
Ask HN: Who has been laid off? - etxm
There is a monthly “Who is hiring” post, but I thought it might be helpful to have a laid off post with unemployment rates rising.<p>Share your experience and what you’re looking for.
======
seniordevconfuz
I woke up today with a nice surprise from HR. I got laid off. It was the most
impersonal and robotic email I received.

20 minutes later all my accounts got disabled, not a chance to even say
farewell to my nice co-workers.

It sucks. I don't have a ton of savings. Luckily my car is paid off, and I
only have student loans left.

I was very tempted to inflate my lifestyle after I got a big raise.

I didn't do it, otherwise i'd be in a world of shit.

At least I can survive for a couple month or so.

Stay strong people

~~~
oarabbus_
My partner's friend had a large number of people let go during a zoom meeting.
It was horribly planned, several people showed up 3-5 minutes late each time
they had to say "you're laid off" yet again, etc.

~~~
neuronexmachina
Bird? [https://dot.la/bird-layoffs-meeting-
story-2645612465.html](https://dot.la/bird-layoffs-meeting-
story-2645612465.html)

~~~
oarabbus_
Wow... didn't know there were more but sadly not surprised. I was referring to
TripActions [https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/25/tripactions-reportedly-
lay...](https://techcrunch.com/2020/03/25/tripactions-reportedly-lays-off-
hundreds-amid-covid-19-travel-freeze/?guccounter=1)

------
jbreckmckye
Just been put on furlough with likely redundancy at the end of the national
lockdown period. Absolutely devastated. My job was hard and the pace
relentless but the work was extremely stimulating and my colleagues were
absolutely fantastic people.

(It was also a Haskell gig, which is a real rarity.)

Right now I'm just licking my wounds and waiting for the lockdown to end. I'm
not sure if it makes sense to start a new job right now - the UK furlough
scheme is essentially guaranteed income until June. Starting a new job would
waive that, so unless you're actually losing money on furlough I think it's a
bit unwise to jump companies.

~~~
3pt14159
I'm sorry to hear that dude.

Haskell is a demanding language, so you're almost certainly a pretty senior
dev. If so, consider volunteering to help organizations during the downtime.
Worst case, if you can't get that dream gig back it will certainly make your
resume stand out when you're looking for your next thing. Best of luck.

~~~
Ididntdothis
Where can people volunteer with tech skills? Is there a demand for it?

~~~
goodcanadian
[https://crowdfightcovid19.org/](https://crowdfightcovid19.org/)

This is aimed at scientists, but my wife is on the list and tells me that they
are looking for UX designers and software developers.

~~~
Delk
Any idea what kinds of software development skills they're looking for?

I guess if they're also looking for UX designers, they aren't looking for just
data analysis code?

~~~
goodcanadian
I don't have much information. I was told frontend and backend.

Edit: given the subject matter, I imagine there is demand for data analysis
expertise, but that is my own speculation.

------
gwbas1c
My job of 9 years ended the last day of February. My plan was to take two
weeks off and start looking for another job mid-March.

I've been ready to change jobs, but I find job searches while I have a job
frustrating. Each opportunity is a huge investment in time. Honestly, I find
it easier to search for a job when I can give it my full and undivided
attention.

To make a long story short, I dropped a hint that I was ready to leave
voluntarily under the right circumstances, but I didn't anticipate the whole
COVID-19 thing happening just as I was starting my job search. I never
anticipated that, the exact week that I planned on looking for a job, daycare
would close, and everyone else in the industry would join the job search.

So anyway, what am I looking for? Priorities:

0: You can pay me

1: You need someone with almost 20 years development experience

2a: Ideally, I'd like to join an early stage company that has a "bubblegum and
duct tape" version of their product on the marketplace, and now needs someone
to make it better

2b: Or, I'd like to join a company with demonstrated product-market fit and
write the first version of their product

3: I'd like to work with some languages, frameworks, toolkits that I don't
have experience with (But otherwise, I have about 18 years experience in C#)

4: I don't really care if it's web, mobile, desktop, full-stack, ect. (But the
last 9 years was a desktop product.)

[https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-
rondeau-56490a4/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-rondeau-56490a4/)

~~~
Schwolop
Even though it's not tangible, I just wanted to offer you a ray of hope - if
you'd pitched that set of priorities to me at the right time, I would want to
give you an interview barely glancing at a resume. The attitude of wanting to
solve hard problems _and_ wanting to learn new things too (in my limited
experience) leads to the best developers and designers.

~~~
gwbas1c
Thanks, I appreciate that. (BTW, my LinkedIn is pretty close to my resume.)

The most important thing is: Don't Panic!

What I generally observe in software is that it's super-hard to hire. Now a
lot of companies that had difficult-to-fill openings will realize it's now or
never: If you can't find someone to fill the role in this economy, you
probably have unrealistic expectations. Otherwise, you're going to have plenty
of great people walking through your door.

I think that hiring will pick up faster than we anticipate. Pay might be a
little less than we want, but it'll be back by the beginning of 2022.

------
alberth
My heart goes out to all who've lost their job (and those who's health has
been impacted by COVID-19).

In case you want to get perspective of the huge US impact of unemployment, see
this automated visualization.

[https://t.co/G5k24nxJRS](https://t.co/G5k24nxJRS)

~~~
pmiller2
I’d be more interested in seeing the actual unemployment rate presented like
this, not the weekly claim numbers.

~~~
mercutio2
March numbers for overall unemployment rate have been published, but they’re
wildly inaccurate because their reference date is mid-month, before most
layoffs started.

