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Cloudflare Employee records her final meeting where HR tries to fire her

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)

Cloudflare Employee records her final meeting where HR tries to fire herhttps://ody.sh/Ge9x8r6QXiOpen linkView original on poptalk.scrubbles.tech
lemmy.world

HR is IT for people. Do you think the IT guy cares about all the laptops in the company? No, it's a resource he manages. Do you think HR cares about all the people in the company. No it's a resource they manage. Companies try so hard to make HR look like high school guidance counselors instead of the ruthless hatchet men they are.

127
toasteecupreply
lemmy.world

It guy here, I care more about the computers and tech than HR cares about people. Fuck HR

181

When they won't even boot into a Linux USB drive, make funeral preparations. Pack the dead body in a box and ship it to the hazmat recycling facility in the sky.

8
sorghumreply
sh.itjust.works

I know right? Old piece of hardware getting retired? It gets new life if I have something for it to do. I'm looking at my Brother HL-5170DN from 2006 that got tossed because the 2nd tray kept jamming. Guess who doesn't need a 2nd tray and loves this printer?

My first home server was a decommissioned small business server. Was a file server for a long time until the hard drives started to go.

11

Yuuuuuuuuuup. I always try to repurpose first instead of tossing. Even tossing for tech is a donation first if I can.

Only thing I don't love is a case I've had forever is an old enough ATX design that I can't easily fit all the new things in it. I'd love to repurpose it for a desktop for her but I don't think I'm going to love building things in it if I do.

6

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1
lemmy.world

IT guy here... Uh, no. I resent that you would group us with HR.

At my work I keep advocating to give our underperforming hardware (aka old hardware) a second life by opening up sales for them instead of destroying them (except hard drives of course).

When my laptop was acting up and was kind of crappy... I replace the thermal paste and replaced the old failing hard drive with a new SSD. At laptop is now 14 years old (Intel i5-540).

78

thanks for replacing the thermal paste, I’m POSTing now, but i’m still having trouble with (issue i’ve been told to open a ticket for but am refusing to do). can you fix that please

3

I care about the laptops. I care about them a lot. People return them in a shit state, I clean them up take care of them and then advocate to donate them to schools in the area.

HR are just that, hatchet men.

41
WarmSodareply
lemm.ee

I went through a lay off being a manager once. It's not fun at all. We had the list and the metrics. But we were already pretty small and we really didn't want to lose anyone on the list except for a couple people.
So we basically gamed financial. Offered anyone that wanted it part time. Fired the few people people that were clearly not interested in working anyways. We did something else that I can't remember, and we ended up being able to fucking keep everyone. It was amazing.

Not even two months later we had to ramp up for the holidays, so everyone that willingly cut their hours went right back to full time. And we were offering OT too.

Year later the company pulled out of the state. But until that time we kept everyone.

44

Thank you for sticking up for your employees. Had a similar thing happen where I was part time for a few months until things picked up. While it was difficult I appreciated that I had an income for then. And he gave me a stellar reference for if my finances got too tight and I needed to start searching.

This is why managers need to be included in firing decisions. The fact that Brittany here wasn't able to have that dignity enrages me.

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Redwaxreply
lemmynsfw.com

Is this response AI generated or something? How did you keep everyone if you fired people?

-10
lemmy.world

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.

178
discuss.online

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.

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lemmy.world

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.

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lemmy.world

HR exists to insulate people with real authority in a business from those who suffer from their whims. In a lot of companies, your job is to get yelled at so some ghoulish C level executive isn't forced to strain their neurons processing the emotional reality of the fact that their decisions impact real people in negative ways. It might disrupt their "objectivity" and make it harder to issue layoffs next time.

20

Well, if you're working for that company in any other role your purpose is to serve the rich assholes anyway.

4
lemmy.world

Better yet, get a job in HR and sabotage the company from the inside!

Though, the reality is that most menial HR jobs are like any other menial non-decision maker jobs, in any other area of the business, so your argument is just as applicable to, and just as disingenuous, for most roles in any business — e.g. like arguing janitor's at EvilCorp are complicit class traitors because they enrich EvilCorp and facilitate it's success.

0

Anyone in the company is serving the rich assholes fucking everyone else over. All the money they are producing goes to the rich assholes.

0
oce 🐆reply
jlai.lu

Wouldn't that also apply to engineers working for those rich assholes? Because there are a lot of engineers working for rich assholes here who like to trash HR, starting with me.

-1
oce 🐆reply
jlai.lu

They both prostitute themselves to serve the rich to get more money even though they are educated enough to have the freedom to choose whom to work for.

-1

You're talking about nuance after the vast generalization you wrote about HR? May beyou could self reflect on that nuance notion.

-1
Fizzreply
lemmy.nz

Just don't get a job in HR and no one can get fired. It's that easy guys.

HR is a legitimate job and serves and important purpose in the structure of a company. You can't dismiss it by saying their purpose is to serve rich assholes because that's the purpose of every job at a company. That's work, that's most jobs.

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owenreply
lemmy.ca

Except HR's entire purpose is to insulate management. They're not exactly producing anything

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Fizzreply
lemmy.nz

Production of goods is not relevant at all there are plenty of valid jobs that do not produce anything. Having an HR department in a large company allows other departments to focus on what they are good at and have HR handle all the employee contracts, hiring, firing, complaints, performance reviews, leave etc.

-1
owenreply
lemmy.ca

All those tasks you listed are really the responsibility of management. HR is basically the grease between the decisions of upper management and the reactions of the lowly prawns

4

They can be the responsibility of management in smaller companies but at scale they require a department.

1
lemmy.world

I worked in HR for a while and 80% of the job was telling managers/execs "you can't do that to an employee". It was defending the employee, arguing for better programs, planning events for employees/associates/team members. I paid for a Christmas event out of my own pocket one year because I was told there was no funding. I never got badmouthed or trashed by a manager. But after fighting everyday for associates it was really disheartening to see them say stuff like the person youre replying too. It's one reason people who aren't corporate shills get out of HR. You spend your day advocating for people and they turn around and spit in your face. After awhile you just ask yourself why am I turning myself inside out for these people who hate me?

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lemmy.world

I've literally never worked at a company where HR advocates for the workers. In 20 years, I haven't seen it happen a single time.

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asqaproreply
lemmy.ml

The HR team at the company I work for absolutely advocates for me and my coworkers. Their job is to protect the company’s interests and the workers being empowered is in line with the company’s interests. A close friend and coworker had a PM try to deny her benefits (both PTO and insurance) and HR stepped in on her behalf and forced the company to give her what she was owed. The HR team is always available to answer questions about how insurance works and how to plan for retirement, plus they go out of their way to host a yearly Christmas party and other major events. The companies you worked at might have had bad HR teams, but that doesn’t mean every HR team is bad.

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sh.itjust.works

HR is to prevent liability, not to protect or advocate for workers. Sometimes those lines end up crossing, but it’s not the job of HR.

