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Comment by stevetursi | Hacker News Reader

Hertz laid off nearly the entirety of their rank and file IT staff earlier this year. https://news.slashdot.org/story/16/02/13/1630244/hertz-is-pu...

In order to receive our severance, we were forced to train our IBM replacements, who were in India. Hertz's strategy of IBM and Austerity is the new SMT's solution for a balance sheet that's in shambles, yet they have rewarded themselves by increasing executive compensation 35% over the prior year, including a $6 million bonus to the CIO. http://insiders.morningstar.com/trading/executive-compensati...

I personally landed in an Alphabet company, received a giant raise, and now I get to work on really amazing stuff, so I'm doing fine. But to this day I'm sad to think how our once-amazing Hertz team, staffed with really smart people, led by the best boss I ever had, and were really driving the innovation at Hertz, was just thrown away like yesterday's garbage.

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The failing business and laid off workers combined with executive compensation increases/bonuses is very much an example of why Sanders and Trump are so popular, and why candidates like them (or more extreme) will come out of the woodwork in 4 years.

I find it hard to believe Trump wouldn't, or hasn't, done exactly as Hertz has done. This seems like an all too common stratagem for upper echelons within a business to convince shareholders that the books are healing.

Trump has quite a reputation for not paying his suppliers, and using tactical bankruptcy to avoid other debts.

Trump a politician and Trump a businessman are not the same.

Trump does this kind of thing because he believes it's necessary to compete. For example, he makes neckties in China/Mexico/wherever because that's the only way one can do so profitably.

Trump is the epitome of "Don't hate the player, hate the game". While Trump has played the game as necessary in the business world, Trump claims he is running for office so that he can change policies such that offshoring American jobs is no longer economically feasible, and such that companies that do this will face punishment.

Though it seems counter-intuitive, Trump and Sanders are striking the same chord, just from different directions. There is a surprising amount of crossover support from Sanders to Trump, especially as evidence of DNC corruption against Sanders in the primary process continues to mount.

Tangential discussion: but change comes from within. There are plenty of companies out there who figured out a way to make a profit operating against industry norms, like making their clothes in the US -- Raleigh Denim comes to mind.

Trump could absolutely have (hired someone to) figure out a way to make a profit on artisanal ties. He was just too concerned with maximizing personal gain to care.

Yeah, I probably shouldn't have said the ONLY way to make money is by exporting manufacturing. But the usual way for sure.

Trump is about making it so that business as usual favors the American worker -- it shouldn't require special boutique retailers who are only ever going to be able to compete in a niche market for hyper-aware consumers.

How do you lay off lazy citizens? Well... without violating several international conventions.

I'm always astonished that companies that treat their IT staff this way don't find landmines left behind more often that destroy their infrastructure.

Really? It sounds like you're describing a felony, and one that would probably not that hard to be traced back to the perpetrator.

You're naive if you think this doesn't happen more often than not. Some shops are very good about preventing this, most enterprises are not. Drop a bunch of USB sticks in the parking lot or other common areas, someone else ends up doing the work for you.

I do incident response for a living. Disgruntled employees/former employees do sabotage their companies' networks, but it is incredibly rare. Not because most organizations are well-defended against such attacks; its because most people aren't willing to destroy their lives simply because they were laid off. Especially in a rapidly growing industry where a talented person can generally find a better job than the one they had in a week or two.

I appreciate you taking the time to post this. I'll make sure to never use Hertz again.

I've sworn off Hertz after following the whole debacle as it was unfolding.

Recruiter here: I placed a developer or two who were laid off from Donlen (owned by Hertz) earlier this year. It didnt seam like they were laying off everyone though. Might be time to check in with all my other contacts though. Thanks.

really sorry about your past experience with hertz, but it sounds like you ended up with a better deal.

your post piqued my interest because i've been a long time business user of hertz (not by choice i can assure you), and i can't say that i'm at all impressed with any of their services. probably not your team's doing, but about a year ago, i got off a 12 hour flight in sfo to stand in line at hertz only to be ushered to a kiosk where i had to do a video conference with some remote teller. this was the biggest garbage service in the world, i cannot believe they actually spent money on this solution, i ended up getting ushered back to a teller at the desk where i was already standing in line. perhaps you were in the twilight zone at hertz doing wonderful things, but i think that company is rotten and should rot in hell.

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