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1. Yes. It sucks. It feels humiliating and stressful. 2. Yes. It gave me the kick up the arse that I needed to look for something outside my comfort zone. 3.
by edent 3y ago
1. Yes. It sucks. It feels humiliating and stressful.
2. Yes. It gave me the kick up the arse that I needed to look for something outside my comfort zone.
3. No. Being fired may come with social stigma, but everyone knows that companies sometimes engage in untargetted bloodletting. There's no shame in that.
The hardest thing is the sudden brutality of it. You may not get a chance to say goodbye to people. It feels impersonal and you don't get a chance to defend yourself. Your ego is tied to your profession - as is your ability to provide.
Thankfully, I was part of a strong Trade Union. They were able to negotiate a very generous severance package, and they obliterated my non-compete. If you are at any risk at all of getting laid-off (and everyone is) then you should join your Union.
- gchamonlive 3y agoUnions are definitely not perfect and the institution needs to mature a lot as to keep representing the worker class long term, but I think the fact that most big companies are strongly against them should be a good enough heuristic for you to know you should join them.
- 2devnull 3y agoThe tech world needs something like that. Maybe certificates are the best solution.
- MSFT_Edging 3y agoCertificates are just some company that charges you to take their test and present the cert on the resume. They are by no means a method for employee solidarity, nor do they remotely have the ability to protect tech workers. They're as worthless of a piece of paper as your degree when shit hits the fan.
- ethbr1 3y agoThe problem with certificates is that a third-party issuer is monetarily incentivized by volume, not quality. And a first-party issuer is essentially training you on specific software. Probably the most/only aligned scenario is first-party certificates from widely-used technologies (e.g. AWS/Azure/GCP).
- lesuorac 3y agoBig Gov is also against leaded pipes ;) I think in general a lot of the reasons against unions are fairly valid; it's just the same points are also valid in the scenario without unions. Everybody will get paid the same -- Your company already has pay bands for each title. You can just talk to us about your problems -- People complain so much about decisions and they happen anyways! Poor performers won't be fired -- My experience is you need to do something illegal to get fired anyways.
- prewett 3y ago> The hardest thing is the sudden brutality of it. You may not get a chance to say goodbye to people. I had something similar happen to me, and I realized that being unilaterally excluded from a social group is basically exile, which historically was one form of the death penalty [1]. [1] Socrates, for example, was supposed to choose exile, but chose poison to make a point.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]