[HN Gopher] DoorDash lays off 1250 employees
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       DoorDash lays off 1250 employees
        
       Author : derwiki
       Score  : 218 points
       Date   : 2022-11-30 16:54 UTC (6 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (doordash.news)
 (TXT) w3m dump (doordash.news)
        
       | UncleOxidant wrote:
       | What's the fuckedcompany site of our current era? Is there one?
        
         | bilbo0s wrote:
         | Hacker News
        
         | leet_thow wrote:
         | https://layoffs.fyi/
        
           | shortstuffsushi wrote:
           | Thank you for this, I was actually going to post asking if
           | there was a collection.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | qwertyuiop_ wrote:
       | These CEO letters are meaningless. They are written by obscenely
       | paid PR hacks and follow the same template.
       | 
       | * This is the most difficult change to COMPANY NAME HERE that
       | I've had to announce in our almost n-year history. Today, we are
       | reducing our corporate headcount by approximately n people and
       | saying goodbye to many talented teammates.*
       | 
       | * While there is no great way to manage this process, we strive
       | to treat each of you with respect and integrity. Each of you who
       | is impacted will have the opportunity to speak to a leader this
       | week.*
       | 
       | * While I want to focus today's attention on our talented
       | teammates who are departing, I did want to say a few words to the
       | team that is staying and carrying the baton. While today's news
       | is painful, I continue to be very optimistic about our future and
       | convinced of the importance of the role we can play in the
       | world.*
        
         | whatshisface wrote:
         | People complain about how these announcements say nothing, but
         | what would you expect a company to say about their layoffs?
        
           | sidfthec wrote:
           | How about the CEO saying "I'll be resigning from the
           | company"?
           | 
           | What do you think people mean when they say they should take
           | responsibility? Screaming "I declare responsibility!"?
        
             | randomh3r0 wrote:
             | Being CEO means making difficult decisions, and it isn't
             | realistic to expect a CEO to only serve during good times.
             | That said, I think it would go a long way towards
             | appeasement if the messaging was more along the lines of "I
             | will be withholding payment to myself until such time as
             | we're in the black again" or something similar showing
             | personal consequences beyond "mea culpa!" nonsense PR
             | messaging.
             | 
             | Maybe it's reasonable to expect a CEO to resign when
             | layoffs happen during a market upswing but... during a
             | market downturn like this it's kind of inevitable to see
             | layoffs in a services-based company when services are the
             | some of the easiest things for consumers to scale back on
             | when belt-tightening occurs. A change in leadership would
             | only further _hurt_ the people staying in the company, IMO.
        
             | toast0 wrote:
             | If the CEO says they'll resign, people will say they're
             | taking the easy way out, and anyway, it's no skin off their
             | back because golden parachute (if they were a good
             | negotiator when they were hired) or anyway their salary was
             | probably high, etc.
             | 
             | It's an unwinnable game in the court of public opinion, so
             | why do it? Because it signals to the underlings that the
             | CEO is not expecting resignations from them.
        
               | anotherman554 wrote:
               | "If the CEO says they'll resign, people will say they're
               | taking the easy way out, and anyway, it's no skin off
               | their back because golden parachute"
               | 
               | Nothing prevents the CEO from resigning and gifting the
               | golden parachute back to the company. You know, if they
               | want to "take responsibility."
        
               | toast0 wrote:
               | Sure, but then there's the "but they already got paid a
               | bazillion dollars"
        
           | belval wrote:
           | For some reason every layoff press release on HN gets the
           | "The CEO takes responsability but doesn't actually" comments.
           | 
           | I'm not sure what people expect, "I will whip myself once for
           | every employee I had to layoff to atone for overhiring during
           | one of the biggest market bull run"?
           | 
           | It's especially weird considering that DoorDash is probably
           | the company that had the best reason to overhire during a
           | pandemic where delivery apps where being used a lot more than
           | usual.
        
             | weego wrote:
             | - have their pay adjusted to reflect the poor decision
             | making lead to the company shrinkage
             | 
             | - have a portion of their stock allowance taken back and
             | have to be re-earned based on performance
             | 
             | - have their other benefits and expense account cut and
             | have to be re-earned based on performance
             | 
             | Basically have literally _anything_ they benefit from have
             | to be justified in _any_ way as a reflection of the
             | holistic performance of the company.
        
               | pedrosorio wrote:
               | Stock allowance? Taken back where? Doordash's CEO is the
               | founder.
        
               | tomnipotent wrote:
               | None of these things are in the best interest of the
               | company. Demotivating and losing leadership isn't going
               | to help right the ship.
        
               | sleepybrett wrote:
               | ... and instead demotivating the entire workforce is
               | somehow better?
        
             | mitthrowaway2 wrote:
             | I think the bitterness comes from the big payoffs that CEOs
             | get when the company does well. There's something upsetting
             | about leadership taking the upside reward for the big wins
             | but leaving the downside risk for everyone else.
        
             | dotnet00 wrote:
             | A somewhat common way for CEOs to take responsibility used
             | to be to forgo their bonuses or to take a pay cut, which
             | while still not too meaningful, does at least involve some
             | more responsibility than just plain PR speak.
        
             | idbehold wrote:
             | > I will whip myself once for every employee I had to
             | layoff
             | 
             | I like the sound of that! Joking aside, while physical harm
             | may not fly I can imagine a scenario where it hits the
             | CEOs' wallets either by losing stock options/grants or
             | actual salary based on the number of employees they had to
             | layoff. Because seriously, what does it even mean for the
             | CEO to take responsibility when there are no actual
             | consequences for them? If they're doing it to save the
             | business (which they are) then just say that instead of
             | saying they take responsibility as the latter is just
             | virtue signaling.
        
               | whatshisface wrote:
               | From the investor's perspective the CEO's job is to do
               | what's good for the company, which doesn't always involve
               | doing what's good for some or all the employees, laying a
               | lot of developers off is not a bad thing from the
               | perspective of the business unless their work is needed
               | and there is enough money to pay them.
        
               | idbehold wrote:
               | Right, so the CEO should just say that. Effectively the
               | layoff was out of their control. It was the best decision
               | for the business (shareholders). The act of saying "I
               | take full responsibility" is pure virtue signaling unless
               | it actually has consequences for them. Instead they
               | should say, "I made the best decision for the
               | shareholders."
        
           | subb wrote:
           | Maybe start by having a sustainable growth (or you know, no
           | growth!) so you don't have to write a completely emotionless
           | letter explaining why you have to lay off a whole village?
        
             | xpe wrote:
             | Remember the CEO is also accountable to the board and
             | investors who have certain expectations.
             | 
             | The morality here is hard because the end results are
             | largely driven by the system. Sure, there are some leaders
             | who are particularly ill-suited for their jobs from the
             | employee POV. Unfortunately some of those leaders serve
             | their investors quite well.
             | 
             | If you point one finger, you'll quickly realize you might
             | need many more to follow the interconnected trail of power.
             | 
             | Also let's not forget that so much of Silicon Valley's
             | advantageous job market is linked to investor behavior,
             | good and bad. My point? Sure, criticize these feaux-
             | emotional layoff letters, just don't forget to look back to
             | see the reality distortion field already in place when you
             | joined that job.
        
               | Apocryphon wrote:
               | So what we need here is mechanisms to hold the board
               | accountable for their failures.
        
             | vikingerik wrote:
             | Well, perception/observation bias. We never notice the
             | companies that do grow sustainably and don't do layoffs.
        
               | xpe wrote:
               | You really think so? I've picked many places to work
               | based on my perception of their business model stability
               | and how they treat people. I'm far from perfect of
               | course.
               | 
               | I think many employees and investors care about employee
               | retention. I don't know how much it factors in, but it is
               | something.
        
               | vikingerik wrote:
               | I meant "we" as on a news site like this, "Company Not
               | Laying Off" will never make a headline. Yes, employees
               | and good investors/owners do care.
        
         | cokeandpepsi wrote:
         | eh, they gotta say something the exit packages seem good
         | layoffs during this time of year are very stressful
        
         | Encrypt-Keeper wrote:
         | The CEO letter is meaningless, but the severance and departing
         | benefits look pretty generous at least. A nice little cushion
         | while they look for new jobs. I've certainly seen much worse.
        
         | TeeMassive wrote:
         | Musk did it better
        
         | rco8786 wrote:
         | > obscenely paid PR hacks
         | 
         | I genuinely don't understand comments like this. Do you know
         | who wrote the letter? Do you know how much they get paid?
         | 
         | Communications is a real skill with actual, real people that
         | devote their careers to doing it well. And they get paid
         | fairly, unless you know something I don't.
         | 
         | Nobody wants to write this letter, least of all the PR person
         | who wrote it.
         | 
         | What would you have the CEO say, if not what they all say when
         | this happens? "Our business isn't growing like we hoped now get
         | fucked"?
        
           | tuckerpo wrote:
           | Brevity and directness are appreciated. People's livelihoods
           | are disappearing from underneath them -- give tangible
           | reasons why, in plain language.
        
             | rco8786 wrote:
             | Seriously, what do you think that looks like if not exactly
             | what was written?
             | 
             | > We sped up our hiring to catch up with our growth and
             | started many new businesses in response to feedback from
             | our audiences.
             | 
             | > Most of our investments are paying off, and while we've
             | always been disciplined in how we have managed our business
             | and operational metrics, we were not as rigorous as we
             | should have been in managing our team growth
             | 
             | > While our business continues to grow fast, given how
             | quickly we hired, our operating expenses - if left unabated
             | - would continue to outgrow our revenue.
             | 
             | We grew too fast and revenue wasn't catching up. What other
             | tangibles do you want? Would they somehow help the
             | situation?
        
               | tuckerpo wrote:
               | Do you have a horse in this race? Are you the PR guy
               | writing these emails? : ^ )
               | 
               | > What other tangibles do you want?
               | 
               | In short-form: you're gone, here's why, here's some
               | money. The diction doesn't need to be apologetic. It's
               | condescending.
        
               | rco8786 wrote:
               | I don't at all. I'm just trying to figure out what people
               | are supposed to be doing. And I was mostly responding to
               | the comment of "obscenely paid PR hacks" in the first
               | place...just unnecessarily cynical.
               | 
               | It was a long letter b/c it provided a lot of
               | information. The information you're asking for was
               | wrapped up in 3 sentences. But I guess that was still too
               | long?
               | 
               | If it's not apologetic, they get reamed for being too
               | cold/unsympethetic.
        
         | aardvarkr wrote:
         | What would you rather the CEO say? It's easy to complain about
         | everything but orders of magnitude more difficult to think
         | critically and offer ways to improve it.
         | 
         | It's more difficult but that desire to think critically and put
         | in the effort is what makes the community here so much better
         | than most sites.
        
         | uuddlrlrbaba wrote:
         | In terms of budget, wonder how many staff would equal CEO
         | compensation. A _lot_ of orgs out there carry on just fine
         | through absence and transitions at the top.
        
         | db1234 wrote:
         | You forgot to include CEO taking responsibility.
        
           | nicksrose7224 wrote:
           | Without any actual implications of them "taking
           | responsibility" too
        
             | tarunkotia wrote:
             | Implication is that you get a strike against you which is
             | publicly documented. This also serves a purpose of sending
             | a message to middle-management that we should not repeat
             | this strategic mistake of over-hiring when things are hot
             | and then when things slowdown going through this painful
             | process of separation. I am hopeful that this public
             | admission will inculcate a culture of holding everyone
             | accountable rather than "emperor has no clothes" culture
             | where people live in denial.
        
             | xpe wrote:
             | What would that look like?
             | 
             | I'm no supporter of PR speak. The CEO ranks seem to have no
             | problem in finding their next gig. Some some receive
             | ludicrous compensation even when the company does poorly.
             | 
             | I'm just not sure what is the desired outcome here? And how
             | do we get there?
        
