Ask HN: Who has been laid off?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22770643

by Coryodaniel • 6 years ago

391 315 6 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

There is a monthly “Who is hiring” post, but I thought it might be helpful to have a laid off post with unemployment rates rising.

Share your experience and what you’re looking for.

buildawesome2• 6 years ago

Do you think the 'Who wants to be hired' post accomplishes this or are you looking for companies who are laying off workers?

linked below!

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22749306

aerovistae2• 6 years ago

I think that is very centered on your qualifications and what you're looking for. There's next to no discussion there. This kind of reads like an invitation to talk about the company you left and the difficulty of being laid off.

buildawesome2• 6 years ago

Gotcha! Thanks for the clarity.

blackflame70003• 6 years ago

Think of it like tinder but for misery

drlobster• 6 years ago

So its just like tinder?

flyinfungi• 6 years ago

17.5% salary cut. Gonna have to get a new security job :-/

chrisjc3• 6 years ago

25% here, plus taken on 2-3x workload (not related to the furlough situation).

Edit... btw, 2-3x workload doesn't mean that i can actually complete 2-3x workload.

blackflame70003• 6 years ago

It would appear someone doesn't like you either at your company or god perhaps. No one treats people they care about like that

beckingz2• 6 years ago

Executive: Everything is important! Executive: Why aren't you finishing everything?

dominotw3• 6 years ago

I found this forwarded layoff referral list

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HvI7axSIXsQRQH0IJ2GG...

not sure what the source is.

dirtydroog• 6 years ago

What the actual f?

treyfitty• 6 years ago

Most of the names are Indian... is it safe to assume contractors are the ones being laid off first at the moment?

dominotw3• 6 years ago

or source is an indian website ?

adriancooney• 6 years ago

Interesting. It's a private document so it's hard to pull any stats out. I did manage to get the top ten companies (back of the napkin hack so take it with a pinch of salt):

  amazon | 13
  thumbtack | 10
  student | 8
  wework | 8
  wayfair | 6
  google | 6
  uber | 5
  cisco | 4
  oracle | 4
  adobe | 3

Surprised to see Amazon at the top. I thought they were the best poised against this. Again, it may not be signal of a wider problem but interesting nonetheless.

There was also an interesting row from a senior (VP level) at WeWork that would lead you to believe that they aren't in a good state ("f'ed"). Again, take it with a pinch of salt since we can't verify any of this data.

mywittyname2• 6 years ago

Amazon is almost certainly using this opportunity to "trim the fat." Not saying these people are bad developers, but Amazon seems to require a very specific personality type.

MivLives2• 6 years ago

I wonder if the Wayfair people are just still unemployed from their layoff in Feb.

I'm seeing a bunch of interns in there too which is kind of interesting.

demarq2• 6 years ago

I got picked up by an Amazon recruiter just before the outbreak. I was really tempted but I'm now glad I took the time to think about it.

rsanek• 6 years ago

You can get to the raw data, even for private documents, by downloading as csv/xlsx.

gvb• 6 years ago

There was also an interesting row from a senior (VP level) at WeWork that would lead you to believe that they aren't in a good state ("f'ed").

That is a good summary of WeWork: "SoftBank, which is run by the Japanese billionaire Masayoshi Son, announced on Thursday it was terminating a $3bn share tender rescue deal hammered out last October to save WeWork from collapse."

Combine that with a lot of long term and expensive real estate leases with nobody working in the buildings... f'ed.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/apr/02/wework-foun...

1MoreThing• 6 years ago

There's lay-offs and then there's "I got fired this week." Does this document tell the difference? Because those numbers look about right for an industry that does have some involuntary turn-over week to week.

supercollision• 6 years ago

fwiw most of the the Google rows look to be consultants, contractors or vendors. Amazon had fewer with details but tentatively had full-timers.

though IIRC at least a couple of the FAAMNGOs try to keep C/C/Vs from portraying their jobs as being employed by the contracting company. Perhaps Google doesn't or perhaps it's more for linkedin than arbitrary spreadsheets or resumes.

SloopJon• 6 years ago

I also came across this the other day:

https://candor.co/hiring-freezes

I'm curious as to why the redraw performance for the embedded Airtable is so terrible. Is that normal?

jbreckmckye• 6 years ago

Just been put on furlough with likely redundancy at the end of the national lockdown period. Absolutely devastated. My job was hard and the pace relentless but the work was extremely stimulating and my colleagues were absolutely fantastic people.

(It was also a Haskell gig, which is a real rarity.)

Right now I'm just licking my wounds and waiting for the lockdown to end. I'm not sure if it makes sense to start a new job right now - the UK furlough scheme is essentially guaranteed income until June. Starting a new job would waive that, so unless you're actually losing money on furlough I think it's a bit unwise to jump companies.

3pt14159• 6 years ago

I'm sorry to hear that dude.

Haskell is a demanding language, so you're almost certainly a pretty senior dev. If so, consider volunteering to help organizations during the downtime. Worst case, if you can't get that dream gig back it will certainly make your resume stand out when you're looking for your next thing. Best of luck.

Ididntdothis3• 6 years ago

Where can people volunteer with tech skills? Is there a demand for it?

petercooper2• 6 years ago

Sorry to hear that. And I agree with your conclusion. However, it could be a good time to work on a side project (for no money) if you have any ideas, especially something that might help get another gig after the furlough. Best of luck and stay safe.

HPsquared• 6 years ago

It might make sense to look now - at the end of the scheme, there will be a huge flood of people all looking for jobs at the same time.

PopeDotNinja• 6 years ago

Hang in there!

What are y'all doing w/ Haskell? Is it regular ol' programming and someone just picked Haskell, or is it a use case where Haskell shines exceptionally well?

noir_lord2• 6 years ago

so unless you're actually losing money on furlough

Also UK and I am losing money as it's 80% up to 2500 pre month if your employer doesn't top it up, so for me that's a large pay cut, that said given the way things are I'm happy to take that cut knowing I'll still have twice what I need to cover the next 3 months before I have to touch my savings.

Whether I'll have a job at the end of whatever the lockdown period ends up been I've no idea, I think most likely I will but we'll have to wait and see, fortunately I'd been saving so I have enough to cover me from June well into next year in my "can access this money right now" account.

dillonmckay5• 6 years ago

Are you still having to work?

barbegal• 6 years ago

I see no reason why you can't start a new job, you can have another job and receive the furlough pay as far as I can tell [1]. This may be in breach of your first employees contract but as long as its a job in a slightly different industry few contracts would prevent you starting a new job.

[1] https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-for-wage-costs-through-the...

toiletduck• 6 years ago

OVO are still hiring and planning growth this year: I'm not sure on the ettiquette of reffering people, but sounds like it might be of interest. Cloud first, lots of flexibility in teams running their own microservices and a preference for functional programming (although Scala is popular, haven't seen Haskell yet in production). https://grnh.se/a2f788601us

exdsq3• 6 years ago

I work for a remote company that writes Haskell and might be hiring at the moment. Email me if you're interested and I can share more details :)

edd [at] theoryof [dot] pl

dillonmckay5• 6 years ago

Enjoy the time to recuperate and learn.

gip• 6 years ago

If you are looking for a (relatively short) contract gig involving a Haskell backend that needs to be update please contact me.

razki• 6 years ago

Feel the pain. Same situation here, I'll be taking a 50% wage cut, coupled with the uncertainty after the government period if it goes that way on Monday.

