4 ms·

Bosses Are Using 'Silent Layoffs' and 'Quiet Firing,' Could Backfire

21 points by rustoo 2y ago

wkat4242 2y ago
Jeez I wouldn't have expected that from a supposedly ethical company like PwC. I'd take it though if the severance pay was good enough. And I'd even honour the silence thing. I'm kinda sick of the corporate world now.
rhelz 2y ago
I was a victim of this. Endless gaslighting. Impossible deliverables. A slow, grinding of the human spirit into dust. Employers, sack up already. If you are going to fire someone, fire them.
- nine_zeros 2y ago
  I have seen this in action. Management basically starts isolating and lying to an individual about what's going on - unsupportive behavior, blaming for things that others are responsible for or for commonly known issues, and making life miserable in general. Bad faith. It can be quite debilitating for people who work in good faith. But if you are intelligent, just read the tea leaves and get back at them by introducing bugs that they would have to deal with after your departure. There is no reason to be honest to a liar.
  - rhelz 2y ago
    chuckle I can certainly understand the urge to introduce bugs (I've been sorely tempted to do far worse), but for the sake of humanity don't open yourself up to lawsuits or criminal prosecution. Even if your bosses are the incarnation of evil, the company's customers, and your colleagues are innocent bystanders. But, since they clearly don't want you working there---don't feel guilty about not working there. Instead, head on over to leetcode and brush up on those interview questions. If you spend 8 hours a day for 3 weeks brushing up on you problem solving skills, you'll be killer in the interviews.
    - nine_zeros 2y ago
      You will not be open to lawsuits or criminal prosecution because bugs are introduced by all devs all the time. It is part of the job. The judge and jury will ask why only this person is being prosecuted - could it be because of retaliation? Realistically, most PIP focused managers are so deluded about engineering that they wouldn't be able to tell when an issue would occur in the future - could be as simple as DBs filling up with writes, or a high cardinality metric exploding the bill, or an expired cert. Clever motivated engineers are so skilled that they will find something. The real fix is for management to change their attitude and practices. Just do that.
      - rhelz 2y ago
        // You will not be open to lawsuits or criminal prosecution PSA: Don't take legal advice from an engineer :-) PSA: Don't commit vandalism of any kind. PSA: Especially after you talked about doing it on a public forum....
musicale 2y ago
> Theoretically, by keeping layoffs relatively low profile, trust in the business — from stakeholders and existing employees — can be retained, Theoretically, by lying convincingly and keeping deception secret, trust can be retained. > But if the news is leaked, like in PwC's case, the trust is broken — both for current employees and the general public.
mmaniac 2y ago
https://archive.ph/ZwPWU https://archive.ph/ZwPWU

21 points by rustoo 2y ago

Jeez I wouldn't have expected that from a supposedly ethical company like PwC. I'd take it though if the severance pay was good enough. And I'd even honour the silence thing. I'm kinda sick of the corporate world now.

rhelz 2y ago

I was a victim of this. Endless gaslighting. Impossible deliverables. A slow, grinding of the human spirit into dust. Employers, sack up already. If you are going to fire someone, fire them.

nine_zeros 2y ago
I have seen this in action. Management basically starts isolating and lying to an individual about what's going on - unsupportive behavior, blaming for things that others are responsible for or for commonly known issues, and making life miserable in general. Bad faith. It can be quite debilitating for people who work in good faith. But if you are intelligent, just read the tea leaves and get back at them by introducing bugs that they would have to deal with after your departure. There is no reason to be honest to a liar.
- rhelz 2y ago
  chuckle I can certainly understand the urge to introduce bugs (I've been sorely tempted to do far worse), but for the sake of humanity don't open yourself up to lawsuits or criminal prosecution. Even if your bosses are the incarnation of evil, the company's customers, and your colleagues are innocent bystanders. But, since they clearly don't want you working there---don't feel guilty about not working there. Instead, head on over to leetcode and brush up on those interview questions. If you spend 8 hours a day for 3 weeks brushing up on you problem solving skills, you'll be killer in the interviews.
  - nine_zeros 2y ago
    You will not be open to lawsuits or criminal prosecution because bugs are introduced by all devs all the time. It is part of the job. The judge and jury will ask why only this person is being prosecuted - could it be because of retaliation? Realistically, most PIP focused managers are so deluded about engineering that they wouldn't be able to tell when an issue would occur in the future - could be as simple as DBs filling up with writes, or a high cardinality metric exploding the bill, or an expired cert. Clever motivated engineers are so skilled that they will find something. The real fix is for management to change their attitude and practices. Just do that.
    - rhelz 2y ago
      // You will not be open to lawsuits or criminal prosecution PSA: Don't take legal advice from an engineer :-) PSA: Don't commit vandalism of any kind. PSA: Especially after you talked about doing it on a public forum....

musicale 2y ago

> Theoretically, by keeping layoffs relatively low profile, trust in the business — from stakeholders and existing employees — can be retained, Theoretically, by lying convincingly and keeping deception secret, trust can be retained. > But if the news is leaked, like in PwC's case, the trust is broken — both for current employees and the general public.

mmaniac 2y ago

https://archive.ph/ZwPWU https://archive.ph/ZwPWU