5 ms·

For better or worse, it isn't a company's job to pay laid off employees until they find a new role. The industry standard for severance is 1-2 weeks pay per ye

For better or worse, it isn't a company's job to pay laid off employees until they find a new role. The industry standard for severance is 1-2 weeks pay per year at the company, paying out roughly 7 months is a big deal (and yes, an acknowledgment of how rough they know the job hunt will be).

gcr 5mo ago
Not in tech. Larger severance packages are common. Going forward, I wonder if severance packages should be a point of competitive recruiting advantage
- bluGill 5mo ago
  They are for CEOs and have been for decades. We call them "golden parachutes", and a lot of people hate them.
  - _heimdall 5mo ago
    I assumed we weren't talking about CEOs though. Can't say I've ever heard of a CEO being impacted by layoffs.
    - bluGill 5mo ago
      CEOs get fired once in a while. It is different but the same.
      - _heimdall 5mo ago
        Not as part of a layoff, though yes they can get fired. If they play their cards right apparently they can also be rehired days later and install a board that better suits them.
- _heimdall 5mo ago
  Are smaller tech companies also commonly doing larger severances? I've only been laid off once and its when the company was basically out of money, but my understanding was always that it was only FAANG and similar that considered larger severance packages.
shimman 5mo ago
Maybe it should be the companies job, being jobless in the US is a potential death sentence and since we don't have universal healthcare, universal childcare, or universal higher education/vocational training the onus should be forced on the companies to provide welfare for workers since they are so adamant about not paying taxes to create a welfare system that doesn't mean homelessness or death. There is also no industry standard for severance, it's not federally mandated and not a guaranteed benefit.
- _heimdall 5mo ago
  I'd be very hesitant to throw out so many of the fundamentals that made America into what it has been for the last couple centuries. The goal, at least here, is to expect individuals to mostly take care of themselves rather than depending in the state or some other authority to do it for them. Universal healthcare, guaranteed indefinite severance, universal childcare, etc are completely antithetical to our system. Maybe the majority is ready and willing to throw that old system out, but if so we need to do it by focusing on the fundamentals rather than getting distracted with higher level implementation details.
  - sofixa 5mo ago
    > Universal healthcare, guaranteed indefinite severance, universal childcare, etc are completely antithetical to our system. I don't see how that follows. How is your system that different from e.g. the UK, which manages to have all of those things (severance is not indefinite and is unemployment).
    - _heimdall 5mo ago
      Unless I'm drastically misinformed, the UK is dealing with a mountain of issues including immigration, economic problems, and quality of the healthcare being provided.
      - sofixa 5mo ago
        First of all, are those problems you would say do not exist in the US? And if that's the case, I'd disagree. But would any of those problems be somehow explained by the differences between the British and American systems? Especially when countries with very different systems (like all of continental Western Europe), and the US, have then too.
harimau777 5mo ago
Disagree. If a company puts someone in a precarious situation then they have the obligation to take responsibility. After all, its management who failed to keep the company successful. Unless we are saying that the C-suite doesn't actually deserve their massive compensation packages.

gcr 5mo ago

Not in tech. Larger severance packages are common. Going forward, I wonder if severance packages should be a point of competitive recruiting advantage

bluGill 5mo ago
They are for CEOs and have been for decades. We call them "golden parachutes", and a lot of people hate them.
- _heimdall 5mo ago
  I assumed we weren't talking about CEOs though. Can't say I've ever heard of a CEO being impacted by layoffs.
  - bluGill 5mo ago
    CEOs get fired once in a while. It is different but the same.
    - _heimdall 5mo ago
      Not as part of a layoff, though yes they can get fired. If they play their cards right apparently they can also be rehired days later and install a board that better suits them.
_heimdall 5mo ago
Are smaller tech companies also commonly doing larger severances? I've only been laid off once and its when the company was basically out of money, but my understanding was always that it was only FAANG and similar that considered larger severance packages.

shimman 5mo ago

Maybe it should be the companies job, being jobless in the US is a potential death sentence and since we don't have universal healthcare, universal childcare, or universal higher education/vocational training the onus should be forced on the companies to provide welfare for workers since they are so adamant about not paying taxes to create a welfare system that doesn't mean homelessness or death. There is also no industry standard for severance, it's not federally mandated and not a guaranteed benefit.

_heimdall 5mo ago
I'd be very hesitant to throw out so many of the fundamentals that made America into what it has been for the last couple centuries. The goal, at least here, is to expect individuals to mostly take care of themselves rather than depending in the state or some other authority to do it for them. Universal healthcare, guaranteed indefinite severance, universal childcare, etc are completely antithetical to our system. Maybe the majority is ready and willing to throw that old system out, but if so we need to do it by focusing on the fundamentals rather than getting distracted with higher level implementation details.
- sofixa 5mo ago
  > Universal healthcare, guaranteed indefinite severance, universal childcare, etc are completely antithetical to our system. I don't see how that follows. How is your system that different from e.g. the UK, which manages to have all of those things (severance is not indefinite and is unemployment).
  - _heimdall 5mo ago
    Unless I'm drastically misinformed, the UK is dealing with a mountain of issues including immigration, economic problems, and quality of the healthcare being provided.
    - sofixa 5mo ago
      First of all, are those problems you would say do not exist in the US? And if that's the case, I'd disagree. But would any of those problems be somehow explained by the differences between the British and American systems? Especially when countries with very different systems (like all of continental Western Europe), and the US, have then too.

harimau777 5mo ago

Disagree. If a company puts someone in a precarious situation then they have the obligation to take responsibility. After all, its management who failed to keep the company successful. Unless we are saying that the C-suite doesn't actually deserve their massive compensation packages.