Engineering-MD• 6 years ago

It sounds like now is a good time to learn a new skill for a few months. It would be unwise to quit now as a new job would not qualify for furloughing and if the economy turns worse you would be let go without any income.

mu_killnine• 6 years ago

I work for a very large player in the print industry (which is transitioning to 'multichannel marketing solutions provider').

I feel like my company has done the best they can (given our industry has already been under a lot of pressure prior to COVID) under circumstances. We're in groups of rolling furloughs so folks have not been permanently laid off. While laid off, we still are receiving medical benefits, which is great.

As a remote worker prior to all this, I haven't had to change much of my day to day and our infrastructure has handled the influx of remote workers (thousands) very well.

However, it also makes the prospect of moving to another company daunting. I worked on-prem for years and developed relationships with co-workers prior to moving off-site. I have a lot of anxiety about not being able to create the same relationships at a new company or having to commute again to a city center for work (something I really can't see myself doing unless absolutely necessary). It's a scary prospect and one I think is absolutely possible given the precarious state of my industry and the economy on the whole.

throaweyprimy• 6 years ago

I’m in the print industry too.

Things are definitely uncertain at the moment. Our company was fairly small, and we were growing incredibly fast. COVID19 has cut our sales by 90%. As an industry with high fixed costs, this is devastating and I’ll most likely be laid-off in a coming weeks.

I spent years trying to get this company off the ground, and as soon as we picked up steam the market tanked.

I have my doubts about the long term recovery of the print market, so I think this is will be my exit from the industry.

alberth• 6 years ago

My heart goes out to all who've lost their job (and those who's health has been impacted by COVID-19).

In case you want to get perspective of the huge US impact of unemployment, see this automated visualization.

https://t.co/G5k24nxJRS

hathym• 6 years ago

Curve flattened.. Vertically.

pmiller22• 6 years ago

I’d be more interested in seeing the actual unemployment rate presented like this, not the weekly claim numbers.

mercutio2• 6 years ago

March numbers for overall unemployment rate have been published, but they’re wildly inaccurate because their reference date is mid-month, before most layoffs started.

So we don’t really know yet with precision, but it’s getting close to Great Recession levels.

qnt• 6 years ago

The civilians labor force is about 165 million people, so we’ve added about ~5% to the unemployment rate in the last two weeks (say 9m increase in claims).

Unemployment peaked at around 25% in the 1930s depression. Rough calcs suggest that could be surpassed: https://www.stlouisfed.org/on-the-economy/2020/march/back-en...

adrianmonk• 6 years ago

Original tweets (from a different Twitter account, belonging to Len Kiefer, an economist Freddie Mac):

https://twitter.com/lenkiefer/status/1245702858449784832

andersonvom• 6 years ago

And the full blog post with more details:

http://lenkiefer.com/2020/04/03/us-labor-market-update-april...

dhimes2• 6 years ago

Jesus. That kind of off-the-chart result is why log graphs were invented. Your link really hammers the disaster home.

partiallypro• 6 years ago

I have not been laid off myself, but I have a a friend that has been laid off, and an acquaintance that has taken a 10% pay cut. Separately I know 3-4 other people that have lost their jobs that are a degree apart, far more than in 08.

downerending• 6 years ago

OT, but I've been getting a lot more feelers for (remote) jobs over the last two weeks. I'm not switching, but I hope that that translates into more work for those who need it.

codezero3• 6 years ago

Being forced to run a remote team of 10 has really opened me up to hiring people remotely in the future, hopefully others will come around as well.

pdimitar6• 6 years ago

Out of curiosity, what was stopping you before? Remote is quite prevalent for years now, especially in IT.

novask• 6 years ago

I left voluntarily before I had something else lined up. We weren't really doing anything we were hired to do (pentesting), so I wanted something else. I got really restless and it's why I'll stay away from government contracting positions in the future unless desperately needed.

4 months ago this wasn't a completely bad idea as tech was known as a seller's market and taking time off to learn new things was normal.

It's obviously not realistic for the next year or so at least.

pmiller22• 6 years ago

My company isn't doing layoffs (yet), but the next year or so is precisely what I'm worried about. I've been at my company for about 1.5 years, and, absent coronavirus, I'm very confident I'd be in no danger of losing my job.

Right now, taking the risk of jumping to a new company doesn't sound appealing. But, if this goes on too long, I'm sure we'll end up doing layoffs at some point. We're already on a hiring freeze, and there are a lot of cost counting and cost saving projects going on right now.

If layoffs do come, though I may be better off than my many coworkers on visas, a job search in the middle of a recession does not sound like any fun. And, layoffs can tend to come in waves, so, even if I make the first cut, there could very well be another round coming in a matter of weeks or months. In that case, I would rather not be around for the second wave of layoffs. I think this scenario is the only one in which taking the risk of switching companies makes any sense.

ghaff• 6 years ago

a job search in the middle of a recession does not sound like any fun

During the dot-com bust, I was very lucky. I had lunch with someone I knew just a few days after I was laid off for dot-com bust related reasons. And he ended up hiring me about a month later.

However, during the interim I was job hunting, including meeting with various other executives I knew and I don't think I had so much as a nibble. And, of course, at least at the moment, there aren't a lot of service sector jobs you can take just to keep some money rolling in.

petercooper2• 6 years ago

Not me, but since it's been linked here a bunch and is related to the tech industry, everyone at The Outline was laid off today and is being discussed here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22769301

Scuds• 6 years ago

I know of an MSP that laid off all their non-critical-infrastructure field staff, and even the (now remote, THANK GOD) helpdesk staff had a paycut.

graphicsRat• 6 years ago

Made redundant last week. Company scrapped the project I was working on in order to cut costs. Industry FinTech

SamWhited5• 6 years ago

20% paycut here. This comes after being laid off a few months ago when Docker sold their enterprise version (sort of, the new company made us all offers but they have terrible benefits among other problems so most people didn't take the offer or only stayed long enough to find something else), so we're all a bit sad. There was then an immediate around of layoffs right after that (though thankfully my department wasn't affected).

At least we still have a job, and I'll take the pay cut if it means we don't have to make anyone else redundant, but I wish the employees had a seat at the negotiating table for any of this.

kamarg2• 6 years ago

I wish the employees had a seat at the negotiating table for any of this

If the tech industry didn't seem to despise unionizing so much this could've been possible. Maybe that will change once the current disaster is behind us.