               | azakai wrote:
               | One possibile way to take personal responsibility could
               | be to add "and therefore I will reduce my compensation by
               | the same percentage we are reducing headcount". (Based on
               | other comments, that would be 6%.)
        
               | ferdowsi wrote:
               | Their CEO compensation is mostly equity, which has
               | dropped like a stone in the past year.
        
               | db1234 wrote:
               | That's true for most corporate employees as well, no?
        
               | dcgudeman wrote:
               | Don't you think this is pretty childish? When market
               | conditions change companies need to adapt, sometimes that
               | means laying people off. Isn't that the job of the CEO?
               | They are responsible for the health of the company
               | overall. I don't see why they should be punished for
               | making adjustments to make the company competitive.
        
               | azakai wrote:
               | In general I agree with you, yes, market conditions
               | change, and CEOs need to make sometimes tough choices in
               | response.
               | 
               | However, the specific context here is this quote from the
               | CEO:
               | 
               | > we were not as rigorous as we should have been in
               | managing our team growth. That's on me.
               | 
               | If the CEO admits they made a mistake that led to the
               | current layoffs then I think it would be admirable to
               | take personal responsibility and accept some personal
               | consequences as a result.
        
               | xpe wrote:
               | > When market conditions chance, companies need to adapt
               | 
               | I agree with that part ^
               | 
               | Let me frame this more broadly. _How_ and _when_ should
               | companies adapt? There are many ways, across many
               | timescales.
               | 
               | I'll give a made up example, hopefully in a reasonable
               | ballpark. A company needs to save $250M / year. Let's say
               | there are three options under consideration, not mutually
               | exclusive / can be blended:
               | 
               | Option A: Lay off 1% of 10,000 employees, saving
               | $250M/year.
               | 
               | Option B: 15% across the board salary cuts, saving
               | $250M/year.
               | 
               | Option C: Lower executive and VP-level compensation
               | packages (salary, options, stock, deferred pay, etc),
               | saving $250M.
               | 
               | Fairness in service of the company goals means that all
               | viable options are given due consideration.
               | 
               | It is relatively easy for a CEO to do lay offs, even if
               | other options (lowering their own comp) has better
               | effects.
        
               | db1234 wrote:
               | DoorDash CEO's compensation in 2021 was 413 million
               | https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/Doordash-highest-
               | paid-CE...
               | 
               | While it's true stock has dropped like a rock since then,
               | it's impacted corporate employee comp as well so I don't
               | agree that stock tanking exclusively impacted the CEO and
               | hence he has paid for the bad decisions.
        
       | tuan wrote:
       | according to this CNN article
       | https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/30/tech/doordash-layoffs/index.h...,
       | it's about 6% of their workforce.
        
         | actusual wrote:
         | Yowza, >20,000 employees?? Does that include drivers?
        
           | sergiotapia wrote:
           | I led the tech at a similar company and most of our "drivers"
           | were not W2 employees. I imagine the drivers are the same.
        
           | csa wrote:
           | I assume that drivers are "gig workers" who can't be laid
           | off.
        
         | NelsonMinar wrote:
         | CNBC says 8600 corporate employees, so this would be 15%.
         | 
         | https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/30/doordash-lays-off-1250-emplo...
        
           | mrweasel wrote:
           | While I do feel sorry for the people who are losing their
           | jobs, I do wonder why so many of these unicorns / VC funded /
           | startups / Silicon Vally darlings, all seems like they are,
           | shall we say, a bit overstaffed?
           | 
           | If you can lay off between 10% or more of the staff and
           | expect to continue to operate unimpeded, then why didn't they
           | do it sooner? I'm not counting Twitter, because while perhaps
           | overstaffed, firing 50%+ is just nuts.
        
             | SeanAnderson wrote:
             | Because opportunity cost of expanding into larger markets
             | more quickly was worth the inefficiency until interest
             | rates went up.
        
             | cheriot wrote:
             | The whole point of taking funding is that it lets a company
             | grow headcount ahead of achieving the sales to sustain it.
             | So they'll estimate that X headcount will be needed Y
             | months in the future. When growth doesn't materialize then
             | X comes down and when funding is less available then Y
             | comes down. Then they have layoffs.
             | 
             | X and Y became unusually high in 2021. If we have an actual
             | recession I'd expect more layoffs from the same companies.
        
       | CorruptedArc wrote:
       | *DoorDash to Layoff 1250 Employees
        
       | kwertyoowiyop wrote:
       | At least he called them 'teammates' rather than 'Dashers' or some
       | other cringe.
        
       | wokibroki wrote:
       | Nice!
        
       | magundu wrote:
       | I think, hacker news should add Layoff menu after jobs tab.
       | 
       | It is happening so often. Almost everyday.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | staunch wrote:
       | Whatever you think about the letter, the fact that they're
       | providing reasonable severance/vesting/healthcare support proves
       | a large degree of competence and ethics.
       | 
       | My simple policy is: I will never stop talking trash, never work
       | for, and avoid entirely any company that lays people off without
       | the basic ethics of providing reasonable financial support. The
       | companies providing two weeks should be shamed for eternity.
       | 
       | As long as enough people adopt this attitude it will effectively
       | force companies to behave well, even if they don't want to. Tech
       | workers on HN have particularly powerful influence in this regard
       | and should utilize it.
       | 
       | (It'd be great if layoffs.fyi provided severance data to shame
       | and reward the right companies.)
        
         | erehweb wrote:
         | Large companies may be effectively required to give a lot of
         | severance for large layoffs to avoid having to announce layoffs
         | in advance - see e.g. the California WARN act.
         | https://edd.ca.gov/en/Jobs_and_Training/Layoff_Services_WARN
        
       | DenisM wrote:
       | Something I wanted to discuss - the bandwagon effect.
       | 
       | If you want to do layoffs you will be best suited doing them at
       | the same time as all the other companies. That's because normally
       | layoffs bust morale and lead not only to the ejection of the
       | people you wanted gone, but also to the departure of the people
       | you wanted to stay. However when everyone is doing layoffs at the
       | same time there is nowhere for your good employees to go.
       | 
       | Is this effect real, or am I seeing things?
        
         | xeromal wrote:
         | I'd say there is an effect, but there are compound issues at
         | hand. Another issue is that it's just damn hard to raise money
         | right now either through debt or issuing stocks. Someone very
         | close to me just got laid off at Volta because they were in an
         | expansionist mindset but you need easy money to pull that off.
         | 
         | Easy money is gone. Companies that balanced their budget
         | without the need for debt to continue to operate are OK.
        
           | DenisM wrote:
           | I'm trying to tease apart the bandwagon effect from the
           | fundamentals you're describing.
           | 
           | The reason why the distinction is important is that the
           | bandwagon effect will come and go, while the fundamentals can
           | stay negative for any amount of time.
        
           | phpisthebest wrote:
           | I am very lucky to work for a company that has zero debt. If
           | I was looking to change jobs right now that would be one of
           | the primary questions I would ask, the debt position of the
           | company.
           | 
           | Many companies are going to get hit hard when their corporate
           | loans come due over the next 1-3 years.
        
             | xeromal wrote:
             | Same with mine. We're small and lean but we are slow to
             | grow or needlessly spend money. A bit less reward but way
             | less risk.
        
         | alberth wrote:
         | For negative announcements like this, companies like to "hide
         | in the herd" of other such announcements happening in the
         | industry.
         | 
         | Another tactic is announcing negative news on a Friday
         | afternoon, to miss the news cycle.
        
         | roflyear wrote:
         | Layoffs always happen, but I imagine it is like a wave.
         | Sometimes you have very few, other times you have a lot.
         | 
         | "nowhere else to go" isn't really a thing right now - but "the
         | mood is right" is probably more of what is happening. Employees
         | are at least a little on edge (which significantly impacts
         | performance, for what it is worth) right now.
         | 
         | Most companies that are laying off people do not need to lay
         | them off. Their survival is not at stake.
         | 
         | Doordash, for example, is making something like 4billion $ of
         | gross profit a year.
         | 
         | That's enough to pay all of these 1200 employees $3m a year,
         | with some left over.
        
       | sergiotapia wrote:
       | >Most of our investments are paying off, and while we've always
       | been disciplined in how we have managed our business and
       | operational metrics, we were not as rigorous as we should have
       | been in managing our team growth. That's on me. As a result,
       | operating expenses grew quickly.
       | 
       | Translated: The free money party from VCs is over. Across the
       | board, it's OVER. Time for actual good businesses. No more
       | spending $1.50 to make $0.60 and grow.
       | 
       | Party's over gents.
        
         | SV_BubbleTime wrote:
         | Hard times coming for a lot of people, and only some people
         | that I feel deserve it. Overall, I agree. The Free Money Party
         | is over and it's going to be a net good.
         | 
         | I do wonder how much of the shitty behavior we've seen in the
         | past 10-15 years eventually falls back to "Whatever, we'll just
         | get more money if we need it". I am optimistic of businesses
         | that do their work and stay out of politics, that actually need
         | to be competitive, that give a shit about customers because
         | they really do need you.
        
       | slater wrote:
       | _we were not as rigorous as we should have been in managing our
       | team growth. That's on me._
       | 
       | Therefor you, the CEO, are resigning as well, right? Oh.
        
         | gretch wrote:
         | I guess you're implying that resignation would be the more just
         | course of action from the CEO, but I don't think everyone sees
         | it that way (not me for 1).
         | 
         | I think resignation would be the more cowardly move. The ceo
         | dug a deep hole and at least 1k ppl lost their job. They have
         | the responsibility of digging out of that hole before more ppl
         | have to get laid off.
         | 
         | Resigning now would read to me like "hey guys, I know I made a
         | mess here but, oh well, have fun dealing with it, good luck to
         | the next guy". Absolutely would not work with someone like that
         | in future prospects
        
         | Tempest1981 wrote:
         | Just like at Hooli: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u48vYSLvKNQ
        
       | 1attice wrote:
       | I really find these mea-culpas hard to take when I know even just
       | a smidge more than they expect.
       | 
       | In this case, I did a Doordash technical screen three months ago
       | during a job hunt. Recruiter painted a rosy picture of growth and
       | outlook, slathered me in honey-words, etc. This was well into the
       | downturn.
       | 
       | Normalcy bias is powerful and I can understand that some
       | companies did not move fast enough to respond to the change in
       | the weather, but I can also _fault them for it_ , and find these
       | apologies self-serving.
        
         | SheinhardtWigCo wrote:
         | I don't understand, do you expect recruiters to have realistic
         | insights into the company's trajectory?
        
         | 1attice wrote:
         | There are three comments to this post, and they are all along
         | the lines of, "well of course they lied that's their job, you
         | should know better."
         | 
         | Firstly, this isn't about me -- I was smart; I took a different
         | option.
         | 
         | But this _is_ about my industry, and so my sword must flash
         | from its scabbard.
         | 
         | I know you're sick to death of the P-word, but do think of the
         | privilege that would be required _in order to take
         | responsibility for the decision_ , i.e. in order for the
         | decision to be made non-coercively.
         | 
         | Thinking it through, you'd need:
         | 
         | 1. Local knowledge about the way the tech industry works (which
         | I do, so guess which job I didn't take after looking over their
         | figures)
         | 
         | 2. Access to plausible alternatives
         | 
         | 3. (most importantly) confidence in oneself and one's
         | perceptions.
         | 
         | I've spent the past half-decade of my good fortune trying to
         | help friends enter the industry from other careers (urban
         | planning etc.) and it's this implicit-never-spoken-about shit
         | that is the biggest barrier-to-entry.
         | 
         | You can either have diversity in your industry or you can have
         | life-or-death decision things that 'everybody just knows,'
         | except for the newcomers. Pick one.
         | 
         | P.S. also the stakes are much higher if you're offered a work
         | visa and a relocation package to a country where you can only
         | legally work for a single employer. And that employer, if they
         | fsck off -- well; that's how you get people alone and stuck,
         | strangers in a strange land, running out of money and hope.
        
