Ask HN: How many of you have been impacted by a layoff? • Hacker News Board

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

#131

Post by fierarul » Mon, Oct 14, 2019, 5:10 AM UTC

> I'm building a project around this and would love to hear about your experience.

Mind the selection bias. People that went through layoffs, bounced back, are reading HN and decide to publicly share with you their experience are not necessarily representative.

Also take into account ageism in IT. Recently had a video call with an older engineer from SV that's smarter than me which confirmed you can be up to date with the latest tech but once you go through the door (after having scrubbed the CV of any obvious age give-away references) and they see you could be their father it's game over. And this for a contractor position where they can fire you the next day! He was seriously considering retiring for the lack of jobs and not for the lack of skills / work power; also thinking about moving to cheaper locations.

Layoffs push people out of the industry and even work force entirely.

That being said, this post will have some good psychological impact for some.

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

#132

Post by abdullahkhalids » Mon, Oct 14, 2019, 5:15 AM UTC

khrbrt wrote: post #124

mtnGoat wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Although the idea is promising, 250 a month is too high. At 100k, your bring home is roughly 70(varies greatly by state). And then you'd pay almost 5% of that to a union to help insure your job. My mom's Union fees were well below 1% of her bring home.

Rule of thumb I head somewhere is that union dues should be around half hour of wage per week, assuming full time employment. Not sure what it would be for part timers.

Half an hour out of forty hours is 1.25%.

For GP's 70K per annum wage that is 73 dollars a month.

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

#133

Post by cordite » Mon, Oct 14, 2019, 5:23 AM UTC

Does anyone have experience in regards to inventor clauses / agreements? It was at the last two jobs I had, which seems to say I sign away all new inventions during employment including those made with my own personal time, equipment, etc.

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

#134

Post by edoo » Mon, Oct 14, 2019, 5:44 AM UTC

jefurii wrote: post #119

My wife and I have experienced three layoffs between us, two of them after the 2008 financial crash. We used to lean left but were not at all politically involved. We had comfortable positions with cushy benefits. After getting laid off the positions we found paid less and did not include benefits. This experience really opened our eyes to what life is like for average working people in this country. We both have per…

I find it very interesting that I can digest the same information and come to the exact opposite conclusion. Our medicine system has been socialized. If you can't afford to pay, the cost is pushed onto the rest of the population that can. The free market had health care costs 10x lower than they are now, so low that the entirety of an average person's health fees with only catastrophic insurance would now be lower than their monthly premium. Our economic system has socialized, more communized. It is impossible to save capital because the purchasing power of your capital is devalued at an exponential rate, taken and redistributed to those at the tippy top. To call off the nonsense would be to move right.

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

#135

Post by tehlike » Mon, Oct 14, 2019, 6:00 AM UTC

soulnothing wrote: post #92

I've been "laid off" pretty much every six months for the past several years. Over and over my team has been out sourced for a cheaper alternative. Or the project was not properly scoped and would be above budget. This happened last week. Me and my team delivered a high frequency trading platform. Ahead of schedule, and better performance than requested. But still, we were too costly so we were all let go. Then it wa…

Where are you based?

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

#136

Post by edent » Mon, Oct 14, 2019, 6:45 AM UTC

mkhpalm wrote: post #127

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…

Non-compete usually don't hold up in court in our field. You have to remember that somebody has to prove damages somewhere. Who do you think every court sides with when you're the only one who can demonstrate damages and they were the ones who let you go? So unless you worked for a car wash and then go open a car wash across the street. Its not even worth thinking about.

I'm sure that's true. I'm also sure I don't want the stress of having to prepare for a court case.

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

#137

Post by lordnacho » Mon, Oct 14, 2019, 6:47 AM UTC

error417 wrote: post #18

I lost my job in January because the company closed the office in my country, haven't written a single line of code since then, looking for motivation to start again but I feel like an absolute failure and don't know what to do now. The fact that I stopped coding 10 months ago and wasn't even a good developer, to begin with, isn't helping. I guess I need therapy.

Do a few LeetCode puzzles each day. You want to keep things fresh, plus they're the kind of thing that people ask for before interview stages these days.

And you'll inevitably learn something. Bite sized so you can for it into your day.

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

#138

Post by edent » Mon, Oct 14, 2019, 6:49 AM UTC

jkp56 wrote: post #89

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…

The way you said it - "join a union" - made me think that unions may be a good idea in software if anyone can join and leave any time. This would be like insurance that funds a big nonprofit with very motivated (and well paid) lawyers. 250 usd / month shouldn't bankrupt a software dev and 100k such devs (a large corp) would bring 250 M/year. There's definitely a room for a few unions in the US with 200-500 m/year bud…

In the UK I'm free to join and leave a union any time I want. My monthly cost is £20. That's about US$25.

If you're on a lower income, you pay less.

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

#139

Post by mrburton » Mon, Oct 14, 2019, 7:08 AM UTC

massung wrote: post #31

Personally, I haven't been laid off, but wanted to recognize that a layoff also affects those who weren't: morale drop, worry, survivor's guilt, stress leading to physical symptoms, etc. Sometimes, this can quickly lead to a downward spiral effect at the company. Productivity falls and whatever issues the layoff was intended to remedy end up being magnified instead. This is usually the case when - before the layoff -…

I do agree that layoffs don't just affect those who were laid off. I'm building a product now that I'm testing to work out any bugs and will do a release soon.

The platform isn't only those laid off; it could also be used by those still employed and worry about being laid off.

Early in my career, a company I worked at has a round of layoffs. I remember thinking about my stability. I was assured by those more senior around me that we would be fine. Three months later, our entire department was also laid off.

I haven't been experienced such a scenario since, but to your point.. I wouldn't sit around.

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

#140

Post by mrburton » Mon, Oct 14, 2019, 7:14 AM UTC

steve_adams_86 wrote: post #46

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…

When I was laid off early in my career, I took a massive emotional hit. I was only making $35k a year programming at 20, but it was my way out of the poor living conditions.

When they laid off my entire team, I was upset, afraid, and angry. I told myself I would never work in IT again.

Then I realized how much I love coding and that I initially got into it, not knowing I could make a living. I got pulled back into it; like the mob :)