Yeroc• 6 years ago

Unfortunately, in an economic environment like this a union won't help you. We're seeing many public services staff that are unionized laid off (in Canada) and I'm sure this is happening around the world. By the end of this it's quite likely this will look similar to the Great Depression.

imroot• 6 years ago

Look at BoxBoat -- consulting company near DC. I know they picked up a lot of Docker Inc's PS stuff and had their own clients. They're all remote, so that helps.

boltzmannbrain• 6 years ago

I wish the employees had a seat at the negotiating table for any of this

Perspective from the other side of the table: I can't speak for every company, but we've worked day and night for weeks to figure out a plan that puts employees first and gives us a fighting chance to emerge from this crisis. It may not feel like it, but damn we fight for every single person's job. Paycuts w/o layoffs is a win.

SamWhited5• 6 years ago

That's great, and I'm sure our management did too, but I still wish they'd roped employees in and not just shoved a decision down our throats in a quick video call.

szatkus• 6 years ago

We had a call on Friday exactly for this. We were asked if we want a paycut or laid-offs.

SamWhited5• 6 years ago

A friend of mine mentioned that their company also took them to 80% pay but also gave them Fridays off. I wish we had a union just so they could negotiate for something like this.

cammikebrown3• 6 years ago

I’m a bartender. At least 75% of my friends have been laid off. Not just bartenders, but servers, bussers, most cooks, managers, and everyone I know who works in hotels as well.

ttul• 6 years ago

I'm sorry to hear that. What are you going to do to pass the time while you are laid off?

cammikebrown3• 6 years ago

I’ve been trying out various EdX classes on data science. Any suggestions?

ithrow2• 6 years ago

Just curious, how does a bartender ends up staying reading HN?

esaym• 6 years ago

Was going to ask this too lol

MivLives2• 6 years ago

Speculation:

- Could be they have a hobby of computers

- Could be they are still in school

Not everyone who cares about tech news is working in the tech field.

kickout2• 6 years ago

Not in tech either, but I like reading and casually following the scene. Kinda funny watching the language flame-wars every so often

franksvalli• 6 years ago

Doing market research for the Ballmer Peak

cammikebrown3• 6 years ago

I have a physics degree. It turns out a bachelor’s degree doesn’t help much, and I was too burnt out at the time to go to grad school. I took a few introductory programming classes and I’ve been trying to get back into it lately. Try talking to a bartender sometime, you may find out they’re not as dumb as rocks.

avip2• 6 years ago

If you read this forum carefully you'll find it indeed contains constructors, truck drivers, firefighters, pilots, physicians, teachers... just to name a few from memory.

All these "non-developers" are priceless when discussions pop up which require domain expertise (which we developers usually lack)

[edit: they are also priceless generally speaking]

lackbeard• 6 years ago

I took a year off once and strongly considered trying to get a job as a bartender for fun because I enjoy making cocktails.

HeyLaughingBoy• 6 years ago

I always found it interesting how many people have taught themselves programming.

I was at a customer site a few months ago installing some test hardware and the guy I was working with was their welder, having been an auto mechanic before and we got into a discussion about programming in Python!

The best interaction, however, would be the homeless guy I met who used to be a programmer.

dropit_sphere• 6 years ago

At one point I was working construction during the day and working on a visual programming language at night.

Needless to say, I have little sympathy for those claiming a talent shortage.

Ididntdothis3• 6 years ago

That’s bad. My work hours got reduced to 32 hours with corresponding pay cut. Not a big deal for me but I assume a lot of these people can barely make ends meet even while working. Let’s hope the unemployment benefits in the stimulus bill really work.

01100011• 6 years ago

My brother tends bar at a golf course. They furloughed him until the end of April with pay. Hopefully he can go back to work after that.

avip2• 6 years ago

Isn't it a tiny bit optimistic to assume this "will be over" by end of April?

McPhale• 6 years ago

Half my team just got put on a 30-day minimum furlough (myself included). The other half has been reduced to working one week on and one week off. The car rental business is not in a good place right now.

dillonmckay5• 6 years ago

It is an ‘Essential Service’.

lsavage• 6 years ago

20% cut in hours from one of my contracts but I haven't lost any yet.

topherPedersen• 6 years ago

I landed my first job as full-time professional software developer doing React-Native development right before the Coronavirus pandemic struck. By the time I finished filling out all of the hiring paperwork, drug tests, etc., they reneged on the offer. Was pretty upset about it at the time, but I guess it's hit everyone else just as hard.

Ididntdothis3• 6 years ago

My advice is that if another offer comes up, take it even if the salary is not what you expect. If there really will be a big recession then very soon it will be very hard to find anything. You may end up unemployed for a long time and by the time things pick up, companies will prefer the new grads. In 2002 I made the mistake of being too proud to take underpaid work and it hurt me quite a bit.

notabee• 6 years ago

This is also why people need to push back hard against the typical recruiter habit of asking for your old salary in order to lowball your offer. Many people go through struggles like this.

hackinthebochs• 6 years ago

Where was the job located? It seems odd that you had to take a drug test for the job. I don't think I've heard of that happening in the tech field.

ativzzz• 6 years ago

Tons of non-tech companies drug test, and they have lots of tech roles.

sidlls• 6 years ago

It happens frequently enough outside major development hubs, especially on the east coast.

quicklyfrozen• 6 years ago

If they have any government contracts they may be required to.

thwllms• 6 years ago

10% salary cut. Other people at my company (large civil engineering firm) who can't work remotely have been transitioned to on-call, and about 1000 were laid off. Salaries for highly billable employees are currently unaffected.

gigatexal2• 6 years ago

Former SRE in Hamburg, Germany, laid off on the 27th of March. :(

Looking for data engineering roles

email at alex at alexandarnarayan dot com or https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandarnarayan/

exdsq3• 6 years ago

I work for a company currently hiring a data engineer (100% remote):

https://iohk.io/en/careers/fk0qqod/data-engineer/#main-conte...

gigatexal2• 6 years ago

Applying now. Thank you!!!

fredley2• 6 years ago

[UK] Not me but my partner—classical music. Almost everyone is freelance, and everyone has had all their gigs cancelled for the next few months, leaving a lot of people for whom strings were tight to begin with in complete limbo. Performers obviously but also all the events, management, publicity, everything. The scale of it is almost incomprehensible, unless massive investment is made in the sector to keep it alive, it will just... die.

H8crilA4• 6 years ago

Or severely deflate. The instruments and people and equipment will still be there, just much much cheaper to get. Companies will be owned by defaulted bonds rather than stocks.

fredley2• 6 years ago

These aren't companies. Most are charities. The Royal Opera House will be fine, the hundreds of smaller music organisations will not.

sandinmyjoints• 6 years ago

Yeah, I've seen this too from the perspective of some friends in classical music. I don't think it will die in the sense that noone will put on or attend classical music performances anymore, but longtime institutions that were homes for it will go away, and performers will go into other work, so when all's said and done I imagine it will quite a smaller field than it was, fewer people in it, less money in it for anyone to make a living off of, fewer opportunities and performances. But who knows.

mabbo• 6 years ago

my partner—classical music
a lot of people for whom strings were tight

There's a bad joke in there about tuning a little more flat, but I'll leave well enough alone and instead send my sympathies.

