5 ms·

I was at a company that got bought. Shortly thereafter they started laying people off. For some reason I wasn't. I was one of the last ones there, commuting to

I was at a company that got bought. Shortly thereafter they started laying people off. For some reason I wasn't. I was one of the last ones there, commuting to a mostly empty office not doing much. Obviously by that point I was already deep into a job search. They did some shenanigans to try to fabricate reasons to let me go with cause, presumably to save money. It had absolutely no impact on me afterwards in any way whatsoever. I got a new job within a month or so. It was a much better job that I stayed at for way too long. I feel worse about the people who were laid off before me. The company took everyone on a big team building type trip to a tropical place. I refused to go. After everyone got back from the trip they started the layoffs just before the holidays. I told that CEO straight to his face he was a scumbag. That people probably would have rather had their paychecks through the holidays than some vacation with their co-workers, would they have known. And yet, somehow the person who didn't go on the company trip, and stuck it to the CEO was one of the last ones still around.

dirtybirdnj 3y ago
Serious plot twist at the end, didn't see that one coming. The "party before the storm" pattern is something I have experienced myself.
- aaomidi 3y ago
  Also happened at Microsoft before their layoffs.
- FabianClement 3y ago
  Are these events planned far in advance and then not cancelled? I would think cancelling most of this type of spending would be more common. Maybe management didn't know how urgent the need to cut spending was
- op00to 3y ago
  My company did layoffs right before a company-wide kickoff meeting. I noticed something was wacky when people would pop into the meeting channel and ask why their hotel reservations were't confirmed and would get no satisfactory answer. Turns out the company was planning layoffs for the Friday before everyone travelled for this meeting! They let people make travel plans, arrange child care, do all the things people do for travel just to lay them off right before the trip. I was not laid off, but the experience hit me hard. I've seen a lot of really crummy behavior in my career, but that really did it for me. I am sure to stop working at 5PM every day now. I will never give an employer extra after experiencing that.
jklein11 3y ago
To be fair to the CEO, the layoffs were probably happening either way and the tropical team building activity probably didn't have an impact on the size/scale of layoffs. The acquiring company was going to cut head count and needed the impact to show on their financial statements starting Jan 1. No way to keep people through the holidays. The extra expense in the previous year might even have been encouraged because it would make the following year look like they were doing an even better job of stream lining.
yardie 3y ago
The company holiday was probably planned months in advance. Usually, contracts are signed and it's very hard to get out of it. They could have not gone on retreat, paid for the hotels and flights anyway, and still laid everyone off. The C-levels probably worked on the levels a few weeks before it happens.
- withinboredom 3y ago
  I venture canceling the contracts/flights would have been cheaper than keeping them though.
  - Kye 3y ago
    Everything I've heard from people I know who organize events is that cancelling is very, very expensive and gets more so the closer you are to the date. Venues carve that space out for you and expect your attendees to spend a certain amount on food and alcohol. When you cancel, they're out a lot of money. Both from your event and the event they could have booked. That's why it gets more expensive as it gets harder to find a replacement.
    - withinboredom 3y ago
      Yes, it’s expensive, but usually not more expensive than actually going there (including incidentals like Uber rides, bar tabs, etc). The only thing is, you save ~30-60% of your money, but when compared to salaries, it’s probably not enough to make a meaningful difference. Anyway, it’s usually not just about the money, but getting away and doing stuff as a team (even if the team doesn’t know about the layoffs).
- selimthegrim 3y ago
  On the levels?
havnagiggle 3y ago
Similar story here but possibly a bit more fun. New VP came in and less than 6 months later demanded the org switch to some proprietary (expensive) agile methodology that had some theory that orgs with more than like 150 people are too big to be efficient. Nevermind the fact that we were an org with multiple large car OEM customers with 6-12 projects going on constantly, creating new features, quoting for new projects, QA and integration, first line support, etc. We were a big operation, but for pretty good reasons. No magic was going to happen for the business by just going to 150 head count. VP first tries to do this re-org. In the middle of it, announces they are closing our office as part of the reorg. Our office was a remote one in the suburbs, and probably looked pretty good on paper that we should be the first to get cut. The kicker was we were a power house of the org. ~25 engineers with the majority being senior/principal engineers, each responsible for huge parts of the software stack, and also responsible for actually making sure projects were shipped. Everyone had some experience over the years having long nights working with OEMs in Germany, Japan, etc. for final deliveries. They made the announcement with an end date in 2 months and everyone got some severance package on top of that. That's not a bad deal at all. Everyone was laid off, including my manager, except me. I had a few meetings with the VP and others to figure out what they were going to do with me. I asked for California salary while working remote. They said no, but they can offer me a ~60k bonus with a fork-back clause if I leave (or get fired) within 2 years. I said that's a joke, I'd rather take a severance package and we part ways. VP was not happy about it and he was quite heated about it. IDK maybe be was used to getting what he wanted. Negotiations stopped there. No severance was offered and I was demanded to work in the office even if it was empty (they still had a lease). I started applying like crazy and landed a FAANG job, but with a start date a few months out. The 2 months were honestly just excellent. Everyone had a great time shooting the shit around the office. Helping each other interview, playing ping pong, long lunches, etc. Most landed at good jobs within the 2 months so they banked the severance. Nobody did any work. As I mentioned, our manager was let go too and he gave 0 shits. Projects got fucked. The company sent ~3 people from India in the last week to do a "brain dump" with the seniors. Calling it a disaster was an understatement. They all flew home and the office was emptied... except for me! My start date was still in a few weeks, so I decided to just pester my VP's bosses about his terrible decisions, asking about a severance package, etc. Leaving messages for c-suite a few times a week. Sure enough, I got an email back from c-suite! They said the severance offer will be coming soon. VP waits another week before sending me the package. The offer was beyond ridiculous. I needed to stick around for another ~4 months and had a ton of AIs that they would determine if I satisfied or not. It included: (1) ship a bunch of shit, (2) go to India to train several hundred engineers, (3) continue shipping a new SDK I had spearheaded up until the layoffs. The icing was they gave me a lower offer than the standard severance. I forwarded it to everyone and said this is ridiculous, there's no way I am accepting this. Please give me a workable severance package. HR and VP set up a call with me the next day. I took the call, got berated by HR for being a bad employee and will be put on a performance plan, yada yada. I just hung up in the middle and walked out of the office for good and enjoyed the vacation. The worst part: VP moved to a different FAANG the following year. Definitely an overpaid POS. The best part: I worked with a lot of really great people and those last 2 months were definitely a highlight, even if it came from a shitty situation.
red-iron-pine 3y ago
vacation was probably cheaper than a buncha payroll. easier to push that and leave folks in a happy mood.

