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Comment by cft | Hacker News Reader

Does it mean anything for the Pixel program? Is it going to be continued?

Note that they're only offering this to people who work on that program in the US. People outside the US didn't get the offer, implying that the program as a whole survives.

All it implies to me is that labor law outside the US is complex, and Google HR is smart enough not to make this offer in places where it will cause them more problems.

Du you personally think Google's lawyers understands HR law in the locales where it has employees?

Well, the local branches know the local laws. HQ doesn't so it'll come up with some goal of a 6% reduction in force that ends up taking 2 years to implement globally because of laws outside the US.

But I mean Google's lawyers don't come up with the plans per-say, they advise on legality.

Is there any country where offering voluntary severance would break the law? I doubt it.

My guess is it's US only because US employees get paid the most.

It's not about breaking the law or not. It's about what an offer like this will mean that Google will also need to do.

FUD.

I've had coworkers in Europe that got a layoff notice, but in the notice period, the company wanted to recind the layoff and couldn't.

I imagine stuff like that would happen with this kind of offer too.

Yes, once you sign on a dotted line your ability to take it back may be limited. "Didn't mean to offer..." or "had a change of mind about the offer's validity period" may it may not cut it.

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