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Comment by civilized | Hacker News Reader

> as a result of the economy

Right, right. Slack just won't make it unless everyone works through the holidays.

I don't know about you all, but to me it's obvious that C-levels use moody economic periods as an excuse to do all the Scroogey things they would actually be more than happy to do in any economic season.

It would make just as much sense, if not more, to drastically cut their outlandish "performance" pay when the economy is down, but I don't think we'll be seeing much of that.

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That reminds me of this post [1], which seems relevant to this circumstance

> I read on a post somewhere that if you replace "the economy" with "rich people yatch money" a lot of headlines make more sense.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25507123

Yeah sorry but that excuse “because of the economy” feels like a half finished sentence. What exactly “the economy” do they mean? The sentence would make just us much sense if they said “because the moon”

That's the thing - the economy can be doing however and it'll still be used as an excuse.

If you think you're missing something it's because you are, mind you.

Its the same meme as calling morbius the most movie

This is exactly what it is. I feel "management" is just another word for "psycho lunatic sadists". Just do stuff to make people more miserable and blame it on the economy.

Firing people and making the others work twice as much? It's the economy. Take free soda from the kitchen that costs cents? It's the economy. Remove 4 days of holidays that would otherwise improve morale and productivity? It's the economy. Make employees waste hours in commute everyday? We obviously need to do it because it's the economy.

Yep, just wait for the massive bonuses the execs take home despite "the economy".

Yeah. Place I was working did a massive layoff at the start of COVID, and immediately began hiring again for the vacated positions. Except now the hires were contractors in Latin America, Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe rather than FTEs in the US.

I mean no offense to any posters from those locales. You are a human, I respect you and your skills, most of you are probably better at tech than I am. I am glad you have jobs.

The point is the company said "OH NO, THE ECONOMY, WE HAVE TO DOWNSIZE, CANNOT AFFORD THIS HEADCOUNT" out of one side of its mouth. While backfilling those vacated spots as fast as it could from lower cost regions. It was a cowardly, calculated move that they had been praying for an excuse to execute.

I don't know that I go so far as that take, but it certainly feels in some cases like companies had to "bite their tongues" as demand for employees and comp skyrocketed, and now that things are starting to stall, they are picking l pouncing on it to regain the power dynamic they once had through the threat of "be lucky you still have a job."

And then they wonder why people leave once conditions permit.

In some ways it's almost like the economic change is _welcomed_ because it puts downward pressure on comp (for companies that can weather the storm at least).

This is how to fight inflation. It is the goal, not just welcomed.

Some holidays

Those aren't the biggest holidays for everyone, and it isn't even the new year for everyone

Then maybe just allow employees to take the week off during a time that's relevant for them.

But regardless, with this move everyone loses regardless of when they would enjoy the week off.

They've absorbed those days, and it will inform their policies. I can see why they wouldn't just make a direct transfer of that time off.

I think they already have something like this where you get a few weeks to take off per year whenever you like and you still get paid.

And is that pool getting an extra week to compensate for this week being removed?

And how true is the "whenever you like"?

Idk, I think they're getting as many weeks as their employment contract dictates. That's how it always worked for me.

If I'd been getting an extra week beyond that, a long-standing perk that's used to help recruit employees, I'd certainly be annoyed and considering my options if it gets taken away.

People consider their options every single time they drive to work. No one is arguing that when perks are taken away you can be sad. But it's not like employers aren't disappointed by employees often too and still keep them for weeks, months, years longer after the disappointment.

well, when the whole company shuts down its actually a lot nicer. Do it in the summer or winter whatever, but it's nice to not miss anything and really let work stop

As a foreigner, I don't care. Holiday schedule is one out of many issues with US-centric policy and culture, but mainstream biases exist everywhere. This is about an employee perk.

Extra time off is always much appreciated, especially in the US tech sector where prestige white collar work = your life & identity. Most work overtime during the year anyway and are available outside of business hours and make countless other sacrifices for their employer every hour of every day.

Moreover, many of us celebrate Thanksgiving and July 4th anyway, because, well everyone else is (ie the same reason as most Americans).

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