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lemmy.ca

How about you let them tel you how HR is at the the place they work for since you have no idea who they are or where they work.

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lemmy.ca

This totally goes against what people want to believe. It’s not being downvoted because it’s untrue, it’s being downvoted because the kids don’t like it.

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sh.itjust.works

You can paint a pig and call it your lover if you want but I know a pig when I see one.

1

And you can use anecdotal references to paint the real world however you want it you look, but I know reality when I see it.

-1

Oh come off of it. Your job is to tell those managers and executives “you can’t do that”. You are there to prevent liability. I’m not calling you a bad person or class trader like above, but that’s what your job is.

7

No one in any business cares about their customers or coworkers any more than they have to. Why would you think that the person at the supermarket cares about the weird story you have to tell them?

HR doesn't care about you because they don't know you. Your coworkers barely care about you. Do not think people you work with are your friends. HR has no moral reason to do anything other than their jobs. Don't rely on them for legal advice. They are just a mouthpiece for what has already been decided.

7

I've interacted with lots of HR employees over the years. And for quite a while my wife worked in that field, so I've had some 'inside' insight into the field. And I largely agree with you.

Like with any field, there are good people and bad people in there. My wife (and most of her colleagues) was one of the good ones. She intervened many times at her old job to stop out of control managers from firing store employees for bullshit reasons. Yes, part of that was to avoid the company getting into legal trouble for it. But an equal part was because she wanted to help these employees, because they were clearly being mistreated by their managers. And while not to that level, I've been helped by other decent HR people who went above and beyond company policies to help me during things like bereavement and healthcare needs.

I've also dealt with some absolute shit-heel HR people. People who would spend almost all day spying on employees using CCTV to try to catch them doing something - anything - that they could write them up for. People who would go out of their way to hide and ignore evidence of managers vindictively punishing employees who they (the managers) didn't like. People would use their power as HR professionals to exploit vulnerable employees for sexual motives.

It's a mixed bag. To say all HR people are good is facile (side note: I know you weren't doing that). And equally, to slate all HR employees is also wrong.

13

Being a shield against the decisions of upper management is the kind of class traitor work the person above is talking about. HR's job is taking that kind of decision and turning it into something that can be executed with the least likelihood of an office shooting or lawsuit. Whether either of those things are warranted or not.

3

The people doing the firing were lawyers, not HR, but you are absolutely right. If you are told to fire a bunch of people illegally, the only moral response is to refuse and if pressed, document publicly what happened (and quit or be fired yourself).

Following orders is no excuse.

19

It is actually such a shitty job and while good people may find themselves in it, only bad people stay in it for long. If you’re a great person and just spend your time bringing sunshine to employees then you were rolled in luck before you went into the fryer.

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lemmy.world

Ok, cut out the middleman and get fired face to face by someone even more profit motivated and psychopathic and disinterested in your person.

2

Pretty sure they don't do that in the US cause the 2nd Amendment apparently says that we aren't allowed to disarm a fucking toddler in this country, so the guns outnumber the citizens.

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angrymousereply
lemmy.world

This is the nature of the HR as a sector, not the ppl that work there. The lumberjack is not responsible for the deforestation. If you dont have any collective to help ppl stand their ground they will only follow orders to buy the milk.

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lemmy.world

You're the kind of fool who thinks some of the nazis weren't bad, they were just following orders.

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angrymousereply
lemmy.world

You literally compared HR workers with the nazis, and you are not the first I saw in this thread, wtf are you all eating? You talk with ppl like that IRL?

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lemmy.world

Meh. Maybe they are just tired of the people who don't really do anything acting like they are top shit.

4

Yeah, so your solution for the capitalism is all HR resign? I love how you feel so smarter even so is completely incapable to think over a simple provocation. You are not even comparing the police, the state force that actually kill to protects the capital, with the Nazis, you are comparing the HR, like firing ppl and killing ppl had a "moral" equivalence to keep a political system.

And to glue this shit argument you use this abstract"morality" that have no meaning, exactly like a conservative would do.

You are not even aware that your hate against HR is exactly what your boss want, HR and middle managers exists with no other purpose than ppl stupid like you to hate them instead of the boss, and keeps the grindmill running.

You are much closer to a Nazi person than an HR that hates his Job, cause your hate is in the exactly place the leader wants, against workers and not against him.

You are too far of the reality to being so angry, maybe you should go to Twitter, there is a lot like you there.

-1

The lumberjack is harvesting wood which the population as a whole benefits from. They aren't taking a side of one class vs the another class. Sure I would like them to harvest responsibly but even if they don't they are still adding value to civilization.

HR is not the same thing. When is the last time they actually helped you? I remember once the employee health insurance was giving me problems covering a medication for my wife and the HR bitch is taking the insurance company side. Telling me how they nice they were at contract time. Yeah mouthbreather of course they are nice, they scammed us out of money and you let it happen.

0
Chefreply
sh.itjust.works

At least in my state, if your employment is terminated for poor performance, the employer can deny unemployment insurance claims. If you’re just laid off, they must pay out unemployment insurance claims.

By blaming the victim, the company saves money. It’s such scumbaggery.

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lemmy.ml

At least in my state, if your employment is terminated for poor performance, the employer can deny unemployment insurance claims.

Which in itself is a total bullshit rule. What, so people who are bad at a certain job don't deserve help while they find a job they're better at?

64

That's one of the reasons why companies will put on a PIP(performance improvement plan) if they want to fire you. They try to get you to sign something saying you understand and acknowledge that your performance needs to improve.They need to have some sort of paper trail in order for them to be able to deny the unemployment claim. A company can't just say "oh yeah that guy sucked" unless there was a substantial, documented issue like you getting into a physical confrontation with someone

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Actually making good on insurance claims would defeat the point of insurance, which is to make money off of people in need, i.e. those who can't afford the financial burdens that insurance purports to protect you from.

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Don't you need to be working somewhere for 6 months to get unemployment? She's been there for 4

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lemmy.world

Seems like it would also have the effect of making the employee less appealing to any potential future employers. When asked in an interview why they left their previous job, these people have to decide whether to say honestly that they were let go because of mismanagement and risk their possible new job on whether the background check includes a call to the HR department of your last employer, or give the line that would match the HR record and say they were fired for poor performance. Either way is going to make it pretty hard to get hired, and so if Cloudflare ever needs to hire again in the future, there's a decent chance these people will still be seeking employment.

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lemmy.world

There is no professional, moral, or practical reason to attempt to be "honest" about why you were let go unless you are in a hyper local industry where everyone knows each other personally. Obviously even Cloudflare doesn't have a solid idea why they let her go.

Employment verification usually goes to a third party either way.

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lemmy.world

I'll take this into consideration the next time I look for a new position. I've never been on the side of performing or requesting a background check on a potential employee, but have almost always been asked why I left my previous employer when I've interviewed for a new position. Thanks internet friend.

