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Ask HN: I was hired and unhired in 2 weeks, for no reason

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Re: Ask HN: I was hired and unhired in 2 weeks, for no reason

#181

Post by marcosdumay »

georgespencer wrote: post #91
sheetjs wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Please do us all a favor and let us know who they are beyond "a YC startup" so that none of us find ourselves in your shoes. Two other reasons for considering revealing the name: 1) a casual bystander might see this and conclude that all YC companies behave in this way, which hurts the other companies. 2) PG and other partners at YC read HN, and there's a good chance that action can be taken if they know who is inv…

"action can be taken" Come on. They didn't do anything wrong. They withdrew an offer of employment. 1. It could be performance related, and they just don't want to tell OP, 2. They realised quickly -- shock horror, things change quickly in startups -- that actually they don't need X guy they need Y guy. These things happen. In situations like this you can fire well: give explicit reasons, make sure the person knows y…

Possibility #3 - They took a first look in months at the finantials, and don't want to tell anybody what they saw. If that's the case, they wouldn't pay anything anyway.

Re: Ask HN: I was hired and unhired in 2 weeks, for no reason

#182

Post by poof131 »

jonnathanson wrote: post #121
jheriko wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

having been a bridge burner i can say that most employers are not competent enough to discover that you burned a bridge if they care... and if you volunteer the information its a great way to filter bad employers too.

Not ordinarily, no. But I can't think of a circumstance under which it benefits you to disclose your grievances with a former employer to a new or potential employer. There is nothing but downside in doing that. Just as most companies are too incompetent or uninterested to search out your dirty laundry, most companies are too incompetent or uninterested to sort it. If they see it, they'll just acknowledge its existen…

But I can't think of a circumstance under which it benefits you to disclose your grievances with a former employer to a new or potential employer.

I think the circumstance is like @jheriko said, as a filter. If an employer sees treating employees bad as dirty laundry, well maybe it isn't the place you want to work, and you're better off not getting an offer.

Re: Ask HN: I was hired and unhired in 2 weeks, for no reason

#183

Post by maerF0x0 »

michaelochurch wrote: post #72

I like the founders - they are good guys. No, they're not. "Good guys" don't fire someone without a severance after 2 weeks for no reason, especially not after you've put your reputation on the line as you have. I let all job offers go (I had a few good ones) Try to get those offers back. Explain what happened. If there's another solid option you can take, then you don't need to worry. Try to get a month or two of se…

Worst YC investment ever? We took $20k investment, hired someone for one week and then fired them, got the $20k sued right out of us.

Re: Ask HN: I was hired and unhired in 2 weeks, for no reason

#184

Post by duck »

sheetjs wrote: post #83
jowiar wrote: post #26

> I like the founders - they are good guys. No. They're not. You don't get to screw around with other people's lives and continue to possess the title of "good guy". If they were good guys, you would be receiving tens of thousands of dollars for your difficulties, and such would have enough of a runway on that such that you wouldn't need to ask us for advice. Please do us all a favor and let us know who they are beyo…

> Please do us all a favor and let us know who they are beyond "a YC startup" so that none of us find ourselves in your shoes. Two other reasons for considering revealing the name: 1) a casual bystander might see this and conclude that all YC companies behave in this way, which hurts the other companies. 2) PG and other partners at YC read HN, and there's a good chance that action can be taken if they know who is inv…

It is pretty easy to find the YC company if you just look at his comment history and do a search or two. Which... is why you should aways use a throwaway account if you don't want people to figure this stuff out.

Re: Ask HN: I was hired and unhired in 2 weeks, for no reason

#185

Post by davemel37 »

sheetjs wrote: post #83
jowiar wrote: post #26

> I like the founders - they are good guys. No. They're not. You don't get to screw around with other people's lives and continue to possess the title of "good guy". If they were good guys, you would be receiving tens of thousands of dollars for your difficulties, and such would have enough of a runway on that such that you wouldn't need to ask us for advice. Please do us all a favor and let us know who they are beyo…

> Please do us all a favor and let us know who they are beyond "a YC startup" so that none of us find ourselves in your shoes. Two other reasons for considering revealing the name: 1) a casual bystander might see this and conclude that all YC companies behave in this way, which hurts the other companies. 2) PG and other partners at YC read HN, and there's a good chance that action can be taken if they know who is inv…

Even if you take these into consideration, a more appropriate reaction would be to say, "if you are currently in talks with a YC company for employment, or were hired in the last few weeks, drop me a line with the name of the company and I'll reply privately to you with a yes or no."