I have an acquaintance who was nominated for Juno[0], Canada's highest music award, and the entire award process is apparently dead now, no certainly no awards show. This should be her possibly hitting a new high point in her career- a big award can mean future opportunities- and instead it's all just on hold.

[0]https://junoawards.ca/2020-juno-award-nominees/

nostromo2• 6 years ago

I found this list on Reddit if you're looking for a full list of companies that are laying employees off, pausing hiring, or still hiring:

https://airtable.com/shrpj2r4Kjc4YoMu4/tbl8m95GiuWehnIiT?blo...

kubanczyk• 6 years ago

Wow, much bigger than I expected.

nostromo2• 6 years ago

I should have mentioned this is being community sourced here:

https://candor.co/hiring-freezes

Zaheer• 6 years ago

We're gathering a similar list of Who's Hiring with some more detail on location / roles here: https://www.levels.fyi/still-hiring/

Hope it helps!

Hamuko• 6 years ago

My workplace had furloughs, but all of the developers were excluded from it. Guessing the management had enough trouble hiring developers as it was.

cableshaft• 6 years ago

I haven't personally had a change yet, although things have been a little slow here lately, so who knows.

My wife, on the other hand, was reduced to 3 days a week at her job for the next 90 days, with a reduced salary to reflect that, so 40% reduction in salary. At least she wasn't in the group at her office that was furloughed.

So things are still tighter for us, although we're still a lot better off than most people right now.

Havoc• 6 years ago

No but making a intl job hop soon in the middle of this mess and a little worried that it'll not pan out (despite signed contract).

Current job - Auditor - no indication of slowdown. Entire firm has laptop/vpn/phone so essentially ready for this.

brownindian• 6 years ago

[Boston/DevOps] Not laid off yet, but we have been told that "Role eliminations" is coming. Those not getting laid off, are going on mandatory two-week furlough. Once week in April, and once in May. June onwards TBD. All as part of cost cutting.

DoofusOfDeath• 6 years ago

Akamai's HQ is in Cambridge. I don't know if they're currently hiring, but I expect they're quite busy these days. Might want to check them out.

tj02• 6 years ago

Everyone took a 20% pay cut, lots of people have been furloughed so workload has also increased. Would've been nice to have had a voice in the company's decision; kinda caught between a rock and a hard place at this point.

mikekij2• 6 years ago

Sincere question: If you had a voice in the decision, what would you have done differently?

tj02• 6 years ago

You know, it's hard to say. I've never been in the position where I have both investors, and several thousand employees to answer to; let alone having to dictate who's going to get let go. As such, I'm by no means an authority on this nor can I fathom what the C-Suite must be going through. Obviously, there is an emotional tax associated with these kind of decisions.

Based on various articles I've read here on HN, it would have been nice to have more transparency into the financials of the company versus all messaging completely devastating morale, and leaving an air of uncertainty. We know we're hemorrhaging cash right now; who isn't, though?

That being said, I would've furloughed everyone that isn't absolutely vital to maintaining bare minimum operations. Made one painfully large cut -- kinda like peeling a bandaid quickly instead of ripping out fifty individual hairs multiple times. I think this alone would've offered a much better sense of security for those that remained, as well as allowing them to stay at their normal salaries.

Next, I would proceed with identifying the clients that are most likely be unable to continue operations themselves, and proactively suspend services. After that, renegotiate quicker payments, and potentially rate increases on services with the remaining active clients.

That would enable the company to turn down anything that's deemed as nice-to-have in our service offerings (no room for luxuries right now), and evaluate all infrastructure costs. We would then have full insight into knowing how much we could scale down our IT infrastructure. We could then proceed to contact vendors, and renegotiate service agreements, further maximizing savings, and decreasing our burn rate.

I would've done everything possible to keep the remaining employees secure, and confident. By performing more drastic cuts initially, scaling back operations, and retaining core teams, everyone could have kept their pay at normal levels, and I think the burn rate would've been significantly less.

Like I said, though, I've never been in the captain's seat and right now may not be a great time to try to say what I'd do. Each day brings less inspiring news and being kept in the dark hasn't helped anyone be more productive.

redorb• 6 years ago

I asked the owner for a 20% cut. We had some tough negotiations on my salary 2 years ago and I wanted to express my willingness to share the 'pain'. So far she hasn't taken me up on it.

*I don't know how to take the fact she hasn't taken me up on it :/ but I do adore the company ~ 13 years in service.

H8crilA4• 6 years ago

May be quite a smart move. The "kill list" order should (rationally) be heavily influenced by the total compensation.

abinaya_remote• 6 years ago

If you have been laid off and looking for a remote job, At Remote Leaf, we have been working on an initiative to curate the remote jobs from Hacker News who is hiring thread. Hopefully you will find some interesting openings here.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NVzygGYTmF3g_VPAh4lX...

conradfr4• 6 years ago

Fired officially next week but to be honest it was ongoing before the lockdown;)

On the bright side it seems the tech job market is not too much affected here in Paris but we'll see how it goes.

Well at least I can now finish some freelance gig that was taking my free time, and it gives me more time to continue learning elixir, I even finally took the time to open-source and deploy a demo of a LiveView game I made initially at the company that let me go. https://every-weak-tapaculo.gigalixirapp.com/potus

elros• 6 years ago

tech job market is not too much affected here in Paris

What are good websites to find positions for work in Paris? No problem if the website is in French, bien entendu :-)

conradfr4• 6 years ago

I would say LinkedIn, Glassdoor, and then WelcomeToTheJungle and ChooseYourBoss.

H8crilA4• 6 years ago

You sure? I'd be surprised if even 10% of tech companies were hiring right now, regardless of location ...

conradfr4• 6 years ago

Obviously but for now I still have many contacts on LinkedIn and former colleagues wanting to refer me to their current company.

So yeah it's entirely subjective and I guess it'll heavily depend on how many times the lockdown is extended ...

karatestomp3• 6 years ago

I think people sometimes don't consider how small a shift in supply and demand in a labor market can change things. A couple percent of the industry's workforce laid off, and even 5-10% fewer open positions (I suspect it's much worse than that), and suddenly a hot job market looks a hell of a lot cooler.

unemphysbro3• 6 years ago

Haha, I enjoyed the game.

I'd suggest a 20-25 second long timer.

conradfr4• 6 years ago

Thanks :) The timer started higher back when it was real colleagues but it allowed people to cheat too much thanks to the team page so by trial and error I eventually settled on 10 seconds.

seniordevconfuz3• 6 years ago

I woke up today with a nice surprise from HR. I got laid off. It was the most impersonal and robotic email I received.

20 minutes later all my accounts got disabled, not a chance to even say farewell to my nice co-workers.

It sucks. I don't have a ton of savings. Luckily my car is paid off, and I only have student loans left.

I was very tempted to inflate my lifestyle after I got a big raise.

I didn't do it, otherwise i'd be in a world of shit.

At least I can survive for a couple month or so.

