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> Nearly 70 of the employees are being laid off immediately, while the remainder have been asked to stay on for a few months through a transition period. Anothe
by drx 13y ago
> Nearly 70 of the employees are being laid off immediately, while the remainder have been asked to stay on for a few months through a transition period. Another 36 employees are being asked to relocate to New York from Berlin.
Does anyone know what the visa situation looks like for them?
Relocating 36 employees to the US can't be easy. There aren't any more H1B's this year and L1A's (and the equivalent green cards) can only be given to executives and managers. EB-2 maybe? Or L1B?
- kmfrk 13y agoI can't see how it's not a SOL situation, honestly. Question is how long this transition period is, I guess.
- ig1 13y agoPresumably L1Bs
- reeses 13y agoTough to do an inter-agency transfer (L1) if it's because you closed your international location, but they do have a distribution facility in Eindhoven and an IT center in Pune. (And probably more elsewhere, but I just looked at the 'careers' page.) It's amusing/ironic to look through their press kit. Especially "Happy 1 Year Birthday Fab Europe -3.5M Members And 30% of Fab’s Global Sales-February 21, 2013.pdf", which is all about the growth of the Berlin office. That said, you don't need a lot of people after the Brennschluss. Amazon laid off 300+ people in IT after the big initial push. Builders are less important than processors after a company has established a new capability. You'll often create a redundant hierarchy to Get S* Done that will become an obstacle to later growth. There may also be a bit of German labor law involved as well. Closing the location entirely may let them dodge termination considerations.