this post was submitted on 13 Jan 2024
1198 points (97.8% liked)

Videos

16326 readers
101 users here now

For sharing interesting videos from around the Web!

Rules

  1. Videos only
  2. Follow the global Mastodon.World rules and the Lemmy.World TOS while posting and commenting.
  3. Don't be a jerk
  4. No advertising
  5. No political videos, post those to !politicalvideos@lemmy.world instead.
  6. Avoid clickbait titles. (Tip: Use dearrow)
  7. Link directly to the video source and not for example an embedded video in an article or tracked sharing link.
  8. Duplicate posts may be removed

Note: bans may apply to both !videos@lemmy.world and !politicalvideos@lemmy.world

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I can’t give more approval for this woman, she handled everything so well.

The backstory is that Cloudflare overhired and wanted to reduce headcount, rightsize, whatever terrible HR wording you choose. Instead of admitting that this was a layoff, which would grant her things like severance and unemployment - they tried to tell her that her performance was lacking.

And for most of us (myself included) we would angrily accept it and trash the company online. Not her, she goes directly against them. It of course doesn’t go anywhere because HR is a bunch of robots with no emotions that just parrot what papa company tells them to, but she still says what all of us wish we did.

(Warning, if you've ever been laid off this is a bit enraging and can bring up some feelings)

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] alienanimals@lemmy.world 166 points 2 years ago (16 children)

HR are all class traitors. Their sole purpose in life is to pay you as little as possible and protect the people at the top who are stealing everyone elses' profits. Fuck anyone working in HR.

[–] pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online 46 points 2 years ago (9 children)

That really isn't true, and you would know that if you were actually familiar with HR.

HR, for stuff like this, is just the messenger. Some exec told them to fire people, and gave them a directive on who to fire. The HR reps couldn't answer her questions because they likely don't know the answer.

Yes, the job of HR is to protect the company, but mostly that's protecting the company from the company breaking labor laws.

But, I'm sure I'll get downvoted to hell because the hive mind loves to shit on HR, which is exactly what the execs are wanting. They're scapegoats.

[–] alienanimals@lemmy.world 62 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (17 children)

I am very familiar with HR at multiple fortune 500 corporations.

You're so close to getting the point. You realize HR are the executives' scapegoats. HR's purpose is to serve the rich assholes fucking everyone else over. Anyone working HR is complicit whether they're intelligent enough to realize it, or just a useful idiot. Execs want and need their scapegoats. People should realize this and avoid HR (class traitor) jobs.

load more comments (17 replies)
[–] jimbo@lemmy.world 27 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Nothing you said contradicts the claim that HR people are class traitors. HR only cares about labor law so far as they can achieve management's goals without landing the company in legal hot water. It's absolutely not about any concern for the people themselves.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (7 replies)
load more comments (15 replies)
[–] phoneymouse@lemmy.world 164 points 2 years ago (9 children)

The ridiculous thing is they try to frame this as a performance issue when the reality is the company is just doing layoffs. Why even frame it that way? How fucking awful.

[–] CosmicTurtle@lemmy.world 27 points 2 years ago (1 children)

They don't have to pay unemployment if you are fired for performance.

That said, my understanding is that you should always file for unemployment and file an appeal when it's denied. Chances are higher that it will get overturned on appeal.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (8 replies)
[–] ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world 152 points 2 years ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)
load more comments (5 replies)
[–] mkhopper@lemmy.world 109 points 2 years ago (7 children)

If anyone ever thinks differently, this video should convince you.
If you work for a corporation, you are not a person with a name, you are a number. And that number is the amount of money given to you as pay and benefits.

And when the corporation no longer likes your number, you can be unceremoniously shown the door, regardless of your past performance.

[–] crazyminner@lemmy.ml 54 points 2 years ago

Unless you're apart of a strong union. Then they think twice before firing you.

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] Daqu@lemm.ee 80 points 2 years ago (4 children)

HR is working their script, or they will be fired too. It's like a fucking callcenter to destroy people.

[–] TheDubz87@lemmy.world 42 points 2 years ago

Literally looped in circles over and over to avoid answering questions. It was so frustrating to listen to.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] kusuriya 78 points 2 years ago (5 children)

love how its hey we will fire you today as a surprise after you’ve been told something completely different but we promise to tell you why later. I really this was just taken legally as an illegal termination. Because if it’s for performance that means you have data, if you have data you should be able to give me graphs and charts, stick figure animations, poorly acted corporate videos.

[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 33 points 2 years ago

Fr. If my performance was bad the entire time, why wasn't I told until now? If I am doing a crappy job but told I'm doing great, why would I ever do better? Either it's bullshit that my performance is poor, or they've set me up for failure from the beginning. Either of which makes them a piece of shit.

[–] militaryintelligence@lemmy.world 27 points 2 years ago (4 children)

I expect and demand a puppet show demonstrating my poor performance

load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 49 points 2 years ago (4 children)

Honestly the problem I see here is not the layoff, which was disguised as a "lack of performance". Yes, it wasn't done perfectly, but still, it's no tragedy.

What is definitely the problem here is the absolute lack of a social security system in the US. That should be implemented.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] Aceticon@lemmy.world 46 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (4 children)

I only saw the start and the emotional vibes are pretty bad, and not just for Brittany (though, of course, even in the beginning she's clearly already hurting).

At least somebody actually directly got in contact with her, personally, rather than firing-by-email.

If there is a lesson I learned way back at the beginning of my career in Tech back in the mid 90s is that you shouldn't really go for the whole loyalty to your employee when they're anything but a little company were everybody works together, because they will screw you over if its in their best interest, sometimes casually so, and those making the decision will never be in calls such as this one and instead send some poor sods like the HR lady and that director guy to do the dirty work for them and fell the hurt from the person on the other side if they have any empathy (which most people do have, which is probably why both the HR Lady and the guy were uncomfortable from the start).

