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This is a FAR better situation for the people being laid off here than in an ordinary scenario. The CEO did what's right for the company, nothing wrong with tha

This is a FAR better situation for the people being laid off here than in an ordinary scenario. The CEO did what's right for the company, nothing wrong with that, but at least he tried to do it in the right way. My experiences of layoffs are: 1. A job in a huge software house. The company didn't hit the 12% profit margin it had promised it's shareholders, making a "measly" 10%. People knew when they were being laid off when the person going round with some fold up boxes dropped one at your feet and said, "pack your stuff". I wasn't laid off at that time but plenty of people I worked with were. 2. A minimum wage job when I was 19 years old. The owner calls us in and sacks a bunch of us in one go, with a big fat "sorry". I asked what the severance package was, since no-one else wanted to ask. He said, "erm, er....", and when it became clear there wasn't one because he hadn't enough empathy to even consider the proposition I said, "you can at least give us some money to go to the pub." He laughed, others nervously laughed. I said, "12 of us multiplied by a tenner each is £120". I eventually got £60 off the miserable excuse for a cunt who had his new Aston Martin parked on the carpark directly outside the window. (Yes I made sure everyone who got laid off got an equal share of that £60 at the pub).

pgrote 11y ago
" I eventually got £60 off the miserable excuse for a cunt who had his new Aston Martin parked on the carpark directly outside the window. " Why does owning an Aston Martin make someone a cunt? I am American and unfamiliar with British cars.
- mplewis 11y ago
  They're $80,000 cars. Having one means you spent $80,000 on a vehicle.
  - akerl_ 11y ago
    Do British cars not support leases or loans? It seems odd to look out the window at the car park and think you can judge somebody's whole financial situation, and from that extrapolate how they should handle other peoples' money.
    - irishcoffee 11y ago
      If he financed the whole car, hes paying ~ $1,400/month usd. Thats a mortgage payment for some people, and a months salary for for some people.
    - brobinson 11y ago
      People don't think about how little a car can possibly cost. In San Francisco, it seems that every third car you see is a BMW 3 series. If I asked the majority of my friends/coworkers who know nothing about cars what they thought about the owner's finances, they would state that that person is probably well-off. A used 3 series can be had for less than $15,000, around $12,000 if you get a much older one, less than the cost of a new, say, Mazda 3. The 2005 Ferrari F430 your boss drives may have cost as little as $100,000, and your boss may have financed part or most of it. Good credit + an above zero net worth will get you very nice finance terms. If you looked at the car alone, you might deduce that your boss is quite wealthy, but in reality their net worth could be less than $25,000. Even if you are into cars, a person's choice of vehicle is probably not going to give you any meaningful insight into their personal finances. Many people just like status symbols because they communicate how the person wants to be seen, not how they actually are. Flashing status symbols in front of people who can't or don't realize they could obtain them is uncouth, though.
      - jackmaney 11y ago
        > The 2005 Ferrari F430 your boss drives may have cost as little as $100,000 Only $100K?! Holy fucknozzles, I'll take five of them! [eyeroll]
        brobinson 11y ago
        That is about 1/3 of what its out-the-door price was at time of introduction. The $15,000 BMW 3 series is around 1/3-1/4 the original price, too. People generally assume brand new price = price that was paid by current owner. This contributes to the "flashy car = very wealthy" outlook, despite it not always being the case.
  - TylerE 11y ago
    Way more than that. The current cheapest model, with UK fees and taxes, at today's exchange rate, is $134,860. If you want one with a V-12 (Which, if you're buying an Aston you do), you're looking at $200k, minimum.
  - ascendantlogic 11y ago
    Maybe a used V8 model from 6-8 years ago. New ones go in the mid 100's to start.
  - jblow 11y ago
    I drive an expensive car. I've also put 40x the cost of the car into a company in order to pay people their salaries. The expensive car barely registers as noise on this budget. If I had to lay people off, that would still be true.
    - roel_v 11y ago
      Someone who's never run a business can't understand that. I mean, they can 'realize', at a rational level; but they can never understand. Just like I can never understand what it's like to be a single dad (or mom, although that'd be physically impossible for me...) working a minimum wage job or whatever. (I guess this opens me up to be jumped upon with 'cry me a river, being a single parent is much harder than having a business' or whatever, which I have no interest discussing or grading; my point is that some (most?) things cannot be understood until one has lived them)
