4 ms·

Really? 16 weeks of salary, or 4 months of pay. In my country, you get 3 months of pay as standard when you're fired from your job. Doesn't seem that great to m

Really? 16 weeks of salary, or 4 months of pay. In my country, you get 3 months of pay as standard when you're fired from your job. Doesn't seem that great to me to be honest.

ahstilde 2y ago
It sounds like it's 25% better than what you get in your country?
- triceratops 2y ago
  33%
- klausa 2y ago
  “25% better than legally required minimum” is not generally considered “great” in many circumstances.
  - nsxwolf 2y ago
    Comparison is the thief of joy. In the US, any amount is... infinity %? Undefined %? better than the legally required minimum of 0.
- BossingAround 2y ago
  Personally, I'd consider this nothing to write home about. It's OK. Not great, not terrible. If we're laying off 20% of the company, I'd expect the package to be somewhere in the 6-12 months range. To me, that would seem more fair, considering they are completely restructuring the whole company.
  - geodel 2y ago
    Yeah, nothing to write home about until they pay inflation adjust salary till retirement age of 67 for all laid off employees.
  - pembrook 2y ago
    I'd rather take having a tech industry at all and the 2-4X bigger US salaries (and 30% lower average taxes) than having my fellow citizens shoulder the burden of giving me 6-12 months of daycare. In the US luckily the job market is still quite dynamic (and extremely tight by historical standards) so only in an extreme scenario would someone with Dropbox on their resume need 12 months to find another job. They might have to take a pay cut from a 99th percentile salary to a 96th percentile salary though. Rough, I know.
nsxwolf 2y ago
In the US, the minimum required is usually zero. The most I ever got was 4 weeks.
- lesuorac 2y ago
  The minimum needed in the US for this situation is 60 calendar days [1]. Hence the 16 weeks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worker_Adjustment_and_Retraining_Notification_Act_of_1988 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worker_Adjustment_and_Retraini...
  - nsxwolf 2y ago
    The WARN Act doesn't mandate severance payments AFAIK.
    - rsanek 2y ago
      I think perhaps that's why poster used "for this situation" -- if a company doesn't want to have to provide advance notice, their only option with WARN is to do it with this kind of severance payment. Not sure if it was intended but that's a pretty cool outcome of the law.
  - _gabe_ 2y ago
    16 x 7 = 112 days, I’m not sure I understand your comment? Even if it was business days only, 5 x 16 = 80 which is still above the minimum needed.
aprilthird2021 2y ago
In big tech in the US, 4 months is usually enough to find another similar job in the industry. Also in the US for mass layoffs at big firms, the minimum is effectively 2 months because you are required by law to give 2 months notice to workers about such layoffs, 2 months severance is a way to not have to give such notice.
- harimau777 2y ago
  In this market, 4 months definitely isn't enough to find a similar job.
Epa095 2y ago
But are you not expected to work those 3 months? 4 months of pay without work is decent, but not amazing.
- prmoustache 2y ago
  > But are you not expected to work those 3 months? When you are leaving on your own term yes. When you are laid off you are technically still an employee for those 3 months but nowadays many companies will just tell you to not show up for security reason.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
ramraj07 2y ago
US salaries are quite a lot more; lifestyle creep is a thing but at least for developers they get paid a lot more than the average worker in the US than say in the Europe. Factoring that, 4 months is amazing.
opjjf 2y ago
Do you earn SF salaries in your country?
- cbzbc 2y ago
  They probably don't have SF housing costs in their country.

Really? 16 weeks of salary, or 4 months of pay. In my country, you get 3 months of pay as standard when you're fired from your job. Doesn't seem that great to me to be honest.

ahstilde 2y ago

It sounds like it's 25% better than what you get in your country?

triceratops 2y ago
33%
klausa 2y ago
“25% better than legally required minimum” is not generally considered “great” in many circumstances.
- nsxwolf 2y ago
  Comparison is the thief of joy. In the US, any amount is... infinity %? Undefined %? better than the legally required minimum of 0.
BossingAround 2y ago
Personally, I'd consider this nothing to write home about. It's OK. Not great, not terrible. If we're laying off 20% of the company, I'd expect the package to be somewhere in the 6-12 months range. To me, that would seem more fair, considering they are completely restructuring the whole company.
- geodel 2y ago
  Yeah, nothing to write home about until they pay inflation adjust salary till retirement age of 67 for all laid off employees.
- pembrook 2y ago
  I'd rather take having a tech industry at all and the 2-4X bigger US salaries (and 30% lower average taxes) than having my fellow citizens shoulder the burden of giving me 6-12 months of daycare. In the US luckily the job market is still quite dynamic (and extremely tight by historical standards) so only in an extreme scenario would someone with Dropbox on their resume need 12 months to find another job. They might have to take a pay cut from a 99th percentile salary to a 96th percentile salary though. Rough, I know.

nsxwolf 2y ago

In the US, the minimum required is usually zero. The most I ever got was 4 weeks.

lesuorac 2y ago
The minimum needed in the US for this situation is 60 calendar days [1]. Hence the 16 weeks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worker_Adjustment_and_Retraining_Notification_Act_of_1988 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worker_Adjustment_and_Retraini...
- nsxwolf 2y ago
  The WARN Act doesn't mandate severance payments AFAIK.
  - rsanek 2y ago
    I think perhaps that's why poster used "for this situation" -- if a company doesn't want to have to provide advance notice, their only option with WARN is to do it with this kind of severance payment. Not sure if it was intended but that's a pretty cool outcome of the law.
- _gabe_ 2y ago
  16 x 7 = 112 days, I’m not sure I understand your comment? Even if it was business days only, 5 x 16 = 80 which is still above the minimum needed.

aprilthird2021 2y ago

In big tech in the US, 4 months is usually enough to find another similar job in the industry. Also in the US for mass layoffs at big firms, the minimum is effectively 2 months because you are required by law to give 2 months notice to workers about such layoffs, 2 months severance is a way to not have to give such notice.

harimau777 2y ago
In this market, 4 months definitely isn't enough to find a similar job.

Epa095 2y ago

But are you not expected to work those 3 months? 4 months of pay without work is decent, but not amazing.

prmoustache 2y ago
> But are you not expected to work those 3 months? When you are leaving on your own term yes. When you are laid off you are technically still an employee for those 3 months but nowadays many companies will just tell you to not show up for security reason.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

ramraj07 2y ago

US salaries are quite a lot more; lifestyle creep is a thing but at least for developers they get paid a lot more than the average worker in the US than say in the Europe. Factoring that, 4 months is amazing.

opjjf 2y ago

Do you earn SF salaries in your country?

cbzbc 2y ago
They probably don't have SF housing costs in their country.