2

Yeah, just to second them, most companies won’t share much more than the vaguest of summaries of your time there. Such as “yes they worked here between these dates doing job”. Keep in mind the person answering the phone most likely doesn’t even know who you are unless you give a direct line to your direct report.

But there’s a bigger reason; they could potentially be sued for damages. If what HR has in the file isn’t true, or the manager misremembers, or any other long list of things. They would be defaming you. Hard to win, harder to prove, but still something most companies want to steer clear of.

There are also state laws which dictate what can and cannot be said about a past employee, but that varies from state to state.

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lemmy.world

I worked at Teledyne and got laid off. The official policy was that they wouldn't give anyone a reference good or bad just confirm that the person worked there. Shit people making shit products. They threatened to not give me any severance unless I agreed to never badmouth the Teledyne corporation on the internet. I took the money.

9

The professional workaround is 'are they eligible for rehire'. If you're laid off it's a yes, if not it's a no.

3

I will get right on that. Maybe I will show up to my ex-manager's manager house and discuss the matter with him. You know on a rainy night near midnight. Is that the proper way to do this?

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lemmy.world

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.

29

It is a performance issue. The company performed poorly in hiring too many people

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lemmy.world

This is a USA problem that is both illegal, and extremely hard to game, in most of the developed world... Elsewhere employers can generally fire you during probation, or within the first 6-12 months, without severance, but they have no reason whatsoever to lie to you about your performance — they tell you straight up that your position is no longer required, pay out the mandatory 2-4 weeks notice period, and that's the end of it. Beyond that they cut their losses and pay severance, because the legal and financial implications for lying about performance are not worth the crime.

I find it ridiculous that people blame Cloudflare for this situation. EVERY for-profit company will choose this path IF given the opportunity to avoid fault or severance, and any that don't will be less profitable and eventually fail on the uneven playing field — 99% of the blame for this situation falls on the US political kleptocracy and their corruption; a political system "BY the capital, FOR the capital".

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jj4211reply
lemmy.world

While you can complain about the US having weak labor protection, I can tell you that, based on her description, is already illegal, and I have worked at two other companies in the US that take this very seriously. They almost never "fired" anyone but sadly did layoffs fairly often. They gave the appropriate notice and paid the promised severance. Even people that folks would have said deserved a during often got to hang out until the next layoff, because generally the risk of a labor law violation was not worth the notice and severance cost.

Over the last couple of decades working at companies, I have only seen four firings, but many many layoffs.

The four firing were: A guy that would show up for the morning meeting every day then leave work right after, hoping no one would notice. Fired after doing this for a week, getting a talking to to let him know we knew, then he kept doing it for another week before getting fired.

A guy who, in his first week, was on camera stealing 30 thousand dollars of equipment. He returned the equipment and the employer didn't even press charges.

A guy that would be at work, but do nothing but play with the equipment without ever doing a single thing he was asked. He lasted about 4 months before they finally gave up.

A guy who was walking around the parking lot yelling about how he was going to kill everyone while waving a pistol around.

4

No.1 and no.3 are interesting people. I wish I could do those things.

1

As a comment, in some "elsewhere" places (Spain) they don't need to pay the notice weeks if they fire you in the first 3-6-12 or whatever was the testing period.

You don't need to give them notice either. At least in normal Spanish contracts. However, in Spain you are always elegible for unemployment salary (4 months for every worked year, when you file for it iirc), what you would not get is the severance, in case the dismissal was "fair" (despido procedente). Any Spanish worker that is unemployed and didn't leave their work willingly can file for unemployment salary, which is then given to them as 4 months of salary for every worked year, up to 2 years.

The only case when you might get unemployment salary denied is if you left your job, you were then hired by a company and they fired you after a day. This smells like you had a pact with the second company just so you got the salary, which is obviously fraud.

1

We can blame both. Yes I do blame our shit labor laws, but they're shit because half of our country thinks (or claims to think) that corporations can self-regulate and will naturally operate in the best interests of the population. We do what we can on that front, but we shouldn't let companies get away with shitty behavior just because they aren't being forced to do the right thing. The more evidence of misconduct, the better.

1

Not having to pay a redundancy package? Or just sociopaths in the management team.

4

Holy fucking shit American corpospeak is pure fucking cancer. Just fucking talk normally.

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chitak166reply
lemmy.world

Generally, the WARN Act covers employers with 100 or more employees, not counting those who have worked fewer than six months in the last twelve-month work period.

She mentioned in the call that she started working in like August.

14

It specifies which employers are cover with the WARN act, not employees. It either covers whole company (all employees in company) or no one at company at all.

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heyonireply
lemm.ee

Cloudflare has 100 employees not counting her.

11

Ahh my mistake. I misread that as the employees who have not been there for that long would be exempt from this protection.

6

This is why severance gets offered. It’s a contract that you agree to and henceforth you can’t really fight. And employees would frankly rather take the pay than immediately lose income and then start investing time in a lawsuit against a much better resourced organization, which could take years and may not result in anything. Most companies know how to navigate the laws. Few ordinary people know how to sue over them and win.

2
lemmy.world

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.

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Norareply
lemmy.ml

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

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Corkyskogreply
sh.itjust.works

Really need to create an "analyst union" that title seems like a white collar coverall term to just pay people less.

7

Many of the same issues other unions fight for I assume. Fair treatment and collective bargaining at the base.

2
woobiereply
lemmy.world

Did you watch the video? With her training ramp she effectively had December to sell. I'm not sure about the Cloudflare sales cycle, but I'd guess most deals aren't going to happen in a month.

6

Especially December. Between, say, Nov 15th and Jan 15th, things slow way down in corporate, unless you're in an industry where things are backwards.

5
infosec.pub

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.

85

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.

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guldukatreply
lemmy.world

I expect and demand a puppet show demonstrating my poor performance

29
lemm.ee

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

82

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

42

This. I don't think people here realize that HR doesn't really have a say in this, they aren't the ones deciding on the firing and they aren't the ones who can undo it since they aren't the ones providing the team's budget.

HR's job in these situations is to do the dirty part: handle the announcement to each employee and damage control if necessary.

The girl in the video is saying that her manager was "pleased" with her work and she didn't understand why strangers in the HR department are doing the announcement to her: that's the whole point, it's very likely that it's that "nice" manager who threw you under the bus when he had to make a choice on which people he needs to keep after top management told him to downsize his team but he didn't have the guts to tell you that personally.

23

Get paid to*. This is labour and we're all exploited.

Companies like this often hire external consultants to do the layoffs. They literally have no skin in the game.

