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Comment by ReptileMan | Hacker News Reader

>"but they didn't say exactly the right things, in exactly the right way, exactly how I expected!"

There is no right way to lay off someone. Only different shades of bad.

There are right ways and wrong ways to lay off someone. They aren't determined by words, but by actions.

If the company has a healthy cashflow it can afford to give the employees that have been laid off a larger runway in terms of how many months of salary they will still pay out. If you've given them stock options, you can give them more time to decide whether to exercise the vested option.

I'd gladly take a "Good riddance" with 6 months of salary and 2 years validity of my options over a "We regret that it has come to this point" with just a one-month notice.

I agree with the theme of your message, but it's actually very challenging legally to change an options expiration date after its issued, and likely has negative tax implications

I've heard this excuse a lot over my career, mainly from people trying to backtrack on a promise of issuing options to begin with.

I agree. Sometimes people don’t know how to deliver bad news.

When I was laid off I appeared stoic throughout the conversation. Because lots of people were laid off so there was no point to discuss “why”. The only question was severance. But then the HR got curious about my lack of reaction. He started questioning if I had job offers at hand and if my access could be cut right then (others were given a week).

That's true in the current world. But back about 8 years ago I got laid off from my programming job and it was honestly a relief. I was happy. I got a pretty good severance, and I knew I'd have another job soon. I had 5 job offers within 2 weeks of interviews, all paying the same or more. But now? It would be devastating as there are very few jobs available and more competition for them. I used to have 5 recruiters a day contacting me, but now I'm lucky if I get contacted 1 time every 5 months or so.

Yep, only worse and less worse

just make it fast and not painful at least

I think that there are definitely bad ways to lay people off and those should be avoided. As a manager/company, not trying to do this as best you can reflects very badly in the workplace and in society.

I don't know what you mean by "bad" or "right" but a layoff isn't necessarily bad. It's inevitable unless you demand incredibly conservative hiring practices, only hiring if you're willing to commit to that role existing for their natural life. So, it happens. There is a right way to do it and that's without any BS. Sadly people don't get much time to say their goodbyes, especially in a remote situation, but if even 1% of laid-off people become disgruntled it's not smart to be really loose with access to important systems after you've laid someone off.

Now, if you mean "bad" as in it's unpleasant to hear or give the news, I agree with you, it's always the opposite of fun.

I mean, there is. Fundamentally it involves recognizing and respecting their humanity. Just like it is incredibly rude to break up with a significant other over text, it is similarly rude to lay someone off with a pre-recorded video message. The only reason one would do either of those things is for their own benefit, because it is easier for them compared to the alternative.

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