- AtmaScout 11y ago
  Probably the combination of the price of the car and no severance/ bar money, in this case.
- UberMouse 11y ago
  Aston Martins are expensive, it's just a way to show the guy had a lot of money and he still had to pry the £60 out of his hands.
- philbarr 11y ago
  Owning an Aston Martin does not necessarily make one a cunt. Laying people off who are on minimum wage with little more than a sorry whilst having your fancy car on full display outside the window does, however.
  - shawndumas 11y ago
    can we stop using that word? please and thanks.
    - ascendantlogic 11y ago
      So this is legitimately interesting. I know that word has a very strong negative connotation in some parts of the world (US), but other parts of the world don't really seem to treat it as more than just another four letter word. I'm not commenting either way on my own feelings regarding the word, just being fascinated at (very small) culture clashes online.
      - donovanr 11y ago
        I don't mind profanity at all per se, but the tacit misogyny of that one does bum me out. I'm from the US, if it matters.
        taneq 11y ago
        Yeah, using a crude name for a specific gender's genitalia as a pejorative is a bit of a dick move.
        shawndumas 11y ago
        There is a profound difference between a powerful contingency using the genitalia of a less represented one as a curse and vice versa.
        aaronem 11y ago
        Unless it's "dick" or a close equivalent, which no one minds in the same way. I wonder why that is.
- irishcoffee 11y ago
  Owning an expensive car doesn't make one a cunt. Displaying wealth and hesitating to make one nice, small monetary gesture to people who you just laid off, this might make people think of that person as a bit cunty.
- ascendantlogic 11y ago
  It's a very expensive car and the sentiment here is that the person had no empathy at all. Drove up in a car that cost as much as people's houses and fired a bunch of people without any thought beyond just the dollars saved (at least that's the impression I'm getting from the story).
- ascendantlogic 11y ago
  I wouldn't go so far as to call one of my former bosses a "cunt" but he owned a Porsche 911 and would park in the best spot all the time. Hearing him talk about how there was no budget for raises while seeing his $100k car outside was definitely a bit of cognitive dissonance. I know it's his company and it's not a charity, etc etc, but the impact of being told you can't have more money despite the job you're doing while seeing the fact that the person telling you this makes a LOT more than you definitely stirs up some emotions. They may not be entirely rational, but they're definitely real.
  - ascendantlogic 11y ago
    This is why if I ever own my own company I may just get something like a Ford Escape to drive to and from work and keep the toys at home.
    - Killswitch 11y ago
      Or maybe not a be a cunt of a boss and give a little shit about the people who work for you... I mean, you expect them to give a shit about their job right? Mutual benefit. Care about your employee, they'll most likely care more about you and the job and not run off when stuff starts going bad. What I would have personally done in the situation would be to sell anything I had that I didn't need, to keep the company afloat, and my employees paid, because I know if we can weather it, it'll pay off in the end. But a lot of people are assholes and don't give a shit about their employees... And that's why they have a revolving door and churn through employees like no tomorrow.
      - ascendantlogic 11y ago
        I feel like you're yelling at me over a hypothetical situation that hasn't occurred yet.
        roel_v 11y ago
        Welcome to the internet :)
kohanz 11y ago
Did you really expect a severance package for a minimum wage job as a teenager or were you just being cheeky? It's a sincere question. Here in Canada at that age and wage-band I wouldn't even have considered the possibility.
- philbarr 11y ago
  Good point. At the time I think I wasn't aware of the actual law, and because he'd done a good job of keeping it quiet until that moment, we were all in the room and got the news all at once so hadn't had a chance to look it up. Mainly I think I just had a feeling that he was screwing us over somehow and so asked all the awkward questions I knew he didn't want to hear. I particularly took offence to having to look at his NEW car outside the window as he delivered the news. This was 20 years ago though (man, that's depressing!) and nowadays I would have spotted the warning signs a long way off and planned my exit strategy / final negotiations much better. I still think he was screwing us over, though. And I still think he was a cunt :)
  - spitfire 11y ago
    It was twenty years ago? Don't feel so bad his Aston Martin was really a Jaguar XJS[1] in a frock. [1] First released in 1975.
    - machinshin_ 11y ago
      what year do you think this McFly? 1995?
      - Retra 11y ago
        Flux capacitors are standard on Aston Martins in 2055.
    - swampthinker 11y ago
      1975 is a little more than 20 years ago.