7
sh.itjust.works

We fired ~40 sales people out of over 1,500 in our go to market org. That’s a normal quarter. When we’re doing performance management right, we can often tell within 3 months or less of a sales hire, even during the holidays, whether they’re going to be successful or not. Sadly, we don’t hire perfectly. We try to fire perfectly. In this case, clearly we were far from perfect. The video is painful for me to watch. Managers should always be involved. HR should be involved, but it shouldn’t be outsourced to them, No employee should ever actually be surprised they weren’t performing. We don’t always get it right. And sometimes under performing employees don’t actually listen to the feedback they’ve gotten before we let them go. Importantly, just because we fire someone doesn’t mean they’re a bad employee. It doesn’t mean won’t be really, really great somewhere else. Chris Paul was a bad fit for the Suns, but he’s undoubtedly a great basketball player. And, in fact, we think the right thing to do is get people we know are unlikely to succeed off the team as quickly as possible so they can find the right place for them. We definitely weren’t anywhere close to perfect in this case. But any healthy org needs to get the people who aren’t performing off. That wasn’t the mistake here. The mistake was not being more kind and humane as we did. And that’s something @zatlyn and I are focused on improving going forward.

-Matthew Prince
Co-Founder & CEO, Cloudflare

Nitter / Mirror | Twitter

57
tiasreply
discuss.tchncs.de

If he thinks it's painful to watch then he should apologize personally to HER and her coworkers for traumatizing them, and give them a good severance pay. The way he phrases this as if he's just shrugging and saying "we'll do better at some unspecified point in the future, I'm sure" makes him come off as an inhumane piece of garbage with no empathy.

83

This is the same piece of shit ceo trying to force their workers back to office too. Fuck this asshole

57

This asshat is also just beating around the performance bush that doesn't exist, only to avoid calling the firing a layoff. Disgusting.

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Lemminaryreply
lemmy.world

under performing employees don’t actually listen to the feedback they’ve gotten

What feedback?

6

Tbf

  1. we don't know if she's got feedback before getting fired or not

  2. he does address that:

No employee should ever actually be surprised they weren’t performing. We don’t always get it right.

1
Scrubblesreply
poptalk.scrubbles.tech

Shocked they actually admitted a mistake here. What will really matter is if they actually change anything.

16
FuzzChefreply
feddit.de

Did he though? I mean he perfectly sticks to individual shortcomings as the reason and even implies that she ignored feedback.

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kralkreply

implies that she ignored feedback.

I missed that the first time and now I'm angry all over again 😡

4

Dude, he didn't really admit to any mistake.

That wasn’t the mistake here. The mistake was not being more kind and humane as we did.

He's literally saying firing her was not the mistake. He still believes she should've been fired and not laid off. He also believes firing her based on nondescript performance metrics was right. The only thing he believes was wrong was how the firing was carried out. The only thing he's admitting is that the firing wasn't "PR friendly", which is an indirect way of saying the mistake was getting caught.

7

What feedback?? The feedback that said she was doing well from the people familiar with her work? Or the mysterious metrics she was failing to meet but also had no idea about? God, what an out of touch douche nozzle.

Also, if they're not a fit but still a good employee, LAY THEM OFF. But who wants to pay for all that messy extra stuff when you can just grind through the workforce?

3

This isn’t the first time I’ve heard “we need to fire people right away because it is GOOD for them!” from a corporate type, and it’s not getting any less ghoulish sounding with repetition.

3

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.

54

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.

50
lemmy.world

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.

47
Scrubblesreply
poptalk.scrubbles.tech

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.

95
snooggumsreply
kbin.social

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

28
snooggumsreply
kbin.social

Depends on the state and how they were hired. It could be unemployment benefits, penalties for breaking a contract, or to avoid being sued if they mostly fire people in a protected class. For the employee it is most likely severence or unemployment.

Using performance is a catchall way to avoid the possible negative outcomes for the company. All they have to do is use the metrics that result in firing the people they planned on firing anyway!

11
kbin.social

In all 50 states, firing someone with cause without cause to avoid paying them benefits is illegal.

17
lemmy.world

Sorry I'm having a hard time understanding what you wrote. Specifically the 'with cause without cause' part

6

Firing someone by lying and saying there was a performance issue, so the company can avoid the costs associated with layoffs is against the law.

With cause (lie) without cause

13

Firing someone "with cause", but without any real actual reason (cause), is illegal.

6

Lying about firing someone with cause is illegal. If you’re firing someone without cause, but claiming that it’s with cause so they can’t claim unemployment. Because the company’s unemployment insurance rates increase if too many of their former employees claim it. So the company has a vested interest in avoiding layoffs without cause, because it means their UI payments will skyrocket.

So lots of companies will fabricate a reason to fire someone with cause, rather than laying them off without cause. It’s blatantly illegal, but it’s up to the employee to prove. And many former employees won’t bother with the appeals process, because UI in many states is already notoriously difficult to claim to begin with. So the company is able to get away with it. When people complain about white collar crime going unpunished, this the kind of shit they’re referring to; Companies blatantly stealing from people, then not being prosecuted for it.

3
Sekrayrayreply
lemmy.world

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.

45
lemmy.world

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.

29
brognakreply
lemm.ee

At least in Massachusetts this is entirely incorrect. Have had friends fired for cause, zero issues collecting unemployment.

And zero chance anyone would EVER say anything about job performance of a fired employee. You will get date of hire, and date of separation anything else opens them up for a lawsuit.

6

For what it’s worth, in most cases, “with cause” is misunderstood. “Fired with cause” on UI’s end typically means the employee was fired for something egregious and/or illegal. Stealing company property, committing fraud using company resources, gross negligence leading to someone getting injured, etc… Simple underperformance isn’t typically enough to exclude you from claiming UI.

Even though people will colloquially say that being let go for underperformance is “with cause”. It’s typically not correct, and won’t hold water if the former employee decides to appeal the initial UI denial. But companies have a vested interest in supporting that colloquialism, because if people believe they don’t deserve UI then they won’t try to claim it, (or won’t try to appeal it when their initial claim is denied,) which keeps companies’ UI payments low.

6

Mass has a lot of employee protections that other states dont but this is also really company dependant. Some big companies also dont fight unemployment claims, ever. I was HR at both a large and small company. The small company fought everything the large company had a policy of never fighting an HR claim no matter how egregious the firing cause. They felt it wasn't Wirth the cost of defending a potential suit. So this is heavily dependent on state and company. Sometimes also on the HR, I always tried to find a way not to contest but other HRs may not have put that much work into pushing back if they were told to contest it.

Also references are often just dates of hire and title in most companies. But that's totally separate from unemployment reaching out to HR Unemployment has a series of official questions you have to answer and one of them is "are you contesting this claim". You're friends companies may just be saying "no".

5

Cloudflare wanted to pretend their layoffs were performance related firings. Depending on your employment contract, a person who loses their job as part of a layoff may be owed severance, bonus payments, or additional benefits and services. Someone who is fired for poor performance is not owed those things.

18

She was responding for the audience that will be watching the video that wants to see how the company responds when asked directly about their bullshit.

