A layoff guide for tweeps
collectiveaction.tech
collectiveaction.tech
That's just shitty. Richest guy in the world and he doesn't want to pay severance. CA has some pretty strong labor laws, I'd think requiring people to work evenings & weekends would be a no-go.
From a game-theory standpoint it seems like given that Musk is going to do everything he can to keep from paying severance that the best strategy would be for everyone to just walk out the door all together and let Musk figure it all out by himself. Don't give notice, just stop showing up for work.
Employment lawyers must be salivating at this point.
Twitter is blatantly trying to avoid paying severance by using the for cause, and are likely sloppy in doing it given management pressure.
Gentle reminder to everyone that a big reason companies pay severance is so you dont sue them.
If they offer you the minimum legal package, or worse they try to bullshit you into even less, you should be suing them. Theyre hoping you dont.
At the end of the day, Twitter is under new management and it is within management's right to change to circumstances of your employment. If they start pushing night and weekend work, and you don't deliver, that alone isn't necessarily a violation of any law. You didn't perform, and it's completely possible that your termination is legally for cause, even in California.
Employment law is very complex and honestly the situation will vary drastically even among similarly leveled folks on the same team fired at the same time. What kind of notification you're given, what kind of documentation there, previous reviews, etc. all play a role.
I think it's shitty to try to squeeze out people like this but just because it's shitty doesn't mean it's illegal or that it's a good idea to sue over it.
1. Document everything off company devices
2. Consult an attorney, preferably specialized in employment law.
Prepare for a lawsuit, itll be worth it if one is necessary.
Of course an employer can pull this off for a handful of employees, but not for a significant percentage of their workforce.
If your claim was right, no employer would had paid severance for layoffs. They would just give a cause to every one laid off. Not that hard to come up with bs metrics.
https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/finalpay.pdf
> There is no legal requirement under California law that employers provide severance pay to an employee upon termination of employment. Employees should refer to their employer’s policy with respect to severance pay. Severance pay plans provided by an employer pursuant to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, 29 U.S.C. § 1001, et seq. (ERISA), are subject to federal law. Contact the U.S. Department of Labor at www.dol.gov. In certain limited situations, California laws may apply. However, a thorough review of the facts is necessary before a determination can be made.
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[0]https://edd.ca.gov/en/Jobs_and_Training/Layoff_Services_WARN
It is completely possible to say "we are going to lay off these 50 people on January 3, 2023" but not actually have them leave (and instead require them to come into the office for the next four weeks to help with knowledge transfer). That fills the requirement for WARN - the employees know that they are getting laid off and have time to find a new job.
In tech jobs, where IP is important, the garden leave approach is often taken because it limits the opportunity for an employee to engage in IP theft - but it is not required.
When I was laid off from Netapp in 2009, I was informed I was going to be laid off on March 16th. My last day was May 15th, 2009 and then I had a severance package that was 3(?) weeks of pay for every year I had worked there.
I could have left on my own accord in March if I wanted to, but my severance package was tied to me completing knowledge transfer for the next 60 days at which time the layoff would be complete.
Unfortunately this is happening at a different not-quite-FAANG company in the Bay as we speak
It’s a terrible feeling. Getting gaslit, having everything you do suddenly be under a microscope, finding flaws in any work you do correctly to further document your faults. Even though every other review you’ve had with your manager previously was positive. All to avoid paying out a mildly generous severance package en masse, and the bad press that comes with actual Layoffs…
Companies really show their true colors when times get hard. Benefits mean nothing if they’re taken away at the first sign of hard times
Labor rights are not a four letter word. It’s dignity, plain and simple.
It’s happening at FAANG companies as well. My team was dissolved last week and I was reassigned to a different team that already had a senior engineer on it. I was told by my manager that they only need one senior on the team and so it’s them or me. I’m encouraged to document their flaws and I’m sure they were told the same about me. The next review cycle is going to be brutal.
I’d assume many of the employees that will be kept are grateful they don’t have to carry the low performers any longer. Game knows game and high performers want to work with similar people.
Why would the cohort of high performing employees walk out for the benefit of the low performing employees?
If I worked there, I'd walk.
The great engineers are inspired by this leadership. It’s like fresh oxygen. They have purpose.
Because from what I've seen from Jason Calcanis, David Sacks etc they seem to be outsourcing product vision to their followers who have no skin in the game and plenty of hidden agendas.
Can't imagine any great engineers finding that inspiring.
Also if I haven’t “realized” it in the 35 years that I have been doing this sort of thing…that perhaps there is nothing eventually to realize.
Some would argue that the impact has been negative. I don't even like Twitter. But the impact is one of the greatest of any software platform till date.
And I really doubt great engineers are the kind of herdable cattle like you suggest. Most have pride and self-respect. I suspect they will be the first to leave a s(t)inking ship, and get the good jobs in the market while they are still abundant.
I’m sure the great engineers at Twitter were inspired by the order to print out all of their recent commits on sheets of paper and then promptly shred them before anybody looked at them.
I’m sure that the great engineers at Twitter who are parents are salivating at the opportunity to lose almost all of the time spent with their children.
I ask this sincerely, given that you seem to be just another worker as most of us. When and how exactly did you decide that forcing workers, as best paid as they are, to work longer hours is something acceptable, and from the tone of your posts even desirable?
