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Comment by 0cf8612b2e1e | Hacker News Reader

Which I would definitely prefer. A couple of years ago, two weeks before Thanksgiving, management announced there would be layoffs. No timeline on when the cuts would be shared or number impacted. People had to sit around for weeks, wondering if they had a job. Should I buy Xmas presents? Who knows!

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I'd prefer this honestly. Would take 1-2 weeks to start updating my resume and listing out all accomplishments, relevant projects, etc.

At-will employment is hard. Honestly, if you aren't planning to lose your job tomorrow when your at-will, you're not being honest with yourself. I wish it were different, but outside a union contract or some other fairly well-combed over business contract, you should not assume you will get paid tomorrow.

The best strategy is to save up at least 6 months of runway.

This is the real underlying story, and it may be unfair to expect people to "do this on their own" but in the USA, you really need to do this on your own.

> Should I buy Xmas presents? Who knows!

If losing your job means you can't afford buying presents, isn't it good to know your job is at risk?

Better than buying presents and then getting fired right?

That’s the point. Tell me today if I still have a job. Do not make everyone sweat about it for an undetermined amount of time. That’s unnecessary financial stress on all of the people who were not impacted.

In one case it was "we may be considering layoffs" told to us in September, and right after thanksgiving was "we will be doing layoffs after Christmas" - but the list of those laid off wasn't available.

Maybe we need the corporate version of "Good night, Wesley, I'll no doubt fire you in the morning."

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