11
lemmy.world

Graphs. Executives love graphs. Numbers also mean different things to them, and changes better invoke noticeable change, preferably monetarily and with some sort of proof. This is for those quarterly meetings. Larger layoffs are often done for investors. It's a clock's pendulum. Pull back payroll, show the numbers and talk about skimming the fat or whatever, yell "look at us!", profit. Hire a bunch of people, talk about a big product/project, yell "look at us!", profit.

It's the capitalist endgame. You, I, little Johnny, and the kitchen sink if it could talk and move, are all numbers on an excel sheet. Plenty of exceptions exist, this remains the rule, however.

29

Yup, and this is fundamentally down to the whole system being low-information. Workers, management, upper management and shareholders are all playing it close to the chest because they know they are pitted against one another. So much of corporate life is smoke & mirrors. It's incredibly wasteful of information, of resources, and of the dignity of the people within it.

EDIT: I didn't connect the dots between low-information and graphs: graphs are an attempt to make the unfathomable complexity of many humans working together legible to the managers & the owner class, when they know they can't trust those workers' word for anything. So people make graphs to try to filter information they don't care about - how is Marv from accounting feeling after his back surgery - from information they do care about like KPIs. It destroys most of the information and hence is easily gamed by everyone up & down the chain, which leads to this bizarre yo-yoing that makes the workers' lives and the company worse, but satisfies the graphs.

And it's all because the owning class wants to exploit us, so they have to dominate us. There's no getting around it, as long as this extractive system exists this is how it will inevitably be. No culture change is going to fix things. Only the workers being the owners will fix it.

11
slaacaareply
lemmy.world

Because it improves short term profits, so the stock goes up, so both shareholders and execs are happy with their big payouts. The rest is just collateral, they don’t care.

21

Last I checked the average tenure of a CEO was less than 2 years.

As long as the problems only properly start getting felt a couple of years later, all such "save a bit now, pay a lot later" strategies are ideal for CEOs as they optimize their bonuses.

As for other people, well, these types are usually far into the sociopath side of the spectrum so they don't feel the pain of others, don't worry about the harm for others, and have no shame whatsoever.

2
guldukatreply
lemmy.world

Because their bottom line is improved in the short term by firing people

19

Youre right. Because their bottom line is improved in the short term so that they can say "Look at how much revenue we made last year!"

"And now look at how many people employed to gain that revenue!"

"No, don't look over the whole year! Just look at right now!"

9

Yeah in the kind of was that a shitty gambler plays when the "table (market) is 'hot'" they feel overconfident and go all in, ignoring that the pieces they're playing with are people's lives

3
qarbonereply
lemmy.world

Because it's easier that way. Rather than protracted recruiting processes that really dig deep into the current needs of the company after detailed evaluation of current projects and current manpower, just hire anyone who looks halfway decent and fire the ones that don't seem worth it whenever is convenient.

8

What about the way we've seen markets operate makes you believe they care about the long-term? Long-term is someone else's problem.

2

Because the guy who makes the big risky splashy changes to his department gets the promotion. The one who makes small continous improvements without fucking things up along the way flies under the radar.

4
lemmy.world

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.

43
Scrubblesreply
poptalk.scrubbles.tech

That's a good lesson to know. I've had great bosses who definitely care about me. But - they aren't the ones who have laid me off. They were directed to by their boss' boss. I remember my boss literally crying as she let me go, she didn't want to, but the company forced her to.

HR, the company, we're all disposable. But, I still try to look for a good manager

18
BassaFortereply
lemmy.world

I do think my manager at the time was a good manager and I'm sure he cared to some degree. He was usually pretty stone cold emotionally but I expected that to be different on that day I guess.

And yeah I understand that the company forced him to do it, I don't blame him at all.

2

I've had to let people go. I was a wreck inside, but was stone cold on the outside because who the fuck am I to be getting emotional when it isn't my livlihood being taken away?

2

I was laid off almost a year ago. I don’t even know the reason why.

One of my teammates got laid off because a completely different business sector lost a major, major contract. Since the math didn't add up, everyone suffered. It doesn't fucking matter. We're all just cogs in the CEO's machine. Fuck them.

11
kbin.social

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.

41

They didn't actually have performance indicators, nor any poor performance data. When she asked for their evidence, they said they could get it later. In my head that translates to "We don't actually have the data."

"We can talk about that later."

"We can't go into specifics at the moment."

"This isn't the form, or the situation where we can go into detail."

I love her response:

"But then when? If it's not right when I'm getting fired then it's certainly not going to be after when I'm no longer part of the company."

19

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

41

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

40

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."

37

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.

34

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.

31
sh.itjust.works

She did really good! Almost drove it home, she was so close... As a former manager in HR, here are my two cents. Note that I'm from canada, might not apply as I have it in mind in the US. If they're trying to frame a layoff as a firing for cause and poor performance, her first way of handling it is excellent. Ask pointed specific questions on what about your performance was lacking and more importantly can you demonstrate to me that I've been communicated clear quantifiable and Timely objectives that I've been communicated means and ways to be coached and trained to meet those objectives and that I've been communicated milestones of me not meeting objectives, with proper corrective measures and coaching to then change course before a firing for poor performance.

If you can't communicate any of these to me, the objectives, my performance against his objectives, the milestones, and the coaching I received to meet objectives when I did not, then this is not a poor performance related firing. If you're missing any of these information then I am not yet terminated and I am at your employment until a subsequent meeting where you can come back with that information. On the other hand if what you meant to say is that this is a layoff because you have hired too many people, and that this letting Go has nothing to do with my performance, okay no problem, let's talk, but in this case it will be with X months of severance and a glowing recommendation letter.

Lastly I want to make you aware that I've recorded this conversation, in which it's now clearly documented that you have no clear tangible indication of any notion of documented poor performance about me, and thus I am still at the employed of my employer until you either provide those, or provide me with coaching that I then fail to put into practice to meet objectives, or until you come back with the severance package for a layoff that has nothing to do with my performance.

Something along those lines...

31

It's insane the hoops you guys have to jump through to not get fucked over in America/Canada. It really makes the social achievements we have in my country stand out that much more.

21
Scrubblesreply
poptalk.scrubbles.tech

Yeah sure, if she has no emotions I'd say that'd be a great way to handle it.

Unfortunately she's trying to keep herself composed while going through an extremely traumatic event in her life. A layoff is something that may seem routine for you - but for me I still process through my layoffs years later. She's holding back tears. I held back tears. I'd say she did remarkably well while having her life plans crumble around her.

I put 100% of the blame on HR and the company - even if it's completely her fault for getting fired I wouldn't put any blame on her for not using the perfect wording.

17
Ulvainreply
sh.itjust.works

Please allow me to offer a nuance on the topic of HR. I see a lot of hate about HR on this thread and quite a bit is founded... But on the other hand, two things:

  1. the HR folks themselves are not to blame for the fact that the company overhired, are cutting people, or even to some extent some shitty strategies like pretending people are fire for cause instead of laid off. It's decided by executives ans the CEO, and HR operationalizes. I'll fully grant though that they sometimes (often) operationalize shittily.