         | ferdowsi wrote:
         | Recruiters are salespeople. Toxic positivity, undue flattery,
         | etc are all part of their toolbox. It's ultimately on the
         | candidate to perform due diligence on the organization, like
         | with any product.
        
           | SoftTalker wrote:
           | Good salespeople are at least somewhat objective.
           | 
           | I had a realtor point out issues with properties that I might
           | never have thought to ask about. Now, maybe that was to steer
           | me to other properties that he would make more money on, but
           | they were real issues. It did serve to build a sense that he
           | was not hiding information just to get a sale.
        
         | anm89 wrote:
         | Were you expecting a recruiter to say "Yeah things aren't
         | great. I expect layoffs in the next few months" .? If so that's
         | honestly on you. They would get fired for saying that. Of
         | course they are never going to
        
         | roflyear wrote:
         | They didn't lie. DD is making $700m a quarter in gross profits.
         | Profits are going up. The company is doing great. The stock is
         | way up today.
         | 
         | They did not lie about the company doing well and having a good
         | outlook. Seems like they do.
        
         | janalsncm wrote:
         | I personally wouldn't fault the recruiters. The higher ups who
         | set recruitment targets are to blame. If they recruited a
         | person who got laid off a few months later, it suggests poor
         | planning.
        
       | rmk wrote:
       | It's great that they have set a March 1 termination date for
       | those on visas. And the severance and stock vesting are also
       | reasonable. Not to mention the fact that health insurance
       | continues for quite a bit longer and then goes into Cobra.
       | 
       | The verbiage is standard PR pap but the actual actions are quite
       | very considerate.
       | 
       | However, what actual responsibility are the CEOs taking after
       | hiring like crazy knowing fully well that the pandemic exuberance
       | and stimulus wasn't going to keep the recession away, only delay
       | it? I'm sure competitive pressure was part of the reason for the
       | overhiring but it's still not the whole story.
        
         | stu2b50 wrote:
         | If I were a board member I wouldn't really want an environment
         | where CEOs were deathly afraid of making bets that made sense
         | at the time. It just leads to stagnation.
         | 
         | What consequence do you think the CEO should face?
        
           | rmk wrote:
           | That is a fair point. However, my point is not that the CEO
           | should face consequences, but voluntarily take responsibility
           | in some meaningful way. "That's on me" in a corporate email
           | != taking actual responsibility. The empty platitudes are the
           | problem. The accommodations for employees who are being let
           | go are above and beyond, which is the silver lining.
        
         | sovnade wrote:
         | What are they supposed to do? Demand ramped up significantly
         | during covid - they needed staff to support it. They really had
         | no choice but to hire that staff unless they wanted to have an
         | undersupported platform with extremely long wait times for
         | things like customer service or onboarding new restaurants. And
         | with DD having a lot of competition (Uber Eats, Postmates, etc
         | etc), someone else would pick up their slack and keep that
         | business.
        
         | CityOfThrowaway wrote:
         | In every HN thread about layoffs, there is some number of
         | comments that are written as:
         | 
         | "It's good that the company paid [nearly unfathomable severance
         | benefits], but what ACCOUNTABILITY is there?"
         | 
         | My brother in Christ, the accountability is that the company is
         | paying unfathomable severance benefits, watching their stock
         | price tank, and getting dragged in the public sphere.
         | 
         | What would you like the CEO to do? Quit?
        
           | valeness wrote:
           | > What would you like the CEO to do? Quit?
           | 
           | Yep
        
             | prasadjoglekar wrote:
             | That's for the board to do. If they're taking their
             | responsibility seriously and feel like the CEO is no longer
             | capable. See also: AMC and Disney in the last 10 days.
        
               | erehweb wrote:
               | If I understand DoorDash's corporate structure, the
               | founders have dual-class stock and voting control, so
               | board could not remove them.
        
           | throwaway5959 wrote:
           | Yeah actually, it used to be if a CEO did a shitty job they
           | were fired.
        
           | willcipriano wrote:
           | Put it this way, if the company was wildly successful how
           | much credit does the executive team take for itself? Now in a
           | downturn, you take that much blame.
           | 
           | So if you took a huge bonus for all your leadership during
           | the pandemic, I don't see why you shouldn't lose your job
           | when your lack of leadership did the opposite. Either you
           | were responsible or you weren't. You choose to "be in charge"
           | only on the upside.
        
           | rmk wrote:
           | Why not? Is it very difficult to countenance a founder who
           | has 'got his' leaving to make way for someone who has a
           | little more ethics? Every single one of these CEOs hired an
           | untold number of people full-time during the pandemic, and
           | then discarded them just a year or so after said binge. They
           | knew the game they were playing, only they pretend to be
           | paragons of virtue and write meaningless blather about it.
        
           | ddalex wrote:
           | > My brother in Christ
           | 
           | Isn't this religious discrimination ?
        
             | [deleted]
        
             | xdavidliu wrote:
             | not really, it's just a rhetorical flourish. Ignore it if
             | it bothers you.
        
         | programmarchy wrote:
         | Your last paragraph is a little ridiculous. Hindsight is 20/20.
         | If you knew there was a recession coming, why didn't you short
         | the market and become rich? Nobody, including CEOs, knew for
         | certain when the pandemic would end or how that would affect
         | the markets.
        
         | celestialcheese wrote:
         | > However, what actual responsibility are the CEOs taking after
         | hiring like crazy knowing fully well that the pandemic
         | exuberance and stimulus wasn't going to keep the recession
         | away, only delay it? I'm sure competitive pressure was part of
         | the reason for the overhiring but it's still not the whole
         | story.
         | 
         | Why do you think Doordash/Shopify/Stripe "knew full well" that
         | this boom wouldn't last?
         | 
         | The common thinking in SV and the world as a whole was that the
         | pandemic accelerated the adoption of online services by about 5
         | years due to lockdowns and WFH. Unfortunately, the world
         | reverted to the mean with regards to online shopping and
         | ordering food pretty quickly in 2022, but this idea of
         | accelerated-online was a reasonable one held by many.
         | 
         | Hell, if you looked at the numbers during those quarters at all
         | these companies, the boards and shareholders would have fired
         | the CEOs if they hadn't staffed up.
        
           | Sohcahtoa82 wrote:
           | > Why do you think Doordash/Shopify/Stripe "knew full well"
           | that this boom wouldn't last?
           | 
           | In the Doordash case, it's pretty god damn obvious the boom
           | wouldn't last. DoorDash shot up because restaurant dining
           | rooms were closed. As soon as restaurants started opening
           | back up, it only makes sense that DoorDash's popularity would
           | sink. While certainly some people will have decided "Hey,
           | this is pretty convenient" and keep using them, I think it's
           | absolutely bone-headed to think it wasn't going to eventually
           | dip.
           | 
           | > Unfortunately, the world reverted to the mean with regards
           | to online shopping and ordering food pretty quickly in 2022
           | 
           | Again, completely bone-headed to have not expected this to
           | happen.
        
             | celestialcheese wrote:
             | If you are so confident that it was bone-headed to not
             | foresee this - did you take a short position against these
             | companies in Q4 2021? If not, why? You would have made an
             | absolute fortune placing trades against these public
             | companies.
             | 
             | Here's a different way to look at it - a whole lot of
             | people started using DD that would have never tried it
             | during lockdowns. If those users liked the experience and
             | convenience, then they'd stuck with it. DoorDash bet that a
             | lot more people would stick around than actually did. DD
             | was wrong, but I would argue that it wasn't a dumb bet
             | given the stickiness of their product, and their excellence
             | in execution up until that point.
        
             | deltree7 wrote:
             | Wow, look at Mr. Nostradamus here.
             | 
             | There is only way to prove your credentials here. Show your
             | returns in stock market from 2018 to 2022.
             | 
             | Else you are just a sad pathetic whiner who whines about
             | CEOs all the time
        
       | Dicey84 wrote:
       | Are there any write ups on how you simultaneously terminate this
       | many employees from a logistical point of view?
       | 
       | Ie: does HR numbers need to be bolstered to handle it? How do you
       | choose the 1200+ individuals?
        
         | killjoywashere wrote:
         | These announcements are required by labor law. Examples:
         | 
         | * https://www.dol.gov/general/topic/termination/plantclosings
         | 
         | * https://edd.ca.gov/en/Jobs_and_Training/Layoff_Services_WARN
        
       | roflyear wrote:
       | Another case of a company not needing to lay people off, but they
       | are. Stock of course is up 9% today.
       | 
       | Doordash is making something like $700m in gross profit a
       | quarter.
       | 
       | Just remember this when a company calls you a family.
        
       | doovd wrote:
       | Could someone please explain why this note reads identically to
       | the Meta and Stripe note?
        
         | kick_in_the_dor wrote:
         | Meta and Stripe attract some of the top tech talent and are
         | seen as leaders in their respective fields. Thus, their actions
         | often create de facto templates for other companies following
         | suit.
        
           | djur wrote:
           | Also the senior leadership in these companies are all part of
           | overlapping social circles, have similar educational
           | backgrounds, have a similar media diet, etc.
        
       | adamsmith143 wrote:
       | The company has never made a dime in profits and has no path to
       | do so. Just a matter of time until the VC money dries up.
        
         | gagabity wrote:
         | It's a public company.
        
       | dylan604 wrote:
       | well, i guess after the pandemic, all of the fake websites for
       | local eateries that didn't have websites have been made (so that
       | doordash owns the search and orders even if the user thought they
       | were ordering directly), so that's a department no longer needed.
       | /s
        
         | cokeandpepsi wrote:
         | that and it costs like $40 to order a burger, I was a regular
         | customer at one point and I rarely hit the order button now
         | after seeing the price
        
           | dmamills wrote:
           | Undercut competition by burning raised capital. Then once
           | you've got the market share, you boil the frogs you gathered.
           | I believe the euphemism around these parts is "disruption".
        
             | quickthrower2 wrote:
             | Unfortunately for them, you can go walk (or drive) and get
             | a burger! I quite enjoy phoning through an order and
             | picking it up like it's 1986!
        
           | ProjectArcturis wrote:
           | With those enormous fees, how were they not profitable?
        
             | anm89 wrote:
             | This is the reality of the astoundingly terrible business
             | of food delivery. Take something with already razor thin
             | margins, add multiple layers of middle men each with their
             | own overhead and create the amazing situation where the
             | product is incredibly expensive but most of the middle man
             | take either low or no margins and the delivery person
             | collects a rent but then loses that right away on vehicle
             | maintenance and gas in many cases.
             | 
             | It's the biggest lose lose lose lose of all time. The only
             | real winner is the government who collects tax on this net
             | loss of a transaction.
             | 
             | This is also why direct delivery like a pizza shop or
             | chinese place with its own delivery drivers works but the
             | app delivery model doesn't.
        
               | sawert wrote:
               | Ya, agreed. The model is truly terrible. Too many
               | constituents with a very limited pie
        
       | jsnell wrote:
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33800997
        
       | deanmoriarty wrote:
       | I feel envious of these folks getting such a nice severance. It
       | would be rather nice for me to be laid off with a great cash flow
       | of money and take a long vacation.
       | 
       | Naturally my life is financially in order (no debt, no kids to
       | support, no visa issues), so I recognize my privileged position,
       | and I say this as a first generation US immigrant who went
       | through many precarious visas including H1B. Envy was nonetheless
       | the first emotion the article evoked in me.
        
         | paxys wrote:
         | Far from being a vacation, looking for a new job while on a
         | deadline and in a down job market is much more stressful than
         | working a full time job.
        
           | roflyear wrote:
           | Well, in the context of layoffs... most companies don't give
           | you any severance.
        