How long has been your career? 10 years? 20 years? How often have you found that people work much better when they are pressured with a lingering guillotine over their heads? Have you ever managed someone, or a team? And managed them enough to have to tap into team spirit and morale to keep some semblance of productivity when things crumble around them?
What exactly has happened in your life for you to be on the side of corporate-owners? Is is just a lack of liberating education compelling you to become an oppressor coming from the oppressed?
The really great people understand that life isn't a zero sum game and have a high degree of empathy and altruism for their team members. And they definitely see the bigger picture e.g. that firing 50% of the company (as is rumoured) is not going to be good for anyone.
They could also be young/naive, but.. yeah.
I'm old enough to have survived large layoffs a couple of times in my career. In both instances a very large number of the "top performing" survivors left the company within a couple of months.
Large layoffs tend to breed a sense of insecurity and insecurity tends to get the remaining people to scurry, and the first out the door are naturally going to be the ones with the most options because their skills are highly sought after.
Putting it in very superficial terms... assuming you manage to get it right with choosing the "Cs" and lower on the layoffs, the As generally bolt soon after and you end up with a company full of Bs. At least that tends to be how it goes in my real world experience.
That's when you get Jim the all-star programmer leaving because John the slightly underperforming guy gets laid off and he no longer has anyone with relevant interests to talk to. That's assuming that John is underperforming as a whole and not just underperforming relative to his team, which his team could be generally high performance.
So then instead of a 150% programmer and a 90% programmer, you end up replacing both of them with 110% programmers for a net loss in productivity.
Let the exceptionalists fend for themselves if they feel so inclined. You only have to convince the majority, not those who think they’re the best (whether warranted or not). If you’re “high performing”, you’ll land anywhere you want, right? Call their bluff. What do you have to lose? Your tenuous at will employment?
My guess is 6 months from now the company will be stronger than ever with an inspired staff that trusts their peers are pulling weight too.
Ah yes, the "inspiration" from solving the world's biggest problems of letting people send deep thoughts two sentences at a time.
Don't be so sure, you're a high performer. High performance isn't just about your own performance. All it takes is for the project you're working on to end up on the dead end list and all the sudden, you'll be on the dead end list too. There's too many factors that influence a person's performance besides just the work they put in.
I'm not sure what the problem is here, but that kind of behavior does make me suspect they're that obnoxious coworker we've all had who's deeply unpopular and doesn't even realize it.
This feels like very risky advice. If your colleague is not party to a conversation, you can’t just sneak them in to the conversation to have them record it.
Because "writing stuff down" isn't prohibited in any state.
In many cases these systems only have SSO login. So how do you get that data onto your laptop when as mentioned earlier in the article you could be fired for cause when sending data is detected.
I take that to mean, that one definately should not be working evenings and weekends. Why do all that, for a company that's not going to value your work and look for wrongful ways to terminate you. If anything it means, you should work much fewer hours.
In any event, it would be illegal, there would be plenty of lawyers ready to work on contingency, and politicians would also be eager to investigate.
I think you're right, but I also think that he figures he's the richest man in the world and can do pretty much whatever he wants at this point.
Most people are easily intimidated by legal-sounding crap, like a severance agreement written up by company lawyers. In my experience, most lawyers are crap (I have had 1 good one out of around 5)and a lot of the "legal agreements" being written have illegal stuff in them, which is why they always say "if anything in this contract is found to be illegal, the rest of it still holds".
The advice to consult with a lawyer and maybe an accountant is IMO well worth the extra trouble and expense. They're counting on employees being too intimidated to do it.
I'm not a tweep, but I'd add:
- if you have any sort of access to your employer's network from your personal devices (e.g. email / calendar / WiFi etc.) remove it and check for any MDM settings. Especially if your employer has remote wipe capability on your device, or could legally confiscate your device due to some legal policy.
- Get a copy of information that makes it easy to write your next resume. E.g. your job description / leveling guide.
- If you're more nefarious than I am, consider maxing out any temporary benefits that might not be withdrawn after you leave. E.g. taking home company desk / chair / hardware for loan use in your home office if allowed (to improve your productivity). If they want it back after you're fired for cause, make them come get it, you don't work for them, so why do their work?
- Less nefariously, it's probably time that you accidentally "lose your badge" and get a replacement especially if that's used for discounts like car rental, airlines, gym memberships, etc. Copy codes for these things especially if they're a good discount you might use when you're laid off.
- Consider the effect being laid off might have on your 401k match etc. Min/Max it out if this makes sense for your financial situation.
- Go through your emails to get a list of contacts that you've ever worked with / emailed. You never know who will be a good person to have in your network later (and who might not appear in linkedin)
- I have heard people say that there are companies with severance linked non-disparagement clauses that can be a PITA, as well as non-disclosure clauses that make it impossible to disclose severance related things like amounts etc. I'd speculate that these clauses could make it problematic to get advice from your peers / friends.
- Plan something good for after the layoff if you're not immediately in need of a new job (take a vacation).
- Talk with an immigration attorney about what termination and not having a job means for you and your family.
- Find out your employer's policies around termination of people that have immigration issues.
- COBRA can be pretty expensive - find out what this might cost for you and your family (it may work out cheaper to just pay for things as they arrive or look at marketplace plans).
- Join blind for your employer
- Take care of your immediate mental health, when everything is going to shit, remember that making time to do the things that you love doing is important. Walk the dog. Play that game. Go to that happy hour.
Good luck