dirtybirdnj 3y ago

Serious plot twist at the end, didn't see that one coming. The "party before the storm" pattern is something I have experienced myself.

aaomidi 3y ago
Also happened at Microsoft before their layoffs.
FabianClement 3y ago
Are these events planned far in advance and then not cancelled? I would think cancelling most of this type of spending would be more common. Maybe management didn't know how urgent the need to cut spending was
op00to 3y ago
My company did layoffs right before a company-wide kickoff meeting. I noticed something was wacky when people would pop into the meeting channel and ask why their hotel reservations were't confirmed and would get no satisfactory answer. Turns out the company was planning layoffs for the Friday before everyone travelled for this meeting! They let people make travel plans, arrange child care, do all the things people do for travel just to lay them off right before the trip. I was not laid off, but the experience hit me hard. I've seen a lot of really crummy behavior in my career, but that really did it for me. I am sure to stop working at 5PM every day now. I will never give an employer extra after experiencing that.

jklein11 3y ago

To be fair to the CEO, the layoffs were probably happening either way and the tropical team building activity probably didn't have an impact on the size/scale of layoffs. The acquiring company was going to cut head count and needed the impact to show on their financial statements starting Jan 1. No way to keep people through the holidays. The extra expense in the previous year might even have been encouraged because it would make the following year look like they were doing an even better job of stream lining.

yardie 3y ago

The company holiday was probably planned months in advance. Usually, contracts are signed and it's very hard to get out of it. They could have not gone on retreat, paid for the hotels and flights anyway, and still laid everyone off. The C-levels probably worked on the levels a few weeks before it happens.