Stay strong people

fred_is_fred3• 6 years ago

I'm not sure if you are in the US, but if you are apply for unemployment and apply now. The sooner you do it the longer your savings will last. And having gone through this before, you need to cut spending to the bone. Beyond not going out to eat since that is handled, but see if you can reduce your car insurance, drop online recurring services, etc.

seniordevconfuz3• 6 years ago

That's a great advice.

Yes I am in the US.I will start that application right now.

I panic paid off my car insurance just in case things get worse. I'll shop for a cheaper phone plan.

Gym memberships, online streaming and frivolous stuff will go.

Capitalism for the win.

aerovistae2• 6 years ago

You can stop your student loans completely. I went a very long time without paying them when I was unemployed.

unemphysbro3• 6 years ago

I believe if the loans are non-stafford interest accrues.

I had to pause my repayments this month because of job-hunt.

oarabbus_2• 6 years ago

My partner's friend had a large number of people let go during a zoom meeting. It was horribly planned, several people showed up 3-5 minutes late each time they had to say "you're laid off" yet again, etc.

neuronexmachina• 6 years ago

Bird? https://dot.la/bird-layoffs-meeting-story-2645612465.html

mgleason_3• 6 years ago

This Zoom (who apparently has some large security issues)? https://citizenlab.ca/2020/04/move-fast-roll-your-own-crypto...

Souzana• 6 years ago

Goes to show, companies don't give a damn, and people will start realizing this pretty fast. "Company family" my ass dude

silexia• 6 years ago

Companies are like individuals. Some companies go far above and beyond to take care of their employees. I am the owner of an agency and converted our goals from profit to maintaining our team without layoffs. We are restructuring a bit to make this happen, but have not laid anyone off. We do not anticipate doing so unless we lose 2/3 of our revenue.

Companies backed by finance guys are psychopaths. They only have one goal - to make as much money as possible. They will sacrifice the people on their teams to get there. This goes for VCs, public companies, private equity, debt finance companies etc.

gwbas1c2• 6 years ago

My job of 9 years ended the last day of February. My plan was to take two weeks off and start looking for another job mid-March.

I've been ready to change jobs, but I find job searches while I have a job frustrating. Each opportunity is a huge investment in time. Honestly, I find it easier to search for a job when I can give it my full and undivided attention.

To make a long story short, I dropped a hint that I was ready to leave voluntarily under the right circumstances, but I didn't anticipate the whole COVID-19 thing happening just as I was starting my job search. I never anticipated that, the exact week that I planned on looking for a job, daycare would close, and everyone else in the industry would join the job search.

So anyway, what am I looking for? Priorities:

0: You can pay me

1: You need someone with almost 20 years development experience

2a: Ideally, I'd like to join an early stage company that has a "bubblegum and duct tape" version of their product on the marketplace, and now needs someone to make it better

2b: Or, I'd like to join a company with demonstrated product-market fit and write the first version of their product

3: I'd like to work with some languages, frameworks, toolkits that I don't have experience with (But otherwise, I have about 18 years experience in C#)

4: I don't really care if it's web, mobile, desktop, full-stack, ect. (But the last 9 years was a desktop product.)

https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-rondeau-56490a4/

nojvek4• 6 years ago

I’d imagine a decent chunk of early stage companies are really struggling now. Everyone’s wallets just shrunk and they’re holding onto them very dearly.

Schwolop• 6 years ago

Even though it's not tangible, I just wanted to offer you a ray of hope - if you'd pitched that set of priorities to me at the right time, I would want to give you an interview barely glancing at a resume. The attitude of wanting to solve hard problems and wanting to learn new things too (in my limited experience) leads to the best developers and designers.

gwbas1c2• 6 years ago

Thanks, I appreciate that. (BTW, my LinkedIn is pretty close to my resume.)

The most important thing is: Don't Panic!

What I generally observe in software is that it's super-hard to hire. Now a lot of companies that had difficult-to-fill openings will realize it's now or never: If you can't find someone to fill the role in this economy, you probably have unrealistic expectations. Otherwise, you're going to have plenty of great people walking through your door.

I think that hiring will pick up faster than we anticipate. Pay might be a little less than we want, but it'll be back by the beginning of 2022.

frompdx• 6 years ago

Not laid off, but in limbo. I accepted a new job at the end of February that was originally supposed to start on 3/30. Unfortunately, my start date is now up in the air due to logistical issues getting my hardware so I can start work. I no longer have a confirmed start date.

It's a bummer because I resigned from my previous position on 3/13 so I could have time in between jobs. Now I'm getting a lot more time than I planned and I'm hoping my new job doesn't evaporate. I'm excited to work with this company and team so I am keeping my fingers crossed for now.

If my new job does disappear, I would really like to find an opportunity working with Clojure(Script) and/or Kubernetes.

shashanoid2• 6 years ago

I was supposed to intern at Shopify Canada this summer. I'm free for next three months and would love to work on some interesting projects or remotely. https://github.com/shashanoid

rishabluthra• 6 years ago

Did shopify cancel co-ops?

xutopia2• 6 years ago

Pretty sure he still is doing the internship but I think his current gig was cancelled and he's looking for something to fill the next 3 months.

shashanoid2• 6 years ago

No, it got canceled for me. I'm on F-1 based in US and with the borders closed there's nothing that Shopify could do. Such a tangled situation :)

kippinitreal• 6 years ago

DM me if interested - we are doubling our engineering intern class this summer, I believe 50-75 more seats, to try and help out folks who've had their summer plans canceled. This would be at least partially remote, but we are considering bring folks to the Bay Area if shelter in place ends early in the summer.

(posted publicly in case others are in the same boat)

alpacaillama• 6 years ago

Hey - not the OP but where can I DM you? Do you have an email?

indiandennis• 6 years ago

No info in your profile to DM, but I'm interested in this as well. I'm a third year CS undergrad in the Bay Area, I'd really appreciate the opportunity. My email is "jobs (at) ameyathakur.com"

lb1lf4• 6 years ago

-I just got laid off after 15 years at an engineering company, the last couple of which I was an engineering manager/technical authority.

Prospects aren’t too bleak - the local engineering scene is pretty sound and I’ve heard encouraging noises from a couple of companies I’d love to work for - however, while the country is in lockdown and everybody is burning through their cash pile, not much hiring gets done.

On the upside, I have a few weeks at a minimum to spend more time with my kids and bring my Russian and Portuguese skills back up to speed.

klunger2• 6 years ago

Since you are Norwegian, and presumably working for a Norwegian company, I am curious how such a layoff was possible. Was it an actual layoff or are you permittert?

lb1lf4• 6 years ago

-Oh, it was a proper layoff, all right. Assuming you are in Norway, too - got summons to a 15.1 out of the blue, couple of days later I was told that my services were not required going forward, signed an agreement giving me several months of severance pay + no obligation to work during the termination period against waiving my right to sue.

Considering the petroleum service industry had been struggling for years, I took the severance pay rather than fighting to keep a job which would in all likelihood disappear shortly anyway.

