Ask HN: Who is looking to be fired?
Before the covid19 my plan was to leave and a have summer off. Now it has changed, but I still wouldn't mind to be laid-off. It'd be less exciting break but a break nevertheless.
Ask HN: Who Is Firing?
111–120 of 593 posts
Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?
#112Playtech in London isn't firing but cut all employee salaries by 10% across the board. The CEO just awarded himself a 30mil bonus: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/playtech-plan-to-pay-boss...
Wow, I didn't think any developed country allowed employers to legally cut an employees salary.
If the alternative is getting laid off, I'm happy to accept the cut as I did last week.
Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?
#113I’ve been checking layoffs.fyi every day and it is incredibly bleak
This is looking 2001-dot-com-crash bad, but much, much faster. It's worth remembering there are plenty of companies not laying people off, and "normal" will return eventually. That said, I was watching The Big Short yesterday, and a line that I had noted before haunted me even more: "For every 1% unemployment goes up [in the USA], 40,000 people die". Stay safe, stay positive.
I don't think this is dot-com-crash bad yet, if you mean that tech workers specifically are in dire straits. The major Bay Area employers like Google, FB, Apple, Netflix, Amazon, etc haven't had layoffs; it's mostly small startups. Some of the large companies are even outperforming currently (Amazon and Netflix are at all-time highs).
But if you mean dot-com-crash bad in terms of the economy in general crashing, oh man are you right. This is an economic free-fall for most of America.
Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?
#114No severance?! I, as an expat, am absolutely grateful and have changed my tune on the “European welfare state” trope to “this just makes sense”. I got let go from a Berlin based fintech and got 3 months pay plus a small severance. They did this likely because funding fell apart during the pandemic but it could have also been to cull people that they didn’t need but they did do right by us.
Surprisingly, severance is also mandatory in Argentina and many other "under development" countries. I'm absolutely amazed at how people in the US are so against severance being mandatory.
Argentina and Germany are hardly in rosy positions at the moment.
“I like free money” is hardly a good argument to support statements like “it just makes sense”.
Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?
#115Playtech in London isn't firing but cut all employee salaries by 10% across the board. The CEO just awarded himself a 30mil bonus: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/playtech-plan-to-pay-boss...
> cut all employee salaries by 10% across the board How does that work exactly? I imagine you're presented with a contract that says "you salary is now 0.9>"* and you're also told (or heavily implied) that if you don't sign, you're fired. Surely the employer can't just start paying you less than specified in your original contract? And maybe if you don't sign, you're owed some benefits (but who wants to be jobless go…
Yes they just say take pay cut or we make you redundant because we cannot afford you.
Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?
#116Playtech in London isn't firing but cut all employee salaries by 10% across the board. The CEO just awarded himself a 30mil bonus: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/playtech-plan-to-pay-boss...
> cut all employee salaries by 10% across the board How does that work exactly? I imagine you're presented with a contract that says "you salary is now 0.9>"* and you're also told (or heavily implied) that if you don't sign, you're fired. Surely the employer can't just start paying you less than specified in your original contract? And maybe if you don't sign, you're owed some benefits (but who wants to be jobless go…
Yes, if you decide not to sign the new contract, and they fire you because of it, you can take them to tribunal for it. It's illegal.
Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?
#117No severance?! I, as an expat, am absolutely grateful and have changed my tune on the “European welfare state” trope to “this just makes sense”. I got let go from a Berlin based fintech and got 3 months pay plus a small severance. They did this likely because funding fell apart during the pandemic but it could have also been to cull people that they didn’t need but they did do right by us.
Surprisingly, severance is also mandatory in Argentina and many other "under development" countries. I'm absolutely amazed at how people in the US are so against severance being mandatory.
It’s a violation of consent. Consent can be withdrawn at any time, with no further obligations or liability. That’s key in a free society.
Employment is a transaction, like any other. Doing some business yesterday is no guarantee of business tomorrow.
Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?
#118No severance?! I, as an expat, am absolutely grateful and have changed my tune on the “European welfare state” trope to “this just makes sense”. I got let go from a Berlin based fintech and got 3 months pay plus a small severance. They did this likely because funding fell apart during the pandemic but it could have also been to cull people that they didn’t need but they did do right by us.
Surprisingly, severance is also mandatory in Argentina and many other "under development" countries. I'm absolutely amazed at how people in the US are so against severance being mandatory.
interesting... what if mandatory severance and other (supposedly) nice things are the reason those countries are underdeveloped?
Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?
#119God this brings back memories of fuckedcompany.com
Right after September 11th, that site got very popular among engineers like me -- seeing (on a daily basis) which company bloodbath was next.
It was kind of fun, until it was our company.
Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
> cut all employee salaries by 10% across the board How does that work exactly? I imagine you're presented with a contract that says "you salary is now 0.9>"* and you're also told (or heavily implied) that if you don't sign, you're fired. Surely the employer can't just start paying you less than specified in your original contract? And maybe if you don't sign, you're owed some benefits (but who wants to be jobless go…
Yes they just say take pay cut or we make you redundant because we cannot afford you.
If you have evidence that the redundancy is a direct result of you not taking a pay cut, then it's illegal and you can take them to a tribunal.
It still happens though.