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Ask HN: Who Is Firing?

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Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?

#241

Post by nicoburns »

sleepychu wrote: post #76
kmlx wrote: post #56

a quote i remembered from twitter: "This is the best time to get rid of employees". a startup based in London just fired 10% of their workforce. all were given two options: government's furlough scheme where the state pays 80% of the salary, or outright dismissal. interestingly, half chose to quit.

For a bit of context, at London startup the furlough scheme is very unlikely to be 80% of their salary because it is capped at 30k per year pre-tax/80% of your salary whichever is lower. That said, I'm surprised half of people turned down 2k/month to job hunt.

If my LinkedIn messages are anything to go by, there's still quite a few companies hiring tech workers in London at the moment. So I imagine many of these people would be quite confident finding a new job.

Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?

#242

Post by gadders »

danesparza wrote: post #119

God 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.

I wonder what Pud is up to now. Didn't he use to post on here?

Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?

#243

Post by onychomys »

crazycapitlists wrote: post #223
onychomys wrote: post #136

Hospitals are having a surprisingly tough time of things. I work for a very famous hospital in a small town in the American midwest, and we've (our IT department, that is) laid off all our contractors and the rest of us have mandatory furloughs coming up too. They're doing everything they can to not let us go, but some of us will probably end up getting sacked. And this is maybe the richest and most well-connected ho…

[flagged]

True, but that's a little above my pay grade. I'd just like to get my current project over to the SQA guys before we all go on extended unpaid holiday, lol.

Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?

#244

Post by somishere »

squiggleblaz wrote: post #200
akdor1154 wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. social gatherings / hospitality industry / gyms etc are banned, and anyone who can work from home is doing so, but you still can leave your house for "essential reasons", e.g. exercise, buying takeaway lunch every day. many retail stores and public transport are still functioning. I think it's our - low density - government actually listening to scientists and reacting quickly and non-ideologically.

Density differences are overblown. No-one is catching coronavirus in the uninhabited deserts or cattle stations hours from the nearest town. They catch it in crowded public transport vehicles and in grocery stores. The government responding quickly and non-ideologically is the number one reason why Australia is doing good and the rest of the west is doing so badly. Whether it's the ideology of freedom of travel or th…

pragmatic in that a party with your 20 closest mates is probably, no definitely worth that $1000 fine? Could be a bit soon to be making grandiose rationalisations on the (abundant) benefits of the Australian gaze. there's a way to go yet.

Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?

#245

Post by raghava »

bsanr2 wrote: post #39
lukax wrote: post #12

In some companies it feels like they are firing the people that they could not easily get rid of otherwise - cutting of the bottom 25% of staff (based on low performance reviews or personal grudges).

Statistically-speaking, this will disproportionately effect women and minorities (low performance reviews !necessarily= low performance when implicit bias is present, which again, statistically-speaking, it is). Certainly these times suck for everyone, but there go the careers of black, brown, and female millennials with yet another black mark on their CVs before they've hit their 40s.

This is also the time that th underprivileged would get exploited more.

Work permit/visa holders will see an increase in workload (with a "work-more-or-eff-off" note, along with possibly a paycut too) Even pay negotiations on open offers, making it seem generous tha offer doesn't get cancelled.

Personally know a couple of friends who are in the US (with H1Bs awaitng transfer/extensions) facing this particular situation now.

Hiring is fucked. Tech hiring and ex\mployment more so.

Seems every employer treats employees as though the wage slaves are just so, or just above hamsters on wheels doing tricks.

Depressing, to say the least! :(

Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?

#246

Post by caust1c »

TulliusCicero wrote: post #96
throwaway9002 wrote: post #77

Playtech 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...

It's more than a little misleading to say that the CEO 'just' did this when the article is from 2019 Dec 4, so before the pandemic.

And it's a gambling company, so I'm sure they have a strong moral compass.

Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?

#247

Post by balfirevic »

CraigJPerry wrote: post #173
PopeDotNinja wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No severance?! I agree that no severance sucks. Although keep in mind that in theory, higher salaries should equal hire savings. The average developer in SF makes more than the average developer in Berlin (how much more... maybe 2X)? If you could make 100% more & forego a severance package, would you? It's not a real world choice, I'm just trying to offer context that one way to look at higher salaries is that you…

I don’t think you can use raw salary in that comparison, it ignores cost of living differences

It doesn't matter, the difference is not enough, and the developer in SF is still much better off.

Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?

#248

Post by Angostura »

6nf wrote: post #206
sleepychu wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a bit of context, at London startup the furlough scheme is very unlikely to be 80% of their salary because it is capped at 30k per year pre-tax/80% of your salary whichever is lower. That said, I'm surprised half of people turned down 2k/month to job hunt.

If they take the dismissal they get paid out immediately and they can immediately start getting government unemployment benefits. I think?

> immediately start getting

Ah, I see you've never applied for Universal Credit. Immediate, it ain't.

Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?

#249

Post by petercooper »

sfsylvester wrote: post #150
petercooper wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect many will not bother with consulting periods given the circumstances. It opens them to possible tribunal action, but rulings and penalties are usually mild, tribunals take ages to go through, and very few people bother or even know that you have to start the process within 3 months. (If morbidly curious, you can keep an eye on tribunal outcomes at https://www.gov.uk/employment-tribunal-decisions .. I just c…

Found any interesting ones? https://www.gov.uk/employment-tribunal-decisions/ms-j-mee-v-... was like reading a novel.

Not really. I'm tempted to write something to slowly scrape them all to find them though. I once found one about a fist fight(!) at a barbershop and the person who started the fight took the employer to a tribunal and lost.

Re: Ask HN: Who Is Firing?

#250

Post by YawningAngel »

6nf wrote: post #206
sleepychu wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a bit of context, at London startup the furlough scheme is very unlikely to be 80% of their salary because it is capped at 30k per year pre-tax/80% of your salary whichever is lower. That said, I'm surprised half of people turned down 2k/month to job hunt.

If they take the dismissal they get paid out immediately and they can immediately start getting government unemployment benefits. I think?

You don't get government unemployment benefits in the UK if you have >16k in savings (i.e. most programmers, presumably)
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