Took four business days from having a steady job to being unemployed.

mlvljr• 6 years ago

Russian skills, huh? :)

unemphysbro3• 6 years ago

Not laid off but I did just finish my PhD in computational biophysics and the three companies I was interviewing at paused/stopped interviews. I was frugal during my PhD but I decided it was best to move back in with my parents in San Jose (I was crashing on a buddy's couch in Champaign). My sisters lost their service sector jobs two-weeks ago.

I've been applying non-stop so if anyone has any refs for data science positions that would be quite helpful; it's a weird time transitioning from Academia to industry.

Here's my linkedin: https://bit.ly/2UYJbbf

That said, my heart goes out to those that are in a tough situation.

minkzilla• 6 years ago

I’m graduating undergrad right now and I’ve been applying for jobs for months with not much success. Astonishingly, I’ve started getting more responses in the past couple of weeks.

I’ve definitely gotten some companies saying they are freezing hiring and I’m worried as time goes on all of them will do this.

Thankfully I have home and will be fine; it is frustrating however.

xutopia2• 6 years ago

I sent you a request via LinkedIn. My company is looking for data scientists.

BrandonWatson• 6 years ago

(posted this on ShowHN last week)

I was on track to have this paid service offering launched in the coming weeks, but the economic uncertainty brought on by COVID caused me to rethink the go to market plan.

I iterated quickly on something I could offer to those in need now and in the coming weeks. This is one way I can give back.

If you have been impacted and will be, or is already scheduled to, interviewing soon, I want to help. If you know someone for whom this would be helpful, please share.

https://www.interviewat.com/prep-service-special-offer

Any and all feedback welcome

lizardking• 6 years ago

I had a one year contract terminated a month early today, with one week notice. Upon getting the news, I immediately starting searching and was lucky to find another contract. Finding work will become harder as the number of laid off workers increases.

doakes• 6 years ago

I was visiting Central America when things started getting bad. I was told I could work from here, but now I'm told I either have to travel home (US) or lose my job. Based off this thread, I might take that risk of traveling home.

Dork_Sider• 6 years ago

I got laid off last Friday in the middle of going over the test scenarios for a product launch this coming week. As a relatively new product manager, I'm curious to see how the prospects are against much more senior PMs.

matt_morgan• 6 years ago

My wife, who was doing office admin and CRM management for a lawyer/marketer couple. Their work has dried up a bit, and they moved a young adult son back home to help deal with isolation and his own layoff.

She's looking for remote work in CRM operations, part-time. Or local to the Philadelphia suburbs.

LarryDarrell• 6 years ago

The company I'm contracting for is flaming out fast. It's sad to see the death spiral in action. It's a shame, because it's the best work I've ever done and I don't know if anyone will ever see it. The software team was 100% remote and they were the best colleagues I've ever had.

It sucks to have graduated in 07, and feel like you've hit your stride in 20.

dhimes2• 6 years ago

You must be seriously grieving. I'm sorry, dude.

nsxwolf• 6 years ago

I haven't been laid off yet but I expect it to happen any moment. This will be my second layoff this year. I went through coding interview hell to get this job too, and I was so happy and things were really looking up. This is hard.

coldcode• 6 years ago

I work for a big company in the news. We are still waiting on hearing about furlough details next week. Not a clue what will happen. There is no "what happens in a pandemic" page in the employee handbook. I have a feeling every top level exec everywhere has no idea what to do in such a situation. At least we are unlikely to lose our jobs in the long run, but who knows how long the short run will be.

remmargorp64• 6 years ago

The company I work at is trying to avoid laying off people by asking everyone across the board to take a pay cut. I had recently received a raise, so they paid me at my raised rate up until the end of the month, but they let me know they would need to revert me to my un-raised salary moving forward. All in all, a reduction of about $7,000 to my salary. Some of the other devs (the most expensive ones) took a 30% pay cut.

They are hoping they can qualify for some of the $2 trillion stimulus and can recoup some of the losses (and if the economy recovers, they might be able to give us some of our reduced salaries back as bonuses at the end of the year), but we will just have to see.

Ultimately, I'm grateful that we aren't all getting laid off right now. I think more companies should offer salary cuts as an option instead of just blindly laying off people.

ryandrake• 6 years ago

I've been in this situation. First it was 1/2 paychecks. Then, a few months into the recession it was 1/4 paychecks. Finally, it was 1/4 paychecks and no health insurance. That was when I buggered out. It might have been more humane to just lay off people.

dguaraglia3• 6 years ago

As someone running a company that is trying to keep people employed by cutting salaries: we don't want our employees to be scared about not having healthcare the moment they might need it the most. We talked it with everyone, we are all taking a pay cut (us, founders, were the ones making the least already so I think our employees understand) and we are doing everything possible to extend our runway until at least next year. We also setup a scheme where we compensate our employees with stock options equivalent to the salary lost, until things get better.

This situation sucks, but there's no way losing healthcare now would be 'more humane' than taking a pay cut.

boopk• 6 years ago

Work in entertainment marketing (theatrical trailers and promos) as a finishing coordinator (uprezzing, overcutting, versioning with different dated cards, exporting different specs for different platforms, etc) and out whole industry has essentially been furloughed. It sucks and I don't think it will be temporary, I think a lot of shops will close.

sosborn• 6 years ago

This is going to be a mass extinction event for small businesses.

shdon• 6 years ago

Here in the Netherlands, the government have taken the action to help out affected companies fulfil their payroll obligations, meaning the govt is effectively paying the salaries of an extra million people (12% of our total workforce).

As the only IT guy in a company that does pretty much all its business online, and being the longest-serving employee in the company, my job is safer than anybody else's, but we have seen revenue plummet and we're having to let some people go - which is heartbreaking. Even though our society will make sure that they will not be in real trouble, and it ensures the survival of the company, these are valued coworkers and genuinely nice people and I'm sad to see them go.

daxfohl• 6 years ago

Had a pretty steady contracting gig doing fun new things for a photobooth company. Not any more!

Fortunately I have a few other things to pay the bills (so far), and fortunately I have enough savings not to have any short-term worries, but that was my main source of income.

johnchristopher• 6 years ago

I have been laid off yesterday. I decided three years ago to settle for a 1800€ job in a public institution, thinking that I could relax and escape the stress of freelance or small startups. For reasons too complicated to put into words right now it has been the most stressful years of my life, burnout/depression/loss of social support, that job took everything from me. There was a political/adminstrative change in the structure of that public institution and a clique of women set things up so that one of them - who has no IT skills, no coding skills, just a community manager - could get the budget that supports my role.

That budget was going to end in a year anyway. They just shotgunned me in the knees in the goddam apocalypse and we are talking public sector. Things must be savage in "the real world", right now.

I got a phone call from a local politician telling me that "It's not your performance or your skills or you it's just a budgetary reason. If I see anything that fits your profile I 'll let you know" (like... letting me keep the job I have been doing for three years ?). My job is entirely supported by a higher federal entity, I cost them 0 bucks, and I am there to carry on missions for that entity. It's truly cronyism at its finest.

And total lack of humanity.

All my close coworkers are up in arms and letters to local politicians are being written this week-end.