pgrote 11y ago

" I eventually got £60 off the miserable excuse for a cunt who had his new Aston Martin parked on the carpark directly outside the window. " Why does owning an Aston Martin make someone a cunt? I am American and unfamiliar with British cars.

mplewis 11y ago
They're $80,000 cars. Having one means you spent $80,000 on a vehicle.
- akerl_ 11y ago
  Do British cars not support leases or loans? It seems odd to look out the window at the car park and think you can judge somebody's whole financial situation, and from that extrapolate how they should handle other peoples' money.
  - irishcoffee 11y ago
    If he financed the whole car, hes paying ~ $1,400/month usd. Thats a mortgage payment for some people, and a months salary for for some people.
  - brobinson 11y ago
    People don't think about how little a car can possibly cost. In San Francisco, it seems that every third car you see is a BMW 3 series. If I asked the majority of my friends/coworkers who know nothing about cars what they thought about the owner's finances, they would state that that person is probably well-off. A used 3 series can be had for less than $15,000, around $12,000 if you get a much older one, less than the cost of a new, say, Mazda 3. The 2005 Ferrari F430 your boss drives may have cost as little as $100,000, and your boss may have financed part or most of it. Good credit + an above zero net worth will get you very nice finance terms. If you looked at the car alone, you might deduce that your boss is quite wealthy, but in reality their net worth could be less than $25,000. Even if you are into cars, a person's choice of vehicle is probably not going to give you any meaningful insight into their personal finances. Many people just like status symbols because they communicate how the person wants to be seen, not how they actually are. Flashing status symbols in front of people who can't or don't realize they could obtain them is uncouth, though.
    - jackmaney 11y ago
      > The 2005 Ferrari F430 your boss drives may have cost as little as $100,000 Only $100K?! Holy fucknozzles, I'll take five of them! [eyeroll]
      - brobinson 11y ago
        That is about 1/3 of what its out-the-door price was at time of introduction. The $15,000 BMW 3 series is around 1/3-1/4 the original price, too. People generally assume brand new price = price that was paid by current owner. This contributes to the "flashy car = very wealthy" outlook, despite it not always being the case.
- TylerE 11y ago
  Way more than that. The current cheapest model, with UK fees and taxes, at today's exchange rate, is $134,860. If you want one with a V-12 (Which, if you're buying an Aston you do), you're looking at $200k, minimum.
- ascendantlogic 11y ago
  Maybe a used V8 model from 6-8 years ago. New ones go in the mid 100's to start.
- jblow 11y ago
  I drive an expensive car. I've also put 40x the cost of the car into a company in order to pay people their salaries. The expensive car barely registers as noise on this budget. If I had to lay people off, that would still be true.
  - roel_v 11y ago
    Someone who's never run a business can't understand that. I mean, they can 'realize', at a rational level; but they can never understand. Just like I can never understand what it's like to be a single dad (or mom, although that'd be physically impossible for me...) working a minimum wage job or whatever. (I guess this opens me up to be jumped upon with 'cry me a river, being a single parent is much harder than having a business' or whatever, which I have no interest discussing or grading; my point is that some (most?) things cannot be understood until one has lived them)
AtmaScout 11y ago
Probably the combination of the price of the car and no severance/ bar money, in this case.
UberMouse 11y ago
Aston Martins are expensive, it's just a way to show the guy had a lot of money and he still had to pry the £60 out of his hands.
philbarr 11y ago
Owning an Aston Martin does not necessarily make one a cunt. Laying people off who are on minimum wage with little more than a sorry whilst having your fancy car on full display outside the window does, however.
- shawndumas 11y ago
  can we stop using that word? please and thanks.
  - ascendantlogic 11y ago
