Cloudydays16Jan 21, 2023
HalvarFlake

The Google layoffs remind me: When I considered starting my first company I worried about "job security".

My then-girlfriend said:

"Big companies do not provide job security. They provide the service that you are the last person to know when the job is gone."

Wisdom.

Jan 21, 2023 at 8:39amWeb
Show threadSpaceLifeFormJan 21, 2023

@HalvarFlake

She (the ex-gf) was astute.

But, also, it works the other way.

Sometimes, the company does not realize that they lost their security after the last person to know what is really going on is now gone.

See Twitter for example.

Show threadEsther Payne Jan 21, 2023

@SpaceLifeForm @HalvarFlake we've seen this in other industries as well. Including the fossil fuel industry in the 1980s and then the next minor downturn, every time there was a downturn a bunch of contractors got laid off, sometimes staff did, but contractors are often the easiest way to tool up.

Funnily enough some of the skilled contractors got fed up and left the industry. Corporations don't really have a use for staff loyalty.

Show threadChristiane PetersJan 21, 2023
@HalvarFlake I think the term “Human Resources” tells you everything
Show threadCarolineCherryJan 21, 2023
@HalvarFlake It’s true but the really scary thing is that the public still are undereducated about the role of unions . In the UK there has been a systematic attack on TUs and the current legislation aimed at stopping strikes is ridiculous. Our problem is that there has also been a sinister coalition of interests between newspaper owners and the Conservative party. So many remain unaware of Brexit issues & the serious policy impacts of this government.
Show threadmathewJan 21, 2023
@HalvarFlake Unfortunately I didn’t realize this until experiencing unnecessary mass layoffs at IBM. It was literally dictated from the top that every department had to lose X% of permanent staff, minimum of 1, no matter their performance or whether it would make the department collapse.
Show threadMads Grymer EjstrupJan 21, 2023
@HalvarFlake being self employed have been the most stable job in my life👍
Show threadAlan MartelloJan 21, 2023
@HalvarFlake worked for myself for almost my entire career. I never spent one minute wondering whether I would be fired. Spent many days worried about and working on sales and cash flow - but those were all problems that I had the personal and immediate ability to effect and solve.
Show threadChristopher MastoJan 21, 2023

@HalvarFlake When people told me they were thinking of leaving and mentioned "loyalty", I'd always point out that an employer has zero loyalty to you and will drop you in a hot second. I wanted my team to stick around because they wanted to, not out of some misguided corporate allegiance.

This is probably one of many factors that limited my career growth in management.

Show threadBrandonJan 21, 2023

@HalvarFlake In 2004, I remember being at a company meeting with Wayne Rosing, then a senior VP of engineering. He told the crowd he was looking to hire believers; not mercenaries.

The kicker is I think he believed this, but every company is a mercenary institution in the limit .

Show threademurphy42Jan 23, 2023
@bdowney @HalvarFlake This seems like a core observation. What can be done to block off that limit ahead of time? (I do feel like I have job security, but - thinking back to a recent Doctorow article - my employer is owned by the Merely Rich who want to keep It a going concern, as opposed to the Absurdly Rich who would want to suck it dry and then move on to another. How do we convince the Absurdly Rich that it's in their interest to knock it off, I mean really and not just appear to?)
Show threadCaffe NekoJan 21, 2023
@HalvarFlake Most important thing someone working a tech job should do is pay off debts and build a 6 month emergency fund to last one through a search for a new job. Do this before buying a new truck or a hot tub or a trip to Europe, etc. We lived on half our income for years to get out of student loan debt. Now saving to fully fund the emergency fund. Years ago I got laid off the very day we were putting our house on the market to move up in house. Never again.
Show threadHalvarFlakeJan 21, 2023
@caffeneko yeah def, I've always lived my life w at least 6 months living cost buffer, even as student (financed myself starting age 18).
Show threadBouriquetJan 21, 2023
@HalvarFlake Corporate loyalty is an oxymoron
Show threadTimothy WolodzkoJan 21, 2023
@HalvarFlake In a small company, you lose your job when the company goes bankrupt. It happens, but usually, you have some signs that it could happen in advance. In a large company, you learn that you're fired the same day. Long-term it's usually safe since the company is stable, but when they lay off you, you don't know in advance, your manager doesn't as well, and his manager doesn't either... In the first case, it can be more likely, in the second, more unexpected.
Show threadJoel DJan 26, 2023
@tymwol @HalvarFlake I had the best of both worlds: being the IT (and sometimes accounting) department at small- to medium-size businesses. So I was essential for operations, and I knew at all times the health of the business. Nothing I could do to turn things around when they got bad, but if I could train myself not to stress as long as I was getting a paycheck, I could ride it out.
Show threadMick T.Jan 22, 2023
@HalvarFlake Corporations talk about things like "loyalty" and "teamwork" but that's a one way street, they expect you to be loyal to them, they're not loyal to you.
Show threadJustin du CoeurJan 22, 2023

@HalvarFlake Absolutely. The notion that jobs at big companies are more "secure" than small ones is a lie peddled by the big companies to give them leverage in hiring and terms.

Every job is a *contract* between you and the employer. Negotiate that in as clear-eyed a way as possible, viewing yourself as an equal in the process, and don't believe anything about "job security" unless you get it explicitly and clearly in the contract. (Which you won't.)

Show threadJustin du CoeurJan 22, 2023

@HalvarFlake And yeah - when I first went to start my own company (after being laid off), I wound up chatting with my comic book dealer, and he remarked how scary it all was. Took me a while to realize he wasn't saying that starting a company was scary -- he was saying that giving you someone the power to fire you (my previous job) was scary.

It was a moment of revelation for me, and I've kept it in mind every since.