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Comment by ctdonath | Hacker News Reader

NASA is/was noted for releasing a large number of people after successful missions. Everything is going well overall, they just didn't need everyone around during long idle periods. Might presume SpaceX is doing the same: what do you do with >200 idle personnel? pay them to do nothing, or release them and hire as needed when the time comes again?

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I don't think the problem is with laying off unnecessary staff. I think this is a notification and backwage issue. If someone works for you for two weeks, then gets fired, you can't just not pay them for the time worked. Also, in most states, you cannot lay off employees without cause (meaning without a specific issue with a single employees behavior or performance) without sufficient notice.

That's pretty much completely wrong, for better or worse. It's called at will employment.

Edit: I wonder if the downvoters who have not bothered to comment realize that every state in the US except Montana has some form of at will employment. The person I was replying to couldn't be more wrong. (The very obvious claim about not being able to fail to pay people is of course true)

You're being downvoted because you're wrong. At-will employment doesn't mean you can stiff your employees on backwages. It also doesn't mean you don't need to comply with Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) laws, which exist in many (most?) states.

At-will employment doesn't mean the employer gets to do whatever they please.

R&D? Ping pong?

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