  2. and more importantly, HR is shitty in a shitty company, and pretty decent in a (quite rare) decent company. Fundamentally HR's job is to help manage humans as a resource, and among other tasks it means to protect the company against human-related risks. There are different fundamental beliefs and philosophies companies can have around how to avoid that risk - and their HR strategy is set accordingly.

Some decent (rare) employers believe that to avoid risks like being sued or unionizing, the best strategy is to provide employees with a healthy work environment, competitive pay and to remove toxic managers and executives quickly. In these companies HR plays a very strong policing role ensuring that managers don't cause human related risk by abusing workers. I know it sounds idealistic and I'll 100% grant that it applies unfortunately to a very small sample of employers, but it's true.

Of course way more common are companies with the philosophy that to avoid these risks you need to squash people, back your managers at all cost, never admit a fault, etc - and that's the shitty strategy operationalized by shitty a HR department.

Lastly the governmental labour laws framework of a country plays a big role too - in some countries where those laws are super weak like the US, particularly if your employer is your only way to access half decent healthcare, you can't afford to change employer - and the shitty strategy becomes a much lower cost than the decent one (found a bit more often in Canada, way more in Europe and even more in Scandinavian countries)

Sorry for the walltext rambling

7
lemmy.world

Nah. They are the blame. If your work requires you to do shitty things go find other work. If that is too difficult of a concept then you have to wonder why they are doing it to other people. Getting a new.job is super easy right?

-3
Ulvainreply
sh.itjust.works

I get your point, but just playing Devil's advocate here: don't work in real estate because it's fraud and landlords are thieves, don't work for McDonald's because your work make people fat and unhealthy, don't work retail or manufacturing because your work encourages capitalism and all its evils...? I mean.. don't like 90% of all jobs require you to do shitty things?

Most people in HR went in the field with pretty decent intentions. They have debts and families to feed and the job they landed is sometimes for a shitty employer.

If you want to hate someone, don't hate the HR person who's dealing with their own shitty problems, blame the uber rich, that maintain everyone else in a constant state of infighting while they lobby or buy lawmakers to ensure the poor get poorer so they get richer. There the ones maintaining a hyper capitalistic society and making sure executives are ordering the cuts (often ending with cutting the HR folks after they finish the layoffs)

2
lemmy.world

I might see that point of view if they didn't act like they drank the Kool aid.

In any case there is plenty of moral work. Mine is.

3
welleereply
lemmy.world

Agreed lol. People are backing down and here, and don't. YOU are responsible for being a moral person, you aren't off the hook just because "my boss told me to!". I've worked in an industry where my boss wanted me to cut safety corners and falsify data. I never did. I knew the repercussions that could happen.

I don't work for renting companies because of this reason! I've thought about applying, I have the experience and skills. But I know how they operate. I lived in a building where every good landlord I had as a renter was fired by the property owners for trying to operate efficiently and legally. One woman even knew it was coming, and helped everyone get lawyers for the illegal stuff the property owners were doing.

Louder for those lying to themselves. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR BEING A MORAL PERSON. You don't get to back out just because your boss told you to do something.

3

Military contractors pay more because they have problems finding people willing to work for them. Imagine a better world where everyone decided under orders wasn't an excuse. Cops would report bad cops, juries would never convict on drug or prostitute charges, the militaries of the world would be reduced to crafting swords, medical and student loan debt system would collapse.

Obedience to authority, best book I have ever read in my life. A shrink analysis the tendency of humans to be awfult.o each other as long as an authority figure says it is required.

2

If you're asked to fire people in this way then you should stand up for yourself and your coworkers and say "sorry, but I'm not going to treat people in this way and contribute to traumatizing them. We need to be more transparent and give them clear reasons why they are being fired."

If you just do whatever you're told with no concern for the consequences for others then you are supporting the company's actions and you are a shitty human being.

1
Tikiporchreply
lemmy.world

Pretty good, although really difficult to vocalize under stress. I'd say if you're given a chance to provide a written statement, there's a good opportunity to be precise like this.

Also, as an aside, many states have laws about recording conversations. Some require consent of all parties, some two, some one (yourself). And almost all require consent before the action. I feel like if you ask, they will say no, and you'll get an overnight letter letting you know about your termination.

13

While they can totally do that in some states (like where I live in California) that letter/email/alternate contact doesn't absolve them from having to prove they did their due diligence in warning you and trying to fix your performance

You are fully within your rights to demand that proof from them and to not let up, though talking to a lawyer immediately is probably the wisest move. And by immediately I mean when they say "no" to the recording

5

Generally virtual meetings in companies like these are being recorded anyway, so there was likely a prompt before joining that everyone got.

1
Ulvainreply
sh.itjust.works

100% on the recording, fair pt.

On the letter: that'd be good - go ahead and give me written evidence...

1

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

27

The way she handled this, she is gonna get hired by another company in an instant.

25

My one question going in was whether this was a Sales role. It’s hard to overstate how volatile a career in sales can be. You are your numbers and your income can swing around wildly. Maybe you can control your own performance but the viability of the products is out of your control and the targets set for you to be evaluated against are outside your control too. Companies use Sales to grow, not to subsist, so the second budgets are tight and a company shifts into survival mode, you’re the first to go. Culture is also volatile and high pressure, competitive, etc. I know a sales guy who closed a multi hundred thousand dollar enterprise software deal and was missing just one signature for weeks and could not reach the guy. He travelled internationally and camped out in the building lobby for multiple days until he saw him and ran up and got him to sign.

It’s hard. You can do really well but it’s hard. She’s pretty vulnerable not having actually closed anything, ever, yet. No one actually cares at the end of the quarter if you “have great meetings.”

20
lemmy.world

This gave me PTSD to my time working in tech in San Francisco. To me, some of the larger problems with the tech world that don't get highlighted so often is how much people are completely making up what they do. I had zero experience in my industry, none. I sweet talked my way into my role and had a friend at the company put in a good word for me. A couple kudos later and I find myself managing, then running my own department. So many of the employees in many of the more ambiguous non-learned-skillset required jobs like sales, customer service, HR just found there ways into a niche and learn along the way. Unlike say a software engineer who went to school to learn how to code, I did not go to school to learn how to get screamed at on the phone and troubleshoot their tech issues. Brittany here probably didn't go to school to learn how to close deals. The people that designed her programs probably didn't set her up for success enough, and clearly, the mismanaging of new hires vs the bottom line was their fault, not hers. That said, to any young folks getting into the game, I'd say be wary of doing what she did here by recording this interaction and posting it. I know the gratification probably feels right and just in the moment, but she could have made her life a lot worse than a lost job with potential lawsuits. As mentioned above, a job is just a job and unfortunately we are all just a number to the company. You can and will get another job. Always cover your ass though.

