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Cloudflare employee posts layoff call with HR and goes viral [video]

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Re: Cloudflare employee posts layoff call with HR and goes viral [video]

#221

A similar situation happened to me after 7.5 years at a company where I had been given consistently good feedback and promotions. I was fed the lie that my position was being eliminated when there were active public postings for the same position (Staff Engineer). My access to corporate systems was cut off at 8am with no warning or explanatio. I got a similar cold call from an HR person I had met once by chance. No i…

You worked at a company for 7.5 years and were actually performing.

Person in the video worked for a company for 5 months as a sales-person and closed 0 sales.

You are not the same.

Re: Cloudflare employee posts layoff call with HR and goes viral [video]

#222

This kind of behaviour from HR should be illegal. Be honest and upfront, we're all humans here.

It actually would be illegal in most of the EU (at the very least in The Netherlands) AFAIK. This is some "only in the US" level stuff (in the context of "The West").

Don't know about Netherlands but in most EU probation period is fixed 6 months. This situation would be perfectly legal in most EU companies.

Re: Cloudflare employee posts layoff call with HR and goes viral [video]

#223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Virginia(where she lives) is a one party state, so it's certainly legal.

But she is under an NDA and other agreements from Cloudflare. Being a one party state doesn't mean you can upload private company meetings to TikTok.

Can't fire her twice

Re: Cloudflare employee posts layoff call with HR and goes viral [video]

#224
The two randos were just given a list of names to fire for "performance reasons". They were probably also being evaluated by how many people per day they let go. Nobody, even those two, believes that she had a bad performance either. Sad situation to be in.

Re: Cloudflare employee posts layoff call with HR and goes viral [video]

#226

This why I do startup. Nobody could ever fire you, it’s always your fault and you have opportunity to react. I have been in a position like her and I have been a founder since then.

Only a very few people are in a position to found startups. For most of us we have to learn how to negotiate the workplace.

Re: Cloudflare employee posts layoff call with HR and goes viral [video]

#227

Doesn’t look like a layoff, but more like she was fired. Depending on the law that is either allowed or not.

Here in Canada you require a cause (under most contracts) and this would be a disaster for the company if the employee took legal action. I guess in some states you can fire people without cause?

Not true at all. You can be fired anytime for any reason. You just are required to pay notice/severance. Unless you are unionized or part of a protected class.

Re: Cloudflare employee posts layoff call with HR and goes viral [video]

#228
Oof. Somehow, I thought Cloudflare was a decent place to work at — well, I don't think that anymore. Even if it's 100% performance based or totally not so (layoffs), empathy is non-negotiable. You don't know what situation you're putting people in by laying them off. Sure, you can argue that “overpaid tech workers should have tons of savings so they should be fine” but it's not always the case. Not to mention the emotional side of things...

Re: Cloudflare employee posts layoff call with HR and goes viral [video]

#229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because an employee who worked 4.5 months with zero sales gets laid off? This is the problem with social media, now people think whoever makes the most noise is right. I've seen people getting fired for far less and they didn't make a fuss about it anywhere.

No, for the way the anon HR folks and the company as a whole handled it.

It is every company in the United States. They are not supposed to say anything to avoid getting sued. Watch similar videos. You will hear HR not giving any information because any word is a risk of getting sued.

Re: Cloudflare employee posts layoff call with HR and goes viral [video]

#230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The specific criticism I heard my friend rant about was a colleague who did very little because they felt slighted, and they could never be fired for anything really, so because he wanted to move on with his life he just did all that other guys’ work.

I have heard this criticism. I've also heard from my union that they know there is that image, and that's not a culture they support or want to create, and that they want to promote an effective and fair performance-based team environment. Fundamentally, a union for software engineers is just not going to work the same as a union for, say, manufacturing. There's a lot that mostly doesn't apply to us like physical saf…

Whistleblowing is an extreme edge case. What about simply a lazy non-performer? Can they still be fired? Is there just additional friction?
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