|
|
the article says this would be illegal in the UK. I know it would also be illegal in NZ, Aus, France, and I suspect most of the rest of the developed world.
American employment contracts are 'at will' contracts. They are at the will of the employer, and should the employer change their mind, you can be shown the door, with just your 2 weeks notice.
I lived and worked in the States for 3 years. The impact on employee behaviour is profound. It creates a cover your ass, finger pointing culture where no employee is willing to accept accountability, an will go to great lengths to apportion blame elsewhere.
Now, I only worked for one company (but it was a biggish publicly listed one), and I'm sure not all are like this.
I did very well, with two things I did differently than my American colleagues (not that I did them deliberately to be different, but it took me a while to realise I was an outlier).
I was prepared to say "I don't know" and I was prepare to say "I made a mistake and here's how we recover...". American employees would go out of their way to avoid these, for fear of being shown the front door.
It also contributes to the always available, never take leave attitude.
One of our competitors had a policy of ranking all developers and firing the lowest 5% each quarter - they were continually hiring as a result, I guess the aim being to end up with a greater developer pool.
It saddens me that so many American's are so proud of America and believe they are in the greatest country on earth. So many of them simply have no idea.
|
|
|
|
|
Your competitor who laid off the bottom 5% every quarter.
That wouldn’t be the company that was selling CRM software, would it?
They used to have weekly status meetings at 5 pm on Fridays so that nobody could sneak off and get an early head start on the weekend!
A friend who worked a year for them and who now works at Farcebook said that, compared to Farcebook, the other company was like a cuddly teddy bear.
Talk about toxic work cultures,
|
|
|
|
|
It was indeed a CRM company.
|
|
|
|
|
NeverJustHere wrote: American employees would go out of their way to avoid these
Singapore was similar, I had huge issues with developers not owning their mistakes, they would hide them and then try and work around the problems the mistake caused.
Shocked the hell out of them the first time I accepted a mistake as soon as it was discovered.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity -
RAH
I'm old. I know stuff - JSOP
|
|
|
|
|
He did try to make them feel better by saying he "cried last time he did it". 
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
|
|
|
|
|
The only thing new about it was the use of Zoom. Calling a large meeting and firing everyone in the meeting has been done plenty of times before (usually when a company is going down the tubes).
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
|
|
|
|
|
I had been working for a US company for 4 months and had just been told by my supervisor that things were going well and that he was happy to have me on the team. That same afternoon we, and about 90 other staff were called to a management announcement to be told we were all fired as the company was going down the tubes (they didn't actually say this latter part). The rest of the staff were fired two weeks later.
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
|
|
|
|
|
After yesterday's gun discussion I read "firing employees" completely different 
Maybe this boss used Zoom because out of those 900 employees at least a few of them could be packing guns and fire back 
|
|
|
|
|
Decimation[^]. A classic, but that idiot even found a way to make that boring.
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
|
|
|
|
|
And he didn't do it right - only 9% were fired! 
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
|
|
|
|
|
When it comes to something like this, incompetence may actually become a blessing.
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
|
|
|
|
|
|
He's just a dude with a sh*t-ton of money and a base of rabid followers who put him on a pedestal. Everyone else can see him for the con man he really is.
Hyperloop? Never going to happen. All he had to do was Google "vacuum canon" to figure out why.
Self-driving trucks? Those were supposed to ship back in 2018. Still not around because who knew self-driving vehicles was so damn difficult to do, oh and yeah, let's make experimental vehicles that can weigh 40+ tons so they can cause more carnage!
Digging tunnels faster and for 1/10th the cost? He found out the hard way that's just not possible.
SpaceX is going to be 1/10th the cost per launch? Uhh... no it's not. At best, you'll get about 10% cheaper than existing rockets.
Las Vegas underground that can do 200MPH? Yeah, they just set fire to a massive pile of money that's going to buy a car fire you cannot put out and in a very enclosed space you cannot get out of.
and on, and on.
|
|
|
|
|
I think shooting billionaires into space is the right idea though.
Real programmers use butterflies
|
|
|
|
|
But they keep coming back though!
|
|
|
|
|
So long as it's a one-way trip.... 
|
|
|
|
|
Well,
I paid for my Starlink kit[^] a few months ago and it still hasn't arrived. I was told that my kit would arrive Q4/2021 but it looks like it's going to be delayed. I will need to get it above the trees in my yard. I was planning to set it up on a 30ft tower[^] on top of the office annex behind my home during the holiday break.
But it looks like I will need to wait a little longer. 
I don't really need Starlink, I'm getting good speeds on my cable internet. But old men need toys too!
|
|
|
|
|
You'll probably need a permit.
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Great video! 
|
|
|
|
|
Thanks Assuming it is accurate it is unfortunate it is not reported on the CBS evening news - Cheerio
|
|
|
|
|
You're not going to Rickroll me that easy, not clicking on the link
Hogan
|
|
|
|
|
|
Every genius gets bad press and it's easy to hate on successful people.
|
|
|
|
General 
News 
Suggestion 
Question 
Bug 
Answer 
Joke 
Praise 
Rant 
Admin 
Submit an article or tip