19
nomousreply
lemmy.world

Her recording it was maybe a little unprofessional but they should've just said "hey we're getting rid of a bunch of people and your number came up, sorry." but I guess then they'd have to pay out. It's pretty shitty to blame the employees performance, most people would just roll over when told they weren't measuring up.

But I can see someone finding this video later and not wanting to hire her because of it.

-4
sh.itjust.works

Record everything. Business isn’t professional by any means. Why do you think some backward states make recording illegal…?

5

Edit: Disregard below, she lives in SC. Single party consent.


Since CloudFlare is SF based, I'm assuming she lives in California, which has two-party consent for digital communications, which makes recording that call illegal. By sharing this online, I believe she could face the following:

Criminal Penalties: Under the California Penal Code 632, illegal recording of confidential communications is a "wobbler" offense, meaning it can be charged as either a misdemeanor or a felony, based on the specifics of the case and the discretion of the prosecutor. If charged as a misdemeanor, the maximum penalties include imprisonment in the county jail for up to one year or a fine of up to $2,500. If charged as a felony, it's punishable by 2–3 years in prison and a fine of up to $2,500. For repeat offenders, the fine can increase to $10,000.

Civil Liabilities: In addition to criminal penalties, the violator may also face civil liabilities. The California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) grants a private right of action to any victim of a violation, with steep damages. Damages under the CIPA can be substantial, with treble damages available and a minimum damage award of $5,000 per violation. This means that the person or persons whose conversation was recorded without consent can sue for damages.

Public Posting Aggravation: Posting the recording online could potentially aggravate the situation. This action could lead to additional charges related to the unauthorized distribution of the recorded content, especially if it involves sensitive or private information.

😬

5

A job is just a job

... except its also your livelihood and health insurance, whahaha. Man, you sound like you adopted management perfectly, with the same disregard for your fellow human. Why don't you give your job to the next passerby and give them the same chances you had back in the day? It's just a job man.

3

Only watched her initial verbal volley and fuck that is some strength. I heard the emotion right under the surface but it was emphatically not in her voice, I'd have been shitting myself if I were on the other end of those questions

18
lemmy.world

Great video, she was right to challenge them.

A lot of people in the comments seems to be trashing HR, but they are just the messengers / bad cops, they carry out the will of the executives, who just give their goons the orders to shoot you, and walk away. If you want to look for someone to blame, look near the top.

15
xenoclastreply
lemmy.world

So you're saying they're just following orders?

That would be why people refer to them, absolutely correctly I might add, as class traitors. They work for the enemy.

12

I realize Nazis are an extreme comparison, but principally the problem is the same as with the Germans in the concentration camps: they do what they’re told without concern for morality or their own integrity.

2

I have an interview scheduled with CloudFlare for later this week. Guess what topic is going to come up.

Looks like I’ll miss this bullet. I’m still pretty happy in my current role so I’ll only jump for something spectacular.

14
Dasnapreply
lemmy.world

He's done plenty for Hyrule so I'd say give him a break.

48
fluxionreply
lemmy.world

His recent performance has declined unfortunately so we have to let him go

17

But are those performance indicators real or something that's being used as an excuse?

4
Scrubblesreply
poptalk.scrubbles.tech

Try it again, I had to change something on the video site and I think it reconfigured it, but I see views coming through now

7
midwest.social

Still doesn't work for me, I get this message:

Content unavailable Reach out to the creator to obtain the full URL for access.

6

I got what when I clicked on the expand within the window (kbin) but clicking the title as the link worked.

Not sure what the comparable parts are for Lemmy, but if there are two options you might want to see if the other one works.

1
TWeaKreply
lemm.ee

Doesn't work for me in Mulch or Mull, basically Firefox with ublock origin. Media type not supported. There's nothing in ublock that looks like a video or something I'd want to switch on, things that are blocked are standard things I'd want blocked.

Dodgy website be dodgy. Other videos on that site work, but in general it's janky.

-2

Not working for me either.

Feels like we're back in the Real Player days, trying 8 different combinations of browsers and operating systems to slowly load some video you end up not being interested in anyway.

3
snooggumsreply
kbin.social

The comment link works for me in Firefox with uBlock Origin.

For me it behaves like imgur links that don't work as the expand on the page but do if they open a new tab to the link.

3
TWeaKreply

Imgur links don't work as expanding because they're using a link to a page and not the actual image. You have to click "Get share links" after you upload and then use the url in the BB code one to get the actual image link.

This is a link to a video website, so it would likely never be processed as an expanding video in lemmy, kbin or whatever. This video works for me now on PC, however on Mull and Mulch - which are Android forks of Firefox specifically set for privacy - it did not. Other videos did work, but this one didn't. My guess is the video is in a weird file format.

The website also has plenty of dodgy shit - like facebook and gstatic.com. What's the point of using an alternative to YouTube if you're still connecting to Google??

(Incidentally, these images were all uploaded to imgur. You just have to pick the right links.)

TL;DR this is a janky and dodgy website.

4
Rimureply
piefed.social

Why did you choose to create your channel on Odysee?

1

Mostly to upload these videos tbh, it wasn't YouTube and peertube didn't show any instances accepting new users. Could host myself but I already host lemmy and that's enough for me

2
Got_Bentreply
lemmy.world

I couldn't get it to work either. What did you say in it?

Edit: got it to work on the duck duck go browser

1

This really fucked up thing this layoff streak is to send a message to investors that they are cutting back, mass laying off sales people is not a good sign for your business model.

12

The tap must have dried up bad enough that every damn firm and their dog has to quickly trim away those "excess fat".

10
lemmy.one

Dang that sucks, I always wanted to work there and recently applied eagerly because I haven't seen much controversy from them.

6

Could she threaten to sue for slander. They are telling her that her performance was sub par. She can prove it wasn't. I would cut them off after those comments are made and tell them a lawyer will contact them.

-3
lemm.ee

Video won't load for me, website seems dodgy so I'm not going to bend over backwards to make it work.

-4
KinNectarreply
kbin.run

Odysee is one of the biggest distributed video hosting platforms, equivalent to PeerTube. It's not sketch, but the embed isn't working for some reason. That is on the instance admin.

5
TWeaKreply
lemm.ee

I wouldn't expect a website like this to be embedded, not from a url to the page.

The website absolutely is sketchy, there's plenty of dodgy connections eg Facebook and Google. Why use an alternative to YouTube when you're' still connecting to Google??

7
KinNectarreply
kbin.run

Some people care more about driving adoption than being a federation absolutist my dude.

If you haven't watched a YouTube video in the last year I'll give you $20.

0
TWeaKreply

Again, I ask, what's the point of a YouTube alternative if you're still connecting to Google?

I'm all for driving adoption of alternatives, and I'm not a federation absolutist. My issue here is purely that this site has a lot of scummy connections that it should not have. Why does it include Facebook cookies??