         | PragmaticPulp wrote:
         | > I feel envious of these folks getting such a nice severance.
         | It would be rather nice for me to be laid off with a great cash
         | flow of money and take a long vacation.
         | 
         | I can tell you've never been laid off before, because even with
         | severance it doesn't feel like a "long vacation".
         | 
         | Layoffs like this are heavily correlated with a collapsing job
         | market. Finding a new job right now is orders of magnitude more
         | difficult than finding a job a year ago. Getting laid off also
         | works against you, as many potential hirers assume that laid
         | off people were among the lowest performers of their company.
         | It's not fair, but it happens.
         | 
         | It's also not really a relaxing vacation when you're busy
         | prepping for interviews, dealing with interview calls and/or
         | flights randomly scattered across the week, and other
         | interview-related stresses. The clock is ticking and your full
         | time job is now to interview to get a job. It's also likely (in
         | this market anyway) that any company you interview with would
         | prefer that you start ASAP, so you don't even have a defined
         | end date.
         | 
         | Getting laid off with severance sounds fun until it happens and
         | you're faced with the realities, especially in the middle of a
         | collapsing hiring market that has been flooded with 100,000+
         | laid off FAANG engineers competing for every great job out
         | there.
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | lm28469 wrote:
           | > I can tell you've never been laid off before, because even
           | with severance it doesn't feel like a "long vacation".
           | 
           | I've been laid off with no severance and it felt like
           | vacation, so it might depends on your specific situation. It
           | was my first job, in Germany, 70% of so of my salary
           | guaranteed as unemployment benefits.
           | 
           | I didn't look for a job for like six months, I could have
           | used the full 12 months as I was more than cash positive and
           | still managed to save 40% of my income without changing my
           | lifestyle, it took me two weeks to find a new one. That being
           | said I'm not a "study for interview" kind of dude, life's too
           | short to grind for that imho
        
             | ethanbond wrote:
             | > I've been laid of with no severance... [but with] 70% of
             | my salary guaranteed
             | 
             | Uhh, yeah obviously that felt like a vacation.
        
               | lm28469 wrote:
               | Isn't it the norm pretty much everywhere in the west ?
               | I'd have been fine with 30% or so with my lifestyle
        
               | ganoushoreilly wrote:
               | No, at least not in the us. There are caps and in most
               | instances it's close to $300-400 a week max with a limit
               | on how many weeks you can claim.
        
               | mrtranscendence wrote:
               | > Isn't it the norm pretty much everywhere in the west ?
               | 
               | In my US state (Ohio), weekly benefits for those without
               | dependents cap out at $530. That's about 19% of my
               | current salary. It would be barely enough to cover my
               | mortgage and utilities, but throw in the car (payment /
               | gas / insurance), groceries, incidentals ... I'd be in
               | trouble. (And unlike some of the forward-thinking
               | individuals who've posted here, I don't have several
               | years' worth of savings to rely on.)
               | 
               | Edit: and if, god forbid, I became disabled ... my
               | government-provided benefits would be something like $150
               | a week. They may as well give me a kiss on the cheek for
               | all the good that amount would do for me.
        
               | smileysteve wrote:
               | No, definitely not in the US.
               | 
               | I was last laid off in 2015 by a large media company, we
               | received only 1 month of severance. (Which was 1.5 months
               | paychecks because they paid in arrears)
               | 
               | Severance and notice of small scale layoffs (company
               | under 50) has no protection in most states. 8 person
               | company offered no severance, but we had a pretty good
               | sense it was coming a month away.
        
               | amrocha wrote:
               | Well yes, the US is a shit hole, we knew that already. In
               | civilized countries it's pretty normal to have good
               | unemployment insurance.
        
               | kayodelycaon wrote:
               | Definitely not. This last couple of years Ohio really
               | fucked a lot of people I know. The state would not
               | respond to claims and their system would automatically
               | close "old" claims. You couldn't refile or reopen the
               | claim after this happened. The phone system would play a
               | 6 minute message and then hang up.
               | 
               | Taking the state to court for this while also trying to
               | get a job would be difficult.
        
           | kilroy123 wrote:
           | 100% agreed. This is the worst time to be laid off since
           | 2008, maybe even the dot.com crash in 2000? I'm too young to
           | know what that era was like.
        
           | itake wrote:
           | I think it really depends on your financial situation and how
           | you want to spend your time. If they have been saving most of
           | their salaries and have years of savings saved up, then maybe
           | they are fine taking a 12 mo vacation before starting the
           | interview grind. Perhaps there are some side projects they
           | want to work on instead.
        
           | NSMutableSet wrote:
           | It depends entirely on your life circumstances. It can feel
           | like a vacation if your partner is still earning 6x+ the
           | median national household income, you have ample savings and
           | multiple years of runway for any immediate debts that can't
           | become delinquent without significant consequences, and you
           | have wealthy parents to fall back on on top of everything
           | else.
           | 
           | (for the record, I don't have any of these aside from the
           | runway, since I have no significant debts due to the lack of
           | a mortgage)
        
         | justizin wrote:
         | It's not the best time to be looking for work.
        
           | sfe22 wrote:
           | Exactly, the best thing to do right now is hold on to your
           | job. It is unclear when the economy will recover and you may
           | be able to find a better job.
        
           | itake wrote:
           | With a severance package and savings like OPs, why do they
           | need to look for work now?
        
             | shpx wrote:
             | If many of these thousands of tech people start just
             | spending their large savings and not working, that could
             | lead to more inflation.
        
         | ar_lan wrote:
         | It's sort of the same envy I feel when I see student loan
         | forgiveness. I worked a ton (30+ hrs weekly) in college, and
         | 40+ hrs during summer/winter break, to ensure I graduated
         | college with no loans taken.
         | 
         | And now to see loan forgiveness for people who took far fewer
         | sacrifices (especially lawyers/doctors, who make significantly
         | more than me now) - it sort of reinforces that working hard is
         | a sucker move, and definitely discourages me from doing such
         | paths if I believe I can just get a bail out later.
        
           | vineyardmike wrote:
           | > And now to see loan forgiveness for people who took far
           | fewer sacrifices (especially lawyers/doctors, who make
           | significantly more than me now) - it sort of reinforces that
           | working hard is a sucker move,
           | 
           | Just a note for anyone else reading this, but you're only
           | eligible for the $10k forgiveness if you have government
           | undergraduate loans, and you make less than $125k. Few high
           | paid professionals will qualify, and graduate law school/med
           | school can cost $200k+.
           | 
           | TLDR: probably still work hard. Welfare is for the needy, or
           | corporations.
        
           | pc86 wrote:
           | If you went to school at a time where working any non-degree-
           | required job is enough to pay for your college (like I did),
           | you went at a time completely different than today. College
           | is prohibitively expensive; loans are all but required. And
           | if a lawyer or doctor earns less than $125k they can have the
           | extra ten grand.
        
           | aseipp wrote:
           | The vast majority of debt for people under 125k/yr who
           | qualify for the 10k relief is the interest, not principle.
           | The forgiveness is then effectively for a tax in this case,
           | not the actual loan, when you think of it like this.
           | 
           | The federal government designed the federal loan program to
           | make them money, based on interest. It has panned out as a
           | very stupid fucking idea, in retrospect, and has made
           | millions of people debt slaves for years on end. They set
           | themselves up for this, combined with stagnating wages,
           | making everything a joke. Everybody wants to talk about
           | bailouts and "work ethic" but seemingly forget the monetary
           | policy was set and managed by the federal government over the
           | past several decades. They could have done better policy if
           | they didn't want a bunch of bullshit.
           | 
           | It has nothing to do with work ethic, at the end of the day.
           | It was a policy decision from on high, and the snowball was
           | set in motion probably long before you even went to school.
        
             | [deleted]
        
           | bdhe wrote:
           | > To be eligible for forgiveness, you must have federal
           | student loans and earn less than $125,000 annually (or
           | $250,000 per household). Borrowers who meet that criteria can
           | get up to $10,000 in debt cancellation.
           | 
           | Do lawyers or doctors typically earn less than $125,000 or
           | $250,000/household? If not, loan forgiveness does not impact
           | them the way you think.
        
             | PragmaticPulp wrote:
             | > Do lawyers or doctors typically earn less than $125,000
             | or $250,000/household?
             | 
             | One of my friend groups has a lot of young doctors and
             | recent med school grads. They are all looking for the best
             | ways to take advantage of this, including things like
             | accelerating marriage timelines to be a "household" instead
             | of individual so they can qualify under the limit. Starting
             | salaries for family practice physicians, for example, can
             | fit under that $250K limit.
             | 
             | I'm not opposed to loan forgiveness for certain people, but
             | the $250K household limit _without a gradual phaseout_ is a
             | baffling move.
        
               | pc86 wrote:
               | 100% of "recent med school grads" make less than $125k. A
               | brand new resident will be making $45-50k and the yearly
               | bump is in the single-digit percentages.
        
           | steveklabnik wrote:
           | I worked 35 hours a week while in college. I had almost six
           | figures of loans once I was done. I didn't pay them off until
           | my 30s.
           | 
           | It is precisely because of how much that hampered me that I'm
           | glad that others are relived of that burden. It's even harder
           | for kids these days!
        
             | mynameishere wrote:
             | There's no "reliving" of the burden. It is transferred to
             | others, including those who already paid their student
             | loans once, and those who never went to college in the
             | first place. That is, all taxpayers and holders of
             | government debt.
             | 
             | If the money was clawed back from universities, that would
             | be fine, since they were at the receiving end of the
             | racket.
        
           | 1986 wrote:
           | If you're talking about the Biden administration's student
           | loan forgiveness plan, I think you've been a bit misled about
           | the "lawyers/doctors" part - you have to be making under
           | $125k/yr ($250k/yr if filing as married) to qualify for
           | forgiveness, and the vast majority of eligible loans are
           | undergraduate, not graduate. So it would likely be extremely
           | rare for well-paid doctors or lawyers to have their loans
           | forgiven through this program - unless they were working in
           | lower-paid positions (think rural doctor or public defender -
           | arguably exactly the type of roles we should aim to encourage
           | people into with programs like this!)
        
             | ar_lan wrote:
             | Thank you for this information! I did not know this caveat.
             | 
             | I completely agree, some folks drastically benefit from
             | this (in a needed way), and I feel no envy or upset towards
             | them. It looks like my thoughts were misguided.
        
             | minhazm wrote:
             | > unless they were working in lower-paid positions (think
             | rural doctor
             | 
             | Fun fact: rural doctors actually make more than city/urban
             | doctors usually.
             | 
             | [1] https://dailyyonder.com/pay-is-higher-for-rural-
             | physicians-n... [2]
             | https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/practices/primary-care-
             | docs...
        
           | Sohcahtoa82 wrote:
           | In addition to the income limits (that right-wing media LOVES
           | to conveniently leave out when lashing out against loan
           | forgiveness), the loan forgiveness was for only up to $10K.
           | 
           | I can assure you that lawyers/doctors have FARRRRRR more than
           | that.
           | 
           | I worked about 30 hrs/week while going to school. I didn't
           | take a summer break. I finished my BS in CS in 2014 with
           | about $45K of student loan debt that I paid off in 6 years.
           | 
           | For me to get upset now about people having some of their
           | loans forgiven seems weird to me. It reeks of "I suffered, so
           | should you!" energy. It'd be like fighting against new
           | treatments for a disease because a loved one died from said
           | disease already.
        
         | jbluepolarbear wrote:
         | It's not that great. I was laid off in late 2019 with about 4
         | months severance. I was constantly interviewing and networking.
         | And then Covid lockdown hit near the end of my severance. At no
         | time did I feel like I was on vacation.
        
