Google nixes paying out rest of medical leave for laid-off employees • Hacker News Board

Re: Google nixes paying out rest of medical leave for laid-off employees

#151

Post by MrOwnPut » Sun, Mar 19, 2023, 12:16 PM UTC

jsnell wrote: post #92

MrOwnPut wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. From your perspective, what's the % of how often you have heard "biological" vs "birth" parents and has the rate changed any? I'm curious as to why the change of what I've heard (biological parents) and in the recent year (birth parents).

Most likely there has been no such change. You've just started paying attention to it for some reason. Looking at a couple of data sources for popularity of terms over time, "birth parent" has been consistently more used: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Biological+par... https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=Biologic...

So if a family provided eggs & sperm and had a surrogate to give birth on their behalf, then later gave the child up for adoption, how would you identify everyone?

Also, I'd assume the child would later look for those people with their genetic material, their biological parents, those who provided the sperm & eggs. Not the birth parent, who birthed them. There's much less of a connection there as it's the person who simply carried them for a money transaction and is not part of the child genetically.

Re: Google nixes paying out rest of medical leave for laid-off employees

#152

Post by fuckyc284 » Sun, Mar 19, 2023, 1:41 PM UTC

yooloo wrote: post #141

Manheim wrote: post #27

In Scandinavia this is regulated by law. Being on leave does not protect against dismissal in Norway. But the Working Environment Act states that the notice period does not start to run until the leave period has expired. And, the fact that you are on leave cannot in itself be used by the employer as a reason for dismissal. So, if Google had laid off a worker in Norway who was on leave, they wouldn't have much choice…

OTOH, the pay in US is 2 to 3 times than in Norway. Does that mean the risk is taken into account in pay?

no

Re: Google nixes paying out rest of medical leave for laid-off employees

#153

Post by smabie » Sun, Mar 19, 2023, 7:29 PM UTC

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #139

sokoloff wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My PTO is an earned benefit (legally). I’m sure Google is paying those out. Free meals or free office printing are not earned benefits (legally). I’m sure Google is not paying for 30 weeks of meals or printing for laid off workers. If you agree with the above, the challenge becomes figuring out whether a benefit is more like the legally earned or more like those provided as a courtesy and convenience.

But it should seem pretty obvious that something like maternity leave couldn't, and shouldn't, be an "earned benefit" - should everyone except to accrue a month of "maternity leave benefit" through the ages of 20 and 40 or something? It's good that we do have benefits that only apply to subclasses of people (i.e. parents), but how those benefits are structured shouldn't be at the whims of a company if we feel, as a s…

Why is it good that we have benefits that only apply to a subclass of people?

Re: Google nixes paying out rest of medical leave for laid-off employees

#154

Post by jsnell » Sun, Mar 19, 2023, 10:23 PM UTC

MrOwnPut wrote: post #151

jsnell wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most likely there has been no such change. You've just started paying attention to it for some reason. Looking at a couple of data sources for popularity of terms over time, "birth parent" has been consistently more used: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Biological+par... https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=Biologic...

So if a family provided eggs & sperm and had a surrogate to give birth on their behalf, then later gave the child up for adoption, how would you identify everyone? Also, I'd assume the child would later look for those people with their genetic material, their biological parents, those who provided the sperm & eggs. Not the birth parent, who birthed them. There's much less of a connection there as it's the person who…

Why are you asking me? I don't give a crap about that.

You made a statement on this being a new term, I gave references showing it was factually incorrect. The proper response is "thank you, I was wrong", not whatever this thing you responded with is.

Re: Google nixes paying out rest of medical leave for laid-off employees

#155

Post by xracy » Mon, Mar 20, 2023, 12:13 AM UTC

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #138

xracy wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing in your last 2 points disproved the original comment. In fact... the opposite.

It is extremely, extremely doubtful that someone who was a Google employee, who gets a minimum of 4 months severance plus 6 months of paid insurance coverage, couldn't afford cobra or Obamacare.

A new college hire, who already has other debt obligations (student loans)? I guess that's unlikely since Google doesn't hire people in that group... oh wait...

Someone who just made another large purchase, like a house and had an unexpected medical injury?

These aren't hard scenarios to construct. Google employees making more money than the average person doesn't shield them from large unexpected/costly life events. But also, you're assuming a Software Engineering Salary, and not a different salary that's more likely to be lower (Sales, Marketing, etc.)