So we don’t really know yet with precision, but it’s getting close to Great
Recession levels.

~~~
Spooky23
No, it’s Great Depression levels. You can tell from suppliers.

I just got some equipment quoted with a 2 week delivery guarantee. A month ago
there was a 10 week backorder due to Chinese supply chain issues.

The overall market is imploding. Once you see prices drop, that’s it.

------
johnchristopher
I have been laid off yesterday. I decided three years ago to settle for a
1800€ job in a public institution, thinking that I could relax and escape the
stress of freelance or small startups. For reasons too complicated to put into
words right now it has been the most stressful years of my life,
burnout/depression/loss of social support, that job took everything from me.
There was a political/adminstrative change in the structure of that public
institution and a clique of women set things up so that one of them - who has
no IT skills, no coding skills, just a community manager - could get the
budget that supports my role.

That budget was going to end in a year anyway. They just shotgunned me in the
knees in the goddam apocalypse and we are talking public sector. Things must
be savage in "the real world", right now.

I got a phone call from a local politician telling me that "It's not your
performance or your skills or you it's just a budgetary reason. If I see
anything that fits your profile I 'll let you know" (like... letting me keep
the job I have been doing for three years ?). My job is entirely supported by
a higher federal entity, I cost them 0 bucks, and I am there to carry on
missions for that entity. It's truly cronyism at its finest.

And total lack of humanity.

All my close coworkers are up in arms and letters to local politicians are
being written this week-end.

Today is the first day of a two week vacation (I officially am out in three
weeks but the lockdown won't be very productive considering) and I was still
in 2 zoom meetings talking about branding and destination management
strategies at a small country level and how we can best help and support our
sector to rebound later in the year. It's mind blowing. Was sending technical
thingie to a coworker at 1 in the morning. They haven't even told my n+1 that
I was let go.

Good thing there is a social net in my country, I am looking for to rest, find
myself back. It's going to hit me real hard next week when I realize I have no
social support in lockdown and all the projects I was working on are just...
poof... gone.

edit: not covid19 related

edit2: so, total loss of trust in our representatives/politicians for a while

edit3: sorry for that broken english, I am running on fumes, I somehow
couldn't sleep more than 2 hours last night :D

------
SamWhited
20% paycut here. This comes after being laid off a few months ago when Docker
sold their enterprise version (sort of, the new company made us all offers but
they have terrible benefits among other problems so most people didn't take
the offer or only stayed long enough to find something else), so we're all a
bit sad. There was then an immediate around of layoffs right after that
(though thankfully my department wasn't affected).

At least we still have a job, and I'll take the pay cut if it means we don't
have to make anyone else redundant, but I wish the employees had a seat at the
negotiating table for any of this.

~~~
kamarg
> I wish the employees had a seat at the negotiating table for any of this

If the tech industry didn't seem to despise unionizing so much this could've
been possible. Maybe that will change once the current disaster is behind us.

~~~
Yeroc
Unfortunately, in an economic environment like this a union won't help you.
We're seeing many public services staff that are unionized laid off (in
Canada) and I'm sure this is happening around the world. By the end of this
it's quite likely this will look similar to the Great Depression.

~~~
kamarg
It wouldn't stop all the layoffs but that isn't the goal. The goal would be to
give employees a vote when decisions are made on how to deal with the economic
fallout instead of being the passive victims of whatever decision is arrived
upon by upper management and the board.

Instead of instantly laying off as many people as possible, the union could
have brought other proposals to the table to try and help both the company and
employees. Maybe you delay 401k matching until the end of the year instead of
paying it every paycheck. Maybe cut employee salaries and hours instead. The
union at least gives the employees the chance to voice ideas on how to help
the company and themselves make it through instead of finding out that 400+ of
your coworkers were let go over Zoom via a two minute prerecorded message.

~~~
Spooky23
Unions sort by seniority and screw everyone else. Always.

~~~
SamWhited
Let's assume that's true (it's not always true, but let's assume it is): isn't
this still better than sorting by "only execs get taken care of and everyone
else gets screwed by default"? I'd rather have someone voicing my concerns
even if the person who's been there longer gets taken care of more.

------
lb1lf
-I just got laid off after 15 years at an engineering company, the last couple of which I was an engineering manager/technical authority.

Prospects aren’t too bleak - the local engineering scene is pretty sound and
I’ve heard encouraging noises from a couple of companies I’d love to work for
- however, while the country is in lockdown and everybody is burning through
their cash pile, not much hiring gets done.

On the upside, I have a few weeks at a minimum to spend more time with my kids
and bring my Russian and Portuguese skills back up to speed.

~~~
klunger
Since you are Norwegian, and presumably working for a Norwegian company, I am
curious how such a layoff was possible. Was it an actual layoff or are you
permittert?

~~~
lb1lf
-Oh, it was a proper layoff, all right. Assuming you are in Norway, too - got summons to a 15.1 out of the blue, couple of days later I was told that my services were not required going forward, signed an agreement giving me several months of severance pay + no obligation to work during the termination period against waiving my right to sue.

Considering the petroleum service industry had been struggling for years, I
took the severance pay rather than fighting to keep a job which would in all
likelihood disappear shortly anyway.

Took four business days from having a steady job to being unemployed.

~~~
klunger
Yes, I live in Oslo.

Ouch, that is really rough. I hope your severance was enough to carry you
through until you can find something new. My partner is in petro-adjacent
company* and they have a full hiring freeze. We are wondering when the layoffs
are coming. Good luck.

*technically, they have an industry agnostic service, but something like 90% of their customers are oil companies, so...

~~~
lb1lf
-Thank you; unless this corona thing paralyse anything and everything for the rest of the year or more, I expect to land on my feet (and, should the current state of affairs continue for that long, I suspect the lack of a paycheck is not going to be the biggest of my worries!)

I hope we'll see a partial return to normal-ish after Easter - at least to the
extent that the companies I've been in touch with start planning for the
months and years ahead, rather than just trying to figure out how to survive
until something resembling normalcy returns.

What I see locally (in the Sunnmøre maritime cluster) is that a lot of smaller
companies have pivoted from being suppliers to the oil industry exclusively to
catering to offshore wind, fisheries, aquaculture &c - whereas the larger
corporations say they are doing the same, only spending years burning through
cash trying to develop a strategy for the new reality.

With any luck, your partner's company will get business from this - for lack
of a better phrase - 'greener' economy as it matures. Exciting times with lots
of opportunities for entrepreneurs around here, at least - with lots (by rural
Norwegian standards...) of skilled people, machinery and capital available for
cheap.

~~~
pdimitar
> _I hope we 'll see a partial return to normal-ish after Easter - at least to
> the extent that the companies I've been in touch with start planning for the
> months and years ahead, rather than just trying to figure out how to survive
> until something resembling normalcy returns._

This is how it feels in Bulgaria as well. We are no longer an exclusively
outsourcing destination; we have quite a few very adequate tech companies and
people's salaries in the area are steadily, if at glacial pace, growing.

I feel that currently a lot of people are needlessly panicking and this has a
snowballing effect BUT eventually people will realise they still have
customers they have to serve if they want to receive the next invoices and
will thus realise they need the tech workers.

I am in a similar situation like yours, albeit slightly worse -- I can ride my
savings up until the end of June I reckon, and I hope the economy starts
swinging back by then.

Best of luck and stay strong.

------
LarryDarrell
The company I'm contracting for is flaming out fast. It's sad to see the death
spiral in action. It's a shame, because it's the best work I've ever done and
I don't know if anyone will ever see it. The software team was 100% remote and
they were the best colleagues I've ever had.

It sucks to have graduated in 07, and feel like you've hit your stride in 20.

~~~
dhimes
You must be seriously grieving. I'm sorry, dude.