    So this is legitimately interesting. I know that word has a very strong negative connotation in some parts of the world (US), but other parts of the world don't really seem to treat it as more than just another four letter word. I'm not commenting either way on my own feelings regarding the word, just being fascinated at (very small) culture clashes online.
    - donovanr 11y ago
      I don't mind profanity at all per se, but the tacit misogyny of that one does bum me out. I'm from the US, if it matters.
      - taneq 11y ago
        Yeah, using a crude name for a specific gender's genitalia as a pejorative is a bit of a dick move.
        shawndumas 11y ago
        There is a profound difference between a powerful contingency using the genitalia of a less represented one as a curse and vice versa.
        aaronem 11y ago
        Unless it's "dick" or a close equivalent, which no one minds in the same way. I wonder why that is.
irishcoffee 11y ago
Owning an expensive car doesn't make one a cunt. Displaying wealth and hesitating to make one nice, small monetary gesture to people who you just laid off, this might make people think of that person as a bit cunty.
ascendantlogic 11y ago
It's a very expensive car and the sentiment here is that the person had no empathy at all. Drove up in a car that cost as much as people's houses and fired a bunch of people without any thought beyond just the dollars saved (at least that's the impression I'm getting from the story).
ascendantlogic 11y ago
I wouldn't go so far as to call one of my former bosses a "cunt" but he owned a Porsche 911 and would park in the best spot all the time. Hearing him talk about how there was no budget for raises while seeing his $100k car outside was definitely a bit of cognitive dissonance. I know it's his company and it's not a charity, etc etc, but the impact of being told you can't have more money despite the job you're doing while seeing the fact that the person telling you this makes a LOT more than you definitely stirs up some emotions. They may not be entirely rational, but they're definitely real.
- ascendantlogic 11y ago
  This is why if I ever own my own company I may just get something like a Ford Escape to drive to and from work and keep the toys at home.
  - Killswitch 11y ago
    Or maybe not a be a cunt of a boss and give a little shit about the people who work for you... I mean, you expect them to give a shit about their job right? Mutual benefit. Care about your employee, they'll most likely care more about you and the job and not run off when stuff starts going bad. What I would have personally done in the situation would be to sell anything I had that I didn't need, to keep the company afloat, and my employees paid, because I know if we can weather it, it'll pay off in the end. But a lot of people are assholes and don't give a shit about their employees... And that's why they have a revolving door and churn through employees like no tomorrow.
    - ascendantlogic 11y ago
      I feel like you're yelling at me over a hypothetical situation that hasn't occurred yet.
      - roel_v 11y ago
        Welcome to the internet :)

kohanz 11y ago

Did you really expect a severance package for a minimum wage job as a teenager or were you just being cheeky? It's a sincere question. Here in Canada at that age and wage-band I wouldn't even have considered the possibility.

philbarr 11y ago
Good point. At the time I think I wasn't aware of the actual law, and because he'd done a good job of keeping it quiet until that moment, we were all in the room and got the news all at once so hadn't had a chance to look it up. Mainly I think I just had a feeling that he was screwing us over somehow and so asked all the awkward questions I knew he didn't want to hear. I particularly took offence to having to look at his NEW car outside the window as he delivered the news. This was 20 years ago though (man, that's depressing!) and nowadays I would have spotted the warning signs a long way off and planned my exit strategy / final negotiations much better. I still think he was screwing us over, though. And I still think he was a cunt :)
- spitfire 11y ago
  It was twenty years ago? Don't feel so bad his Aston Martin was really a Jaguar XJS[1] in a frock. [1] First released in 1975.
  - machinshin_ 11y ago
    what year do you think this McFly? 1995?
    - Retra 11y ago
      Flux capacitors are standard on Aston Martins in 2055.
  - swampthinker 11y ago
    1975 is a little more than 20 years ago.