4 ms·

Yes but there are regulatory, legal and potential lawsuit issues why just firing people is not like snapping your fingers. It's an exercise with significant fri

Yes but there are regulatory, legal and potential lawsuit issues why just firing people is not like snapping your fingers. It's an exercise with significant friction

ivan_gammel 5y ago
In which country firing someone on probation would result in any legal issues? I had no problem firing people in Germany where labor laws are quite strict.
Apocryphon 5y ago
Silicon Valley, the birthplace of this type of interview, is in an at-will state, which makes the regulatory concerns quite puzzling.
- hash872 5y ago
  And they can find an attorney to say that they were discriminated against, or that the company somehow did something improper, etc. As America is (to my knowledge) the only developed country where the losing party does not pay attorney's fees, 'winning' such a case may cost the company mid-five to six figures- or higher! Executives may be subject to invasive depositions, all company communications read by the opposing attorneys, other minor violations of our gigantic unknowable legal code found during this process, etc.
  - Apocryphon 5y ago
    Where would a person who's looking for a job have the time and the financial resources to embark on a legal wild goose chase in search of a hypothetical payout? What kind of termination of an individual contributor for performance results in dragging in execs? This is a complete snowball effect of a scenario.
    - hash872 5y ago
      Litigators frequently work on contingency- so they work for 'free' for the litigant, in exchange for a healthy percentage (a third or higher) of any settlement. This is without including the actual government, where an employee may say that they were discriminated against somehow, and then the relevant government agency investigates everything under the sun looking for violations. For example they could allege that they were not provided their California-required lunch break, so then a nosy, hostile agency launches a huge investigation starting with lunch policies, and including anything else they find. I agree it's a complete snowball! It's absurd :) And, it's reality- this is how litigation & workplace regulation in America works. For example depositions are so crazy, not only can you be deposed as a party in a lawsuit, you could be deposed for extra information even if you're not the one being sued (i.e. you're in a related industry as someone in a lawsuit, so the court compels you to a deposition just to talk about the industry, what's standard there, etc.)

Yes but there are regulatory, legal and potential lawsuit issues why just firing people is not like snapping your fingers. It's an exercise with significant friction

ivan_gammel 5y ago

In which country firing someone on probation would result in any legal issues? I had no problem firing people in Germany where labor laws are quite strict.

Apocryphon 5y ago

Silicon Valley, the birthplace of this type of interview, is in an at-will state, which makes the regulatory concerns quite puzzling.

hash872 5y ago
And they can find an attorney to say that they were discriminated against, or that the company somehow did something improper, etc. As America is (to my knowledge) the only developed country where the losing party does not pay attorney's fees, 'winning' such a case may cost the company mid-five to six figures- or higher! Executives may be subject to invasive depositions, all company communications read by the opposing attorneys, other minor violations of our gigantic unknowable legal code found during this process, etc.
- Apocryphon 5y ago
  Where would a person who's looking for a job have the time and the financial resources to embark on a legal wild goose chase in search of a hypothetical payout? What kind of termination of an individual contributor for performance results in dragging in execs? This is a complete snowball effect of a scenario.
  - hash872 5y ago
    Litigators frequently work on contingency- so they work for 'free' for the litigant, in exchange for a healthy percentage (a third or higher) of any settlement. This is without including the actual government, where an employee may say that they were discriminated against somehow, and then the relevant government agency investigates everything under the sun looking for violations. For example they could allege that they were not provided their California-required lunch break, so then a nosy, hostile agency launches a huge investigation starting with lunch policies, and including anything else they find. I agree it's a complete snowball! It's absurd :) And, it's reality- this is how litigation & workplace regulation in America works. For example depositions are so crazy, not only can you be deposed as a party in a lawsuit, you could be deposed for extra information even if you're not the one being sued (i.e. you're in a related industry as someone in a lawsuit, so the court compels you to a deposition just to talk about the industry, what's standard there, etc.)