Today is the first day of a two week vacation (I officially am out in three weeks but the lockdown won't be very productive considering) and I was still in 2 zoom meetings talking about branding and destination management strategies at a small country level and how we can best help and support our sector to rebound later in the year. It's mind blowing. Was sending technical thingie to a coworker at 1 in the morning. They haven't even told my n+1 that I was let go.

Good thing there is a social net in my country, I am looking for to rest, find myself back. It's going to hit me real hard next week when I realize I have no social support in lockdown and all the projects I was working on are just... poof... gone.

edit: not covid19 related

edit2: so, total loss of trust in our representatives/politicians for a while

edit3: sorry for that broken english, I am running on fumes, I somehow couldn't sleep more than 2 hours last night :D

52-6F-62• 6 years ago

I'm fortunate enough to say that I haven't.

I work in tech for a media and publishing company. We're classified as an essential business in Ontario. We are all working remotely--editorial teams, production, tech, everyone save some of the press operators.

We have reduced to 4-days a week, and so we had to take a 20% pay cut for a 6 week term. I think they're hoping to buffer our collective coffers in case this is extended and ad revenue falls further.

On another note, our digital readership is setting internal records.

My partner works for a Canadian SaaS firm based out of Saskatoon. About 30% of them were laid off including her.

They had a heartfelt meeting with the founder but as soon as they got the official word the machine locked her out. She still meets over video for drinks with some of her coworkers.

Being that her company works closely with the restaurant industry we're hoping it won't be too hard for them to ramp up again, but that remains to be seen.

LyalinDotCom• 6 years ago

Really sorry to everyone who is out of work now :(, I wish I could do more then just give you some links and thoughts but hope this helps.

1. If you're looking to ramp-up your skills Pluralsight is giving away a free month of training this month: https://www.pluralsight.com/offer/2020/free-april-month

2. Large companies are still hiring I growth areas, I am not 100% sure but If I was a betting man anything at Google, Amazon or Microsoft that is cloud related is probably still booming to get people on board

3. If you wind up finding some work that is remote in this situation and don't have WFH experience check out this great set of tips for WFH by Scott Hanselman: https://www.hanselman.com/blog/LoveInATimeOfCoronaVirusTipsT...

chrisjarvis• 6 years ago

Can confirm Amazon is actively hiring rn, and not just for AWS.

jcadam• 6 years ago

My industry (Defense contracting) is fairly immune to at least the immediate fallout from all this. If this turns into a longer general economic downturn, however... who knows?

But my company is hiring right now (though, most of the jobs require a clearance). The jobs aren't remote, well.. right now many of them sort of are, but they'll surely revert to on-site again eventually.

dang• 6 years ago

There was a thread like this a little over two weeks ago, but things are moving so quickly that perhaps another is ok.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22618788

dillonmckay5• 6 years ago

I have a feeling this will be a bi-monthly HN tradition for the foreseeable future.

It is comforting, personally, to read and share.

It can happen to anybody.

iandanforth2• 6 years ago

If many people at your company have been laid off it might be a good idea to check with a lawyer to see if the company has complied with the requirements to be exempt from WARN act compliance. Here's some relevant analysis from California:

https://www.californiaemploymentlawreport.com/2020/03/govern...

hedora3• 6 years ago

The WARN act has been temporarily suspended:

https://www.edd.ca.gov/about_edd/coronavirus-2019/faqs/WARN....

iandanforth2• 6 years ago

Did you read the link I posted? It's a legal analysis of that order because ...

"The Executive Order does not suspend the California WARN Act in its entirety, nor does it suspend the law for all covered employers. The Executive Order only suspends the California WARN Act’s 60-day notice requirement for those employers that satisfy the Order’s specific conditions. "

dbetteridge• 6 years ago

Wife started a new Travel Tech Support role (Sabre, Concur,Sabre scripts etc) on 23rd of March, was Furloughed 2 days later then reduced to 2.5 days a week the next day (UK Furlough doesn't apply due to start date)

Bad time to be in the travel industry.

excalibur• 6 years ago

Me. I'm looking for recruiters to leave me alone and let me draw unemployment in peace for a while. This may not be THE answer to burnout, but it's AN answer.

heywire• 6 years ago

Software Engineer at a large software company (Fortune 500), 7.5% pay cut, but happy to still be employed. I am billable to our customers, and have a decent backlog of work, so I am hopeful.

ahayter• 6 years ago

Perfect storm for the company I was working for. Had their worst fourth quarter in company history. Purchased another company in January as part of a pivot to a more profitable business model. They were a bit desperate to get the deal done, probably didn't even consider what was occurring in China at the time. They had significant operations in Southeast Asia. As far as I knew zero planning had been taking place until it was too late.

Essentially all revenue generating operations halted as of March 16th.

I was unfortunately leading the charge in a newly created division. We were not generating revenue yet, so the hammer fell for all of us.

Stay happy, stay safe, and keep hacking!

aladine• 6 years ago

I was on parental leave and my son was born on a beautiful day. The next day, I got an email announced that everybody in my technical team is marked as redundant. I am speechless and through conversation, there is a sudden withdraw of investors to fund our company. Without this funding, it is impossible to keep the company going. From what I know, it sounds like a way to minimise the loss.

I was sad. We have a big plan to roll out a big feature in May. Now everything I worked on in last 6 months will be put on hold. Probably it never push to production.

My latest joy of becoming a father was ultimately skewed. Now I have to find a new job in Australia while taking care of a newborn. Things become harder this time when many companies impose a hiring freeze.

I still keep my faith that one day I will escape from this unemployment. One day.

fenelope• 6 years ago

I was laid off at my little startup a couple weeks ago, 6 people were affected.

I'm a 3D Artist with some software engineering cred, so I work pretty well with engineers in small teams that still need the asset pipeline figured out. Portfolio: https://penny-art.com/

LinkedIn still likes to send recruiters my way telling me about awesome C++ opportunities developer game dev keywords. Please no

mastrsushi2• 6 years ago

I was not laid off, but my contract ended 3/30. The company I worked under offered me permanent employment around 3/15. I told my recruiter during an off site lunch meeting that I was pretty much unhappy with the work, people, and location. I also foolishly added that I will take the permanent role, but asked if they could find me another one instead as I continue looking.

It quickly occurred to me that wasn't the wisest thing to tell a person whose job it is to find a long standing candidate. So I asked if my complaints were between us, she said of course.

Later that day, my other recruiter calls me saying he has to tell the company I was contracted at that I will not continue past my term. His justification how it would look bad on there part.

So now I'm without any job, still looking, but without luck.

jimmydddd2• 6 years ago

Sorry to hear that. Always keep in mind that if the recruiter has placed or is looking to place mutiple candidates at a company, and the recruiter is paid a fee by the company--Then the company is really the recruiter's client, not you. Good luck in your search.

masonhensley• 6 years ago

Bummer, what kind of work are you wanting to do next?

mastrsushi2• 6 years ago

I'd like to continue as a C# .Net developer because that's my strongest skill. I'm starting to wonder if telling employers that boxes me in.

eldacila• 6 years ago

I got laid off on March 25th, I was called to go to the office the day before, told it was that "the higher ups wanted to see the team", only it was to get me to sign the paperwork, and give back the laptop, they paid a taxi to get me to my apartment, but it felt like an ambush

luckily my mother instilled in me the value of saving money, so I can survive for a while on my savings, but the double hit of the anxiety from the pandemic, and getting laid off has been quite stressing...