Same goes for PG or YC Partners, just say, "if you drop me a line saying you want to deal with this, contact me and we can discuss it and I'll see if it makes sense to disclose it."

Re: Ask HN: I was hired and unhired in 2 weeks, for no reason

#186

Post by xvolter »

guybrushT wrote: post #60
vincentleeuwen wrote: post #23

Launch a competitor.

So in my interview, I mentioned that I had thought of launching the exact same company about a year ago - and one of the reasons why I took this role was because the idea for this service is very close to my heart! I like how they were executing, so I decided to join them instead of competing.

You've had many past ideas, such as:

http://www.scatter.fm/ (and a mobile app) - a location based deal site and mobile app for hunting deals from nearby shops.

Or https://yenbe-beta.appspot.com/

Seems like your ideas are generally around finding good deals, price hutning, so my guess is that the YCombinator startup that hired you is around the same idea. There are a few YCombinator startups that deal with simialr things; I don't have the time to find the entire list. Maybe someone else can do that and the HN community can figure out which company did this.

Re: Ask HN: I was hired and unhired in 2 weeks, for no reason

#187

Post by shampine »

jowiar wrote: post #102
georgespencer wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"action can be taken" Come on. They didn't do anything wrong. They withdrew an offer of employment. 1. It could be performance related, and they just don't want to tell OP, 2. They realised quickly -- shock horror, things change quickly in startups -- that actually they don't need X guy they need Y guy. These things happen. In situations like this you can fire well: give explicit reasons, make sure the person knows y…

> They withdrew an offer of employment. Doing this without compensation is ABSOLUTELY doing something wrong. Maybe not necessarily tortious, but certainly unethical and indicative of someone who should not be trusted in a business relationship. The YC company made a mistake and is sticking someone else with the bill. FWIW, There's a certain amount of "foreigners are expendable" mindset that seems to exist in the Amer…

I had an offer withdrawn the day before I was supposed to get on a plane to move myself cross country. I had quit my job, broken my lease, etc.

The company paid me a 6 week severance, even though I never worked a minute for them, just to compensate me for what I had given up.

Re: Ask HN: I was hired and unhired in 2 weeks, for no reason

#188

Post by guybrushT »

patio11 wrote: post #169
guybrushT wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You articulated the situation (and my thinking) very well. Any thoughts on what future early employees could do to protect themselves?

If somebody for some reason managed to convince me to come onboard as an employee, and I was asked nicely to leave after two weeks, I would begin the conversation with "That is unfortunate and unexpected, as I was looking forward to working with you guys. We're all businessmen here, so we know that there are certain reasonable expectations which one has with regards to employment offers. I shouldn't be telling you an…

This is a reasonable approach. I will try this.

Sidenote: In my last discussion, some of the phrasing was eerily similar - "That is unfortunate and unexpected, as I was looking forward to working with you guys" - "we're businessmen here" - "part ways as friends".. etc. Just that I didn't push for what you are suggesting. Thanks again!

Re: Ask HN: I was hired and unhired in 2 weeks, for no reason

#189

Post by bjourne »

balls187 wrote: post #126

Hypothetical to the larger HN community: If you got accepted a job offer, and within 2 weeks got a job offer for more money, and at your dream company, would you feel obligated to stay with your initial decision? If you made the rational (but arguably unethical choice), do you think your reputation should be tarnished, and future employers think hard before extending an offer? I know it's not the exact situation as t…

No the situation isn't analogous at all because unexpectedly losing a job has a much higher impact on a person than for a company to unexpectedly lose an employer. A person is made of flesh and blood and can have his or her life shattered. A company is an abstract entity defined by laws.
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