         | adam_arthur wrote:
         | It's certainly not the worst way to go out.
         | 
         | But the truth is that good jobs are going to be very
         | competitive over the coming months. Many being laid off now are
         | likely to end up accepting comp packages far below their
         | previous comp. The doors are pretty much closed at the usual
         | FAANG types
         | 
         | I can say anecdotally that I've already noticed an incredible
         | easing of the difficulty in hiring (while maintaining a high
         | bar)
        
       | eddsh1994 wrote:
       | > Immigration support: We will set the termination date for March
       | 1, 2023, giving those with visa applications (and a desire to
       | stay in the US) as much time as possible to find a new job.
       | 
       | That's really nice.
        
         | paxys wrote:
         | While I'm sure no one will care to enforce it, such an
         | arrangement still puts you in violation of your visa status. If
         | you aren't working full time and don't even have network
         | access, you are out of H-1B eligibility, regardless of whether
         | you are on someone's payroll or not.
        
           | mynameisvlad wrote:
           | Yeah, unless they're trying to get a specific person out and
           | using it as an excuse, nobody is going to look any further
           | than that end date.
        
             | bee_rider wrote:
             | I don't know anything about this, so I bet you are right
             | (and hope you are!)
             | 
             | I do have to wonder if it would have been better to just
             | not mention it, though. Could highlighting their (light,
             | and well-intentioned) rule breaking invite enforcement?
        
               | mynameisvlad wrote:
               | I don't think agents are paid well enough to care this
               | much about any particular company unless one of their
               | higher ups told them to. And the higher ups aren't going
               | to care about what will likely be less than 100 people,
               | at least some of which will get jobs within 60 days, and
               | who overall are not trying to game the system even if
               | it's technically what they're doing.
               | 
               | In other words, I'm pretty sure they all have better
               | things to do.
        
           | ergocoder wrote:
           | We are lucky that US is not ripe with corruptions. They
           | either enforce it uniformly or they don't.
           | 
           | In some shady countries, you can bet that this would be
           | enforced selectively.
           | 
           | It's sad that, for a company like Stripe that wants to do
           | things by the book and/or needs to do things by the book
           | (because they are in the financial sector), they will not
           | extend employment date like this and will be criticized for
           | it.
           | 
           | To no one's surprise, Stripe didn't offer this in the latest
           | layoff.
        
             | diebeforei485 wrote:
             | Actually, this is up to the discretion of the USCIS
             | officer. It is not uniform.
        
               | hunter-gatherer wrote:
               | I'm not without gripes about the immigration system in
               | the US as my wife is European and we've been fighting to
               | get her permanent residence established long enough that
               | we've had two kids and moved three times, yet still we
               | are in the struggle. However, the beauracracy is so
               | complex that one's standing doesn't fall into the hands
               | of any one particular USCIS officer. Such an assertion is
               | incredibly disingenuous to how mundane, slow,
               | beauracratic, and absurd the process really is.
        
               | SoftTalker wrote:
               | Have you tried contacting your senators and congressional
               | representatives? They can sometimes kick in the right
               | place to get a stuck bureaucracy moving again.
        
               | pkaye wrote:
               | What kind of bureaucracy are you facing? The biggest I've
               | noticed is making sure everything is perfect on submittal
               | so you don't get put into the exception handling path of
               | approval. Common mistakes are wrong/missing forms, form
               | entry error, missing/inconsistent supporting documents.
        
               | ergocoder wrote:
               | It's uniform enough that we don't hear about the
               | selective treatment.
        
               | saagarjha wrote:
               | Uniform enough that _you_ don't hear about it.
        
               | tedunangst wrote:
               | Where would I go to hear about it?
        
               | tshaddox wrote:
               | Probably from people who have been on the bad end of
               | selective treatment.
        
           | 22SAS wrote:
           | >While I'm sure no one will care to enforce it
           | 
           | Pretty right. In the HFT world, we have people going on non-
           | competes all the time. During that time, most firms do not
           | pull their visa petition from USCIS, pay continues every two
           | weeks and the employee is still technically an employee of
           | the firm, just that they're on garden leave. This is done by
           | firms so that the employees do not have to leave the US
           | during their non-compete.
           | 
           | They're not doing any work, so technically still counts as a
           | visa status violation.
        
             | triyambakam wrote:
             | What does it mean to go on non-compete or garden leave?
        
               | 22SAS wrote:
               | A lot of the stuff in trading firms is proprietary and
               | pretty secretive like trading strategies, how their
               | systems achieve some level of latency, if they have
               | FPGA/HW teams then what are their capabilities like.
               | 
               | When an employee resigns to go to another trading firm,
               | to ensure that they don't leave right away and use the
               | secret sauce at their new firm, they put that employee on
               | a non-compete or a garden leave. Basically, for a period
               | of time, could be as little as 2-3 months to 2 years,
               | that employee can either sit at home or go work in an
               | industry that is not trading but for that duration they
               | cannot work in the same industry. The logic is that
               | strategies and systems change pretty frequently, so in
               | that time whatever knowledge that employee has, becomes
               | outdated.
               | 
               | If they decide to sit at home, to make it lucrative, most
               | firms will pay their base salary for that period, or some
               | percentage of total comp (base+bonus). Since the employee
               | is getting paid to do nothing, almost nobody in trading
               | has any issues with non-competes.
               | 
               | While this is pretty awesome, it is a pain in the butt
               | for a visa holder making such a transition. Technically,
               | to remain in status a visa worker has to also be
               | performing the duties on their petition, so even if they
               | get paid during non-compete it can lead for them to leave
               | the US. Since this is not as simple to enforce and not
               | rigorously checked, their previous employer does not
               | revoke their petition till they start at their new firm.
               | Since the workers petition is still active with USCIS,
               | they're getting paid and have benefits still active, it
               | just appears that the employee is still working.
        
         | welder wrote:
         | Another way to say that:
         | 
         | USA is really mean [to immigrants].
        
           | FredPret wrote:
           | Mean? No. Confusing and illogical? Yes
        
           | rmk wrote:
           | It's a slap in the face of legal immigrants. This, along with
           | quotas that restrict permanent residency based on place of
           | birth, are inhumane policies that signal to legal immigrants
           | that they are not wanted here. Apparently, the fact that
           | millions of hispanic illegal immigrants already break the
           | putative purpose of the quota: that no large segment of the
           | population has close ties to any given country, so that they
           | can not disproportionately influence foreign policy toward
           | that country (e.g., Donetsk and Luhansk) is of no
           | consequence: the quota remains in place. Meanwhile, Canada is
           | planning to bring in 500,000 immigrants a year to replace
           | boomers leaving the workforce. A phenomenal opportunity to
           | bring in highly-paid citizens who will integrate very easily
           | into the country and provide economic benefits from day one
           | to the host country.
        
           | lzooz wrote:
           | Mean why? Staying in a foreign country is a privilege not a
           | right.
        
             | schon wrote:
             | If you spent a lot of time and money moving to a new
             | country for work then you don't want to do all that again.
             | In the USA, if you aren't a citizen and you have a working
             | TN visa, then you literally have DAYS to find a new job or
             | else you get deported. Thats why its important, because the
             | current laws aren't realistic with finding a new job. They
             | don't take into account the multiple interviews, the slow
             | responses and callbacks. The entire process takes a long
             | time.
        
             | KptMarchewa wrote:
             | If you give someone that privilege then treat them as
             | human. US prefers to hang that privilege upon people and
             | treat them capriciously.
             | 
             | Similar situation is in US work ethic, where CEO is
             | something akin to a feudal lord.
        
               | lzooz wrote:
               | So if a guest overstays their welcome and you kick them
               | out of the house you are treating them as an animal?
        
               | blep_ wrote:
               | You're confusing vacations with immigration. If that
               | "guest" has come to your house on the premise that
               | they're going to live with you, and you kick them out,
               | yes, that is bad.
               | 
               | We even have laws about this, that's why there's a whole
               | eviction process and it applies to people living with you
               | as much as to normal tenants.
        
               | ipaddr wrote:
               | They come to work at a specific job when that
               | relationship ends so does your access.
               | 
               | It's like giving a home plumber access to your yard and
               | then you move but he still hang around your yard.
        
               | blep_ wrote:
               | Plumbers do not come to your house with the intention of
               | permanently living there.
        
               | carlitossway wrote:
               | Leaving aside other factors, you're redefining
               | "overstays" as "not leaving the premises fast enough when
               | told to leave before the original deadline".
               | 
               | And no, that's not treating them as animals. But you are
               | not exactly a proper host either.
        
             | matai_kolila wrote:
             | What entities a person born in a nation to is resources
             | more so then someone born outside of that nation? You can't
             | control where you're born, why would that be then used to
             | determine... well, anything about you?
        
               | lzooz wrote:
               | Birthright. Parents, grandparents, etc. fought for their
               | wealth, freedoms, rights, etc.
        
               | matai_kolila wrote:
               | None of which you did anything to earn.
        
               | lzooz wrote:
               | My ancestors earned it and they chose to give it to their
               | descendance.
        
               | matai_kolila wrote:
        
               | lzooz wrote:
               | Yes they earned their society because they worked on it,
               | no it wasn't a selfish choice because the society was and
               | is theirs, and yes you can own progress, a society, and
               | freedom. Which is why half the world is monkeys flinging
               | feces and some would kill to enter the first world.
        
               | matai_kolila wrote:
               | Uh they didn't work alone on it, and they left a ton of
               | people out, ripping freedom and progress from their hands
               | without a second thought.
               | 
               | Your ancestors were thieves and oppressors, and took
               | things that didn't belong to them, which means the
               | resulting better society isn't yours or theirs to give or
               | take. It's free for whoever comes and helps grow it.
               | 
               | Honestly I wish we had some mechanism to cast out the
               | entitled and let in the hopeful. People who believe as
               | you do don't deserve the gift of a progressive society.
        
               | lzooz wrote:
               | >Your ancestors were thieves and oppressors
               | 
               | You are a self-loathing, little person.
        
               | matai_kolila wrote:
               | Maybe, but that doesn't change anything I said. You have
               | no right over foreigners to the benefits of living in
               | your society.
        
               | arbitrary_name wrote:
               | That strikes me as a very unnecessary ad hominem.
               | 
               | I personally think their statement has a high likelihood
               | of being valid, at least in part, and only on a
               | probabilistic basis.
               | 
               | Your response indicates they hit a nerve.
        
               | lzooz wrote:
               | He insulted my ancestors, which includes direct family
               | members, some of which went through a civil war to build
               | my country the way it is, and they are still alive today.
               | I have a right to reply.
        
               | matai_kolila wrote:
               | If facts insult you, your problem is with the facts.
               | 
               | You don't get to decide who is free.
               | 
               | I really don't intend to offend you, but I do intend on
               | completely killing the idea that you _deserve_ what being
               | a member of your country is, and others _don 't_ just
               | because they weren't born geographically proximate to
               | you.
        
               | mikem170 wrote:
               | People used to be free to go anywhere in the world, up
               | until states commanded enough force to exclude
               | foreigners.
               | 
               | Funny though how money is still allowed to go anywhere in
               | the world, while people are trapped in their own
               | countries (for better or worse). Those with money can
               | make more money, taking advantage of labor and other
               | resources that can't move, often to the detriment of
               | labor at home and the environment abroad.
        
               | bell-cot wrote:
               | > People used to be free to go anywhere in the world...
               | 
               | Except that ~zero prehistoric people had access to the
               | resources / skills / knowledge / etc. to actually travel
               | really long distances.
               | 
               | And if they tried moving, _at scale_ , into an already-
               | inhabited area - well, whether or not the people in the
               | destination qualified as a "state", I suspect that pretty
               | universally resulted in violent push-back.
        
