Ask HN: My company revoked a couple of job offers. What should I do?

Looks like you have just learned an important life lesson about how companies work. Despite everything they say and virtue signal, they actually exist to maximize returns for their shareholders, rather than provide welfare for current or prospective employees.

The only actions I would suggest taking are:

* Tell management that you understand that it was a difficult decision to make, but was the correct choice for the company, and offer to assist with handling any fallout with the candidates or other staff, or with interviewing any more suitable candidate later on.

* Stop imagining that your job is "safe", or that other companies are different.

You are confusing your work with your life. Never be butthurt, it is only your work.

Collectively ? Hell no, are you a commune ? Don't you have the spine to speak up for yourself ?

Also unless you own a share in the company, it is not yours, so it is not your decision and not your reponsability. Additionally leading a company is not an exercise in popularity.

Therefor your resume should always be up to date and you only owe allegiance to number 1 and your prime interests, i.e. yourself ( and by extension to your kids, your life partner, your parents and longtime friends ).

It never hurts to know your value as an employee, so you might as well take a few interviews, if only to get more experience in negocitating your value as an employee.

Also for this very reason do negociate a sign-up bonus and don't hand in your notice until the bonus is credited to your bank account.

Good luck!

Many here are saying to separate your work from your "life". I don't understand these comments. Our work *is* our life. By working for such a company, you are generating profit for them. If every employee would quit if their employer did something unethical, most employers would stop. This is what unions and strikes do.

Do you feel good with yourself for working at that company?

In my opinion, either 1) quit or 2) demand a substantial raise. You can use the money to do good if you're trying to be an altruist.

What you will do as individual won't matter. Every company is big enough to survive without an employee and being the exception you won't change anything in their future behaviour. The ideal case would be if job offers are binding and the company suffers legal consequences in case of revocation, a.k.a a monthly salary for the position.

Next best action is if you organize people for a collective action so that management knows that bad behaviour has consequences. However, such work is ungrateful, likely not to succeed, and even more likely to backfire if communication turns into confrontation. Starting a fight should happen only if you have clearly stated goals, a formulated plan of action, and an exit strategy in case that things don't go according to plan. So, if you do it, as minimum count what leverage you have, what goal you want to achieve, and if the leverage matches the goals.

I realize that you are European, but if you don't like your job, you don't quit. You just go in every day and do it really half-assed. That's the American way.

Oh thats the modus operandi of europeans anyway!

I'd suggest thinking about this a little deeper... What department would you complain to.

'Human Resources'...

Trying to not sound like I shout at clouds, but we do live in an age where a job (which is a social collective of people that all strive for a common goal) is still using viewpoints where the people that make up a organisation are a literal commodity, treated as such with processes and guarding around doing the best thing for the organisation with the person held second. It's 'just how it is'. I would say it's getting better, however it's not Starfleet.

Given that, this is an unfortunate series of events. The 'business' won't 'care', yeah sure the people who made the decision here may not feel great about this timing, but the business won't care, and at best will likely be utterly unaffected by it.

:) do remember though that the 'business' is a collective deliberate hallucination, and the excuses that people give for these things are only excused when people within that shared environment allow it, and clearly where you are this is allowed so poke the bear with caution. Either swallow it, get out or actively try and show how this could have been done differently.

'I feel like what they did, albeit legal (?), is immoral and unjust and there has to be some sort of tangible response.'

So what was the right decision? Hire them knowing they'll possibly be made redundant soon? Hire them even though it might impact the company financially and therefore might have knock-on effects on other peoples employment?

Now don't get me wrong, it sucks and shouldn't happen, headcount and budget planning should be better, but sometimes it doesn't work out that way. There should be a retro on how it happened.

I thought Europe was supposed to have much more worker friendly job policies. Did the job seekers not sign some kind of offer? Is this not somehow a situation where the screwed job seekers should have some leverage or get compensated in some way?

To answer your questions.

Is it disgusting? Yes.

Should you voice your concerns collectively? Probably.

Should the company have exercised better judgement in offering somebody a job they weren't able to see through? Most definitely.

But at the same time, what should a company do if situations change and they can't afford extra workers? Are all of you willing to take even a 5% pay cut to ensure that the workers get their jobs?

Even with protective laws, there are trial periods when you get a new job, even in Europe.

During the trial period, the employer can rescind the offer, or the employee walk away pretty instantly, without compensation or damage paid.

Europe consists of 44 countries. They don’t have the same labor laws.

> I am bitter and not sure I can get over it even though my job is safe

Then you either have to raise the issue directly with management, quit, or admit to yourself that you actually can get over it.

> a medium sized online retailer in Europe

Probably Zalando. Are we talking about job offers or contracts? If the former, well, nothing can be done (usually one should get a contract signed before quitting the current position). If the latter, I bet that in Germany something legal can be done against it.

I suggest you raise it up (probably anonymously) in your next all-hands or equivalent venue.

As for the legality, it is case-by-case AFAIK at least in France or Germany, but if they can prove harm, they can probably sue and win some money but it will take months if not years.

Lack of respect, empathy for other people. There's nothing there. That's the world we live in.

People are too afraid of voicing concerns, that's also quite telling. If your company uses a group chat like Slack, Discord, I'd write and share my thoughts on that, there's nothing wrong being human.

I find that most people prefer to avoid conflict and that's why they keep doing stuff like this. For example, recently a friend of mine told me that at his company they made an offer which was accepted to a candidate but have a few other candidates that won't cancel the interview even though nothing will lead from that 100%! Some of us put a lot of time and energy to prepare for an interview, cancel going out with friends or family to attend meetings. This is life for the rest of us. This situations should be exposed, this needs to stop!

I can understand your company's perspective, they need to survive and probably encountered unexpected difficulties. I hope that at least they gave these candidates some amount of money (at least one month's salary).

If I were you, I would indeed start exploring other options on a small scale. Don't actively interview, but talk to friends, make a list of workplaces that would be happy to have you, so that on the day of reckoning, you will be prepared for any scenario.

> I hope that at least they gave these candidates some amount of money (at least one month's salary).

Sorry, what? Have you seen that happen before? I don't see how that's even on the table.

> Don't actively interview

Why not? It's a good skill to have and they could happen upon a better opportunity. Just the fact that the OP made the post in the first place indicates that they're going to resent their employer every day they continue to stay there. Even if they stop actively thinking about it, it'll still permeate through every reaction they have to future corporate decisions and changes in direction.

> Sorry, what? Have you seen that happen before? I don't see how that's even on the table.

multiple companies have done this.

Turn down interview requests and resume review requests for the next year. Clearly the company should not be hiring.

Are you management? Change the policies. Otherwise quit.

> I am bitter and not sure I can get over it even though my job is safe

I would take this as the first warning sign.

Be assured the management did not enjoy turning people away, especially so close to their start date. I have even heard of people showing up on their first day to hear there job was eliminated.

As for the warning, although you feel you are safe, you might be safe for now. But eventually everyone is at risk, even the CEO.

TLDR: get your resume together...