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Meta fires a software engineer two days after he relocated from India to Canada

businessinsider.com

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Re: Meta fires a software engineer two days after he relocated from India to Canada

#41
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have been laid off, or close to being laid off in that I had to leave, something like 3 different positions since the start of the pandemic and unemployed for around 6 months (doing amazing now in a recent role but that is besides the point). Was borderline close to being forced to move back in with my parents. I never got a story written up for me about that. I feel sympathy for many of those folks, but why should…

"My life sucked but I didn't say anything so you better shut up about your problems" I never understood people who think like that. It's no ok and people shouldn't feel ok about it

If he managed to get hired at META he will find work elsewhere. This is not worthy of a story suddenly just because it happened at a META company.

Re: Meta fires a software engineer two days after he relocated from India to Canada

#42
post #6
post #3

I mean, if it was just the title that happened, but actually the big layoffs coincided with the person moving from India to Canada, thus something like this was bound to happen. Do we really need to drum up animosity towards Meta that bad? (They already do it without needing to add a click bait twist on top..)

He uprooted his life, moved across the globe, then got laid off and is likely facing a prospect of having to leave Canada (not familiar with work visa types there). This sucks, and the fact "it was bound to happen" (which is incorrect, it's not a law of nature) does not absolve Meta.

Unlike US he might actually have a Permanent Resident status that he hasn't had to wait for his whole life.

Re: Meta fires a software engineer two days after he relocated from India to Canada

#43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have been laid off, or close to being laid off in that I had to leave, something like 3 different positions since the start of the pandemic and unemployed for around 6 months (doing amazing now in a recent role but that is besides the point). Was borderline close to being forced to move back in with my parents. I never got a story written up for me about that. I feel sympathy for many of those folks, but why should…

I mean your feelings and experience and valid but following the same logic, no one should complain about anything because there's always someone who has been the through the same hell if not worse. If they could get some resolution, good for them, for the rest of us, oh well life is unfair. (This is coming from a woman who grew up in a Muslim country and sees women around her complain about video game representation…

People are free to complain however they want, it just really irks me that this is suddenly getting press now because "META."

Re: Meta fires a software engineer two days after he relocated from India to Canada

#44
I don't understand. That's unfortunately how it is, sadly enough.

Should they have fired another person instead just because of location?

I believe they should have not given the GO at all to the hiring manager, but hey... these CEOs nowadays like to take full responsibility accountability blabla-ility for their actions :)

Some years ago I worked at a company that had to fire 3 people. They picked one of the guys that was still on probation time (like ~10 days before the end of probation).

This person came from South America, and the worst part of it was that he decided to get his family here after a few months, because "you know, I came alone so that it's easier to find an apartment, to have bureaucratic things sorted out, etc.". Yeah. Then the family came and boom, fired.

Why did they hire him in the first place? I believe that this is what many companies do wrong.

Re: Meta fires a software engineer two days after he relocated from India to Canada

#45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly what I was going to say.We need to have empathy every once in a while. 11K people being fired from Meta seems abstract but these are 11K families that have been at least temporarily disrupted.

I have been laid off, or close to being laid off in that I had to leave, something like 3 different positions since the start of the pandemic and unemployed for around 6 months (doing amazing now in a recent role but that is besides the point). Was borderline close to being forced to move back in with my parents. I never got a story written up for me about that. I feel sympathy for many of those folks, but why should…

I,too, have been impacted by layoffs. I myself was at a "unicorn" startup in my country and couldn't continue there once the pandemic began. I didn't get a story about me personally either (that being said there was quite a lot of articles about the events that happened where I worked).

That being said, its a little different for this guy cause

a) as the parent commenter mentioned, the guy uprooted his life and moved to a new country and laid off almost instantaneously.

b) I don't think he asked the press to write a story on him, he wrote a LinkedIn post

c) this isn't the Time magazine doing a puff piece for somebody, it's just some person from Business Insider who saw a viral post on LinkedIn and wrote a story about it.

Re: Meta fires a software engineer two days after he relocated from India to Canada

#46
post #6
post #3

I mean, if it was just the title that happened, but actually the big layoffs coincided with the person moving from India to Canada, thus something like this was bound to happen. Do we really need to drum up animosity towards Meta that bad? (They already do it without needing to add a click bait twist on top..)

He uprooted his life, moved across the globe, then got laid off and is likely facing a prospect of having to leave Canada (not familiar with work visa types there). This sucks, and the fact "it was bound to happen" (which is incorrect, it's not a law of nature) does not absolve Meta.

If we trust Mark Zuckerberg's message [1], and in his CEO position and responsabilities within a public company I think we should trust him, he wrote:

"Immigration support. I know this is especially difficult if you’re here on a visa. There’s a notice period before termination and some visa grace periods, which means everyone will have time to make plans and work through their immigration status. We have dedicated immigration specialists to help guide you based on what you and your family need."

[1] https://about.fb.com/news/2022/11/mark-zuckerberg-layoff-mes...

Re: Meta fires a software engineer two days after he relocated from India to Canada

#47
post #17

So he gets 4 months of pay, his signing bonus, and all if his shares vest immediately.

I wouldn't be so certain that his contract is as good as contract of US citizen working for Meta. Whole point of hiring and relocating people from abroad is that they have much weaker negotiation position so they usually being paid much less.

It remains to be seen whether relocating someone will still be a thing as much as it is now. I mean, we have remote tools and most big companies have branches everywhere in the world. Why bother with visas, lawyers and tragic cases like this. Sure for people who want to become a citizen somewhere in the West its great. For the companies I'm not that sure its better than the alternatives.

Re: Meta fires a software engineer two days after he relocated from India to Canada

#48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean your feelings and experience and valid but following the same logic, no one should complain about anything because there's always someone who has been the through the same hell if not worse. If they could get some resolution, good for them, for the rest of us, oh well life is unfair. (This is coming from a woman who grew up in a Muslim country and sees women around her complain about video game representation…

People are free to complain however they want, it just really irks me that this is suddenly getting press now because "META."

I understand that but you can just brush it off to the media being the media and move on with your day.

Re: Meta fires a software engineer two days after he relocated from India to Canada

#49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have been laid off, or close to being laid off in that I had to leave, something like 3 different positions since the start of the pandemic and unemployed for around 6 months (doing amazing now in a recent role but that is besides the point). Was borderline close to being forced to move back in with my parents. I never got a story written up for me about that. I feel sympathy for many of those folks, but why should…

I,too, have been impacted by layoffs. I myself was at a "unicorn" startup in my country and couldn't continue there once the pandemic began. I didn't get a story about me personally either (that being said there was quite a lot of articles about the events that happened where I worked). That being said, its a little different for this guy cause a) as the parent commenter mentioned, the guy uprooted his life and moved…

And how many times has that happened in the past with nobody batting an eye about it? Why does it only matter now that it's at a META company?

Re: Meta fires a software engineer two days after he relocated from India to Canada

#50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which country?

From the description, I would assume Germany, since that's precisely what happens here. But I can also imagine Germany is not the only state that allows its companies to act like this.

Why would workers from Eastern Europe not have passports?

"Eastern European" typically means EU-member states, with Ukraine being the exception even before the war (within reasonable distance, populous enough for recruiters to go to). EU-citizens don't need a residency permit, and they have access to the social system in Germany. They're often not informed about their rights and that should be improved, but "they end up on the streets because no passport" sounds like something that's not true for a significant number.

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