------
fredley
[UK] Not me but my partner—classical music. Almost everyone is freelance, and
everyone has had all their gigs cancelled for the next few months, leaving a
lot of people for whom strings were tight to begin with in complete limbo.
Performers obviously but also all the events, management, publicity,
everything. The scale of it is almost incomprehensible, unless massive
investment is made in the sector to keep it alive, it will just... die.

~~~
H8crilA
Or severely deflate. The instruments and people and equipment will still be
there, just much much cheaper to get. Companies will be owned by defaulted
bonds rather than stocks.

~~~
fredley
These aren't companies. Most are charities. The Royal Opera House will be
fine, the hundreds of smaller music organisations will not.

~~~
H8crilA
I see. My point is they'll be _different_ , regardless of the "incorporation
format". I.e. the instruments and the people will still be there.

Unless people stop going to concerts/performances, well then the equipment
goes to the basement.

~~~
closeparen
I like Ben Folds's perspective on the institution of the symphony orchestra as
a celebration of civilization itself. The performing arts are all about groups
of people coming together to pull off something greater than the sum of its
parts.

But the unfortunate corollary is that you cannot just stack up the parts and
have a successful production by magic. It takes a lot more than that. The
institutions and structures currently doing it season after season have a kind
of life of their own, and it's absolutely subject to decay and death. The
ecological niche they occupy is extraordinarily harsh, so they're not easily
replaced either.

Practically speaking: you need space and equipment. You need artistic
direction with taste and vision to hire the right performers and designers and
communicate it to them. You need skilled craftsmen to implement the designs,
quick-thinking managers to wrangle the logistics, ambitious 2nd assistants to
make the coffee. You'll need all this for months before you turn a dollar of
revenue. Then you need marketers to bring in an audience, front of house staff
to deal with it, professional schmoozers to pry open the rich ones' checkbooks
(ticket sales are never enough).

If it turns out the creative vision was too safe, it'll be panned as boring
and derivative. If you take a risk and fail, you'll also get eaten alive. So
you have to take a real risk, and have it go your way, every time. At any
point, one of the key people who held it all together by the seat of her pants
could retire to take care of her sick mother. Or a crucial benefactor (public
or private) could have a change of heart. Or Walgreens could snatch up the
lease on your performance space. Or an influential critic could be in a bad
mood. Any one of these things could be the end.

Please do not take performing arts organizations for granted. There are many
once-grand theaters and concert halls in this country abandoned and rotting
away. Even more that were simply erased. These things hang on to life by a
thread in the best of times.

------
mu_killnine
I work for a very large player in the print industry (which is transitioning
to 'multichannel marketing solutions provider').

I feel like my company has done the best they can (given our industry has
already been under a lot of pressure prior to COVID) under circumstances.
We're in groups of rolling furloughs so folks have not been permanently laid
off. While laid off, we still are receiving medical benefits, which is great.

As a remote worker prior to all this, I haven't had to change much of my day
to day and our infrastructure has handled the influx of remote workers
(thousands) very well.

However, it also makes the prospect of moving to another company daunting. I
worked on-prem for years and developed relationships with co-workers prior to
moving off-site. I have a lot of anxiety about not being able to create the
same relationships at a new company or having to commute again to a city
center for work (something I really can't see myself doing unless absolutely
necessary). It's a scary prospect and one I think is absolutely possible given
the precarious state of my industry and the economy on the whole.

~~~
throaweyprimy
I’m in the print industry too.

Things are definitely uncertain at the moment. Our company was fairly small,
and we were growing incredibly fast. COVID19 has cut our sales by 90%. As an
industry with high fixed costs, this is devastating and I’ll most likely be
laid-off in a coming weeks.

I spent years trying to get this company off the ground, and as soon as we
picked up steam the market tanked.

I have my doubts about the long term recovery of the print market, so I think
this is will be my exit from the industry.

------
aladine
I was on parental leave and my son was born on a beautiful day. The next day,
I got an email announced that everybody in my technical team is marked as
redundant. I am speechless and through conversation, there is a sudden
withdraw of investors to fund our company. Without this funding, it is
impossible to keep the company going. From what I know, it sounds like a way
to minimise the loss.

I was sad. We have a big plan to roll out a big feature in May. Now everything
I worked on in last 6 months will be put on hold. Probably it never push to
production.

My latest joy of becoming a father was ultimately skewed. Now I have to find a
new job in Australia while taking care of a newborn. Things become harder this
time when many companies impose a hiring freeze.

I still keep my faith that one day I will escape from this unemployment. One
day.

------
conradfr
Fired officially next week but to be honest it was ongoing before the
lockdown;)

On the bright side it seems the tech job market is not too much affected here
in Paris but we'll see how it goes.

Well at least I can now finish some freelance gig that was taking my free
time, and it gives me more time to continue learning elixir, I even finally
took the time to open-source and deploy a demo of a LiveView game I made
initially at the company that let me go. [https://every-weak-
tapaculo.gigalixirapp.com/potus](https://every-weak-
tapaculo.gigalixirapp.com/potus)

~~~
H8crilA
You sure? I'd be surprised if even 10% of tech companies were hiring right
now, regardless of location ...

~~~
conradfr
Obviously but for now I still have many contacts on LinkedIn and former
colleagues wanting to refer me to their current company.

So yeah it's entirely subjective and I guess it'll heavily depend on how many
times the lockdown is extended ...

~~~
ckdarby
> still have many contacts on LinkedIn and former colleagues wanting to refer
> me to their current company

Follow up ASAP & push for action in days, not weeks.

Lot of employees at companies are in the dark about the extent. I know
companies that are putting on a show saying they're hiring but internal
management is only hiring the absolute top talent out of layoffs.

------
remmargorp64
The company I work at is trying to avoid laying off people by asking everyone
across the board to take a pay cut. I had recently received a raise, so they
paid me at my raised rate up until the end of the month, but they let me know
they would need to revert me to my un-raised salary moving forward. All in
all, a reduction of about $7,000 to my salary. Some of the other devs (the
most expensive ones) took a 30% pay cut.

They are hoping they can qualify for some of the $2 trillion stimulus and can
recoup some of the losses (and if the economy recovers, they might be able to
give us some of our reduced salaries back as bonuses at the end of the year),
but we will just have to see.

Ultimately, I'm grateful that we aren't all getting laid off right now. I
think more companies should offer salary cuts as an option instead of just
blindly laying off people.

~~~
ryandrake
I've been in this situation. First it was 1/2 paychecks. Then, a few months
into the recession it was 1/4 paychecks. Finally, it was 1/4 paychecks and no
health insurance. That was when I buggered out. It might have been more humane
to just lay off people.

