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

businessinsider.com

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

#71

Post by matkoniecz »

theFco wrote: post #25
rayxi271828 wrote: post #4

My sympathies for the gentleman -- but out of curiosity: for cases like this, what "time duration" would be "not surprising"? Even if he had stayed on for one more month, that would have been as shocking as well. Two months? Three? My suspicion is that there's no time duration within which this wouldn't be an upsetting experience. Perhaps unless we're talking about like a year, which no company would do anyway.

But there are degrees, also in two days this person has probably close to zero social safety network in Canada. No friends, no colleagues, no acquaintances at other companies. Even 2 or 3 months would have allowed them to start having some friends and do some networking.

And now they need to deal at the same time with relocation AND with being fired at the same time.

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

#73

Post by satyrnein »

Suvitruf wrote: post #24
stefan_ wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you trying to make a distinction without a difference? Nope, hiring for a role you expect to cut at the same time is not the decent or even sane thing to do.

I think people who made decision to hire him and people who made layoffs are different people.

Indeed, the recruiter he was working with could very well have been laid off as well.

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

#74

Post by throwaway71271 »

ramtatatam wrote: post #55
mk89 wrote: post #44

I don't understand. That's unfortunately how it is, sadly enough. Should they have fired another person instead just because of location? I believe they should have not given the GO at all to the hiring manager, but hey... these CEOs nowadays like to take full responsibility accountability blabla-ility for their actions :) Some years ago I worked at a company that had to fire 3 people. They picked one of the guys tha…

I'd say it's fair enough to expect not to hire when you plan to lay off... Especially when you make somebody to change their life upside-down...

Its not uncommon for people to turn the company upside-down (by leaving or other ways), why should the company care?

The company is a subject to the categorical imperative, but it is also a subject to the seven deadly sins (metaphorically). It does what the law allows in order to preserve itself, and rarely more.

In some companies I honestly think that all decisions are made with good intentions from each individual, and yet the emergent results are horrific.

(playing devil's advocate)

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

#75

Post by autotune »

curiousgal wrote: post #48
autotune wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People are free to complain however they want, it just really irks me that this is suddenly getting press now because "META."

I understand that but you can just brush it off to the media being the media and move on with your day.

Or, I can complain about for a few minutes into the void before I have had my coffee this morning.

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

#77

Post by Broken_Hippo »

byroot wrote: post #40
senko wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He uprooted his life, moved across the globe, then got laid off and is likely facing a prospect of having to leave Canada (not familiar with work visa types there). This sucks, and the fact "it was bound to happen" (which is incorrect, it's not a law of nature) does not absolve Meta.

> is likely facing a prospect of having to leave Canada (not familiar with work visa types there) Unless it changed in the last few years, Canadian work permits allow you to continue to reside in the country for the duration of their validity, even if you lose your employment. The vast majority of them are tied to an employer though, so even if you find another job, you need to go through the process again, which tak…

That is the thing: They can stay, but they can't work for someone else. No income makes it very difficult to stick around and look for a job. At least they get a severance package: It'd be worse without it.

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

#78

Post by yrgulation »

luckylion wrote: post #50
miroljub wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the description, I would assume Germany, since that's precisely what happens here. But I can also imagine Germany is not the only state that allows its companies to act like this.

Why would workers from Eastern Europe not have passports? "Eastern European" typically means EU-member states, with Ukraine being the exception even before the war (within reasonable distance, populous enough for recruiters to go to). EU-citizens don't need a residency permit, and they have access to the social system in Germany. They're often not informed about their rights and that should be improved, but "they end…

This story doesn't pass the smell test. Appears OP is from the netherlands, not a friendly country towards east europe, but I still don't see how people can end up on the streets in a country where by law they have equal rights (or is very cheap to return to home countries, and sue the abusive employer).

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

#79

Post by autotune »

anshumankmr wrote: post #62
autotune wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And how many times has that happened in the past with nobody batting an eye about it? Why does it only matter now that it's at a META company?

I think you answered it yourself, right? MAANG are the poster children of Big-Tech and that invites clicks and views. That being said, if people are more aware of such things, there is a chance we can ask for better conditions in the future.

I guess you have a point.

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

#80

Post by Closi »

hooby wrote: post #58

Imho the real question here is, why is it that Meta keeps hiring right right until they do large layoff rounds? The kind of issue that requires large layoff rounds is not something that just materializes overnight, out of the blue. So why does their management - which should be able to read the writing on the wall, since that's part of their job - not issue a strict hiring freeze (in addition to other measures taken…

> So why does their management - which should be able to read the writing on the wall, since that's part of their job - not issue a strict hiring freeze [...] Why do they go from hiring to firing in the blink of an eye?

They did have a hiring freeze, and didn't really go from hiring to firing in the blink of an eye:

* In May they froze hiring for engineers and low-level data scientists.

* In July they announced that there would be restructures, and asked managers to start identifying weak performers.

* In September they extended the freeze to all areas and announced that they would be reducing labour budgets for teams, and restructuring.

In all probability, this engineer was probably considered 'on-shoring' rather than a hire so slipped through the hiring freeze (headcount figure stays the same, we are just moving someone on-shore) but then didn't escape the corporate redundancy. Although this individual story is awful, at the scale of 12,000 layoffs unfortunately there will inevitably be instances where the circumstances are poor.

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