1

It sucks to get fired but it was 4 months not 4 years. You will be able to bounce back and pivot

-8
kbin.social

Ok, I understand the point of recording this but...she is very young, and likely this is her first time being laid off. I know, it's shocking. Except for me, who had to console the person that came to get me to be laid off who was much more upset than I was, but I digress.

Here's the thing. You're being laid off. There is nothing you can say or do to change that. The people doing the firing were likely brought in specifically for that job, and they know nothing more than what management has told them. Your manager had absolutely no say in the matter, this decision was made 3 levels higher than them. Your manager likely didn't even know until about an hour before you are let go. I know you're upset, I know you're frustrated, I know you're likely not thinking straight. But it's happening, whether you like it or not. You can ask why you're being let go, but they can't tell you what they don't know. And even worse, they've had this exact same conversation at least 50 times that day. The first instinct is to make it awkward and difficult for them, but this is their job and they are use to it.

Confirm your information. Make sure you can follow up on next steps and get your employment insurance claim started immediately. If you can, make sure you can still contact your actual manager for a reference afterwards. Usually you can find out more about what really happened at the same time. Just get as much information as you can about what they will provide you for the aftermath. Then once you get off the call....scream. Cry. Jump up and down with joy, if that's how you feel. Just let it out. You're going to be feeling a lot of emotion, so just let it out. Go home, explain what happened to your family of you have one. Let them scream and cry if they have to. And then try to sleep.

The next morning will feel weird not having to get up to go to work. Enjoy it. Take the first week to yourself. Get your employment insurance claim going and all the paperwork for that. But take time to decompress so you can be ready for the next move. Work on some of those home projects you've been putting off because you were too busy with your job. Take time to spend with family. Just don't worry about finding a job yet. The emotions from the last job will still be raw, so you don't want to bring that to an interview. Let yourself adjust to the new routine before you dive headfirst into a job search. When you're ready to start your job search, you don't want those emotions clouding your judgement and avoiding jobs that you think are too close to your old job. A little distance will help to put things into perspective.

And remember, it's not the end of the world. You'll find another job. You just need to be open to the possibilities. But you can't do that of you're still pissed off to the eyeballs. Take the time to let it go and truly move on.

-28
kbin.social

All of your advice is sound enough, but the point of this video was more to demonstrate that Cloudflare (and absolutely other companies) are specifically avoiding "layoff" language in favor of firings based on "performance" to avoid paying these people even the paltry amount in unemployment they would receive. It's not just that they're being laid off.

49
Boneheadreply
kbin.social

The excuse might be "performance", but they are being fired without cause officially. They can still apply for employment insurance. This is just standard procedure. Being fired with cause opens them up to lawsuits, so most companies avoid that whenever possible. Especially when they are firing multiple people like this.

-13
lemm.ee

Being fired without cause means an employee is being let go, but not because of any serious workplace misconduct. Conversely, being fired with cause means the employee committed a serious breach of conduct in their workplace, which led to their termination.

Citing performance is citing cause. You’re wrong and others are right in that citing performance is an attempt to demonstrate cause to avoid severance and/or unemployment. A “layoff” is without cause and entitles them to those benefits.

29
Boneheadreply
kbin.social

Again, it doesn't matter what they tell you. It only matters what they report to the government. If it's with cause and you have proof they are lying, you can sue for wrongful dismissal. But they won't do that. They will report it as without cause, because that's just easier. They don't owe her severance because she was only there for 4 months, but she will qualify for at least some employment insurance.

-10
lemm.ee

Again, it doesn't matter what they tell you.

Wrong again. It very much matters what they tell you because by law they’re not required to tell you anything. They can terminate employment for no reason. Giving a reason is citing cause.

The employer might not fight an unemployment claim but if, for example, they cited performance in the termination meeting and then the employee finds out the employer had made age discriminatory comments, kind of like you did, about them, there’s grounds for wrongful termination.

You seem intent on ignoring the fact that the conversation during a termination from the employee perspective is crucial because companies can, and do, lie to protect themselves.

There’s also special conditions and requirements that go along with a reduction in force (layoffs due to overstaffing) that companies try to sidestep by listing a different reason for the termination.

20
Boneheadreply
kbin.social

Pointing out the truth is not "age discrimination". It's obvious that she is very upset in the video, and that this is probably the first time she's been in this situation. It's also obvious that the manager and HR person have gone through this conversation many times already. There is nothing that they could say that would satisfy her. The HR person literally says that. They are giving her the response they were told to give her. Yes, its bullshit, but it doesn't matter until it's written down. This video isn't the "gotcha" that she thinks it is. Without the video, it's her word against written documentation. And of course the company is going to protect themselves, that's why they won't report it as with cause. All this video did was show her inexperience. Unfortunately we'll never see the update where she tells us what they reported on the written documents.

-4

Hmm, but the HR people said they didn't have any documentation, and if she hasn't had a bad performance review prior to this meeting then there isn't a paper trail showing poor performance.

If they generate some documentation after this meeting that shows poor performance, wouldn't that kind of be a smoking gun for a fraud case? Because it seems pretty clear that the intent is to defraud her of unemployment benefits by claiming that she was fired with cause.

7

The point is, laying all these people off with performance as reason protects Cloudflare in not having to pay extra (which would be legally needed if the employee was not at fault).

This is probably not any kind of proof she can use, but it does make people aware of how Cloudflare operates.

It's understandable companies have to fire people and as an employee you'd probably do best to accept the harsh reality of a business. But if they really communicate fake causes with lay-offs (not only hurting the employee mentally, but also financially bypassing rightful compensation by law), this should be known by the public.

To be fair though, we cannot confirm her statements to be true either. But I think it's an interesting share nonetheless.

5
Boneheadreply
kbin.social

Your opinion isn't binding. Please show me the documented proof that she was fired with cause. This video is nothing but rage bait.

-2

This is plain wrong dude, it's with cause, it's performance. They'll try to get her to sign a paper saying so, she can refuse, but either way they "have a paper trail" and even you refusing can be made to sound like "see they were insubordinate".

She can go get unemployment, the gov will check, and they will show their paper trail showing she doesn't qualify.

Stop trying to say it won't make a difference. It will make a huge difference.

2

Until we see that paperwork, it's all speculation. Getting upset about it will change nothing.

-2

I don't think you understand the problem. The issue is that some of these people might actually believe they did something wrong, or didn't measure up. That is the problem. They should just be honest.

There's no law against laying people off because you hired too many people and need to downsize. They are using performance as a reason because they think (and in many cases, they'll be right) it will subdue the person being laid off from a position of anger or resent, to a position where they're upset with themselves for not measuring up.

It's a really bad way to do this, for the person being laid off.

So, yes. Asking about the fictional performance metrics to at least make them feel a little uncomfortable too is completely fine in my opinion.

12