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

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351–360 of 496 posts

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

#351
post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having worked in tech for 25 years it doesn’t surprise me. Some people I’ve worked with are barely human. A colleague a few years ago went as far as to suggest that this is how you ended up with nazis. I hope with ubiquitous communications now that we tell these people that no it’s not acceptable to behave like this! Compassion should be awarded.

“Barely human”.. that’s a pretty nazi-esque way of looking at others. Perhaps people simply have different opinions and priorities.

Unnecessary reference to Nazism. I agree with your general idea, but being intolerant and unempathetic isn't something only some people in the 30s started to do.

Below average empathy is pervasive and a pretty common human characteristic, like being tall or having curly hair.

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

#352
post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't stand reading the conversations on HN about anything related to the well-being or suffering of other people. I try to limit myself to technical topics only, or I start to get depressed and/or angry.

Even in technical discussions, you can observe arrogance and dismissal by commenters who are unacceptably underqualified in the subjects being discussed. This place has become a joke nowadays.

> This place has become a joke nowadays.

I wouldn't go that far. The signal to noise ratio is worse than it used to be, but there's still nothing else like HN and there are still a lot of interesting technical conversations to observe or to be had. I continue to learn more here than anywhere else. I'll cope with putting in a bit more effort mentally filtering out the unproductive conversations.

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

#353
post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fwiw I understand why people despise Don. But I don't understand the blind dedication to hate, especially when other politicians and leaders pull similar shenanigans and then there's crickets. If you're violently against X or Y that's fine. But apply the rules evenly, fairly, and rationally. When you hate so hard and so long that you lose your compass...that's irrational. The majority of Trump haters fall into this b…

> But I don't understand the blind dedication to hate, especially when other politicians and leaders pull similar shenanigans and then there's crickets Do feel free to share examples of other politicians mocking disabled people, or bragging about sexual assault, or trying a coup or any of the millions of transgressions of trump and not facing any criticism.

Mocking disabled people is bad. Bragging about sexual assault is horrific.

But let's talk about the stuff politicians do that is truly wrong and evil, like waging wars that kill people?

Let's talk about the War on Terror and how many people died. Remember that the media and government sold the American people a bunch of lies to sell these wars.

https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/costs/human/civilians/ir... 100,000+ civilian deaths

https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/costs/human/civilians/af... 70,000+ civilian deaths

Thanks for mentioning regime change, which coups do you blame on Donald Trump from this list? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in_r...

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

#354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, that’s simply not true. At a most basic level, if you’re going to collaborate effectively as part of a team for a long period of time then you need to realistically be ± 3 time zones at most.

That's only true if you're working entirely or mostly synchronously, which might be an indicator of inherent anti-patterns in your work culture and processes, e.g., lots of meetings instead of written documentation.

I guess you don’t have any junior engineers?

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

#355
post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At a certain point, we need to start piercing the corporate veil and hold people accountable.

The term of art “pierce the corporate veil” literally exists because we already do this.

Do we, though?

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

#356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> so many of the comments here that seem to lack even the most basic of human decency Reading them, so am I. There is no sign of empathy: that understanding of another individual, the ability to put oneself in someone else's shoes, that is fundamental to a healthy society and (IMO) personal integrity. I read a comment a few years ago that no-one thinks of themselves as a bad person. To yourself, you are always okay.…

Quoted post unavailable.

Having empathy doesn't mean loving everybody. That's a common misconception.

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

#357
post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do we have a reason to believe he was treated poorly?

I think the article describes in detail someone being treated poorly yes. Even in mass layoffs, every single employee should be treated with more care and consideration than this. Freezing hires entirely for a period before any layoffs could prevent this from happening for example.

You can’t assume that recruiting has been told that layoffs are coming. Likely they are in the dark intentionally. A hiring freeze would be news that could negatively affect stock price for a well known public company. Think of layoffs as a controlled PR burn, you don’t want to go set off a bunch of little random fires ahead of the big event that might burn out of control.

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

#358

So, I have some inside knowledge on this one. There were many people who were axed as part of the layoffs days after start. But these layoffs were planned for months. The thinking was either 1) we can rescind job offers and give them nothing or 2) at least give a severance package to people who expected employment. Now, I'm not excusing that there are cases like this that fall through the cracks. It really really suc…

> Should META have preemptively rescinded this employee's offer so they got nothing but at least didn't move? Maybe. Yes, 100%. Relocating internationally is extremely taxing. Dealing with immigration stuff, even if another company "handles it" for you, it's still a huge toll on you mentally. I would pay $$$ to avoid a needless relocation.

Sadly, in the mind of these young white knights making these decisions, they thought they were doing these folks a favor by saving them from their poor country.

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

#359
post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there always a dollar figure when some treatment becomes acceptable?

Depends on the treatment. If someone tortures me, then probably not. If someone hires me, I move to the other side of the world, they fire me in two days and pay me out a million dollars, then I would say it is very acceptable. Also, compensation might be more than money.

I don't think you appreciate how difficult it is to navigate in a foreign country with no help. You could well be given $100 million and end up on the street because you were unable to complete the move-in process on your own. It's not like you can wave with dollars bills to fix this.

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

#360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think the trump hate is irrational? What is the main rational points and reasons you like Trump? Or at least, think that he is being unfairly treated, since that does not require liking/agreeing with him.

Fwiw I understand why people despise Don. But I don't understand the blind dedication to hate, especially when other politicians and leaders pull similar shenanigans and then there's crickets. If you're violently against X or Y that's fine. But apply the rules evenly, fairly, and rationally. When you hate so hard and so long that you lose your compass...that's irrational. The majority of Trump haters fall into this b…

I understand that there's frustration and a lot has to do with the focus on hate or being hated, that's where the rhetoric seems to land at least.

I would say, if the hate was completely irrational, or you think that the other politicians are just as bad, then that is not ok either. Since two wrongs does not equal right, and actions should not be seen as a balance scale of 'doing equally bad things to each other', which somehow rationally makes it ok to do bad things in what seems to be a hateful way. It should not be accepted to do bad things, no matter the party, the opposition or person.

So if you think Trump is doing bad things, and the other party is doing bad things as well, rejecting both Trump and the other party seems like the logical option given the options? You don't have to belong to any camp/party, it's a hurtful illusion/rhetoric IMO, 'us or them'.

And if you think the current other politicians are doing bad things as well, I'm genuinely interested to know what bad things they are, and not just things which can be seen as political disagreements. Because I I just don't know what you are thinking about when you say it specifically, it's as simple as that, not ill intentioned. But I can understand if you do not wish to air your opinions.

But I'm under no illusion that on both sides of the parties there are and have been bad actors and corruption, which has been ongoing in many forms, which must be fought no matter where it is. I'm just afraid that when you 'weigh evil' as a justification you lose nuance, and people are more likely to fall into the tribalistic rhetoric equivalent of 'mud slinging' or just calling 'hate' which I find sadly unproductive.

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