               | RHSeeger wrote:
               | There's nothing innate to the universe that defines
               | things this way. But they, as a society, have defined
               | things that way. They, as a society, worked together to
               | build up the infrastructure and the resources that are on
               | top of that infrastructure. And then, as a society,
               | decided what the rules are to participate in that
               | society. So no, there's no universal law that says "the
               | people born here have the rights of this society"; but
               | the people of that society have decreed it so.
               | 
               | It's the same way every other right exists. Property
               | rights don't exist as a law of the universe. Rather, "the
               | people" decided they like the stability of having
               | "permanent" control over things so, as a group, decided
               | to enforce those rights.
        
               | ericmcer wrote:
               | Why care about my parents or family? They are just
               | people, I don't even like them as much as others. Why
               | can't anyone be part of my family and why can't I jump to
               | another one?
               | 
               | Society is a sacred part of what makes human beings
               | human, it is why we are such a successful species. It
               | requires cultural indoctrination and nationalism and
               | things that definitely have an ugly side, but are also
               | important to our function.
               | 
               | Your viewpoint basically assumes people have no loyalty,
               | nationalism or responsibility to their society so they
               | can be freely swapped with anybody.
        
               | blep_ wrote:
               | > Why can't anyone be part of my family
               | 
               | Because you won't let them.
               | 
               | > and why can't I jump to another one?
               | 
               | You can. People do sometimes, if their birth family is
               | bad enough.
               | 
               | Immigrants are, by definition, people with more loyalty
               | to another country than to the one they were born in. Why
               | deny them that?
        
               | matai_kolila wrote:
               | Yea, _if someone wants to_ , they can and should be able
               | to freely swap which society they participate in.
               | 
               | We are successful as a species because we socialize, and
               | there is no reason to limit that only to people who were
               | born in specific geographic areas; that doesn't make any
               | sense.
               | 
               | It would make a lot more sense to group by shared goals
               | and beliefs, with free movement as your goals and beliefs
               | change.
               | 
               | Blind nationalistic loyalty is in no way a requirement
               | for a successful human society.
        
               | ericmcer wrote:
               | You don't think it is easier to socialize with people
               | with similar upbringings and culture to you? You don't
               | think a group of people indoctrinated into a society from
               | birth are more likely to share goals and beliefs than
               | someone born into a different one?
               | 
               | Blind nationalism is bad, but absolutely no
               | responsibility towards the society and the people that
               | raised and support you is a crazy take. You're ideal
               | would only work if we had 0 social programs and people
               | were 100% responsible for providing for themselves and
               | their loved ones, including education.
        
               | matai_kolila wrote:
               | Of _course_ you have a responsibility towards the society
               | and the people who raised and support you.
               | 
               | That just doesn't involve excluding others from that
               | society. They deserve, just as much as you, to
               | participate (and improve!) in your society as you do.
               | 
               | My country only exists because people came from many
               | other societies and brought the best parts of those
               | societies together to create my country and its culture.
               | I want that for everyone, if they want it for themselves.
        
               | ericmcer wrote:
               | I doubt your country was the result of a bunch of people
               | from a bunch of different countries coming together to
               | create a new nation. It was almost certainly a group of
               | like minded people who all came from the same place
               | creating an offshoot that is influenced by the original.
               | 
               | Especially given that the ability for global
               | communication is newer than most existing countries.
        
               | RHSeeger wrote:
               | Are there any societies that have not exerted, or at
               | least claimed the right to exert, control over who is and
               | is not part of that society? The reasons for exercising
               | that control may vary, but I can't think of or even
               | imagine one that doesn't have this control.
        
               | matai_kolila wrote:
               | The key is which things you exclude people over. A
               | society can have values, but if those values discriminate
               | based on aspects of a person that are outside of the
               | person's control, that society is not operating
               | ethically.
               | 
               | Western societies all value liberty, and liberty is
               | incompatible with exclusion based on geographic origin.
        
               | ipaddr wrote:
               | All countries discriminate based on things you can never
               | change like birth place. All countries. If they didn't
               | they do not exist anymore. That's a poor strategy for
               | western nation or any nation. Even the poorest countries
               | don't allow that.
        
               | matai_kolila wrote:
               | So? Nearly all countries at one point allowed slavery,
               | refused to let women vote, and a ton of countries were
               | ruled by an authoritarian monarchy, that doesn't mean it
               | was a good idea.
        
               | yowlingcat wrote:
               | What entitles you to the resources in your home anymore
               | than someone outside of your home? They can't control
               | that they were born outside of your home, so why should
               | that be used to determine whether they can freely enter
               | your home and make use of your resources or not?
        
               | matai_kolila wrote:
               | This is not the compelling argument you think it is; in
               | this analogy I:
               | 
               | * didn't buy my house, I inherited it,
               | 
               | * the people I inherited it from stole it from other
               | people who
               | 
               | * also still live in the house somehow but just in the
               | not-as-nice parts, and
               | 
               | * the house is gigantic and can easily fit literally
               | billions more people without even coming close to
               | exhausting the resources of the house, in fact
               | 
               | * bringing more people into the house would in fact
               | substantially _increase_ the house 's shared ability to
               | operate and provide for the members of the house.
               | 
               | So yeah, if we want to use this analogy in a meaningful
               | way, nothing at all entitles me to my house!
        
             | renewiltord wrote:
             | Seems a bit non-sequitur. Whether you're mean or not is not
             | a factor of whether you are giving people their rights.
             | Like, if I called you a doofus on this website every time I
             | saw you, I'm probably being mean but not denying you your
             | rights or anything.
        
             | PartiallyTyped wrote:
             | I mean, it's all imaginary lines carved eons ago by
             | colonialists with blood for ink, but who cares.
        
               | eddsh1994 wrote:
               | Even Chimpanzee tribes have land borders that they
               | protect. When do 'imaginary lines' just become 'lines',
               | when they've been created and destroyed since pre-
               | history?
               | 
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gombe_Chimpanzee_War
        
               | matai_kolila wrote:
               | Hm, "chimps do it" is not the stellar argument you think
               | it is. Chimps throw feces, should we start doing that
               | too?
        
               | eddsh1994 wrote:
               | My point is while 'imaginary lines' seem theoretically
               | interesting to point out when we discuss free movement,
               | it's far too ingrained into animals to really change.
               | Maybe in the distant future we will have planets as
               | borders instead of country lines, but the lines will be
               | there!
               | 
               | Also any reason to point out Chimpanzees have wars
               | including patrolling land borders and recon missions :)
        
               | matai_kolila wrote:
               | The main thing we have over animals is our ability to
               | reason, so if anyone can overcome petty border disputes,
               | it's us.
               | 
               | "Animals do it" is not a compelling argument for humans
               | to participate in... well, anything. We know better!
        
               | PartiallyTyped wrote:
               | One would expect that a species that looks at the stars
               | and longs to explore would have found ways to reconcile
               | coexistance of tribes. Alas, we are but hairless
               | Chimpanzees with speech and clothes.
        
             | welder wrote:
             | Looks like they have 60 days to find a new job... I thought
             | the grace period was shorter when I commented, but still
             | that's not much time compared to other countries I've lived
             | in. I'm from the USA. I think the way the US treats skilled
             | workers is stupid. We want smart skilled people to
             | immigrate, not make it hard on them. Can you imagine living
             | with the threat of being kicked out lingering over you? I
             | would never feel secure or set down real roots in a country
             | that might kick me out in 60 days.
             | 
             | Edit: Depending on the type of visa you're kicked out of
             | the country much sooner than 60 days.
        
           | imgabe wrote:
           | What other countries would you say are friendlier and easier
           | to immigrate to than the US? In most places it is not an
           | option unless you have a job offer or significant wealth.
        
             | schon wrote:
             | Canada is much easier than the USA.
        
               | mardifoufs wrote:
               | This is completely false for most types of immigrants.
               | Only work visas are somewhat easier to get.
        
             | DataOverload wrote:
        
             | screye wrote:
             | > unless you have a job offer or significant wealth
             | 
             | Isn't that exactly the same for the US ? If anything,
             | because of the lottery, having a job offer is only gives
             | you a 30% chance to actually get the visa. The USA
             | (practically) has no path to permanent residency if you are
             | Indian.
             | 
             | Even just getting to the job offer needs you to be on an
             | F1-OPT which usually implies between $100-200k of college
             | tuition just to apply for a job permit.
             | 
             | In that sense, the US needs both significant wealth & a job
             | offer all while giving no pathway to permanent residency if
             | you're born in the wrong country.
             | 
             | _______
             | 
             | For tech workers: Canada, the EU (through France, Ireland)
             | and Australia are certainly easier to immigrate to. (wages
             | are another question). Singapore & Dubai/UAE are popular
             | destinations for working, though PRs can be awkward or
             | impossible.
             | 
             | Even supposed harder to immigrate countries look easier, if
             | you think about how every country needs you to be fluent in
             | the local language. That everyone learns English is a
             | testament to the political dominance of the USA & the UK
             | over the last 300 years, and not a foregone conclusion.
        
               | imgabe wrote:
               | There are over a billion people in India. There are
               | probably more people in India who would like to move to
               | the US than there are people currently in the US.
               | 
               | I'm sympathetic, but it's not really feasible for the US
               | to accommodate everyone in the world and it's not like
               | the US owes it to anyone to just let anyone live there
               | just because they'd like to.
        
               | legolas2412 wrote:
               | If you are arguing that there are an unsustainable number
               | of employment based green cards being handed out, you
               | could not be more wrong.
               | 
               | USA hands out a million green cards every year. But only
               | 150k are employment based. These are capped at 7% for
               | each country. Only 10k out of a million green cards are
               | assigned per year for Indian immigrants based on their
               | employments.
               | 
               | For all the talk of meritocracy, looking beyond skin
               | color, and valuing high skilled immigrants, USA
               | definitely has policies that discriminate on national
               | origin and actively encourage low skilled immigration (2
               | million unauthorized border crossings, policies allowing
               | rampant "abuse" in h1b/eb1c visas whenever high skilled
               | immigrants are concerned, constant opposition to making
               | it easier for PhDs to get a green card or say putting
               | wage rules on h1b/eb1,2,3).
        
               | screye wrote:
               | I mean, people aren't asking for infinite slots for
               | Indians. Hell, they aren't even asking for more slots.
               | 
               | They are asking for one or multiple of :
               | 
               | 1. Use of lapsed green cards slots from other categories
               | to be used for pending green cards.
               | 
               | 2. Removal/Relaxing of the 7% rule, which uniquely
               | inconveniences Indians. (If the idea is diversity, then
               | in almost every way India is more diverse than
               | arbitrarily formed culturally homogeneous tiny nations
               | around the world.)
               | 
               | 3. More humane work permit rules for those who have a PR
               | in the waiting. Eg: relaxing the insane 60 day
               | unemployment rule, reducing need to restamp visa
               | incredibly often, allowing secondary sources of income or
               | starting a startup.
               | 
               | 4. More stable processing times and predictions on how
               | long PR waiting time actually are. Current estimates vary
               | from 20-100 years. That is simply unacceptable as a
               | range.
        
               | SoftTalker wrote:
               | Is this specific to tech jobs? Because it seems to me
               | that Indians can routinely become convenience store and
               | hotel owners in the US?
        
               | screye wrote:
               | It is the family pathway which is available only to very
               | small communities whose (mostly) brothers immigrated to
               | the US in the 80-90s. That's because afaik, it also has a
               | 20-ish year waiting. So the convenience store owners are
               | very likely to be folks from this group that are getting
               | green cards for applications they put in when they used
               | to young. There is a reason they all seem to be old men.
               | Most young Indians at these stores are part-time workers
               | on visa studying at universities nearby.
               | 
               | For the last couple of decades, a US university degree ->
               | STEM job is the only way known legal way for an Indian to
               | come to US on their own merit. I specify STEM, because
               | none of the other professions get the STEM-OPT (3 tries
               | at the low-probability h1b lottery vs 1 try for normal
               | students), so most US employers blanket reject candidates
               | in non-STEM professions.
        
