4 ms·

Here is a related question: has anyone ever been fired from a FAANG company? I am a high performer at one and am so stressed out I often dream of being fired, a

Here is a related question: has anyone ever been fired from a FAANG company? I am a high performer at one and am so stressed out I often dream of being fired, and assume there is some sort of severance.

throwaway2848 5y ago
Suffered from severe depression, performance tanked, went on a pip at Google, failed it (deservedly) and was given a few months paid notice. I don't blame them, it was a long time where I wasn't performing. Found a new job, started exercising, thrived since.
- throwaway130127 5y ago
  I passed my PIP at Google then they managed me out anyway. If your manager wants you gone and is giving you bad reviews to achieve it then you don't have a lot of options. (I succeeded in my PIP goals so they were forced to rate me Meets Expectations for that period. But after that if you get another Needs Improvement they can fire you without another PIP, so guess what. When I was sure this was going to happen, I quit because I had another job lined up (thanks to the timescale on which PIPs play out) and I like being able to say I wasn't fired. They had no problem letting me stay long enough to collect my quarterly vesting, but I'm curious how much money I left on the table nevertheless.)
  - GauntletWizard 5y ago
    Basically what I did - it was easier to take another job and take a month off than deal with a) a manager that didn't like me and b) a coworker who I'd had a side project fail with after I realized he was actually trying to get in my pants. (The latter may have had something to do with the former)
GauntletWizard 5y ago
I have been. AMA. Yes, there was a severance of sorts - They gave me about a month "off" at the end where I was technically employed but no longer there. I took this as an option instead of going on a PIP, after my boss had literally given me nothing to do for a quarter. Before that, things had been great - Exceeds expectations or better on every review until my team was dissolved under me and I had to find a new team on short notice.
- mysecretaccount 5y ago
  Interesting. The option to go on a PIP or leave the company for pseudo-severance is something I had heard of before, but a month sounds short. You only ever had positive reviews in the formal cycle? That is a real shame.
  - GauntletWizard 5y ago
    I think I had a quarter of "meets expectations" as the last review cycle I completed - As my team was dissolving. It was ~ the start of next review cycle when I was asked to leave.
- underatree 5y ago
  Did they expect you to find another team during the quarter of no work? Was finding another team ever offered as an option (other than on a PIP)?
  - GauntletWizard 5y ago
    No, in fact - Transferring to another team was discouraged, because I was "under-preforming".
toast0 5y ago
Unless you're getting laid off or fired for some sort of abuse, from my understanding of big companies, you're likely to get a bad review or two before you get put on an performance improvement plan, and only then get fired. I don't have any real knowledge about severances, but there's usually something for the first round of layoffs, and you might have an option of taking your PIP timeframe without being in the office, like the sibling poster mentioned.
brailsafe 5y ago
Not a FAANG company, but lots of others. 1 or two weeks pay, then employment insurance if you have it.
mattbrewsbytes 5y ago
I've never worked at FAANG but have at a Fortune 500 and now work at a company with < 500 people. The major difference I see is large corporations have a certain amount of randomness where entire products will get cancelled (its not just Google), internal re-orgs, appease the shareholders layoffs, or political in-fighting happens and someone "wins" and people get let go. At a smaller company in an engineering dept of ~150 you know what most teams do and might know someone on each team. There is less random acts of large company that occur. Sure if business is bad, stuff is going to happen but that is usually something you can see coming.

throwaway2848 5y ago

Suffered from severe depression, performance tanked, went on a pip at Google, failed it (deservedly) and was given a few months paid notice. I don't blame them, it was a long time where I wasn't performing. Found a new job, started exercising, thrived since.

throwaway130127 5y ago
I passed my PIP at Google then they managed me out anyway. If your manager wants you gone and is giving you bad reviews to achieve it then you don't have a lot of options. (I succeeded in my PIP goals so they were forced to rate me Meets Expectations for that period. But after that if you get another Needs Improvement they can fire you without another PIP, so guess what. When I was sure this was going to happen, I quit because I had another job lined up (thanks to the timescale on which PIPs play out) and I like being able to say I wasn't fired. They had no problem letting me stay long enough to collect my quarterly vesting, but I'm curious how much money I left on the table nevertheless.)
- GauntletWizard 5y ago
  Basically what I did - it was easier to take another job and take a month off than deal with a) a manager that didn't like me and b) a coworker who I'd had a side project fail with after I realized he was actually trying to get in my pants. (The latter may have had something to do with the former)

GauntletWizard 5y ago

I have been. AMA. Yes, there was a severance of sorts - They gave me about a month "off" at the end where I was technically employed but no longer there. I took this as an option instead of going on a PIP, after my boss had literally given me nothing to do for a quarter. Before that, things had been great - Exceeds expectations or better on every review until my team was dissolved under me and I had to find a new team on short notice.

mysecretaccount 5y ago
Interesting. The option to go on a PIP or leave the company for pseudo-severance is something I had heard of before, but a month sounds short. You only ever had positive reviews in the formal cycle? That is a real shame.
- GauntletWizard 5y ago
  I think I had a quarter of "meets expectations" as the last review cycle I completed - As my team was dissolving. It was ~ the start of next review cycle when I was asked to leave.
underatree 5y ago
Did they expect you to find another team during the quarter of no work? Was finding another team ever offered as an option (other than on a PIP)?
- GauntletWizard 5y ago
  No, in fact - Transferring to another team was discouraged, because I was "under-preforming".

toast0 5y ago

Unless you're getting laid off or fired for some sort of abuse, from my understanding of big companies, you're likely to get a bad review or two before you get put on an performance improvement plan, and only then get fired. I don't have any real knowledge about severances, but there's usually something for the first round of layoffs, and you might have an option of taking your PIP timeframe without being in the office, like the sibling poster mentioned.

brailsafe 5y ago

Not a FAANG company, but lots of others. 1 or two weeks pay, then employment insurance if you have it.

mattbrewsbytes 5y ago

I've never worked at FAANG but have at a Fortune 500 and now work at a company with < 500 people. The major difference I see is large corporations have a certain amount of randomness where entire products will get cancelled (its not just Google), internal re-orgs, appease the shareholders layoffs, or political in-fighting happens and someone "wins" and people get let go. At a smaller company in an engineering dept of ~150 you know what most teams do and might know someone on each team. There is less random acts of large company that occur. Sure if business is bad, stuff is going to happen but that is usually something you can see coming.