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Ask HN: Who has been laid off?

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Re: Ask HN: Who has been laid off?

#201

Post by frenchman99 »

notabee wrote: post #86
Ididntdothis wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My advice is that if another offer comes up, take it even if the salary is not what you expect. If there really will be a big recession then very soon it will be very hard to find anything. You may end up unemployed for a long time and by the time things pick up, companies will prefer the new grads. In 2002 I made the mistake of being too proud to take underpaid work and it hurt me quite a bit.

This is also why people need to push back hard against the typical recruiter habit of asking for your old salary in order to lowball your offer. Many people go through struggles like this.

Answer to give the recruiter is "I can't say my salary, I signed an NDA, but I can tell you how much I want..."

Re: Ask HN: Who has been laid off?

#202

Post by kamarg »

Yeroc wrote: post #166
kamarg wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I wish the employees had a seat at the negotiating table for any of this If the tech industry didn't seem to despise unionizing so much this could've been possible. Maybe that will change once the current disaster is behind us.

Unfortunately, in an economic environment like this a union won't help you. We're seeing many public services staff that are unionized laid off (in Canada) and I'm sure this is happening around the world. By the end of this it's quite likely this will look similar to the Great Depression.

It wouldn't stop all the layoffs but that isn't the goal. The goal would be to give employees a vote when decisions are made on how to deal with the economic fallout instead of being the passive victims of whatever decision is arrived upon by upper management and the board.

Instead of instantly laying off as many people as possible, the union could have brought other proposals to the table to try and help both the company and employees. Maybe you delay 401k matching until the end of the year instead of paying it every paycheck. Maybe cut employee salaries and hours instead. The union at least gives the employees the chance to voice ideas on how to help the company and themselves make it through instead of finding out that 400+ of your coworkers were let go over Zoom via a two minute prerecorded message.

Re: Ask HN: Who has been laid off?

#203

Post by DoofusOfDeath »

brownindian wrote: post #53

[Boston/DevOps] Not laid off yet, but we have been told that "Role eliminations" is coming. Those not getting laid off, are going on mandatory two-week furlough. Once week in April, and once in May. June onwards TBD. All as part of cost cutting.

Akamai's HQ is in Cambridge. I don't know if they're currently hiring, but I expect they're quite busy these days. Might want to check them out.

Re: Ask HN: Who has been laid off?

#204

Post by mlvljr »

lb1lf wrote: post #88

-I just got laid off after 15 years at an engineering company, the last couple of which I was an engineering manager/technical authority. Prospects aren’t too bleak - the local engineering scene is pretty sound and I’ve heard encouraging noises from a couple of companies I’d love to work for - however, while the country is in lockdown and everybody is burning through their cash pile, not much hiring gets done. On the…

Russian skills, huh? :)

Re: Ask HN: Who has been laid off?

#205

Post by Red-Ted »

fred_is_fred wrote: post #113
seniordevconfuz wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a great advice. Yes I am in the US.I will start that application right now. I panic paid off my car insurance just in case things get worse. I'll shop for a cheaper phone plan. Gym memberships, online streaming and frivolous stuff will go. Capitalism for the win.

You should have already put your gym on hold - see if they will freeze it. Presumably you have not been in at least 2 weeks. Also if you are not driving you can perhaps get a discount for the mileage reduction. You might also just let them know you are laid off.

Your insurance will go up if you're unemployed don't bother telling them mate.

Re: Ask HN: Who has been laid off?

#206

Post by karatestomp »

derwiki wrote: post #183
jedberg wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Before you cut everything , keep in mind that you're still a human being and have psychological needs. If that streaming service brings you hours of joy, it might be cheaper to keep it than the bills for your mental health treatment down the line. Don't just cut everything out of your life cold turkey. Keep something that brings you joy.

You can also rent/stream videos from the library!

Kanopy if your library offers it. Free streaming service, no ads. Lots of good stuff. Depending on one's tastes it might be better than Netflix—some major movies rotate through, lots of classics, quite a few Criterion movies at any given time. Surprisingly poor on the childrens' entertainment front, but that's what PBS is for.

Re: Ask HN: Who has been laid off?

#207

Post by cwkoss »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #126
jedberg wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Before you cut everything , keep in mind that you're still a human being and have psychological needs. If that streaming service brings you hours of joy, it might be cheaper to keep it than the bills for your mental health treatment down the line. Don't just cut everything out of your life cold turkey. Keep something that brings you joy.

Having just basic internet and youtube can go a long way. So you can get creative during a crisis and learn to work with a bit less to get almost as much.

You can stream most movies and TV shows online for free if you are willing to spend the time looking for them!

Friendly reminder that there is nothing immoral about "piracy" of digital content. Culture should be free, so if you're not in a position to afford content, don't pay for it.

Re: Ask HN: Who has been laid off?

#208

Post by dguaraglia »

ryandrake wrote: post #186
remmargorp64 wrote: post #139

The company I work at is trying to avoid laying off people by asking everyone across the board to take a pay cut. I had recently received a raise, so they paid me at my raised rate up until the end of the month, but they let me know they would need to revert me to my un-raised salary moving forward. All in all, a reduction of about $7,000 to my salary. Some of the other devs (the most expensive ones) took a 30% pay c…

I've been in this situation. First it was 1/2 paychecks. Then, a few months into the recession it was 1/4 paychecks. Finally, it was 1/4 paychecks and no health insurance. That was when I buggered out. It might have been more humane to just lay off people.

As someone running a company that is trying to keep people employed by cutting salaries: we don't want our employees to be scared about not having healthcare the moment they might need it the most. We talked it with everyone, we are all taking a pay cut (us, founders, were the ones making the least already so I think our employees understand) and we are doing everything possible to extend our runway until at least next year. We also setup a scheme where we compensate our employees with stock options equivalent to the salary lost, until things get better.

This situation sucks, but there's no way losing healthcare now would be 'more humane' than taking a pay cut.

Re: Ask HN: Who has been laid off?

#209

Post by exdsq »

zero_shift wrote: post #5

Just been put on furlough with likely redundancy at the end of the national lockdown period. Absolutely devastated. My job was hard and the pace relentless but the work was extremely stimulating and my colleagues were absolutely fantastic people. (It was also a Haskell gig, which is a real rarity.) Right now I'm just licking my wounds and waiting for the lockdown to end. I'm not sure if it makes sense to start a new…

I work for a remote company that writes Haskell and might be hiring at the moment. Email me if you're interested and I can share more details :)

edd [at] theoryof [dot] pl

Re: Ask HN: Who has been laid off?

#210

Post by dillonmckay »

zero_shift wrote: post #5

Just been put on furlough with likely redundancy at the end of the national lockdown period. Absolutely devastated. My job was hard and the pace relentless but the work was extremely stimulating and my colleagues were absolutely fantastic people. (It was also a Haskell gig, which is a real rarity.) Right now I'm just licking my wounds and waiting for the lockdown to end. I'm not sure if it makes sense to start a new…

Enjoy the time to recuperate and learn.
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