withinboredom 3y ago
I venture canceling the contracts/flights would have been cheaper than keeping them though.
- Kye 3y ago
  Everything I've heard from people I know who organize events is that cancelling is very, very expensive and gets more so the closer you are to the date. Venues carve that space out for you and expect your attendees to spend a certain amount on food and alcohol. When you cancel, they're out a lot of money. Both from your event and the event they could have booked. That's why it gets more expensive as it gets harder to find a replacement.
  - withinboredom 3y ago
    Yes, it’s expensive, but usually not more expensive than actually going there (including incidentals like Uber rides, bar tabs, etc). The only thing is, you save ~30-60% of your money, but when compared to salaries, it’s probably not enough to make a meaningful difference. Anyway, it’s usually not just about the money, but getting away and doing stuff as a team (even if the team doesn’t know about the layoffs).
selimthegrim 3y ago
On the levels?

havnagiggle 3y ago

Similar story here but possibly a bit more fun. New VP came in and less than 6 months later demanded the org switch to some proprietary (expensive) agile methodology that had some theory that orgs with more than like 150 people are too big to be efficient. Nevermind the fact that we were an org with multiple large car OEM customers with 6-12 projects going on constantly, creating new features, quoting for new projects, QA and integration, first line support, etc. We were a big operation, but for pretty good reasons. No magic was going to happen for the business by just going to 150 head count. VP first tries to do this re-org. In the middle of it, announces they are closing our office as part of the reorg. Our office was a remote one in the suburbs, and probably looked pretty good on paper that we should be the first to get cut. The kicker was we were a power house of the org. ~25 engineers with the majority being senior/principal engineers, each responsible for huge parts of the software stack, and also responsible for actually making sure projects were shipped. Everyone had some experience over the years having long nights working with OEMs in Germany, Japan, etc. for final deliveries. They made the announcement with an end date in 2 months and everyone got some severance package on top of that. That's not a bad deal at all. Everyone was laid off, including my manager, except me. I had a few meetings with the VP and others to figure out what they were going to do with me. I asked for California salary while working remote. They said no, but they can offer me a ~60k bonus with a fork-back clause if I leave (or get fired) within 2 years. I said that's a joke, I'd rather take a severance package and we part ways. VP was not happy about it and he was quite heated about it. IDK maybe be was used to getting what he wanted. Negotiations stopped there. No severance was offered and I was demanded to work in the office even if it was empty (they still had a lease). I started applying like crazy and landed a FAANG job, but with a start date a few months out. The 2 months were honestly just excellent. Everyone had a great time shooting the shit around the office. Helping each other interview, playing ping pong, long lunches, etc. Most landed at good jobs within the 2 months so they banked the severance. Nobody did any work. As I mentioned, our manager was let go too and he gave 0 shits. Projects got fucked. The company sent ~3 people from India in the last week to do a "brain dump" with the seniors. Calling it a disaster was an understatement. They all flew home and the office was emptied... except for me! My start date was still in a few weeks, so I decided to just pester my VP's bosses about his terrible decisions, asking about a severance package, etc. Leaving messages for c-suite a few times a week. Sure enough, I got an email back from c-suite! They said the severance offer will be coming soon. VP waits another week before sending me the package. The offer was beyond ridiculous. I needed to stick around for another ~4 months and had a ton of AIs that they would determine if I satisfied or not. It included: (1) ship a bunch of shit, (2) go to India to train several hundred engineers, (3) continue shipping a new SDK I had spearheaded up until the layoffs. The icing was they gave me a lower offer than the standard severance. I forwarded it to everyone and said this is ridiculous, there's no way I am accepting this. Please give me a workable severance package. HR and VP set up a call with me the next day. I took the call, got berated by HR for being a bad employee and will be put on a performance plan, yada yada. I just hung up in the middle and walked out of the office for good and enjoyed the vacation. The worst part: VP moved to a different FAANG the following year. Definitely an overpaid POS. The best part: I worked with a lot of really great people and those last 2 months were definitely a highlight, even if it came from a shitty situation.

red-iron-pine 3y ago

vacation was probably cheaper than a buncha payroll. easier to push that and leave folks in a happy mood.