3 ms·

The short notice can be even shorter than that, real-time. 2-weeks is just a courtesy. But I've been on the other end where it didn't takes months of negotiatio

by yardie 16y ago

The short notice can be even shorter than that, real-time. 2-weeks is just a courtesy. But I've been on the other end where it didn't takes months of negotiation to get work. In the past this wasn't a problem there was enough work for everyone, but with globalization, outsourcing, and automation the scales have tipped greatly in favor of the employer. The UK is only slightly better in labor law. A lot of the UK companies have learned a lot from the former colony. If they can't fire you outright they'll just get more creative (ie. We caught you using the office copier to make flyers for your football league, fired for abusing company resources). My wife's company (big UK company) is in a protracted labor dispute with the unions. So what do they do? Find exagerated reasons to get union leaders fired. Of course unions have lawyers, but the company can keep it in court longer than the union can pay its lawyers.

singular 16y ago
Ouch that's terrible. I guess there are always ways around things... I had always assumed you were protected. I guess that, no matter how protected you think you in the eyes of the law, being a wage-earner is more of a risk it seems to be.
- idiopathic 16y ago
  It is scary, and they will fire you. That scared me a lot. My first job was with the US Federal Government (I was a scientist at NIH) who had nicer terms, plus a reputation of not being able to fire egregiously bad employees. But then I switched to the private sector and I have since seen that company fire lots of people quickly. To be fair, none of those fired quickly were H1B holders, and the US citizens who were fired were given very generous severance payments (this is a management consultancy that knows former employees are future customers). My advice is to accept it, and then feel liberated by it. The same contract allowed me to leave my employer without feeling guilty, which is exactly what I did when I wanted to start my own company. For me, the turning point was when I wanted to have a family. I just found the idea of being forced to leave the country when your employer does not want to sponsor you anymore too awful, especially as I had experienced it as a child when my father had a UK university do the same thing to him. We had 1 month to pack everything and leave the country.

by yardie 16y ago

singular 16y ago

Ouch that's terrible. I guess there are always ways around things... I had always assumed you were protected. I guess that, no matter how protected you think you in the eyes of the law, being a wage-earner is more of a risk it seems to be.

idiopathic 16y ago
It is scary, and they will fire you. That scared me a lot. My first job was with the US Federal Government (I was a scientist at NIH) who had nicer terms, plus a reputation of not being able to fire egregiously bad employees. But then I switched to the private sector and I have since seen that company fire lots of people quickly. To be fair, none of those fired quickly were H1B holders, and the US citizens who were fired were given very generous severance payments (this is a management consultancy that knows former employees are future customers). My advice is to accept it, and then feel liberated by it. The same contract allowed me to leave my employer without feeling guilty, which is exactly what I did when I wanted to start my own company. For me, the turning point was when I wanted to have a family. I just found the idea of being forced to leave the country when your employer does not want to sponsor you anymore too awful, especially as I had experienced it as a child when my father had a UK university do the same thing to him. We had 1 month to pack everything and leave the country.