I am fairly sure that I am being laid off with other Sr. Engineers tomorrow and need some ideas. Basically, I saw a calendar mistake by HR, so oops!
Meh. It’s gonna suck for a bit, but whatevers. Life is more important than a shit job. :)
Option 1: Be professional and polite.
Option 2: Scream Leeroy Jenkins and run through the door in the middle of it.
1/2 depends on how probable it is for you to need them in the future.
On my last day of a job I brought in chocolate for the office and did artwork on the whiteboard. Kind of just had banter and didn’t do too much work that day because… Why would I.
Always skip the exit interview if you can. It doesn’t help you or your former coworkers. It’s just an HR box-checking exercise.
Exit interviews aren’t box checking exercises, they exist to give the company a heads up if the employee seems like they’re disgruntled and might try to sue. Always skip them, it only benefits the company that laid you off, nobody else.
Fair enough, but I think it really just depends on how you look at it. From my POV it’s just a box-checking exercise in the vast majority of cases, and a waste of your time (if you’re the one quitting). But you’re right, employers are super paranoid about this kind of thing (even though they have most of the power). If it is one of those disgruntled-gonna-sue people then you are right, it’s something they need to try to get out in front of.
Exit inerviews can be valuable and beneficial if the exit is on good terms all around.
I left my last job for a better-paying position elsewhere, but I still loved my old job and coworkers. It’s still the best job I ever had.
I couldn’t pass up a 50% raise and they couldn’t match it. No hard feelings or bruised egos. It’s just how things work out.
Having an honest conversation with HR about what worked and didn’t from an employee perspective with zero stakes for either of us was productive and informative.
thank you. Im all for sticking it to employers, but sharing feedback with a place you left on good terms from seems like a great way to maintain professional relationships. Also helps your old coworkers out.
Bad Jobs and Bad Employers Excluded obvi
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Does it help your co workers?
If you got fired, no, probably not.
But if you quit then you can leave them a few clues as to why you’re leaving and how they might avoid losing more staff. That can help the people you left behind.
But if you quit then you can leave them a few clues as to why you’re leaving and how they might avoid losing more staff.
The reason I’m quitting is because they didn’t pick up the clues that I was looking to leave, and I don’t want to help them avoid losing more staff because of it. The people I left behind should take the hint if they were smart.
Just because I might be leaving doesn’t mean I want it keeping being a sucky workplace. Ideally I’d move on to something better for me, and people left behind might get an improvement as well.
Well sure, because they don’t do exit interviews for people who got fired.
I know it can feel good to speak your mind, and in an ideal world it would make some impact. It should make some impact. They should listen to people who leave. But they don’t. Because it’s not the purpose of the exercise. They don’t really care about your feedback. They care about the optics only. Remember HR is there to protect the company, not advocate for workers.
By all means if you want to waste your time go ahead and do an exit interview. There’s not much risk or harm in doing one (unless you make a complete ass out of yourself). But it’s really just there to prop up the thin veneer that HR and the corporate lawyers want businesses to hide behind.
Some companies in my experience do do exit interviews for people who are fired. This makes more sense when you realize exit interviews are mostly to give the company a heads up if they think you might try to sue them.
That makes sense. Never heard of it, but I believe you.
At I place I worked they had a few useful people leave in a short time span. All left amicably. They took feedback from the exit interviews on board, and now they are redoing a bunch of the procedures to try and improve the way the workplace functions.
Keeping more people from quitting is helping the company.
OK, that’s good to hear. I think the situation sounds a little bit unique, but not all companies are incapable of learning.
I was very happy to do the exit interview at one particular job. I wanted to make it clear to HR that I wasn’t leaving because of the manager or the work or my co-workers but because they paid about 2/3 of the market rate in our area.
This was important to me because my manager and co-workers were great and it had gotten around to me that HR was eyeing our manager over having had a few people quit over the last year or two, when it was very clearly all about pay and nothing to do with him.
You did your manager a solid, because of the meme people quit managers not jobs.
Don’t go? I mean, you’re being fired, what’s the worst that can happen so just don’t go. Go for a walk in the woods or mountains while the company is paying you…
The worst that can happen is that your severance package is dependent on attending the exit interview.
Is that legally allowed. Reminds me of that NFL video of get saying “I’m only here so I get fined” https://youtu.be/rmABbHSOTqQ?si=7GseAxob1CPn2d5P
There is no requirement to provide severance at all in the US.
Unless it’s in the contract in which case it depends on the contract
And how many people have actual contracts? And no, your offer letter is not a contract.
Pretty sure all of my jobs that I specifically remember the paperwork for involved contacts. Incredibly one-sided contacts that I had no control over, but
Bit of you have severence in your contract can they restrict it to going to exit interview?
Advice I have heard is decline an exit interview, because those are for the company’s benefit and not yours.
Or say it’s about money to give your coworkers a hand.
If you’re being laid off I don’t know if that works.
It is my understanding that they’re going to try to get you to say something on the record or worse sign something they can deny your legal rights over.
Sign something, yes. The severance package. Don’t sign it, you don’t get the money.
Just sign it and do it anyway. Teledyne for example wouldn’t pay me a package unless I agreed to never bash them on social media. Never for example call them a crooked tax dodge or worthless parasites that liquidate smaller firms. Or so incompetent I am almost convinced they might be a front of some foreign government to weaken the technology of the US as a whole.
Ah… I did miss the part about the scenario being a layoff. I agree - Not that useful in that case.
It is my understanding that they’re going to try to get you to say something on the record or worse sign something they can deny your legal rights over.
It depends on where you live. Where I live, if they get you to sign it on the spot it’s very likely unenforceable as you need time to have legal documents reviewed so you aren’t just blindly signing your rights away.