Also beware of the company trying to manipulate you as an employee to have your workplace be your entire social circle of friends and even like a second family: the whole point of that is to "retain" employees without having to actually pay what the market says they're worth. This is actually a pretty old trick in Tech HR, dating back to the original Internet Boom.

The whole loyalty of the companies to employees thing died in the late 80s early 90s and you should be skeptical when it comes to what the company "does for you" and ponder on what's in it for them: for example, "free pizza dinners" are not at all about being nice for you, they're about you working long hours for free (which would cost them way more than that free pizza if they had to pay for them) to enhance that company's profits.

It's sad and it's the World we live in: one were the real power of the land is Money and it's mainly in the hands of Sociopaths.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] ZeroDrek@lemmy.world 46 points 2 years ago (5 children)

I respect her speaking up for herself, but once a company has decided to let you go there is no amount of talking you can do to convince them to change their mind.

[–] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 92 points 2 years ago (1 children)

She knows that, she just wants them to admit it's not her. As someone who has been in that seat, there's being laid off, and then there's people telling you you are incompetent. It's a vastly different experience. By not proving to her that they knew she was a bad employee they said more about their company and culture.

[–] snooggums@kbin.social 26 points 2 years ago (1 children)

It is likely that firing her for 'performance issues' costs the company less than just firing her for whatever the actual reason would be.

[–] newthrowaway20@lemmy.world 38 points 2 years ago (8 children)

It's the difference between nothing and severance.

load more comments (8 replies)
[–] Sekrayray@lemmy.world 42 points 2 years ago (1 children)

She’s not trying to do that—the corporate asshats are trying to blame this as a performance related firing as opposed to a layoff (which it was) which means she’s not entitled to the same severance and unemployment benefits. If she can get them to slip and admit that she has a legal case.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world 28 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

She’s not trying to talk her way out of getting laid off. She’s forcing them to justify it as a firing, instead of calling it a layoff. Because if you get fired with cause, you don’t get unemployment insurance. But if you get laid off without cause, you get unemployment. If she can get them to slip and admit that there’s not a reason for her layoff, then she can take that to the unemployment appeal and prove she deserves to claim insurance.

It could also affect her going forwards, because it determines whether or not she’s able to use her manager/coworkers as a reference in the future. If a future employer calls her manager and asks “would you hire this employee again” and she was fired for underperformance, the answer will be “no”. But if she was laid off without cause despite hitting all of her metrics, the answer will be “yes”. So it’s advocating for her future employment prospects, by not allowing the company to falsely blame her performance for the firing.

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] BassaForte@lemmy.world 43 points 2 years ago (4 children)

I was laid off almost a year ago. I don't even know the reason why. Our team was fairly small, and targetted a specific product within our company that was still very profitable and we had a lot of work lined up for it. They let go of me, two other devs, the senior qa person and a few others. Our team did not over hire during COVID, in fact our team shrunk during that time. I had a good rep within the company and with the team and I know for a fact the others did too.

My only guess is that the company was trying to save money by shrinking each team, despite already being small (there were 6 left after the layoffs and about 12 before).

My layoff meeting was with my boss and an HR person that I had already been aquatinted with. They did ensure me that my performance was not the reason I was being let go, but they couldn't get into specifics either. Strangely my boss seemed emotionally unphased.

That experience taught me the lesson that no matter who you are in a company, you're disposable.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] snooggums@kbin.social 40 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Loved it when she asked if performance indicators were real or just something they use as an excuse. Plus pointing out that they aren't going to explain after she is fired, since she won't be an employee anymore.

I hope she finds another job that doesn't treat her like shit.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Randelung@lemmy.world 40 points 2 years ago

So glad she eventually got to the "how the fuck are you so clueless about this, you're the ones firing ME" part.

[–] kinther@lemmy.world 39 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Yikes. This kind of thing is happening all over the industry as it pulls back from COVID over-hiring. https://layoffs.fyi

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] intensely_human@lemm.ee 38 points 2 years ago

You can see first the fear, then the thrill of battle in her eyes. Don’t take any guff from these swine, Brittany.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 36 points 2 years ago (6 children)

The only time I got laid off was from a university where I worked. I read in the paper that morning that there were going to be layoffs and I came in and my boss was really apologetic and told me I was laid off. It actually went really well all things considered. I didn't blame him and he was as nice as he could be about it, saying things like, "if you ever need a letter of recommendation, send me an email."

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] Yoz@lemmy.world 33 points 2 years ago (3 children)

Being a 9-5 sucks. Never be loyal to an employer especially millenials and coming generation. You have lost everything so do what you get paid for and leave. Don't let them tell you how boomers and the generation before that did the job.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] Masimatutu@mander.xyz 32 points 2 years ago (4 children)
load more comments (4 replies)
[–] DontRedditMyLemmy@lemmy.world 31 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Damn girl, I want you on my team! You got moxy!

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] cultsuperstar@lemmy.world 31 points 2 years ago (8 children)

They kept bringing up performance metrics. So are the metrics predetermined to always be against employees? Employees will never have a good performance regardless of all the positive feedback, just so the company can fire people when they want or need and say "well here's your performance based on the metrics, you're not working out so we gotta let you go". That's what it sounds like to me.

load more comments (8 replies)
[–] thefloweracidic@lemmy.world 25 points 2 years ago

Wow I applied to Cloudflare a few months ago, glad I got rejected because I was just laid off late last year.

load more comments
view more: next ›