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Comment by Gabrys1 | Hacker News Reader

I like that they shared publicly the severance package (I missed that in a company before, the severance package was only available to the ones laid off, and you wouldn't even know if you got the same as your colleagues).

And the package itself seems alright too (and sensible, for example: the laid off can keep their laptops. What would company do with almost 300 extra laptops?). Time of the lay off also not too bad (firing people in November/December is really uncool).

All in all, not TOO bad from what I can see in the public post.

Oh, and they also said how many people first, not how many percent, which suggest they think about their human resources as actual individuals.

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The laptop thing is usually less about clawing back property and more about preventing the laptop, potentially with customer PII and source code and other stuff on it, ending up sold on ebay or left laying around as a personal device to be eventually lost at an airport 3 years later, and so on. They take them back, wipe them, then either resell them to a reseller or reissue them to other employees etc.

Indeed, the financial services firm I contribute at is required to remotely lock and wipe laptops when offboarding for compliance purposes, and that is somewhat consistent with the other FIs I’ve seen the inside of. How effective this is depends on an org's MDM story (people, process, controls).

If they are managed devices (which I hope they are at a fintech company), it should be trivial to remote wipe them before removing MDM from them to enable personal use/resale etc.

As I understand it, it's a question of insurance. Either way, it's very common in larger companies to either reissue or physically destroy machines after an employee leaves.

how would you wipe them without an internet connection if I shut it off ?

the minute it goes online, it gets the kill signal

i mean, you can get the information about getting laid off from email on the phone or another computer. then not connect it and download what you need then reinstall it

You can do everything you mentioned irrespective of whether you are allowed to keep the device or not (before it's physically collected by you former employer, which can take a few days).

They just a remote wipe which surely a company that size is set up to do.

Good point!

I've been on both sides of the layoff discussions all too many times over the years. Even at the most disorganized or chaotic places, I've never seen the severance packages be anything other than a set formula.

That formula might consider location, level, tenure, and other relevant factors, but I don't think I've ever seen a case where it was "I like Alice more than Bob, so Alice gets more..."

8 weeks plus 2 weeks per year seems light. 4 weeks for every year sounds more fair. The interview process was over 8 weeks

Those equations intersect at 4 years of tenure. Brex was founded only 7 years ago, so most affected employees would presumably make out better with 8 + 2 * N than with 4 * N.

We are still including the 8 weeks. 8 + (4*n).

> 8 weeks plus 2 weeks per year seems light. 4 weeks for every year sounds more fair. The interview process was over 8 weeks

Well that would be a short severance for everybody who was hired in the last year.

You still get the 8 weeks.

Looking at that list 6 months of COBRA is short, really short. In this job-search environment your COBRA is going to run out well before you could find your next job.

When I was laid off from Oracle in 2012 I got 18 months of COBRA. That sounds must more reasonable.

It’s 6 months of subsidized COBRA where the company is contributing. Legally you are entitled to 18 months but you have to pay out of pocket entirely.

The marketplace coverage (or straight Medicaid) is cheaper than cobra these days. Cobra was 2200 for my family, with marketplace we pay 400.

Not necessarily, when I left a company (to take a break) continuing with COBRA was ~$3400/month, the direct marketplace insurance was ~$3200/mo.

It does depend on income because the lower prices are due to tax credits, but this early in the year these folks should have a low estimated income. I recon you had a big estimated income that year? I had a similar issue where the last few months I was paying 1500 for marketplace insurance, it’s only in the new year I’m paying less.

I believe it would've gone down on year 2, but didn't get to test that so don't have any details, as I went back to work before a year.

> The marketplace coverage (or straight Medicare)

Medicare is available only to 65+ y.o. people. You probably wanted to say Medicaid.

Yes thanks

> Time of the lay off also not too bad (firing people in November/December is really uncool).

I don’t understand this. Why is it uncool? And why is January better?

I guess it doesn’t let people enjoy their vacations. But on the flip side, isn’t that a good thing? You can curb expenses on the vacation/holidays.

You can enjoy those holidays with the family instead of being stressed and sad about losing the job. The holidays being Thanksgiving and Christmas.

I see. I guess different strokes for different folks.

For me, if my job or project is doomed, and my employer knows, I will rather they tell me immediately so I can start figuring out solutions ASAP.

It doesn’t matter if it’s the holidays. The last thing I will want is to come back from a holiday in Portugal, spirits high, year plans made, but only to be told I am fired.

But I can understand the other perspective.

The amount of time you have after you are fired is the same. If you are fired later, you get paid for a month or two AND are stress free with your family during the holidays.

Of course. However, the amount of time spent thinking consciously or subconsciously on a doomed project is minimized. The amount of time spent making decisions predicated on having the same job also. I can also savage any expensive holiday plans I made.

The keyword for me is the employer should let me know ASAP when something is doomed.

Again, this stress-free holiday with family is not a problem for me. I will rather be real about the situation than have my employer hide it for a month. They could give me an extra month of severance instead :).

Edit: I might be a minority on the earlier take.

I think the other argument that would affect other people is: these things always leak through gossip. When you hear of an imminent layoff and you don’t know if you will be included, it’s the worst type of stress.

I think it depends on the amount of severance you receive. A layoff happening in November/December with enough severance to cover what would've been the employee's wages/salary through February or beyond is kind of ideal; that way I'd get to spend the holidays as, well, holidays. Otherwise, I'd prefer it to be after the holidays, when businesses are ramping back up into normal operations and therefore I can reasonably hope for a faster turnaround time (and thus less of my own savings drained).

This time I got laid off it was the latter (last week), and while it's still stressful, I vastly prefer it over the last time I lost my job (right after Thanksgiving, with no severance).

What about Chinese New Year then? Also February not cool?

There are effectively 2-3 dead weeks in which you’re not paid but can’t look for a new job. All you can do over Christmas and New Year is worry.

Nobody’s hiring during that time of year.

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