~~~
dguaraglia
As someone running a company that is trying to keep people employed by cutting
salaries: we don't want our employees to be scared about not having healthcare
the moment they might need it the most. We talked it with everyone, we are
_all_ taking a pay cut (us, founders, were the ones making the least already
so I think our employees understand) and we are doing everything possible to
extend our runway until at least next year. We also setup a scheme where we
compensate our employees with stock options equivalent to the salary lost,
until things get better.

This situation sucks, but there's no way losing healthcare now would be 'more
humane' than taking a pay cut.

~~~
tonyedgecombe
_us, founders, were the ones making the least already_

I don't think people realise how common this is.

~~~
nojvek
> us, founders, were the ones making the least already.

Sure, but founders also have magnitudes more equity than any employees.

It sucks for a founder of a company that isn’t profitable or has great growth
but for a decent run company the equity is far more valuable than the salary.

Like Steve Jobs taking a $1/year salary and still being one of the richest
folks on the planet.

As a founder you can still up your salary to a sustainable level and let your
employees go. Employees don’t have that option.

~~~
tonyedgecombe
People like Jobs are outliers, for every one of them there are thousands where
the reality is quite different.

~~~
dguaraglia
This. Of course it's very different to take a $1 salary when you are already
wealthy, the company you are a CEO of is already worth billions and you are
getting paid in financial instruments that are worth actual money.

For most startup founders, including myself, that's not the case. I'm not
complaining, I'm sure we are ourselves in a much better position that the
average American who is getting _squeezed_ by this crisis, but there's
definitely a huge gap between my company and Apple, LOL.

------
topherPedersen
I landed my first job as full-time professional software developer doing
React-Native development right before the Coronavirus pandemic struck. By the
time I finished filling out all of the hiring paperwork, drug tests, etc.,
they reneged on the offer. Was pretty upset about it at the time, but I guess
it's hit everyone else just as hard.

~~~
hackinthebochs
Where was the job located? It seems odd that you had to take a drug test for
the job. I don't think I've heard of that happening in the tech field.

~~~
sidlls
It happens frequently enough outside major development hubs, especially on the
east coast.

------
nsxwolf
I haven't been laid off yet but I expect it to happen any moment. This will be
my second layoff this year. I went through coding interview hell to get this
job too, and I was so happy and things were really looking up. This is hard.

------
cammikebrown
I’m a bartender. At least 75% of my friends have been laid off. Not just
bartenders, but servers, bussers, most cooks, managers, and everyone I know
who works in hotels as well.

~~~
ithrow
Just curious, how does a bartender ends up staying reading HN?

~~~
cammikebrown
I have a physics degree. It turns out a bachelor’s degree doesn’t help much,
and I was too burnt out at the time to go to grad school. I took a few
introductory programming classes and I’ve been trying to get back into it
lately. Try talking to a bartender sometime, you may find out they’re not as
dumb as rocks.

~~~
glippiglop
I met a programmer many years back who had previously been a physicist at
CERN. I'd never have guessed but I think he picked up the programming bug
there. If you think coding is your thing then go for it and all the best to
you!

~~~
seanmcdirmid
Not really surprising when you consider that the web was invented there
(CERN).

------
novask
I left voluntarily before I had something else lined up. We weren't really
doing anything we were hired to do (pentesting), so I wanted something else. I
got really restless and it's why I'll stay away from government contracting
positions in the future unless desperately needed.

4 months ago this wasn't a completely bad idea as tech was known as a seller's
market and taking time off to learn new things was normal.

It's obviously not realistic for the next year or so at least.

~~~
pmiller2
My company isn't doing layoffs (yet), but the next year or so is precisely
what I'm worried about. I've been at my company for about 1.5 years, and,
absent coronavirus, I'm very confident I'd be in no danger of losing my job.

Right now, taking the risk of jumping to a new company doesn't sound
appealing. But, if this goes on too long, I'm sure we'll end up doing layoffs
at some point. We're already on a hiring freeze, and there are a _lot_ of cost
counting and cost saving projects going on right now.

If layoffs do come, though I may be better off than my many coworkers on
visas, a job search in the middle of a recession does not sound like any fun.
And, layoffs can tend to come in waves, so, even if I make the first cut,
there could very well be another round coming in a matter of weeks or months.
In that case, I would rather not be around for the second wave of layoffs. I
think this scenario is the only one in which taking the risk of switching
companies makes any sense.

~~~
ghaff
>a job search in the middle of a recession does not sound like any fun

During the dot-com bust, I was very lucky. I had lunch with someone I knew
just a few days after I was laid off for dot-com bust related reasons. And he
ended up hiring me about a month later.

However, during the interim I was job hunting, including meeting with various
other executives I knew and I don't think I had so much as a nibble. And, of
course, at least at the moment, there aren't a lot of service sector jobs you
can take just to keep some money rolling in.

~~~
pkaye
Just before the dot-com bust, I decided to return to college for my masters
degree. This turned out to be a good decision because soon after the bust so
many were clamoring to get admitted but I was already established in my
studies and I had cashed out some investments to fund my education.

------
iandanforth
If many people at your company have been laid off it might be a good idea to
check with a lawyer to see if the company has complied with the requirements
to be exempt from WARN act compliance. Here's some relevant analysis from
California:

[https://www.californiaemploymentlawreport.com/2020/03/govern...](https://www.californiaemploymentlawreport.com/2020/03/governor-
newsom-signs-executive-order-regarding-cal-warn-and-coronavirus-what-
employers-need-to-know/)

~~~
hedora
The WARN act has been temporarily suspended:

[https://www.edd.ca.gov/about_edd/coronavirus-2019/faqs/WARN....](https://www.edd.ca.gov/about_edd/coronavirus-2019/faqs/WARN.htm)

~~~
iandanforth
Did you read the link I posted? It's a legal analysis of that order because
...

"The Executive Order does not suspend the California WARN Act in its entirety,
nor does it suspend the law for all covered employers. The Executive Order
only suspends the California WARN Act’s 60-day notice requirement for those
employers that satisfy the Order’s specific conditions. "

------
nostromo
I found this list on Reddit if you're looking for a full list of companies
that are laying employees off, pausing hiring, or still hiring:

[https://airtable.com/shrpj2r4Kjc4YoMu4/tbl8m95GiuWehnIiT?blo...](https://airtable.com/shrpj2r4Kjc4YoMu4/tbl8m95GiuWehnIiT?blocks=hide)

~~~
nostromo
I should have mentioned this is being community sourced here:

[https://candor.co/hiring-freezes](https://candor.co/hiring-freezes)

------
abinaya_remote
If you have been laid off and looking for a remote job, At Remote Leaf, we
have been working on an initiative to curate the remote jobs from Hacker News
who is hiring thread. Hopefully you will find some interesting openings here.

