4 ms·

I've been in a similar position in the past, where I had already been made redundant, but had been brought in to another team on a trial basis with a few other

I've been in a similar position in the past, where I had already been made redundant, but had been brought in to another team on a trial basis with a few other devs. While getting my machine set up in their office, I had been given elevated Dropbox privileges, and I noticed a file with a name like "temp-dev-interview-approach". It was a document saying they were only going to hire one dev, and that it would be me. I went through a similar dilemma, and I didn't tell them. I hinted heavily at it being an option, and pointed out the reasons why I might be the person to stay on (most experienced, worked on the larger client that was coming over), but no one caught on. I literally dragged them to a user group one day and mentioned redundancies to a mate of mine that was hiring, and despite him offering an interview to all of them, only one took it. To make things worse, I was told this by the MD a few months later. He also told me to not say anything until he had told the others, which he'd do soon. A day passed, and I kept shut around my co-workers, until they were all told that they wouldn't be there past the end of the month - and that I had been told yesterday. Despite the fact that I was sworn to secrecy, I felt like shit about it, and I think my co-workers lost a bit of respect for me for essentially sitting with them at lunch "worrying" about whether we were all staying when I already knew. I didn't really talk to many of them after they left. All but one moved into different careers, and the one that took my mate up on his job offer left quickly to become a creative lead. Having experienced what I've experienced, which I'd consider a fairly shitty situation, I would 100% tell my co-workers if I could be sure that they wouldn't rat me out for it. Since a clients work is drying up, it sounds like you'll all have a fairly iron-clad reason to look for another job anyway, since experienced devs tend to have a feeling when a contract is about to wind down.

mattmanser 8y ago
You can never be sure how people are going to react. You tell them and one of them gets pissed and storms into the manager's office and you're suddenly out of a job.
- EnderMB 8y ago
  True. At the time, that was one of the things that worried me, as we were all fairly new (less than a year) to the company in question, and some of us had only been working together for a few months at most. This situation was quite unique, in that our last companies contracts were being handed over to a new company. The new company had no need to take any of us on, and could've probably coped without hiring any of us, but we were at least given a chance. There was anger at the old company for the way the redundancies were handled, but ultimately I think the others would've handled the rejection fine, and while I still feel that way it'll always be a regret for me.

mattmanser 8y ago

You can never be sure how people are going to react. You tell them and one of them gets pissed and storms into the manager's office and you're suddenly out of a job.

EnderMB 8y ago
True. At the time, that was one of the things that worried me, as we were all fairly new (less than a year) to the company in question, and some of us had only been working together for a few months at most. This situation was quite unique, in that our last companies contracts were being handed over to a new company. The new company had no need to take any of us on, and could've probably coped without hiring any of us, but we were at least given a chance. There was anger at the old company for the way the redundancies were handled, but ultimately I think the others would've handled the rejection fine, and while I still feel that way it'll always be a regret for me.