5 ms·

> I feel envious of these folks getting such a nice severance. It would be rather nice for me to be laid off with a great cash flow of money and take a long vac

> I feel envious of these folks getting such a nice severance. It would be rather nice for me to be laid off with a great cash flow of money and take a long vacation. I can tell you've never been laid off before, because even with severance it doesn't feel like a "long vacation". Layoffs like this are heavily correlated with a collapsing job market. Finding a new job right now is orders of magnitude more difficult than finding a job a year ago. Getting laid off also works against you, as many potential hirers assume that laid off people were among the lowest performers of their company. It's not fair, but it happens. It's also not really a relaxing vacation when you're busy prepping for interviews, dealing with interview calls and/or flights randomly scattered across the week, and other interview-related stresses. The clock is ticking and your full time job is now to interview to get a job. It's also likely (in this market anyway) that any company you interview with would prefer that you start ASAP, so you don't even have a defined end date. Getting laid off with severance sounds fun until it happens and you're faced with the realities, especially in the middle of a collapsing hiring market that has been flooded with 100,000+ laid off FAANG engineers competing for every great job out there.

kilroy123 4y ago
100% agreed. This is the worst time to be laid off since 2008, maybe even the dot.com crash in 2000? I'm too young to know what that era was like.
lm28469 4y ago
> I can tell you've never been laid off before, because even with severance it doesn't feel like a "long vacation". I've been laid off with no severance and it felt like vacation, so it might depends on your specific situation. It was my first job, in Germany, 70% of so of my salary guaranteed as unemployment benefits. I didn't look for a job for like six months, I could have used the full 12 months as I was more than cash positive and still managed to save 40% of my income without changing my lifestyle, it took me two weeks to find a new one. That being said I'm not a "study for interview" kind of dude, life's too short to grind for that imho
- ethanbond 4y ago
  > I've been laid of with no severance... [but with] 70% of my salary guaranteed Uhh, yeah obviously that felt like a vacation.
  - lm28469 4y ago
    Isn't it the norm pretty much everywhere in the west ? I'd have been fine with 30% or so with my lifestyle
    - ganoushoreilly 4y ago
      No, at least not in the us. There are caps and in most instances it’s close to $300-400 a week max with a limit on how many weeks you can claim.
    - mrtranscendence 4y ago
      > Isn't it the norm pretty much everywhere in the west ? In my US state (Ohio), weekly benefits for those without dependents cap out at $530. That's about 19% of my current salary. It would be barely enough to cover my mortgage and utilities, but throw in the car (payment / gas / insurance), groceries, incidentals ... I'd be in trouble. (And unlike some of the forward-thinking individuals who've posted here, I don't have several years' worth of savings to rely on.) Edit: and if, god forbid, I became disabled ... my government-provided benefits would be something like $150 a week. They may as well give me a kiss on the cheek for all the good that amount would do for me.
    - smileysteve 4y ago
      No, definitely not in the US. I was last laid off in 2015 by a large media company, we received only 1 month of severance. (Which was 1.5 months paychecks because they paid in arrears) Severance and notice of small scale layoffs (company under 50) has no protection in most states. 8 person company offered no severance, but we had a pretty good sense it was coming a month away.
      - 4y ago
itake 4y ago
I think it really depends on your financial situation and how you want to spend your time. If they have been saving most of their salaries and have years of savings saved up, then maybe they are fine taking a 12 mo vacation before starting the interview grind. Perhaps there are some side projects they want to work on instead.
NSMutableSet 4y ago
It depends entirely on your life circumstances. It can feel like a vacation if your partner is still earning 6x+ the median national household income, you have ample savings and multiple years of runway for any immediate debts that can't become delinquent without significant consequences, and you have wealthy parents to fall back on on top of everything else. (for the record, I don't have any of these aside from the runway, since I have no significant debts due to the lack of a mortgage)
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
teaearlgraycold 4y ago
Don't y'all have previous employers you could return to?

kilroy123 4y ago

100% agreed. This is the worst time to be laid off since 2008, maybe even the dot.com crash in 2000? I'm too young to know what that era was like.

lm28469 4y ago

> I can tell you've never been laid off before, because even with severance it doesn't feel like a "long vacation". I've been laid off with no severance and it felt like vacation, so it might depends on your specific situation. It was my first job, in Germany, 70% of so of my salary guaranteed as unemployment benefits. I didn't look for a job for like six months, I could have used the full 12 months as I was more than cash positive and still managed to save 40% of my income without changing my lifestyle, it took me two weeks to find a new one. That being said I'm not a "study for interview" kind of dude, life's too short to grind for that imho

ethanbond 4y ago
> I've been laid of with no severance... [but with] 70% of my salary guaranteed Uhh, yeah obviously that felt like a vacation.
- lm28469 4y ago
  Isn't it the norm pretty much everywhere in the west ? I'd have been fine with 30% or so with my lifestyle
  - ganoushoreilly 4y ago
    No, at least not in the us. There are caps and in most instances it’s close to $300-400 a week max with a limit on how many weeks you can claim.
  - mrtranscendence 4y ago
    > Isn't it the norm pretty much everywhere in the west ? In my US state (Ohio), weekly benefits for those without dependents cap out at $530. That's about 19% of my current salary. It would be barely enough to cover my mortgage and utilities, but throw in the car (payment / gas / insurance), groceries, incidentals ... I'd be in trouble. (And unlike some of the forward-thinking individuals who've posted here, I don't have several years' worth of savings to rely on.) Edit: and if, god forbid, I became disabled ... my government-provided benefits would be something like $150 a week. They may as well give me a kiss on the cheek for all the good that amount would do for me.
  - smileysteve 4y ago
    No, definitely not in the US. I was last laid off in 2015 by a large media company, we received only 1 month of severance. (Which was 1.5 months paychecks because they paid in arrears) Severance and notice of small scale layoffs (company under 50) has no protection in most states. 8 person company offered no severance, but we had a pretty good sense it was coming a month away.
    - 4y ago

itake 4y ago

I think it really depends on your financial situation and how you want to spend your time. If they have been saving most of their salaries and have years of savings saved up, then maybe they are fine taking a 12 mo vacation before starting the interview grind. Perhaps there are some side projects they want to work on instead.

NSMutableSet 4y ago

It depends entirely on your life circumstances. It can feel like a vacation if your partner is still earning 6x+ the median national household income, you have ample savings and multiple years of runway for any immediate debts that can't become delinquent without significant consequences, and you have wealthy parents to fall back on on top of everything else. (for the record, I don't have any of these aside from the runway, since I have no significant debts due to the lack of a mortgage)

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

teaearlgraycold 4y ago

Don't y'all have previous employers you could return to?