
Ask HN: Who is firing? - whoisfiring
Post any companies that are having layoffs, mass firings, unusual churn, etc. If possible, please identify the company or as much specifics so you can help others in the community.<p>Inspired by:
&quot;So, I figure if we&#x27;re allowed to talk about who is hiring, why not the other way around? At the very least, we can get a pulse on those companies which smells like roses on the outside, and reek of something more earthy on the inside.&quot;
(https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=12851987)<p>If there&#x27;s enough interest, I will have this bot auto-post on a monthly basis similar to whoishiring.
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debunn
Reposted
([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12854996](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12854996))
from last month's thread, as it's still relevant:

The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (OTPP) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada is
currently laying off over 100+ (union, management and contractor) IT folks
from the Enterprise Technology Solutions (IT operations) and Testing teams.
All of the affected positions are being transferred to Tata Consultancy
Services (TCS - India based offshoring service company), with those who are
affected being mandated to knowledge transfer with TCS up to the January 31,
2017 termination date.

While there have been internal assurances that no other teams are going to be
outsourced in the near future, I wouldn't recommend applying for any IT based
roles at OTPP.

Full disclosure - I currently work for, and am affected by this outsourcing.

[http://www.benefitscanada.com/news/ontario-teachers-to-
outso...](http://www.benefitscanada.com/news/ontario-teachers-to-
outsource-108-it-positions-86124)

~~~
sanswork
Tata is in Markham right? I wonder what the split in on-shore/off-shore will
be.

One interesting point is that Markham itself is a pretty popular "off-shoring"
location for US businesses.

~~~
debunn
The only Toronto office I can see listed for TCS is downtown @ 400 University
Avenue (which hilariously enough is the building I worked in previously) - I'm
sure they'll gladly work anywhere in the city though! As of now, the project
managers and team leads are on site, with the majority of their technical
staff being back in India.

~~~
sanswork
Ah I thought I saw their logo on top of one of the few non-CGI/AMD buildings
last time I was in the area.

Anyhow I got a bit side tracked there, I hope you got decent notice and manage
to land comfortably on your feet.

~~~
debunn
Thanks! If anything, the notice was excessive (six months) - so it's been
challenging to search for a new position as we won't be able to start until
February 1st (without abandoning our severance packages at least.) Most of us
have either lined up something afterwards, or are beginning to search now (I'm
still selectively searching for now) - hopefully we all move on to something
better!

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Vetre
Absio Corp in Denver, CO

A security startup that laid off 4 (of 12) employees the week before
thanksgiving. This was in an effort to hire marketers for the product that was
in part built by the 4 that were laid off.

They also took the Christmas bonuses and stock of those that were laid off and
distributed them as incentive for the remaining employees to stay. There is a
lot of political turmoil as far as I am told.

~~~
asidiali
This is the worst, a straight stab in the back from the company - when they
fire you after you built their company for them because they don't want to pay
more salaries.

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RachelF
In Australia the state government of NSW is firing local IT workers, and
replacing them with more subservient temporary visa holders:

[http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2016/12/nsw-government-
repla...](http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2016/12/nsw-government-replaces-
local-workers-457-visas/)

~~~
sanswork
This article is super confusing. It doesn't sound like they are replacing the
employees with 457s though it sounds like they are outsourcing everyone but
the 457s.

>“Australia has real depth in IT skills so it is quite extraordinary for the
NSW government to bring in 32 workers under 457 visas,” Mr Shoebridge said.

Anyone that has had to hire for technical roles in Australia can tell you it's
really not this easy Australia definitely has depth but it doesn't have
breadth and the highly skilled tech people are in such demand that they are
rarely available for hiring. So unless you're hiring for a junior role you
probably will have a very difficult time finding highly skilled employees. I'd
still like to see more focus in getting juniors hired and trained though so
that in a few years we can have more resources available at the mid to upper
levels.

Side note I use to be a 457 and I never felt subservient in anyway either.

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dudemanwakowski
MachineZone or MZ (game of war/mobile strike developers) laid off the entire
engineering, design and management staff in their San Diego office. They also
laid off their Russian team if I remember correctly.

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yolesaber
AppNexus just fired something 14% of their staff in NYC, around 150 jobs.
Mostly marketing/sales but I knew a few devs who got canned. Apparently doing
some housecleaning before their IPO

~~~
smithwesson
Related: Rubicon and AOL have done some house cleaning as well

~~~
yolesaber
Rubicon's been taking a beating in the market. I hope that AppNexus' IPO along
with Snapchats brings some energy back into adtech and new tech stocks.

~~~
whenwillitstop
All ad tech stocks that are not GOOG and FB are getting slammed. They cannot
compete against the data and ML talent of those two companies.

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throwaway_dgdfj
Eventbrite is laying off developers.

~~~
Raed667
I always wondered when their services will become obsolete.

I used them for large events and always managed to find a solution to use
their free tier.

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cweagans
Bodybuilding.com just laid off 90+ people.
[http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/business/article118234978...](http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/business/article118234978.html)

~~~
debacle
I'm kind of surprized that Bodybuilding.com employs more than 90 people.

~~~
cweagans
LinkedIn currently says 701 people work there. It's a fairly large operation.

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ossmaster
I think this is a great idea. I don't know of any firing right now, but in the
past I would have had some really good info.

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mvlipka
Nelson Cash in Chicago, IL just laid off about 5 people (from 18 people) as
well as the entire New York office.

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sfrailsdev
Seems like Pebble is shutting down, only 40% of SEs getting job offers from
fitbit,HWE unknown.

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shivaodin
Appdynamics in US and India is firing people.

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ahstilde
Love this thread!