[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NVzygGYTmF3g_VPAh4lX...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NVzygGYTmF3g_VPAh4lXhy3eu6PvxyyUgg-
Jy_6BiII/edit)

------
redorb
I asked the owner for a 20% cut. We had some tough negotiations on my salary 2
years ago and I wanted to express my willingness to share the 'pain'. So far
she hasn't taken me up on it.

*I don't know how to take the fact she hasn't taken me up on it :/ but I do adore the company ~ 13 years in service.

~~~
H8crilA
May be quite a smart move. The "kill list" order should (rationally) be
heavily influenced by the total compensation.

------
mastrsushi
I was not laid off, but my contract ended 3/30\. The company I worked under
offered me permanent employment around 3/15\. I told my recruiter during an
off site lunch meeting that I was pretty much unhappy with the work, people,
and location. I also foolishly added that I will take the permanent role, but
asked if they could find me another one instead as I continue looking.

It quickly occurred to me that wasn't the wisest thing to tell a person whose
job it is to find a long standing candidate. So I asked if my complaints were
between us, she said of course.

Later that day, my other recruiter calls me saying he has to tell the company
I was contracted at that I will not continue past my term. His justification
how it would look bad on there part.

So now I'm without __any __job, still looking, but without luck.

~~~
masonhensley
Bummer, what kind of work are you wanting to do next?

~~~
mastrsushi
I'd like to continue as a C# .Net developer because that's my strongest skill.
I'm starting to wonder if telling employers that boxes me in.

------
frompdx
Not laid off, but in limbo. I accepted a new job at the end of February that
was originally supposed to start on 3/30\. Unfortunately, my start date is now
up in the air due to logistical issues getting my hardware so I can start
work. I no longer have a confirmed start date.

It's a bummer because I resigned from my previous position on 3/13 so I could
have time in between jobs. Now I'm getting a lot more time than I planned and
I'm hoping my new job doesn't evaporate. I'm excited to work with this company
and team so I am keeping my fingers crossed for now.

If my new job does disappear, I would really like to find an opportunity
working with Clojure(Script) and/or Kubernetes.

------
ahayter
Perfect storm for the company I was working for. Had their worst fourth
quarter in company history. Purchased another company in January as part of a
pivot to a more profitable business model. They were a bit desperate to get
the deal done, probably didn't even consider what was occurring in China at
the time. They had significant operations in Southeast Asia. As far as I knew
zero planning had been taking place until it was too late.

Essentially all revenue generating operations halted as of March 16th.

I was unfortunately leading the charge in a newly created division. We were
not generating revenue yet, so the hammer fell for all of us.

Stay happy, stay safe, and keep hacking!

------
LyalinDotCom
Really sorry to everyone who is out of work now :(, I wish I could do more
then just give you some links and thoughts but hope this helps.

1\. If you're looking to ramp-up your skills Pluralsight is giving away a free
month of training this month: [https://www.pluralsight.com/offer/2020/free-
april-month](https://www.pluralsight.com/offer/2020/free-april-month)

2\. Large companies are still hiring I growth areas, I am not 100% sure but If
I was a betting man anything at Google, Amazon or Microsoft that is cloud
related is probably still booming to get people on board

3\. If you wind up finding some work that is remote in this situation and
don't have WFH experience check out this great set of tips for WFH by Scott
Hanselman:
[https://www.hanselman.com/blog/LoveInATimeOfCoronaVirusTipsT...](https://www.hanselman.com/blog/LoveInATimeOfCoronaVirusTipsTricksAndBestPracticesForWorkingRemotely.aspx)

~~~
jcadam
My industry (Defense contracting) is fairly immune to at least the immediate
fallout from all this. If this turns into a longer general economic downturn,
however... who knows?

But my company is hiring right now (though, most of the jobs require a
clearance). The jobs aren't remote, well.. right now many of them sort of are,
but they'll surely revert to on-site again eventually.

------
eldacila
I got laid off on March 25th, I was called to go to the office the day before,
told it was that "the higher ups wanted to see the team", only it was to get
me to sign the paperwork, and give back the laptop, they paid a taxi to get me
to my apartment, but it felt like an ambush

luckily my mother instilled in me the value of saving money, so I can survive
for a while on my savings, but the double hit of the anxiety from the
pandemic, and getting laid off has been quite stressing...

I'm open to any software development job, full-time, part-time, remote, I've
been applying to several positions, but my first choice for applying cancelled
all hires (a friend of mine who works there told me their CEO sent an email
saying that), and most other companies are probably doing something similar

------
gigatexal
Former SRE in Hamburg, Germany, laid off on the 27th of March. :(

Looking for data engineering roles

email at alex at alexandarnarayan dot com or
[https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandarnarayan/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandarnarayan/)

~~~
exdsq
I work for a company currently hiring a data engineer (100% remote):

[https://iohk.io/en/careers/fk0qqod/data-engineer/#main-
conte...](https://iohk.io/en/careers/fk0qqod/data-engineer/#main-content)

~~~
gigatexal
Applying now. Thank you!!!

~~~
exdsq
No worries - good luck with the application :)

------
shashanoid
I was supposed to intern at Shopify Canada this summer. I'm free for next
three months and would love to work on some interesting projects or remotely.
[https://github.com/shashanoid](https://github.com/shashanoid)

~~~
kippinitreal
DM me if interested - we are doubling our engineering intern class this
summer, I believe 50-75 more seats, to try and help out folks who've had their
summer plans canceled. This would be at least partially remote, but we are
considering bring folks to the Bay Area if shelter in place ends early in the
summer.

