Edit: A healthy society is a high-trust society where the employee-employer relationship is more balanced due to the regular old humanity that you would expect by default from humans, rather than pure economics. You can't regulate the fundamentals of societal health. When people have less and less cultural attachment to each other and to the societies in which they operate; and less and less respect for the idea of plain humanity; this is the result. The US seems to have been historically above average in this regard, but is coming down fast. A few European countries seem to be at the top of this (highly subjective) ranking.

1. Mandatory notice periods (3 months is customary, mimumum 1 month)

2. "Social selection", i.e. you're not allowed to lay off a pregnant person etc. unless you have demonstrated that there were no other people you could have let go instead

3. There needs to be cause. Downsizing can still mean you get laid off, but you can't just fire a team or an individual because you don't like them etc.

Of course, if you left a company because you didn't agree to their rules instead of being laid off, none of these protections apply to you - why would they?

Being in a union involves give and take.

1. "Firms and Layoffs: The Impact of Unionization on Involuntary Job Loss" - (2003 with data from 1997) https://ideas.repec.org/p/cen/wpaper/03-09.html

> Results show that the impact of unionization is not significant except for (1) establishments that operate in the non-manufacturing sector; and (2) establishments operating in industries that have major collective bargaining agreements which contain moderate employment security provisions. Under those conditions, unionization decreases layoff rates; otherwise, unionization has no effect on layoff rates.

Does anyone have anything more recent about this?

I am in a non-union workspace. There's no transparency on how bonuses or stock refreshers are handed out. A union contract could codify it.

The owner class wants workers to think unions will hurt our earnings because when workers are structurally unable to shape company policy the bosses can do whatever they want...and what they want is to maximize profits. (Like Elon Musk said: You don't need a union, I'll put in an soft serve machine for you.)

https://code-cwa.org/organize

Do you give Netflix 180 days notice or additional payments when you quit their service?

I am a W2/FTE and I have a job that I can leave with zero notice or consequence. If I was to get laid off I would imagine I would get some type of severance - even if only two weeks as that would be more than agreed upon.

There is no whip if I fail. No debt incurred if I fail to deliver on my "promises". I could definitely harm my employer with substantial consequences and I think the worst they could do is report my activities to the authorities.

Preparation isn’t free, and even if you’re prepared, you’re still harmed. This isn’t some moral lesson on independence and discipline. Companies don’t need any single employee as much as that employee needs their job.

I am a lucky person, but I see it for what it is, not that I am special or exceptional. A lottery ticket is not something you can base broad policy on, most especially considering the aggregate harm being incurred.

If you are not interested in a union, that is fine, it only takes a majority to win a union and 30% to hold a vote. Do you think 51% are making outsized comp and vote no? I'm interested to find out too as someone very curious.

https://www.nlrb.gov/about-nlrb/rights-we-protect/the-law/em...

https://www.nlrb.gov/about-nlrb/what-we-do/conduct-elections

https://newrepublic.com/post/175274/gallup-poll-two-thirds-a...

https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-closing-gender-...

So yeah, my bank account might be lower, but I don’t need nearly as much as I did in the US so it feels like I actually have more.

I'd like to have "fuck you" (or even "screw you") money, but the healthcare system makes it pretty tough.

Tech workers and their lifestyles are not sustainable if the Tech actually does that.

You're the CEO of your life, your employer is a client, and your job is a business deal.

My advice is to do independent contracting for some time and you will have a better handle on negotiating and navigating the dynamics.

Doing them on Dec 24, yes that would be a dick move to ruin Christmas day itself.

But mid-December isn't worse than any other time. People get severance so it's not like kids are going without presents -- these aren't hourly laborers we're talking about. And you can use the holidays to take some time to think about your next plan of action.

Netflix is different though. They tend to give generous severance packages.

This is usually beneficial for both parties, as it gives the employer time to find replacements and the employee time to find a new job.

But we generally have far, far better worker's rights than the US.

https://lovdata.no/dokument/NLE/lov/2005-06-17-62/KAPITTEL_1...

If the month of the year in which you lose your six figure engineering job is a personal factor: you are very plainly saving too little, spending too much, or both. In this economy you should have a minimum of 4-6 months of expenses in savings in cash.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38629355

Some of the people being fired will have been at Netflix less than a year and 6 figure of college debt and a hard-to-break lease on a $3000/month apartment -- do you expect them to have 6 months of salary saved?

This is rolling over in submission for evil men, thinly veiled in the language of badass cynicism.

I don't see why this has to be some kind of common stance in the tech community. Yes many of us make decent money, but you have no idea what peoples life circumstances are. Learn some empathy before you comment.

That's called lack of labor laws.

Also one of the reasons companies fire them before the end of the year is if company pays bonuses and you are an employee at the end of the year you get said bonus even if you aren't employed at the company when they pay them out. I think a few states have laws saying you can't get around that by firing them a few days before the end of the year but I am not sure which ones.