             | oytis wrote:
             | I can say about Germany. There is a working visa for
             | qualified workers called Blue Card which is what most
             | software engineers get. With it you can stay unemployed for
             | three months and can apply for a jobseeker visa after that
             | without having to return. Also if you know German above
             | certain level you can get a permanent residency after less
             | than two years, which is not tied to being employed
        
             | eddsh1994 wrote:
             | Have you tried to immigrate to the US? Have you tried to
             | immigrate to any country in the EU or the UK? The latter is
             | far easier than the former (I'm English living in the US
             | with a Finnish wife, so have had to look at all these
             | systems since Brexit).
        
               | dilyevsky wrote:
               | I have. The UK is as hard or possibly even harder now
               | (since the brexit) as US. The rest of EU is not as hard
               | but you need to weigh by pay difference and how many
               | people actually want to immigrate, then it's not even
               | close.
        
               | eddsh1994 wrote:
               | Essentially the UK requires you to speak English and have
               | a job offer over 26k GBP in a skilled role where
               | 'Skilled' expects the skills needed are that of an 18
               | year old school leaver, or less skill requirements if
               | it's a role with a shortage, or less money if you have an
               | advanced degree. That's pretty open IMO.
        
               | Spivak wrote:
               | Dang, the US doesn't even require you speak English.
        
               | umanwizard wrote:
               | In practice it seems unlikely that someone could get an
               | H1B-eligible job without speaking English, except in some
               | unusual situations.
        
               | gray_-_wolf wrote:
               | Isn't this probably caused by US actually not having an
               | official language?
        
               | renewiltord wrote:
               | Tier 2 general visa is much easier than H1-B. Tier 2 ICT
               | is near instant. You can then switch the latter to the
               | former quite easily. And then it's 5 years flat to having
               | ILR (which is a green card equivalent).
               | 
               | If you're Indian, you're waiting _way_ longer than that
               | in the US.
               | 
               | However, I think if you're not from India/China/Mexico,
               | the constraint is that getting an H-1B is lottery-bound,
               | and then you'll get the GC easily.
        
               | WeylandYutani wrote:
               | It's easy to immigrate to the Netherlands if you have
               | money or are highly educated. Anyone else is fucked.
               | 
               | None of that "give us your teeming useless masses from
               | Africa" stuff.
        
             | devoutsalsa wrote:
             | I've traveled around and looking into residing outside of
             | my native USA. It's much easier in many places to get
             | residency. You can get a job offer which leads to a work
             | visa pretty easily. You can start a company and hire
             | yourself. You can simply apply for residency if you have
             | foreign sourced income. You can buy a property or invest.
             | There are lots of options, and most of these options are
             | not options in the USA.
        
           | jimbob45 wrote:
           | No other country lets in more immigrants per year. The US has
           | more immigrants than any other country by a wide margin.
           | 
           | https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-
           | rankings/immigrati...
           | 
           | https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/mapped-immigration-by-
           | co...
        
             | toephu2 wrote:
             | Wow 38% of Saudi Arabia's population are immigrants? Never
             | imagined that one. Always seemed like a closed off country
             | which people couldn't even travel to for tourism (unless
             | making a pilgrimage to Mecca as a Muslim) until recently
             | (2019).
        
             | srathi wrote:
             | Dubai has almost 90% of population as immigrants! TIL.
        
             | vkou wrote:
             | Not per capita, which is the only sensible metric to use.
             | Germany, Canada, Australia are all higher on that.
        
               | TehShrike wrote:
               | "as a percentage of people who would like to immigrate
               | there" would also be interesting to see :-x
        
               | toephu2 wrote:
               | Per capita it seems Saudi Arabia is #1? (for any country
               | with a population higher than 10 million)
               | 
               | Surprised to see it higher than Canada, U.S., and any
               | major country in Europe...
        
               | mrguyorama wrote:
               | Do middle eastern despotic regimes count the bodies the
               | bury under their construction sites as "Immigrants"?
        
               | taude wrote:
               | In this case, the net metric is the sensible one to use.
        
               | jeffy90 wrote:
               | why is the net metric more sensible in this case?
        
               | pb7 wrote:
               | Not the GP but a larger total number means you have a
               | higher likelihood of being one of the people to be
               | granted entry. A country of 1000 people may accept 10
               | people and that be a very large per-capita rate, but odds
               | of you being one of 10 people accepted out of billions of
               | possible immigrants is very low. It's not like it's one
               | visa application for all countries in the world.
        
           | eddsh1994 wrote:
           | I'm an immigrant in the US, I don't think they're mean
           | (albeit very bureaucratic)! I can just imagine the relief
           | these guys have over Xmas though.
        
           | whydoyoucare wrote:
           | Yet another way to say that:
           | 
           | USA is very friendly to immigrants - it is not a homogeneous
           | society, and there is mutual respect of all religions,
           | faiths, and languages. On contrast, I find many populations
           | in EU to be actively hostile towards immigrants (in Germany
           | one will have a difficult time not knowing German, for
           | example).
           | 
           | As a result, it is a demand and supply problem. Compare how
           | many are wanting to immigrate to, say, Germany, Austria or
           | Switzerland, as opposed to US.
        
             | welder wrote:
             | > in Germany one will have a difficult time not knowing
             | German, for example
             | 
             | No, that couldn't be farther from the truth. I lived in
             | Germany, and have friends there who still don't know German
             | after 10+ years and never have any problems. If you work in
             | a non-office industry you need German, but in office/tech
             | workplaces nobody knows German.
        
               | whydoyoucare wrote:
               | [Nah, posted without proper thought, so deleting].
        
               | kaesar14 wrote:
               | I'd honestly not want an immigrant in my country who
               | lives there for 10 years without learning the language.
               | What a way to not make any effort to integrate into your
               | chosen society.
        
               | whydoyoucare wrote:
               | In my experience, integration into a society is a gradual
               | process with no well-defined boundaries. Maybe this is
               | where US and many seemingly homogeneous EU countries
               | differ?
        
             | qwytw wrote:
             | Germany, Austria or Switzerland all have higher net
             | immigration per capita than US. According to 2015-2020
             | average (estimate) more than twice as many people moved to
             | Germany than to US (relative to population of course).
        
             | Spivak wrote:
             | The US is very friendly to the immigrat _ed_ but is very
             | unfriendly to the immigrat _ing_.
        
           | smnrchrds wrote:
           | To add some context, in Canada, if you lose your job as a
           | work permit holder, you can stay until the expiry date of the
           | permit. In Germany, you can get a six-month jobseeker
           | residence permit in this case. In France, you can stay until
           | the expiry date of your work permit, then renew it for one
           | extra year, and then if you still have remaining entitlement
           | to unemployment benefits, extend it until the end of the
           | benefits. Not every country is like the US, where you have 60
           | days to uproot and leave.
        
             | totetsu wrote:
             | Japan's unemployment insurance won't pay out after the end
             | of a work permit even if there is a remaining entitlement,
             | because your not 'available to work', even if you're on a
             | specific job seeking permit extension.
        
             | acchow wrote:
             | 60 days? On a TN, you get until the end of the day
        
               | alibero wrote:
               | I was under the impression you got a 60 day grace on the
               | TN as well: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-8/chapter-
               | I/subchapter-B/...
               | 
               | "An alien admitted or otherwise provided status in E-1,
               | E-2, E-3, H-1B, H-1B1, L-1, O-1 or TN classification and
               | his or her dependents shall not be considered to have
               | failed to maintain nonimmigrant status solely on the
               | basis of a cessation of the employment on which the
               | alien's classification was based, for up to 60
               | consecutive days or until the end of the authorized
               | validity period, whichever is shorter, once during each
               | authorized validity period. DHS may eliminate or shorten
               | this 60-day period as a matter of discretion. Unless
               | otherwise authorized under 8 CFR 274a.12, the alien may
               | not work during such a period."
               | 
               | This is also what I've been told by my company's lawyers.
        
               | pkaye wrote:
               | TN visas have some advantages. There are no yearly caps
               | and it can be renewed indefinitely. Also easier to get a
               | new job. One disadvantage is it is not dual intent.
        
               | guyzero wrote:
               | People have gone straight from TN status to green cards
               | apparently but there are risks! But I have been told it
               | has been done.
        
               | acchow wrote:
               | It has been done often. There are risks.
        
               | ska wrote:
               | I think the 24hr/"end of the day" thing is for the
               | natural termination - i.e. you knew when your TN term
               | ended, and were expected to leave when it's done and have
               | made plans for it. Even then though I've never heard of
               | people getting sticky for reasonable travel time also,
               | just that you clearly had the plan and intent to leave
               | the country after your work permission expired. But who
               | knows, the whole system is rife with inequal results due
               | to reliance on individual border staff decisions.
               | 
               | If you get fired/company folds/etc. then I think the 60
               | days things holds.
        
               | ghshephard wrote:
               | I think the wording is "As soon as administratively
               | possible" - But I've also read that to mean within 24
               | hours of your termination you need to have left the
               | United States, and have always adhered to that rule.
        
           | rhapsodic wrote:
        
         | alberth wrote:
         | > Pay + RSU vest: Anyone impacted will receive 17 weeks (13
         | weeks + 1 four-week lump sum severance pay) of compensation, as
         | well as your February 2023 stock vest.
         | 
         | So basically, DoorDash is setting the termination date to align
         | with when severance pay ends.
        
         | bgorman wrote:
         | Doesn't this violate anti-discrimination laws? It seems like
         | this discriminates against US citizens (discrimination by
         | national origin).
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | davewritescode wrote:
           | How? You get severance until March the only difference
           | between US and non-US employees is the technically the date
           | that employment ends. Everyone is paid through March anyway.
        
           | happygolucky_in wrote:
           | While US citizens can take their time and find another job
           | while also receive unemployment benefits, someone on H1 visa
           | has to technically leave the country as soon as possible.A
           | laid off person on H1 cannot remain unemployed and continue
           | to remain in the country. This is particularly hard on those
           | with families, many living in this country for 10+ years,
           | with school going kids. Many have been waiting for years to
           | get a green card. This is a very kind gesture by the
           | employer. Hope more employers do this.
        
           | schon wrote:
           | It doesn't mean they are paid until then... it just says your
           | last day as an employee is that date, giving them time to
           | look for other jobs. Don't confuse it with being paid to do
           | nothing because that isn't the case.
        
           | sidewndr46 wrote:
           | It appears this has been done for all employees. So no in
           | this case.
        
           | syzarian wrote:
           | Discrimination laws apply to protected classes. Visa holders
           | are not a protected class.
        
           | nsonha wrote:
           | I guess they should also kick US citizen employees out of the
           | country by March 1?
        
           | bhouser wrote:
           | How is it discrimination if they set the termination date for
           | ALL employees to March 1, 2023?
        
           | minhazm wrote:
           | It doesn't say the end date is _only_ for visa holders. It 's
           | just saying that visa holders will particularly benefit from
           | it.
        
           | teaearlgraycold wrote:
           | By that logic is the existence of visa programs
           | discrimination by national origin?
        
             | howinteresting wrote:
             | No.
             | 
             | What _is_ discrimination by national origin is the fact
             | that employment-based green cards have a quota by country
             | of birth, without any adjustment for the country 's
             | population. However, the American legal system accepts that
             | kind of discrimination by national origin, because it
             | doesn't fall under the Civil Rights Act.
        
             | sidewndr46 wrote:
             | No, because the employer must prove their are no legal
             | residents in the US that are eligible for the job.
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | howinteresting wrote:
               | This is a common myth but is not true for H-1B visas. It
               | is true for EB2 and EB3 green cards, however.
        
               | sidewndr46 wrote:
               | As part of the LCA the employer must attest there is no
               | strike or lockout, that the salary of similarly employed
               | workers is not affected, & that the job application must
               | be provided to workers already at the company.
               | 
               | So no, you can't just threaten to replace all your
               | employees with H1-B visa holders.
        