(posted publicly in case others are in the same boat)

~~~
indiandennis
No info in your profile to DM, but I'm interested in this as well. I'm a third
year CS undergrad in the Bay Area, I'd really appreciate the opportunity. My
email is "jobs (at) ameyathakur.com"

------
shdon
Here in the Netherlands, the government have taken the action to help out
affected companies fulfil their payroll obligations, meaning the govt is
effectively paying the salaries of an extra million people (12% of our total
workforce).

As the only IT guy in a company that does pretty much all its business online,
and being the longest-serving employee in the company, my job is safer than
anybody else's, but we have seen revenue plummet and we're having to let some
people go - which is heartbreaking. Even though our society will make sure
that they will not be in real trouble, and it ensures the survival of the
company, these are valued coworkers and genuinely nice people and I'm sad to
see them go.

------
lizardking
I had a one year contract terminated a month early today, with one week
notice. Upon getting the news, I immediately starting searching and was lucky
to find another contract. Finding work will become harder as the number of
laid off workers increases.

------
petercooper
Not me, but since it's been linked here a bunch and is related to the tech
industry, everyone at The Outline was laid off today and is being discussed
here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22769301](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22769301)

------
Hamuko
My workplace had furloughs, but all of the developers were excluded from it.
Guessing the management had enough trouble hiring developers as it was.

------
fenelope
I was laid off at my little startup a couple weeks ago, 6 people were
affected.

I'm a 3D Artist with some software engineering cred, so I work pretty well
with engineers in small teams that still need the asset pipeline figured out.
Portfolio: [https://penny-art.com/](https://penny-art.com/)

LinkedIn still likes to send recruiters my way telling me about awesome C++
opportunities developer game dev keywords. Please no

------
cableshaft
I haven't personally had a change yet, although things have been a little slow
here lately, so who knows.

My wife, on the other hand, was reduced to 3 days a week at her job for the
next 90 days, with a reduced salary to reflect that, so 40% reduction in
salary. At least she wasn't in the group at her office that was furloughed.

So things are still tighter for us, although we're still a lot better off than
most people right now.

------
52-6F-62
I'm fortunate enough to say that I haven't.

I work in tech for a media and publishing company. We're classified as an
essential business in Ontario. We are all working remotely--editorial teams,
production, tech, everyone save some of the press operators.

We have reduced to 4-days a week, and so we had to take a 20% pay cut for a 6
week term. I think they're hoping to buffer our collective coffers in case
this is extended and ad revenue falls further.

On another note, our digital readership is setting internal records.

My partner works for a Canadian SaaS firm based out of Saskatoon. About 30% of
them were laid off including her.

They had a heartfelt meeting with the founder but as soon as they got the
official word the machine locked her out. She still meets over video for
drinks with some of her coworkers.

Being that her company works closely with the restaurant industry we're hoping
it won't be too hard for them to ramp up again, but that remains to be seen.

------
excalibur
Me. I'm looking for recruiters to leave me alone and let me draw unemployment
in peace for a while. This may not be THE answer to burnout, but it's AN
answer.

------
mgold55
Strange time 4 me here. Worked for 5 and half years and was getting the
"Reduction in force" thingy with 24 other IT folks out there for a major
healthcare insurer. I was looking for a job since Dec-2019 anyway.

At least I was fully paid to the end of March and now getting some form of
supplemental $$$ till end of June. Then freakin' reality will hit as I will
paying out for Cobra. This Covid issue is introducing the raw side of
business, loyalty, connections, solitude and just watching bad news all day.

So, my advice is treat yourself better and be kind to yourself, your family
and true friends.

------
dominotw
I found this forwarded layoff referral list

[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HvI7axSIXsQRQH0IJ2GG...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HvI7axSIXsQRQH0IJ2GGCyMvffBbWm8J9OUDyop8MOg/htmlview?sle=true#gid=859212962)

not sure what the source is.

~~~
adriancooney
Interesting. It's a private document so it's hard to pull any stats out. I did
manage to get the top ten companies (back of the napkin hack so take it with a
pinch of salt):

    
    
      amazon | 13
      thumbtack | 10
      student | 8
      wework | 8
      wayfair | 6
      google | 6
      uber | 5
      cisco | 4
      oracle | 4
      adobe | 3
    

Surprised to see Amazon at the top. I thought they were the _best_ poised
against this. Again, it may not be signal of a wider problem but interesting
nonetheless.

There was also an interesting row from a senior (VP level) at WeWork that
would lead you to believe that they aren't in a good state ("f'ed"). Again,
take it with a pinch of salt since we can't verify any of this data.

~~~
mywittyname
Amazon is almost certainly using this opportunity to "trim the fat." Not
saying these people are bad developers, but Amazon seems to require a very
specific personality type.

~~~
meheleventyone
Isn't this more reflective of Amazon running right on the wire operationally
and needing to fire people to stay there? Why would they need an excuse to
trim the fat from a purely fit point of view?

~~~
mywittyname
Nearly every large company has those merely competent people that they can't
really justify getting rid of from a performance perspective, but these people
are a bit too comfortable and the company feels like a new hire is likely to
be more productive.

A downturn provides great cover for the company, since they can get ride of a
bunch of these people en masse with minimal legal fuss. HR and Legal can be
prepared and do it as efficiently as possible. Plus, it will look good on the
balance sheet for the next quarter (if that's important to the company).

------
apexalpha
This thread is unbelievable for me. In the US everyone is employed as if they
are independant contractors? If your boss decides so you lose your job with a
5 seconds notice?

In my country if you have full employment you have a 2 month notice and they
need to prove the need or cause for firing.

~~~
to11mtm
The majority of people are 'at-will'. Which is not the same as a contractor,
but for the purpose of your question it may as well be.

In some cases you may have severance pay defined by the terms of the employer,
but that became pretty rare as something that would be promised after the 2008
recession. It still happens but not like it used to.

Generally speaking you are 'at will' in the United states, so you can be let
go for any reason that is not explicitly illegal to do so for (i.e. race, old
age, etc.) You could theoretically get let go because the owner decided 'I
found a penny on the ground today and I decided it was a sign to fire you'.

On one hand this is because, inversely speaking, you, again, typically allowed
to quit at any moment for any reason you want. Including getting another job.
This does however handwave away the asymmetry in finding a replacement for an
employee versus finding a new employer. It's also concerning in this modern
age where some Sandwich shops try to get line workers to sign noncompetes.

------
unemphysbro
Not laid off but I did just finish my PhD in computational biophysics and the
three companies I was interviewing at paused/stopped interviews. I was frugal
during my PhD but I decided it was best to move back in with my parents in San
Jose (I was crashing on a buddy's couch in Champaign). My sisters lost their
service sector jobs two-weeks ago.

I've been applying non-stop so if anyone has any refs for data science
positions that would be quite helpful; it's a weird time transitioning from
Academia to industry.

