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Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?

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441–450 of 508 posts

Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?

#441

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the good ones left when they realized what was going on and the mediocre ones stayed. I, being Deaf, would have been forced to stay with the mediocre ones because interviewing is difficult for me. I am lucky that I don't need a job now.

As I’ve posted my story below, I also wanted to point out that I was uniquely Deaf, but nonetheless a rockstar programmer then. Interviewing is hard. Notably Google’s digital interviewing where they insist that they call you for an interview. I aced all their backend questions so they kept trying to call me until I insisted that I call them. Then it went silent. Their loss. This approach doesn’t leave us Deafies a wh…

It's not possible to have a Signed Language interpreter around you all the time. Or did you? If not, how did you communicate with your coworkers?

When I was working in companies I just lipread and talked German, and it worked mostly fine except meetings. But a few years ago I realized that lipreading is too hard for me, so I now avoid that. Recently I got interrogated by the police but they put up an additional computer monitor for me to follow the notes. I declined the offer of a Signed Language interpreter because I was not sure whether the interpreter really knows the correct legal terms. The monitor was very helpful. I caught many little misunderstandings this way like I said, he wanted to void the ticket himself, but the minute taker wrote, he wanted to buy the ticket himself.

Anyway, I am lucky that I don't need to work in companies anymore being semi-retired.

Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?

#442

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see, it seems like choosing to not reveal your handicap during the interview process is a major challenge to getting the accommodations you want during the hiring process. Also not sure how google HR could firewall obvious disability from the hiring team if they are at all involved in the interview.

if and when the design team of Google hiring are not made up of HR personnel, it could be construed as a violation of Federal labor law. It becomes a violation if the hiring (non-HR) team are privy to sensitive info of applicants. and if HR design team and hiring (non-HR) team are one and the same playing fast and loose with privilege info, many lawyers will be all over this. Of course, I am unwilling to find out bec…

I think you are grossly misinformed.

>when the design team of Google hiring are not made up of HR personnel, it could be construed as a violation of Federal labor law.

There is nothing illegal about the design team participating in or even running the hiring process.

>HR design team and hiring (non-HR) team are one and the same playing fast and loose with privilege info, many lawyers will be all over this.

There is nothing illegal about this either. You have to show discrimination took place. Many companies separate some roles simply for additional legal protection.

>Of course, I am unwilling to find out because my priorities lies elsewhere but if and when I learn of the next Deaf applicant that got turned away because of lack of direct call support, then my priority of my legal team will change.

You weren't turned away. You refused to tell them you needed direct call accommodation, and then act like a victim when they didn't know. Do you expect them to read minds? Do you expect them to accommodate every possible request from applicants without need for explanation?

If you go to court, google will show it's HR policies and process for accommodating applicants that notify HR of their needs. They will point to applicants that asked for accommodation, and all the times HR provided it. They will then point out the fact that you or the next similar applicant did not inform them, and explain to the court that they are not mind readers.

Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?

#443
post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that the value that teachers create is hard to compute and hard to capture, so in the end, no one is willing to pay for it.

> no one is willing to pay for it parents paying for private schools seem to be willing to pay that for their children

Private school teachers are often paid less than public school teachers, and do not have a union or a pension.

Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?

#444
post #332
post #67

I have the inverse story; factory workers picketing outside. First day the owner of the company walks up to them and explains: this company is worth $X. The terrain (land) it occupies is worth $10X. Please get back to work.

That signals an extraordinarily inefficient use of land. With land that valuable, and a land value tax/higher property taxes he'd have been run out of business years ago and replaced by one or more economically efficient companies.

Yes, but his statement that the land is worth 10X doesn't have to be true to be effective leverage in negotiation. Perception is everything, and casually dropping a "Eh, I don't really need you", and turning your back on a negotiation is often amazingly effective.

Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?

#445
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know someone works in programming if their name is Anders or Tobias

I know of a Tobias who ended up working as an analyst-therapist before switching to a successful acting career.

He blued himself later on, so...

Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?

#446

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The more I learn about game dev the less I think this is true. The number of programmers that can work on bleeding edge game engine tech is incredibly low and the learning curve has only gotten more severe over time. I mean, I'm sure they wouldn't implode, but I bet they pay their core engine devs a more than decent wage.

The majority of devs don't work on bleeding edge game engine tech, though.

Of course, but presumably the top coders at a game shop are involved in whatever inhouse tech they're building.

Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?

#447
post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're not illegal in Germany, but the legal requirements are so onerous (50% salary paid for the duration of the non-compete) nobody does it. I believe it's similar in France.

I think Massachusetts has similar rules these days (after long-running opposition from some major employers). However, while 50% salary definitely makes a company put skin in the game, it's not a panacea. And, from an employee point of view, how many people will be comfortable with taking 50% salary (with no benefits, bonuses, or RSUs) to hang out for a year? Sure, some younger folks might see it as an opportunity bu…

> benefits, bonuses, or RSUs

"Benefits" isn't really relevant for Germany but bonuses and RSUs (though again, nobody in Germany gets those) are figured into the 50%.

Pretty much everyone I know would take such a contract; programmers make 1.5x-2x median salary to begin with even in Europe, and it's "don't compete", not "don't work".

Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?

#448
post #408

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that your figurative sense of smell may not be correct. It really is quite easy to mistake an honest question or assertion as passive aggression or sarcasm in text form.

Maybe, but I can assure you from back when I tried to engage in good faith it's pretty damn accurate . It doesn't hurt that HN's a target-rich environment for such a detector, of course.

I had the feeling my honest questions were not-rarely seen as sarcasms or bad faith arguments. Probably has some overlap with autistic spectrum disorders.

And I often wished I could specify “please read this comment in literally the way I wrote it and don’t try to find a non-existing message between the lines”. Alas.

Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?

#449

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The workers are easily replaced" and "Their compensation is fair" are two different statements.

It's exactly the same statement. Fair cost of something IS the opportunity cost of buying the same thing from someone else.

Well, it depends on your definition of "fair". You're going by the market definition -- but the market definition of "fair" is often quite unfair by other definitions.

Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?

#450
post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For anything medical related it has always been like this.

This is what happens when 26 year old tech bros who type JavaScript into a computer for $300k a year forget that there are a lot of things about the real world they don't actually understand. Anything related to medicine or non-IP law on HN is a dumpster fire.

Realistically, most things that are tech/tech adjacent are a dumpster fire.

The number of uninformed comments on inflation/monetary policy on here is exhausting.

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