I'm open to any software development job, full-time, part-time, remote, I've been applying to several positions, but my first choice for applying cancelled all hires (a friend of mine who works there told me their CEO sent an email saying that), and most other companies are probably doing something similar

mvanveen• 6 years ago

Previously to this month I was a Senior Machine Learning engineer at Zest.ai. I have over a decade of professional experience as a backend engineer with Python before that.

I accepted a job offer at the highest salary I'd ever been offered late February. At the time some coworkers were stuck in China and I thought "there's a non-zero probability covid-19 f's everything up, but it'll be fine."

Started the new job on 3/16. The company didn't exist anymore after 3/27.

http://github.com/mvanveen https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanveenm/

If you think there's a good fit please reach out at hn22770643@mvv.email . Thank you!

raincom• 6 years ago

My friend's contract is not extended. He works for a bay area company owned by Silverlake partners. His team has four full timers and six contractors. CEO sent an email to not renew contracts.

My contract is due for May 31. I am not so confident about renewal. And my team has 70% contractors. There is a large contingent workforce in IT. You don't see them in the official layoff list; instead, they are employees of unknown staffing companies.

Many track

zingar• 6 years ago

An investor pulled out of a SIGNED term sheet because of covid19. The last year of growth undone, 70 people plus contractors laid off. I have domain knowledge that no one else in the company does so I was spared. For legal reasons here it won't be instant, but all my collaboration is with people who already know their job ends at the end of April.

apexalpha• 6 years ago

This thread is unbelievable for me. In the US everyone is employed as if they are independant contractors? If your boss decides so you lose your job with a 5 seconds notice?

In my country if you have full employment you have a 2 month notice and they need to prove the need or cause for firing.

nojvek4• 6 years ago

That can go wrong on the employer side as well with bad employees not being able to let go of easily.

The US doesn’t have much of a safety net. Covid-19 perhaps will take the toll of the most bankruptcies and preventable suicides in a wealthy nation.

We screwed this one up really bad.

to11mtm• 6 years ago

The majority of people are 'at-will'. Which is not the same as a contractor, but for the purpose of your question it may as well be.

In some cases you may have severance pay defined by the terms of the employer, but that became pretty rare as something that would be promised after the 2008 recession. It still happens but not like it used to.

Generally speaking you are 'at will' in the United states, so you can be let go for any reason that is not explicitly illegal to do so for (i.e. race, old age, etc.) You could theoretically get let go because the owner decided 'I found a penny on the ground today and I decided it was a sign to fire you'.

On one hand this is because, inversely speaking, you, again, typically allowed to quit at any moment for any reason you want. Including getting another job. This does however handwave away the asymmetry in finding a replacement for an employee versus finding a new employer. It's also concerning in this modern age where some Sandwich shops try to get line workers to sign noncompetes.

nojvek4• 6 years ago

Not let go, but voluntarily quit in Jan to work on a side project. Now everyone’s wallets are tight and I feel that was a terrible decision.

My thinking was “economy is mega booming, I can always land a job if things go south”.

I was very wrong, things have gone quite south. Savings I had in stock vanished 30% of their value. A lot of anxiety. I could ride a couple of months but then shit’s gonna really hit the fan.

Gabriel_Martin• 6 years ago

Yeah I finally moved from contracting roles to a fulltime salary, and this hits, and I'm laid off. Feels terrible.

GoldenMonkey• 6 years ago

Laid off. 1 month notice, no severance.

a_lifters_life• 6 years ago

Laid off;1 day notice given; slight severance. Ive never been laid off/fired/whatever from a job, and now in 2020 I get to hopefully find a new job (soon)

PixelPaul• 6 years ago

I am still employed luckily. But I am keen to try help out any developers. I was going to start a new project in nodejs Adonisjs and Vuejs but I might see about hiring someone to do it for me instead. Only problem is I won’t be able to afford a full time developer at normal rates. Maybe $5,000 AUD and I think it will take about 3 - 4 months works. Would anyone be interested? I understand if not as it’s not a great deal of money for the time.

pdimitar6• 6 years ago

I definitely would have taken you up on your offer if I wasn't a hardcore backender. But hey, it might be a good opportunity go get back to some frontend work because I was meaning to re-learn parts of it. Or maybe we could go with Phoenix LiveView which is basically making the server act as if what you're seeing is happening on the browser?

In any case, my email is in my profile. What is your project about?

importorrequire• 6 years ago

if you're dealing with student loans, you should check out https://debtcollective.org/ and join the student debt strike https://strike.debtcollective.org/

mgold55• 6 years ago

Strange time 4 me here. Worked for 5 and half years and was getting the "Reduction in force" thingy with 24 other IT folks out there for a major healthcare insurer. I was looking for a job since Dec-2019 anyway.

At least I was fully paid to the end of March and now getting some form of supplemental $$$ till end of June. Then freakin' reality will hit as I will paying out for Cobra. This Covid issue is introducing the raw side of business, loyalty, connections, solitude and just watching bad news all day.

So, my advice is treat yourself better and be kind to yourself, your family and true friends.

pdimitar6• 6 years ago

I didn't get laid off due to the pandemic. But I've got a very generous notice at the end of January that I have until 30th of April to find a new job (I was told they have to reduce costs and can only guess it's due to investor pressure).

I started looking actively for a job somewhere at the start of February and had several very promising leads and eventually, at the start of March, several pre-offer stages of the interviewing process with several companies.

And then the whole thing happened. Some companies told me they are freezing hiring, others didn't say anything, and my best lead had to leave me hanging even though it was clear (signs that I read during our real-life meetings) he wanted to hire me for two separate projects and a full-time job.

I waited for about 3 weeks, thinking to wait out the initial panic. But it became increasingly clear that is not going to die out anytime soon.

I wrote a very short intro of my profile (with a link to a CV) here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22752249

Not sure I will have enough savings to last me several months so not going to rely on that and will be looking to start a new job -- or consulting -- as early as possible.

Stay strong, people.

heyshtor• 6 years ago

I am a linguist in the UK, and our team is on a month's notice period due to a cost cut.

I am looking natural language understanding / natural language generation and analytics tasks but can also do other things from voice technology pipeline (ASR, TTS, voice QA) as well as QA and technical support for webtech projects. https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariya-heyshtor-164a35157/

fcnub• 6 years ago

Laid off two days ago from Affirma Consulting in Bellevue, WA out of the blue. Not sure why they chose me, I guess my skillset wasn't wide enough because it wasn't like my pay was huge compared to my coworkers who live in Washington. After my separation pay, I'm going to be clueless on what to do next since most likely no one is hiring at this time. Ugh.

Ask HN: Who has been laid off?

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