Here's my linkedin: [https://bit.ly/2UYJbbf](https://bit.ly/2UYJbbf)

That said, my heart goes out to those that are in a tough situation.

~~~
minkzilla
I’m graduating undergrad right now and I’ve been applying for jobs for months
with not much success. Astonishingly, I’ve started getting more responses in
the past couple of weeks.

I’ve definitely gotten some companies saying they are freezing hiring and I’m
worried as time goes on all of them will do this.

Thankfully I have home and will be fine; it is frustrating however.

------
pdimitar
I didn't get laid off due to the pandemic. But I've got a very generous notice
at the end of January that I have until 30th of April to find a new job (I was
told they have to reduce costs and can only guess it's due to investor
pressure).

I started looking actively for a job somewhere at the start of February and
had several very promising leads and eventually, at the start of March,
several pre-offer stages of the interviewing process with several companies.

And then the whole thing happened. Some companies told me they are freezing
hiring, others didn't say anything, and my best lead had to leave me hanging
even though it was clear (signs that I read during our real-life meetings) he
wanted to hire me for two separate projects and a full-time job.

I waited for about 3 weeks, thinking to wait out the initial panic. But it
became increasingly clear that is not going to die out anytime soon.

I wrote a very short intro of my profile (with a link to a CV) here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22752249](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22752249)

Not sure I will have enough savings to last me several months so not going to
rely on that and will be looking to start a new job -- or consulting -- as
early as possible.

Stay strong, people.

------
PixelPaul
I am still employed luckily. But I am keen to try help out any developers. I
was going to start a new project in nodejs Adonisjs and Vuejs but I might see
about hiring someone to do it for me instead. Only problem is I won’t be able
to afford a full time developer at normal rates. Maybe $5,000 AUD and I think
it will take about 3 - 4 months works. Would anyone be interested? I
understand if not as it’s not a great deal of money for the time.

~~~
pdimitar
I definitely would have taken you up on your offer if I wasn't a hardcore
backender. But hey, it might be a good opportunity go get back to some
frontend work because I was meaning to re-learn parts of it. Or maybe we could
go with Phoenix LiveView which is basically making the server act as if what
you're seeing is happening on the browser?

In any case, my email is in my profile. What is your project about?

------
flyinfungi
17.5% salary cut. Gonna have to get a new security job :-/

~~~
chrisjc
25% here, plus taken on 2-3x workload (not related to the furlough situation).

Edit... btw, 2-3x workload doesn't mean that i can actually complete 2-3x
workload.

~~~
beckingz
Executive: Everything is important! Executive: Why aren't you finishing
everything?

~~~
chrisjc
Fortunately they are very understanding...

------
raincom
My friend's contract is not extended. He works for a bay area company owned by
Silverlake partners. His team has four full timers and six contractors. CEO
sent an email to not renew contracts.

My contract is due for May 31. I am not so confident about renewal. And my
team has 70% contractors. There is a large contingent workforce in IT. You
don't see them in the official layoff list; instead, they are employees of
unknown staffing companies.

Many track

------
nojvek
Not let go, but voluntarily quit in Jan to work on a side project. Now
everyone’s wallets are tight and I feel that was a terrible decision.

My thinking was “economy is mega booming, I can always land a job if things go
south”.

I was very wrong, things have gone quite south. Savings I had in stock
vanished 30% of their value. A lot of anxiety. I could ride a couple of months
but then shit’s gonna really hit the fan.

------
coldcode
I work for a big company in the news. We are still waiting on hearing about
furlough details next week. Not a clue what will happen. There is no "what
happens in a pandemic" page in the employee handbook. I have a feeling every
top level exec everywhere has no idea what to do in such a situation. At least
we are unlikely to lose our jobs in the long run, but who knows how long the
short run will be.

------
zingar
An investor pulled out of a SIGNED term sheet because of covid19. The last
year of growth undone, 70 people plus contractors laid off. I have domain
knowledge that no one else in the company does so I was spared. For legal
reasons here it won't be instant, but all my collaboration is with people who
already know their job ends at the end of April.

------
boopk
Work in entertainment marketing (theatrical trailers and promos) as a
finishing coordinator (uprezzing, overcutting, versioning with different dated
cards, exporting different specs for different platforms, etc) and out whole
industry has essentially been furloughed. It sucks and I don't think it will
be temporary, I think a lot of shops will close.

~~~
sosborn
This is going to be a mass extinction event for small businesses.

------
mvanveen
Previously to this month I was a Senior Machine Learning engineer at Zest.ai.
I have over a decade of professional experience as a backend engineer with
Python before that.

I accepted a job offer at the highest salary I'd ever been offered late
February. At the time some coworkers were stuck in China and I thought
"there's a non-zero probability covid-19 f's everything up, but it'll be
fine."

Started the new job on 3/16\. The company didn't exist anymore after 3/27.

[http://github.com/mvanveen](http://github.com/mvanveen)
[https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanveenm/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanveenm/)

If you think there's a good fit please reach out at hn22770643@mvv.email .
Thank you!

------
fcnub
Laid off two days ago from Affirma Consulting in Bellevue, WA out of the blue.
Not sure why they chose me, I guess my skillset wasn't wide enough because it
wasn't like my pay was huge compared to my coworkers who live in Washington.
After my separation pay, I'm going to be clueless on what to do next since
most likely no one is hiring at this time. Ugh.

------
heyshtor
I am a linguist in the UK, and our team is on a month's notice period due to a
cost cut.

I am looking natural language understanding / natural language generation and
analytics tasks but can also do other things from voice technology pipeline
(ASR, TTS, voice QA) as well as QA and technical support for webtech projects.
[https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariya-
heyshtor-164a35157/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariya-heyshtor-164a35157/)

------
dang
There was a thread like this a little over two weeks ago, but things are
moving so quickly that perhaps another is ok.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22618788](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22618788)

~~~
dillonmckay
I have a feeling this will be a bi-monthly HN tradition for the foreseeable
future.

It is comforting, personally, to read and share.

It can happen to anybody.

------
doakes
I was visiting Central America when things started getting bad. I was told I
could work from here, but now I'm told I either have to travel home (US) or
lose my job. Based off this thread, I might take that risk of traveling home.

------
BrandonWatson
(posted this on ShowHN last week)

I was on track to have this paid service offering launched in the coming
weeks, but the economic uncertainty brought on by COVID caused me to rethink
the go to market plan.

I iterated quickly on something I could offer to those in need now and in the
coming weeks. This is one way I can give back.

If you have been impacted and will be, or is already scheduled to,
interviewing soon, I want to help. If you know someone for whom this would be
helpful, please share.

[https://www.interviewat.com/prep-service-special-
offer](https://www.interviewat.com/prep-service-special-offer)

Any and all feedback welcome

------
McPhale
Half my team just got put on a 30-day minimum furlough (myself included). The
other half has been reduced to working one week on and one week off. The car
rental business is not in a good place right now.

~~~
dillonmckay
It is an ‘Essential Service’.

------
importorrequire
if you're dealing with student loans, you should check out
[https://debtcollective.org/](https://debtcollective.org/) and join the
student debt strike
[https://strike.debtcollective.org/](https://strike.debtcollective.org/)

------
graphicsRat
Made redundant last week. Company scrapped the project I was working on in
order to cut costs. Industry FinTech

------
matt_morgan
My wife, who was doing office admin and CRM management for a lawyer/marketer
couple. Their work has dried up a bit, and they moved a young adult son back
home to help deal with isolation and his own layoff.

