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Severance

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Re: Severance

#11

Post by tombert »

One time when I was in one of these calls. It was pretty obvious it was coming, the company wasn't doing great and there were plenty of whispers.

Still, I was pretty upset I was laid off, because it's just not a fun feeling. After the HR person explained the severance and COBRA stuff, I said something to the CTO like "I wish you all the best in trying to save this company, and for the sake of this conversation, let's just pretend I'm not lying". Then I hung up.

I wish I could feel guilty over that, but ultimately they were cutting off my livelihood, they can deal with momentary hurt feelings.

Re: Severance

#13

Post by Retr0id »

idle_zealot wrote: post #12
donbox wrote: post #10

Are cherry09 and steve_ AI agents?

I think the joke is they all are. It's an autonomous company replicating what it was trained on.

Oh, I'm dense. I thought it portrayed a scenario in which tokens were unaffordable to individuals, yet necessary for survival. Kinda like US health insurance.

Re: Severance

#14

Post by nancyminusone »

donbox wrote: post #10

Are cherry09 and steve_ AI agents?

I thought they were real people, in a near future where everyone is so dependent on AI that not even a company so callous as to fire by video call would even think of depriving another human the tokens they need to get by.

Re: Severance

#15

Post by Waterluvian »

tombert wrote: post #11

One time when I was in one of these calls. It was pretty obvious it was coming, the company wasn't doing great and there were plenty of whispers. Still, I was pretty upset I was laid off, because it's just not a fun feeling. After the HR person explained the severance and COBRA stuff, I said something to the CTO like "I wish you all the best in trying to save this company, and for the sake of this conversation, let's…

It's their job to endure the discomfort of having to do the job they're paid to do. It's not your job to make it comfortable for them. That's not to say that there aren't personal or professional consequences for how you conduct yourself. Burning bridges and all that. But I feel that's completely up to you.

Re: Severance

#16

Post by jaggederest »

Retr0id wrote: post #13
idle_zealot wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the joke is they all are. It's an autonomous company replicating what it was trained on.

Oh, I'm dense. I thought it portrayed a scenario in which tokens were unaffordable to individuals, yet necessary for survival. Kinda like US health insurance.

The best satire works at more than one level, I think

Re: Severance

#17

Post by marcosdumay »

Waterluvian wrote: post #15
tombert wrote: post #11

One time when I was in one of these calls. It was pretty obvious it was coming, the company wasn't doing great and there were plenty of whispers. Still, I was pretty upset I was laid off, because it's just not a fun feeling. After the HR person explained the severance and COBRA stuff, I said something to the CTO like "I wish you all the best in trying to save this company, and for the sake of this conversation, let's…

It's their job to endure the discomfort of having to do the job they're paid to do. It's not your job to make it comfortable for them. That's not to say that there aren't personal or professional consequences for how you conduct yourself. Burning bridges and all that. But I feel that's completely up to you.

It takes a special kind of company for counting it as a burnt bridge for somebody that said "I hope you all fail" and gone away after being fired.

Re: Severance

#18

Post by JakeStone »

jihadjihad wrote: post #2

“What about health insurance?” “Your enrollment will end on the last day of this month, and we will be providing every affected employee with information about extending their coverage through COBRA.” “The last day of the month, so, today?” “Yes, that is correct. On the other hand, our OpenAI and Anthropic accounts are paid quarterly, so you will retain access to your chats and may continue using these tools until th…

During an exit interview as I was going to a new job, they let me know my coverage was good until the end of the month.

Me, never able to not say something stupid, "Got it. Don't get hit by a bus on the 1st."

Dead silence. HR playing ping-pong with their eyes. They eventually told me something like that had happened to a person who'd just left a few months prior to this.

One of these days, I'll learn, yeah?

Re: Severance

#19

Post by 01284a7e »

tombert wrote: post #11

One time when I was in one of these calls. It was pretty obvious it was coming, the company wasn't doing great and there were plenty of whispers. Still, I was pretty upset I was laid off, because it's just not a fun feeling. After the HR person explained the severance and COBRA stuff, I said something to the CTO like "I wish you all the best in trying to save this company, and for the sake of this conversation, let's…

You should have been straightforward and told them to go fuck themselves. Laying people off by a brief call is for cowards.

Re: Severance

#20

Post by __MatrixMan__ »

You can always get together, cleanse the code of any IP entanglements, and compete with the company that just laid you off. Calls like this one are a good time to suggest it--even if only to make them squirm.
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