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Carta lays off 10% of the workforce

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Carta lays off 10% of the workforce

#51

Post by ddalex »

kaesar14 wrote: post #25
danwee wrote: post #16

I always wondered how American companies lay off European employees (when the companies have branches in European countries). Usually, in Europe, you cannot just fire someone without a justified reason (and no, saving costs is not a justified reason). Such reason are usually: the employee did something illegal (data leaks, sell internal information, etc.) or something related to harassing other employees. Even with b…

How is saving costs not a justifiable reason? Maybe all of this is why European employees have such a hard time finding US salaries.

It is, but you cannot use it to fire a particular person. I mean, you get to choose who to fire, but if you need to hire somebody again for that position (because business is picking back up), you have to give the fired person the first option to come back.

Re: Carta lays off 10% of the workforce

#53

Post by [deleted] »

rvz wrote: post #49

Another day, another downsizing. The warning signs were right in front of you: [0] And now everyone and including their cats and dogs are all talking about a 'recession'. You're too late, it has already happened and it is lagging behind and taking effect. Should have prepared for that in November 2021. You were warned. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29508238

[deleted]

Re: Carta lays off 10% of the workforce

#54

Post by Guid_NewGuid »

danwee wrote: post #16

I always wondered how American companies lay off European employees (when the companies have branches in European countries). Usually, in Europe, you cannot just fire someone without a justified reason (and no, saving costs is not a justified reason). Such reason are usually: the employee did something illegal (data leaks, sell internal information, etc.) or something related to harassing other employees. Even with b…

I can only speak to the UK who remain a European (if not EU) country. My understanding having been through it in my first job, is in the UK you must make a given number of a specific role redundant. So it's not the people you're laying off but instead you say, we're making cuts to 4 sales positions. There is then a required consultation period where the people to be laid off are identified so there's always forewarning that cuts are happening but not to who.

So it's not firing but it's still perfectly possible to reduce headcount. What you can't do is the standard US move of firing everyone with zero notice by email.

Re: Carta lays off 10% of the workforce

#55

Post by henning »

rvz wrote: post #49

Another day, another downsizing. The warning signs were right in front of you: [0] And now everyone and including their cats and dogs are all talking about a 'recession'. You're too late, it has already happened and it is lagging behind and taking effect. Should have prepared for that in November 2021. You were warned. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29508238

I've been waiting for the other shoe to drop for a decade.

Re: Carta lays off 10% of the workforce

#56

Post by HDThoreaun »

jack_riminton wrote: post #33
danwee wrote: post #16

I always wondered how American companies lay off European employees (when the companies have branches in European countries). Usually, in Europe, you cannot just fire someone without a justified reason (and no, saving costs is not a justified reason). Such reason are usually: the employee did something illegal (data leaks, sell internal information, etc.) or something related to harassing other employees. Even with b…

If the company cannot afford the post, then you're made redundant. So yes you can quite easily get rid of people to save costs.

My understanding is admittedly limited, but I do not believe companies are allowed to just make positions redundant in germany. Layoffs must be coordinated with the government and they basically look through your books and decide if you really need to lay these people off.

Re: Carta lays off 10% of the workforce

#57

Post by redtriumph »

jonas-w wrote: post #47
redtriumph wrote: post #7

One of the founder's listed is Manu Kumar who has one of the longest Linkedin profile I've come across: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sneaker

Is there a way to view linkedin profiles without logging in?

I haven't figured out the sauce for this. It is definitely possible, but is not easily reproducible reliably.

Re: Carta lays off 10% of the workforce

#58

Post by morelisp »

HDThoreaun wrote: post #56
jack_riminton wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the company cannot afford the post, then you're made redundant. So yes you can quite easily get rid of people to save costs.

My understanding is admittedly limited, but I do not believe companies are allowed to just make positions redundant in germany. Layoffs must be coordinated with the government and they basically look through your books and decide if you really need to lay these people off.

Germany's main requirement is that you have insufficient open positions in the company (not just same roles - no open positions at all, the company is obligated to train), and that you follow "social selection", taking into account "tenure, age, family responsibilities, severe disability". High performance can be justification to keep someone despite meeting the social selection criteria for termination, but low performance cannot generally be a reason for inclusion in the list of terminations.

If you are legitimately downsizing it is pretty easy. If you are trying to use "layoffs" as cover to cut the bottom x% of performers, you'll hit trouble.

Re: Carta lays off 10% of the workforce

#60

Post by muzz »

mathieuh wrote: post #14
qaq wrote: post #2

"Visa holders get one 30-minute paid consultation with an immigration attorney" wow

I know lawyers can be verbose but surely it takes less than 30 minutes to say “you’re fucked”

Companies often keep visa'd employees on payroll so they have more time to find another job. I personally feel this goes against the temporary intent of the visa, but it's a very common practice.
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