She's looking for remote work in CRM operations, part-time. Or local to the
Philadelphia suburbs.

------
buildawesome
Do you think the 'Who wants to be hired' post accomplishes this or are you
looking for companies who are laying off workers?

linked below!

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22749306](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22749306)

~~~
aerovistae
I think that is very centered on your qualifications and what you're looking
for. There's next to no discussion there. This kind of reads like an
invitation to talk about the company you left and the difficulty of being laid
off.

~~~
buildawesome
Gotcha! Thanks for the clarity.

------
brownindian
[Boston/DevOps] Not laid off yet, but we have been told that "Role
eliminations" is coming. Those not getting laid off, are going on mandatory
two-week furlough. Once week in April, and once in May. June onwards TBD. All
as part of cost cutting.

~~~
DoofusOfDeath
Akamai's HQ is in Cambridge. I don't know if they're currently hiring, but I
expect they're quite busy these days. Might want to check them out.

------
daxfohl
Had a pretty steady contracting gig doing fun new things for a photobooth
company. Not any more!

Fortunately I have a few other things to pay the bills (so far), and
fortunately I have enough savings not to have any short-term worries, but that
was my main source of income.

------
dbetteridge
Wife started a new Travel Tech Support role (Sabre, Concur,Sabre scripts etc)
on 23rd of March, was Furloughed 2 days later then reduced to 2.5 days a week
the next day (UK Furlough doesn't apply due to start date)

Bad time to be in the travel industry.

------
Havoc
No but making a intl job hop soon in the middle of this mess and a little
worried that it'll not pan out (despite signed contract).

Current job - Auditor - no indication of slowdown. Entire firm has
laptop/vpn/phone so essentially ready for this.

------
partiallypro
I have not been laid off myself, but I have a a friend that has been laid off,
and an acquaintance that has taken a 10% pay cut. Separately I know 3-4 other
people that have lost their jobs that are a degree apart, far more than in 08.

------
tj0
Everyone took a 20% pay cut, lots of people have been furloughed so workload
has also increased. Would've been nice to have had a voice in the company's
decision; kinda caught between a rock and a hard place at this point.

~~~
mikekij
Sincere question: If you had a voice in the decision, what would you have done
differently?

~~~
tj0
You know, it's hard to say. I've never been in the position where I have both
investors, and several thousand employees to answer to; let alone having to
dictate who's going to get let go. As such, I'm by no means an authority on
this nor can I fathom what the C-Suite must be going through. Obviously, there
is an emotional tax associated with these kind of decisions.

Based on various articles I've read here on HN, it would have been nice to
have more transparency into the financials of the company versus all messaging
completely devastating morale, and leaving an air of uncertainty. We know
we're hemorrhaging cash right now; who isn't, though?

That being said, I would've furloughed everyone that isn't absolutely vital to
maintaining bare minimum operations. Made one painfully large cut -- kinda
like peeling a bandaid quickly instead of ripping out fifty individual hairs
multiple times. I think this alone would've offered a much better sense of
security for those that remained, as well as allowing them to stay at their
normal salaries.

Next, I would proceed with identifying the clients that are most likely be
unable to continue operations themselves, and proactively suspend services.
After that, renegotiate quicker payments, and potentially rate increases on
services with the remaining active clients.

That would enable the company to turn down anything that's deemed as nice-to-
have in our service offerings (no room for luxuries right now), and evaluate
all infrastructure costs. We would then have full insight into knowing how
much we could scale down our IT infrastructure. We could then proceed to
contact vendors, and renegotiate service agreements, further maximizing
savings, and decreasing our burn rate.

I would've done everything possible to keep the remaining employees secure,
and confident. By performing more drastic cuts initially, scaling back
operations, and retaining core teams, everyone could have kept their pay at
normal levels, and I think the burn rate would've been significantly less.

Like I said, though, I've never been in the captain's seat and right now may
not be a great time to try to say what I'd do. Each day brings less inspiring
news and being kept in the dark hasn't helped anyone be more productive.

~~~
mikekij
These are all great points, and read like the syllabus from a business school
ethics class. I remember having a class on "what to do if you need to lay
people off", and it's exactly what you describe.

Best of luck

------
thwllms
10% salary cut. Other people at my company (large civil engineering firm) who
can't work remotely have been transitioned to on-call, and about 1000 were
laid off. Salaries for highly billable employees are currently unaffected.

------
Dork_Sider
I got laid off last Friday in the middle of going over the test scenarios for
a product launch this coming week. As a relatively new product manager, I'm
curious to see how the prospects are against much more senior PMs.

------
lsavage
20% cut in hours from one of my contracts but I haven't lost any yet.

------
heywire
Software Engineer at a large software company (Fortune 500), 7.5% pay cut, but
happy to still be employed. I am billable to our customers, and have a decent
backlog of work, so I am hopeful.

------
downerending
OT, but I've been getting a lot _more_ feelers for (remote) jobs over the last
two weeks. I'm not switching, but I hope that that translates into more work
for those who need it.

~~~
codezero
Being forced to run a remote team of 10 has really opened me up to hiring
people remotely in the future, hopefully others will come around as well.

~~~
pdimitar
Out of curiosity, what was stopping you before? Remote is quite prevalent for
years now, especially in IT.

~~~
codezero
Just uncertainty. I am a pretty new manager, and fwiw it wasn't easy even when
forced, but since the whole team suddenly also got a crash course, it helped a
lot.

~~~
pdimitar
I'd advise you to not shy away from remote in general. Many people, apparently
yourself included, think it's some sort of a grand transition. It really
isn't. :)

I am thankful that people like you exist and are willing to take the plunge
and then find out that it wasn't that bad. You're certainly doing a much
better job than most managers I ever worked under.

~~~
codezero
To be clear. I’m not shying away from it and have always been open to it. I’ve
had reservations, but I’m happy to say that being thrown into the deep end has
made me and my team a lot more confident that we can make remote work for our
team. :)

------
a_lifters_life
Laid off;1 day notice given; slight severance. Ive never been laid
off/fired/whatever from a job, and now in 2020 I get to hopefully find a new
job (soon)

------
Gabriel_Martin
Yeah I finally moved from contracting roles to a fulltime salary, and this
hits, and I'm laid off. Feels terrible.

------
GoldenMonkey
Laid off. 1 month notice, no severance.

------
Scuds
I know of an MSP that laid off all their non-critical-infrastructure field
staff, and even the (now remote, THANK GOD) helpdesk staff had a paycut.

