Meta fires a software engineer two days after he relocated from India to Canada

There are all sorts of tools that allow for an asynchronous human connection, e.g., asynchronous video recordings.

Working mostly asynchronously also doesn’t mean you can’t have the occasional synchronous online meeting (including coffee) as well.

It's a risk you take by leaving your continent and flying to another one without any permanent residence permit. It's really shit, but that's how it is. It's always been the case, it just makes now the news because it's Facebook.

As I mentioned above, an ex colleague of mine moved from South America to Europe without even speaking the country's language and he got fired shortly before the probation period. Same situation: visa, no job, etc. Actually he got kids and one of them even enrolled last minute at the kindergarten. He didn't write any blog or anything, he simply found another job the fastest he could find. But again, it's not Facebook, so of course it doesn't make the news.

The only thing I can wish for is of course that these people can find a job right away in the country they move to. At least this guy can say to the next employer "I made it to Facebook", which should still count for someting..., and he/she can even speak the language.

Yes. That's necessary too. Did you rather treat everybody as an undifferentiated fog? Compassion is not about bending over backwards for jerks.

>It's like that old joke about Linux being user-friendly, it's just very picky about who it considers a user.

Even that is very defensible: you can be user-friendly for different groups with different needs - and this often does not translate to being user-friendly to everybody.

E.g. if you try to please admins, and developers, and power users, and professionals, you won't also be user friendly in the sense that an OS focused on consumers or a program aimed at children is.

What a professional designer considers must-have and user-friendly features (to him as a user) and what someone who just shot a couple of holiday photos and wants to resize them considers user frienly, is not the same thing...

Even in countries not worth working in.

In many countries, Once your employer fires you, then you have 7 days to leave the country. Period.

The US/Canada/UK are relatively friendly about this and give a bit more leeway.

Don’t get me started on Indian work permits.

Yes it’s horrible all around. Working in another country is always a risk and on a whim you can get shafted by your employer.

Always have, or start working on a plan B immediately (savings, side project, more money).

And please don’t get started on “I’m not able to do anything else” - because that’s not true and if you think about it there is always unrelated things you csn do to get around this.

As a person who worked in a few countries - I’m always aware or the fact that at any moment below permanent residency, everything could be pulled away.

Please everyone reading about this guy’s fate, never leave your future in the hands of an employer or immigration authorities.

Start working on a plan B and a way out - just in case.

Anything otherwise is just putting your head in the sand.

"Everyone will get an email soon letting you know what this layoff means for you. After that, every affected employee will have the opportunity to speak with someone to get their questions answered and join information sessions.

Some of the details in the US include:

Severance. We will pay 16 weeks of base pay plus two additional weeks for every year of service, with no cap.

PTO. We’ll pay for all remaining PTO time.

RSU vesting. Everyone impacted will receive their November 15, 2022 vesting.

Health insurance. We’ll cover the cost of healthcare for people and their families for six months.

Career services. We’ll provide three months of career support with an external vendor, including early access to unpublished job leads.

Immigration support. I know this is especially difficult if you’re here on a visa. There’s a notice period before termination and some visa grace periods, which means everyone will have time to make plans and work through their immigration status. We have dedicated immigration specialists to help guide you based on what you and your family need.

Outside the US, support will be similar, and we’ll follow up soon with separate processes that take into account local employment laws."

https://facebook.relayto.com/e/mark-zuckerberg-s-message-to-...