I know this isn’t the “fun” answer, but I wouldn’t. I’m a manager, and I’ve been on the other side of that situation too many times. I’ve never met a manager who wants to do it - we’d all rather have enough work for everyone. It sucks but far the most for the person being laid off, but it’s a shitty time for everyone.
Plus I’ve also hired back good employees when work picked back up down the road, so there’s the bridge burning aspect to consider.
It might be just a little bit more shitty to be laid off and have finances jeopardized than to fire someone. I don’t know the market you’re in but I’d never stoop so low to come back to a place that laid me off earlier, I’d really have to be desperate.
I also don’t accept counter offers after I turn in my resignation.
Once you said you’re going to leave, even if they counter to keep you, they’re never going to trust you. And they might cut you.
However, I would still entertain a counter offer, as long as a kill fee was included in that. Counter higher salary, and if you choose to end the engagement within 3 to 5 years, you pay me this kill fee.
That way they’re committing to retaining you, and not just keeping you long enough to find a replacement
The last time I got laid off, that morning I had sent a PTO request to my boss for a family trip the following month.
I got called into said boss’ office for the afternoon meeting letting me know I was being laid off, which I had not been expecting at all. I was given the paperwork to sign, etc. and mostly silently acknowledged everything that was going on. When the boss finally asked if I had any further questions at the end of the meeting, I deadpanned “so, you’ve approved my request to not come in on _____ days next month?”
Hire an emotional support clown. A man in new Zealand hired one because he thinks he was about to get fired.
https://nypost.com/2019/09/13/man-being-fired-brings-emotional-support-clown-to-meeting/
I’m impressed that so many people know ahead of time they are getting laid off. When I was laid off, and my friends were laid off, it was either a meeting with my manager and HR sneaking in at the last second, or a meeting with the CEO and HR, etc. Blindsighted, credentials inactive right away, can’t say goodbye to your coworkers.
Management is trying to make it a total surprise.
But for many people they can feel it coming. Projects are slowing down, money’s harder to find, initiatives are canceled, executives are moved around, the calendar is clear in to the future, no projects are being added to the ticketing system. There’s lots of little indicators to tell you what people are planning
After all these little signs that add up, giving you a bit of a red flag, then suddenly there is a meeting thrown on your calendar the next morning at 8:00 a.m. after you left for work the previous day. You put two and two together and you’ve got a strong confidence something’s going to happen
Mine was completely out of the blue, but I also wasn’t surprised as it was happening. I finished a project I wrote myself to replace an old system their other developers didn’t want to work on. They rewarded me by keeping me on for a couple months of post-launch support and then rewarded me by laying me off as a thanks, providing the bare minimum required payments as required by law and tried to get me to sign my rights away, and they refused. They likely replaced me with someone cheaper, which is impressive considering I was already underpaid for my level. I ended up getting a job paying 30% higher (which is actually what happened with that job prior too lol, there is a bit of a pattern tbh that started from my first dev job making barely above min wage), but I honestly think I was still a little bit surprised when I proved I knew the old and new tech. They said they would provide a reference but when I asked my manager for a letter of recommendation, I never heard back from him. What a dickhead lmao
Realistically, that manager replaced me and some other developers with his friends, it was a cheap company rampant with nepotism especially on certain teams, but it was still a company with hundreds of employees so it was a bit surprising to see that.
Sometimes you can tell. When Teledyne bought where I worked they would lay off some people the last work day of each business quarter.
Honestly, I’ve given every exit interview honestly. Don’t be bitter but tell them the truth if you’re a relatively normal person.
I’ve never really been laid off but when you leave companies, be honest and figure out who can give you a reference. It’s not always the HR person or your boss. Having hired people, at the reference call moment, you’re thinking, “This person seems right. Let’s make sure they’re not a sex pervert.” or whatever.
I would steal the printer and go out to a field and stomp it to death.
PC LOAD LETTER my ass…
- Finish my ticket.
- Submit the PR.
- Log out.
- Mail back the laptop.
- Block and delete contacts.
No, pick up a bunch of issues and half complete them. Lol.
Calm down, satan
You’re either burning or getting paid out on your PTO, right? Around my parts it’s common to burn 2 weeks of PTO before your last day.
“Unlimited PTO”. It sounds great until people realize how it actually works. There isn’t anything to pay out or take, unfortunately.
Just decide to take some now, as far as they know you don’t know that meeting is an exit interview, tell them something came up and you need to use some of your unlimited PTO, take a couple of weeks while looking for something else then come back
I like this idea
Is a scam.
I found out at my previous job that MN doesn’t actually require employers to pay out unused PTO.
It depends. If there is any money on the line or don’t want to burn bridges then I’d do the smart thing, whatever that is. Otherwise I’d just skip it.
Yeah as much as I’ve fantasized about going nuclear on past employers (or more recently, when firing a client), it just doesn’t bring any good besides a fleeting moment of feeling superior. It’s not worth it, be the bigger person and keep it professional.
I was in such situation recently and I dealt with it like an adult rather than petty teenager. Don’t burn your bridges.
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Depends on whether there are bridges to burn in the first place.
My last time getting laid off, I had people loyal to me tell me well in advance so I was prepared.
You don’t end up the kind of person who has people loyal to them if you do wacky, zany hijinks and make everything about yourself, even when it objectively is about you. Don’t make scenes, don’t be dramatic, just have some questions ready about severance and what benefits are available to you.
This will pay off a lot when you go to apply for a new job and they want to talk to the people who you worked for.
Do what the others already said and be mature and professional. Just wear a full clown costume to the zoom meeting. No comments on it.
