4 ms·

You have more leverage finding a new and better job while employed. Be on severance is a huge disadvantage.

weixiyen 13y ago
Not for engineers though. There will be multiple offers in the case of Zynga engineers, so negotiating isn't the issue. It's better financially to get severance.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
  - iguana 13y ago
    Very few engineering managers are in the position to have significant no-hire piles these days.
  - Cookingboy 13y ago
    That doesn't make sense, just because a company has a history of making bad management and product decisions doesn't mean the engineering talent is subpar.
  - julsonl 13y ago
    That looks narrow-minded for those particular employers though. The leadership might have made a lot of questionable decisions, but I don't think that should affect the quality of the engineers from that company.
    - deleted 13y ago
      [deleted]
  - joosters 13y ago
    That's unfair on the employees. Sure, Zynga has a reputation as a scummy company with low morals, but I don't think it has a bad technical reputation. And the day-to-day programmers, architects and designers won't have had much influence on the behaviour of the company. I don't think they'll be tarnished, and it would be dumb for a potential employer to reject them just because they worked there.
    - gaius 13y ago
      Right, imagine a hypothetical employee whose job it was to make tobacco more addictive. "But the company doesn't have a bad chemical reputation..." EDIT: Downvoters, do you really not think that a person's personal ethics can be judged from the work they choose to do?
      - nsxwolf 13y ago
        Sometimes you can certainly judge a person's personal ethics based on the work they choose to do. But silly mobile games using a business model SV geeks don't like? No. In the grand scheme of things Zynga is trivial and harmless.
        jlgreco 13y ago
        > In the grand scheme of things Zynga is trivial and harmless. In the "grand scheme" those "whales" are lost in the noise, so yes. In the grand scheme they were trivial and harmless.
        gaius 13y ago
        In the 90s when boo.com imploded (you might not remember them but they were huge) my company wanted to hire some of them. I prevailed against it then. Boo collapsed because they partied their way through their investor's money. Regardless of any other skills, they all had a spectactularly poor attitude to other people's money. You don't want that kind of culture to take root in an organization.
  - steven2012 13y ago
    This is nonsensical. What exactly did Zynga do that was so bad? They are still making hundreds of millions of dollars per quarter. That's something most companies will never do. It's not like they committed fraud or anything illegal. As well, regardless of what you think of Zynga's games or their business strategy, the engineers have really great skills in dealing with some very great technology and high-load situations. They will be extremely marketable. To paint every single employee with the same paintbrush just because their business isn't something you particularly enjoy is dumb.
    - johnjlocke 13y ago
      They still have how many years left on that lease on that building? Six years still? Ruh-roh, Raggy.
      - far33d 13y ago
        The building isn't leased - they bought it for cash a year or so ago.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]

Not for engineers though. There will be multiple offers in the case of Zynga engineers, so negotiating isn't the issue. It's better financially to get severance.

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
- iguana 13y ago
  Very few engineering managers are in the position to have significant no-hire piles these days.
- Cookingboy 13y ago
  That doesn't make sense, just because a company has a history of making bad management and product decisions doesn't mean the engineering talent is subpar.
- julsonl 13y ago
  That looks narrow-minded for those particular employers though. The leadership might have made a lot of questionable decisions, but I don't think that should affect the quality of the engineers from that company.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
- joosters 13y ago
  That's unfair on the employees. Sure, Zynga has a reputation as a scummy company with low morals, but I don't think it has a bad technical reputation. And the day-to-day programmers, architects and designers won't have had much influence on the behaviour of the company. I don't think they'll be tarnished, and it would be dumb for a potential employer to reject them just because they worked there.
  - gaius 13y ago
    Right, imagine a hypothetical employee whose job it was to make tobacco more addictive. "But the company doesn't have a bad chemical reputation..." EDIT: Downvoters, do you really not think that a person's personal ethics can be judged from the work they choose to do?
    - nsxwolf 13y ago
      Sometimes you can certainly judge a person's personal ethics based on the work they choose to do. But silly mobile games using a business model SV geeks don't like? No. In the grand scheme of things Zynga is trivial and harmless.
      - jlgreco 13y ago
        > In the grand scheme of things Zynga is trivial and harmless. In the "grand scheme" those "whales" are lost in the noise, so yes. In the grand scheme they were trivial and harmless.
      - gaius 13y ago
        In the 90s when boo.com imploded (you might not remember them but they were huge) my company wanted to hire some of them. I prevailed against it then. Boo collapsed because they partied their way through their investor's money. Regardless of any other skills, they all had a spectactularly poor attitude to other people's money. You don't want that kind of culture to take root in an organization.
- steven2012 13y ago
  This is nonsensical. What exactly did Zynga do that was so bad? They are still making hundreds of millions of dollars per quarter. That's something most companies will never do. It's not like they committed fraud or anything illegal. As well, regardless of what you think of Zynga's games or their business strategy, the engineers have really great skills in dealing with some very great technology and high-load situations. They will be extremely marketable. To paint every single employee with the same paintbrush just because their business isn't something you particularly enjoy is dumb.
  - johnjlocke 13y ago
    They still have how many years left on that lease on that building? Six years still? Ruh-roh, Raggy.
    - far33d 13y ago
      The building isn't leased - they bought it for cash a year or so ago.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]