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Ask HN: Where are laid off employees gathering?

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Re: Ask HN: Where are laid off employees gathering?

#31
post #15
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

blind has to be the most toxic community in tech. I don't know if i can handle the mental damage for referrals and insider info on prospective employers.

Everyone on Blind is a Principal Engineer making $750k TC while only working 8 hours a month

I get a similar impression. The community is deeply negative, and deeply cynical about everything. Everyone seems to only care about compensation. It seems full of the sort of people who put zero effort in but who know how to play the corporate game enough to negotiate big salaries, only to then moan about poor performance reviews or getting laid off.

Re: Ask HN: Where are laid off employees gathering?

#32

It just occurred to me that so many people were laid off, we could start the world's largest software co-op (and arguably one of the largest tech orgs, period). We could build software products that every industry needs, that every worker owns a part of and can vote on org-wide decisions. Literally everyone you need was laid off... Tech people, business people, marketing, sales, etc. We just need a forum and some vol…

I always surmised that this was the only way to compete with Google and others. Even if you had 10k engineers, heck 1000 engineers who did it, it would be a formidable force. But actually doing it. That's the hard part.

Re: Ask HN: Where are laid off employees gathering?

#33

It just occurred to me that so many people were laid off, we could start the world's largest software co-op (and arguably one of the largest tech orgs, period). We could build software products that every industry needs, that every worker owns a part of and can vote on org-wide decisions. Literally everyone you need was laid off... Tech people, business people, marketing, sales, etc. We just need a forum and some vol…

We have CoTech in the UK, and they have a decent forum: https://www.coops.tech/

Re: Ask HN: Where are laid off employees gathering?

#34
Related question: are any actual software engineers getting laid off or is it just support/admin/management who work in the tech sector?

(I have been dealing with consulting contracts for software engineers lately, and was surprised to see that hourly rates are significantly higher than they were 5 years ago)

Re: Ask HN: Where are laid off employees gathering?

#36
post #34

Related question: are any actual software engineers getting laid off or is it just support/admin/management who work in the tech sector? (I have been dealing with consulting contracts for software engineers lately, and was surprised to see that hourly rates are significantly higher than they were 5 years ago)

Yes, I know talented engineers from several companies that were laid off simply due to being unlucky enough to have ended up on the “wrong” project

Re: Ask HN: Where are laid off employees gathering?

#39
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What products would companies/individuals pay for?

Yeah the difficulty isn't even thinking of a good idea, it's reconstructing the enormous legal barriers, government contracts, and relationships with private capital that the existing tech companies have cemented over decades.

The larger barrier will be coming up with products that people are willing to pay for.

Re: Ask HN: Where are laid off employees gathering?

#40

It just occurred to me that so many people were laid off, we could start the world's largest software co-op (and arguably one of the largest tech orgs, period). We could build software products that every industry needs, that every worker owns a part of and can vote on org-wide decisions. Literally everyone you need was laid off... Tech people, business people, marketing, sales, etc. We just need a forum and some vol…

Cool idea. Let's use technologies to beat "sharks".

In my ideal world, those who only have money, should work for highly skilled techies.

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