself. Turned out my interviewer was a former carpenter, so we spent a while chatting about that.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you have been impacted by a layoff?

#46

Post by steve_adams_86 »

I was laid off around 7 years ago. It was a massive hit to my self esteem and confidence and I actually considered leaving tech and going back to wood working (I used to build furniture).

I managed to bounce back somewhat accidentally. A guy needed help with a Wordpress store he used to sell his woodworking products, so I did some stuff for him. He was so happy with what I did, he ended up telling other people. They got a hold of me about some work, then other people, and other people... and suddenly I was building bespoke applications on long term contracts making 3-4x as much as I was before I was laid off.

It was stressful because I didn't have the experience to suddenly run my own business, and I was bad at it. I did an okay job writing code, my customers were happy with that, but I'd invoice a month late, I'd forget to track time and inevitably bill too little because I couldn't bring myself to charge what I knew it was worth, I was a bad communicator at times, terrible at estimating time in certain conditions, etc.

That was a huge help in building the self awareness I needed to move forward in my career. Still working on that, and still super grateful for that layoff in retrospect.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you have been impacted by a layoff?

#47

Post by edent »

bitcoinmoney wrote: post #44
edent wrote: post #42

Yup. Happened to me. Big corporate decided most of our floor were surplus to requirements. Got an email on Sunday telling us to be in early on Monday for an off-site meeting. Got handed my redundancy / compromise agreement and told not to return to the office. And, the kicker, told my non-compete meant I couldn't work for a competitor during the redundancy process. It was devastating and emotionally wrecking. It was…

Are there unions for software devs?

I was - and still am - a member of https://www.prospect.org.uk/

It may be more appropriate for you to join a union which is recognised in your workplace. You can find one at https://www.tuc.org.uk/join-union

Re: Ask HN: How many of you have been impacted by a layoff?

#48

Post by ScottFree »

perlgeek wrote: post #26
ScottFree wrote: post #13

I worked in startups for the first 10 years of my career. For a while, I was laid off every christmas. The first time, I freaked out pretty hard, but I found a job within a week of coming back from New Year's. Complete that cycle four or five times and you get used to it.

Why?

Why what?

Re: Ask HN: How many of you have been impacted by a layoff?

#49

Post by EnderMB »

Yep, from my second job out of uni at a well-known agency. I was told my phone while on holiday, and when I returned the next Monday we were told that we may as well go home for that day since there wasn't anything left to do.

Thankfully, one of the agencies we sub-contracted to took our clients on, and offered to take us on for our remaining month of redundancy, so on Tuesday I was in a new office. Sadly, only one of us was offered a job, and it was me, but the rest of my work mates managed to find jobs to start at the end of redundancy.

That month sucked. I had gone from what I perceived to be a wildly successful, award-winning company to uncertainty at a shitty agency. I spent nearly four years at that agency, and worked on a number of fantastic projects - some of which I still talk about now. In all honesty, being made redundant was one of the best things to happen to me.

Re: Ask HN: How many of you have been impacted by a layoff?

#50

Post by ErrantX »

bitcoinmoney wrote: post #39
ErrantX wrote: post #34

The small family firm I worked at folded after the owner remortgaged his house. I was told on the Friday and had my last pay check on the monday. (Sad story, I felt for them) After contracting for a bit and running through my savings I was days away from losing my house when I was offered a great job writing software earning twice as much. 2 years later I was offered a dream job and doubled my salary again. Today I a…

What’s current salary? 4x in a couple of years is big except for student -> non student cases

It was 4x in 3 years, 6x in 6 years (so slowing down ha).

Worth stating that I was starting from a below market rate position.

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