               | howinteresting wrote:
               | Right, but that's not "their _[sic]_ are no legal
               | residents in the US that are eligible for the job ".
               | That's the PERM process.
        
               | sidewndr46 wrote:
               | Damn you are dense. It is on the employer to prove they
               | are not affecting the wages of US legal residents as part
               | of the LCA.
               | 
               | Bringing in foreign labor to a market implicitly lowers
               | the wages of those workers. That is how markets work.
               | Thus, there must be absolutely 0 residents already
               | capable of performing the job. Otherwise the LCA is
               | fraudulent. The only other possibility would be the
               | employer is bringing in foreign labor to pay them a
               | premium over legal residents. Which obviously no one
               | does.
        
               | renewiltord wrote:
               | This advice is incongruent with that of any lawyer I have
               | consulted on the subject (both from the perspective of an
               | employer and as an employee). To those interested in the
               | subject, you'll have a more accurate picture of the
               | current legal climate from a lawyer. In my experience, it
               | will be very different from this user's legal
               | determination of whether one must prove the existence of
               | 0 US residents for the job. As an employer, USCIS has
               | never required this proof from us for a H-1B.
        
               | vore wrote:
               | Just as a clarification, the poster is talking about PERM
               | for EB-2 and EB-3 visas which do kind of have those
               | requirements, not H-1B.
        
               | howinteresting wrote:
               | > It is on the employer to prove they are not affecting
               | the wages of US legal residents as part of the LCA.
               | 
               | False. All that matters is that H1B workers are being
               | paid over the prevailing wage.
               | 
               | > Bringing in foreign labor to a market implicitly lowers
               | the wages of those workers.
               | 
               | False. Almost every study done on this has shown the
               | opposite.
               | 
               | > That is how markets work.
               | 
               | False. That is how the first lecture in Econ 101 says
               | markets work. The first lecture in Econ 101 isn't real.
               | 
               | > Thus, there must be absolutely 0 residents already
               | capable of performing the job.
               | 
               | False.
               | 
               | > Otherwise the LCA is fraudulent.
               | 
               | False.
               | 
               | > The only other possibility would be the employer is
               | bringing in foreign labor to pay them a premium over
               | legal residents. Which obviously no one does.
               | 
               | False. Depends on the employer. You have to pay H1B
               | employees more than the prevailing wage for the job. Many
               | employers target 80th or even 90th+ percentile wages for
               | everyone, including H1B workers.
        
               | qwytw wrote:
               | > False. Depends on the employer. You have to pay H1B
               | employees more than the prevailing wage for the job. Many
               | employers target 80th or even 90th+ percentile wages for
               | everyone, including H1B workers.
               | 
               | Technically not false, pretty obtuse though. Or are you
               | claiming that e.g. software engineers/IT professionals on
               | H1B visas are paid more than local with comparable
               | skills/qualifications?
               | 
               | > Bringing in foreign labor to a market implicitly lowers
               | the wages of those workers. > False. That is how the
               | first lecture in Econ 101 says markets work. The first
               | lecture in Econ 101 isn't real.
               | 
               | You might try telling that J.Powell he probably never
               | went past Econ 101 (if you listen what he says).
        
               | howinteresting wrote:
               | I'm saying that people on H1B are paid more than the
               | prevailing wage for a metropolitan region. Many employers
               | pay _all_ employees more than the prevailing wage for the
               | metropolitan region.
               | 
               | Where has Powell said anything about immigration,
               | especially the sort of skilled immigration that H1Bs are
               | issued for, and the labor market?
        
               | sidewndr46 wrote:
               | > Many employers pay all employees more than the
               | prevailing wage for the metropolitan region.
               | 
               | That's not how statistics work. You can't just have
               | everyone paying above the normal wage. We'd call it the
               | normal wage.
        
               | howinteresting wrote:
               | Do you understand that "employer" and "metropolitan
               | region" are not the same? Some employers pay more, others
               | pay less.
               | 
               | Anyway, I'm done with this. Go talk to a lawyer and see
               | what they say.
        
               | sidewndr46 wrote:
               | You do realize writing "False" doesn't make it an axiom?
        
               | vore wrote:
               | Regarding "Thus, there must be absolutely 0 residents
               | already capable of performing the job.", I think on paper
               | it's true but the burden on the employer to prove that
               | there are absolutely 0 residents already capable of
               | performing the job is really low:
               | https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/20/656.17
               | (e)(1)(i) Mandatory steps. Two of the steps, a job order
               | and two print advertisements, are mandatory for all
               | applications involving professional occupations, except
               | applications for college or university teachers selected
               | in a competitive selection and recruitment process as
               | provided in SS 656.18. The mandatory recruitment steps
               | must be conducted at least 30 days, but no more than 180
               | days, before the filing of the application.
               | (A) Job order. [...]         (B) Advertisements in
               | newspaper or professional journals. [...]
               | (e)(1)(ii) Additional recruitment steps. The employer
               | must select three additional recruitment steps from the
               | alternatives listed in paragraphs (e)(1)(ii)(A)-(J) of
               | this section. Only one of the additional steps may
               | consist solely of activity that took place within 30 days
               | of the filing of the application. None of the steps may
               | have taken place more than 180 days prior to filing the
               | application.              (A) Job fairs. [...]
               | (B) Employer's Web site. [...]         (C) Job search Web
               | site other than the employer's. [...]         (D) On-
               | campus recruiting. [...]         (E) Trade or
               | professional organizations. [...]         (F) Private
               | employment firms. [...]         (G) Employee referral
               | program with incentives. [...]         (H) Campus
               | placement offices. [...]         (I) Local and ethnic
               | newspapers. [...]         (J) Radio and television
               | advertisements. [...]
        
           | kzrdude wrote:
           | That question reminds me of those equality vs equity
           | pictures. I'm not sure I even agree with those definitions,
           | but it's a commonly spread explanation. https://www.marinhhs.
           | org/sites/default/files/boards/general/...
           | 
           | So one question is then, which view does a court take?
        
             | gizmo686 wrote:
             | Notably, DoorDash is providing the benefit equally to all
             | fired employees [0].
             | 
             | [0] At least those working within the US.
        
             | djur wrote:
             | This "benefit" is available to everyone laid off. It's not
             | discriminatory just because some people don't need it.
             | Otherwise offering free bicycle storage would be
             | discriminatory to people who bus to work, and offering free
             | bus passes would be discriminatory to cyclists.
        
               | pc86 wrote:
               | We would be well served to be a little more
               | discriminatory against cyclists.
        
       | cletus wrote:
       | Americans generally won't appreciate how scary this can be for
       | those on work visas, particularly when the chances of finding a
       | new job have dropped drastically. Generally speaking, work visas
       | and employment-based green cards are based on the premise that
       | you were unable to fill the role with an American citizen or
       | lawful permanent resident ("LPR"). That becomes tricky for
       | sponsoring such a process if you recently laid people off. There
       | are also more job applicants and it becomes harder to lawfully
       | filter them out to justify your case.
       | 
       | For people born in India, regardless of current citizenship, this
       | may end up terminate a wait for a green card that has been
       | ongoing for 10-15 years, leaving them little choice but to leave
       | the country.
       | 
       | The process is completely arbitrary and deliberately capricious.
       | For example, USCIS randomly audits some percentage (estimated to
       | be ~30%) of applications, ostensibly to stop people figuring out
       | how to game the system (ie by figuring out what USCIS will flag
       | for further review). Now that's fine in principle but the audit
       | (at the time my application was in process) added an additional
       | 18 months. Completely randomly. When the audit happened it simply
       | passed. with no requests for evidence ("RFEs").
       | 
       | Another example: examiners aren't consistent. Your case will be
       | assigned to an officer. That officer might be quick or slow. Two
       | different officers may treat the same application different. For
       | example, one may request a form you and your lawyer think
       | unnecessary while another doesn't. If you proactively include it
       | anyway, that too can lead to delays to explain why that form is
       | in there.
       | 
       | Unfortunately immigrants are an easy political scapegoat and a
       | non-voting one at that. No party seems inclined to truly address
       | these problems. Or it comes up occasionally with a bad bill.
       | 
       | In 2004, PBS had a documentary called The New Americans. I can't
       | really find a way to wtach it online. It follows immigrants from
       | a number of different countries. One was an Indian man (and his
       | family) who got laid off in the dot-com crash (and ultimately
       | returned to India IIRC). I suspect there'll be many repetitions
       | of this in the coming year.
       | 
       | This lack of certainty and security in your living situation can
       | hang over your head for years, sometimes more than a decade. It's
       | stressful and cruel.
        
         | outworlder wrote:
         | > That becomes tricky for sponsoring such a process if you
         | recently laid people off. There are also more job applicants
         | and it becomes harder to lawfully filter them out to justify
         | your case.
         | 
         | All correct. General recommendation is to wait at least six
         | months. A friend got his case delayed for two years, due to
         | constant layoffs in our area.
         | 
         | > for example, USCIS randomly audits some percentage (estimated
         | to be ~30%) of applications, ostensibly to stop people figuring
         | out how to game the system
         | 
         | Yeap. Got unlucky with that too. And apparently the audit did
         | nothing, because not only very simple and irrelevant things
         | were asked (like org charts for a non-managerial position).
         | Then, when I got to the I-140 process they issued a NOIR
         | (Notice of Intent to Revoke), asking for a document that was
         | filed in the PERM. One would think that, if there was an issue,
         | it would have been flagged back then.
         | 
         | What it did do was to delay the process by a lot. On top of the
         | usual delays - plus delays until your company gets around to
         | filing for your green card. Which they have zero incentive to
         | do.
         | 
         | Most immigrants don't know all the details and all the rules
         | that exist before they sign up. It's not due to lack of
         | research, it's because some things are really obscure and don't
         | come into play until you care about them. For example, H1B is
         | restricted to _one income source_ (spouse can't work). However,
         | there's an exception for purely "passive" income. Examples
         | would be investments - as long as you don't trade frequently.
         | What's "frequently"? Noone knows. Day trading is obviously out
         | but you still can't be "too active".
         | 
         | You can also be a landlord. But you are not allowed to be
         | involved in the day to day activities. For example, a faucet
         | broke. You could go to Home Depot, grab a new one and install
         | it, right? No, that would be a violation. You would have to pay
         | someone else to do it. But wouldn't hiring a plumber be
         | something that demands time, and thus you are "working"? No,
         | apparently not.
         | 
         | Even _expectation of future income_ can run afoul of the rules
         | (and you don't receive a booklet explaining that). For example:
         | you spouse cannot work, but can they start working on a game,
         | or iOS application, but not sell until they are authorized to
         | work? No, they can't. They are considered to be "working" even
         | if they are not getting any income right now.
         | 
         | So, if you are on H1B and your spouse has a career(but not in a
         | field that's in high demand), they essentially have to kiss
         | their career goodbye. There will be a massive gap in their
         | resume in the best case.
         | 
         | Also, if you are from India (not my case, and it still took 7
         | years), given the current wait times, even if you bring your
         | newborn to the US, there's a chance you won't get a green card
         | by the time they turn 21. Which means they will have to leave
         | as they are no longer considered to be your dependent. It
         | doesn't matter that they have not known any other country and
         | may not even speak the language.
         | 
         | Much more can be said about the whole thing. I would advise any
         | wanna-be immigrants to talk to someone that's been through the
         | process. Don't ask US citizens (unless they have naturalized
         | and used the work visa path) because they will have no idea
         | what the process is like.
        
         | roflyear wrote:
         | It is hard for me to appreciate, because while this does not
         | remove my empathy for those people, I do realize they
         | understood the terms when they took the job.
        
       | jrm4 wrote:
       | Sure. Honestly, forget this company _entirely._
       | 
       | There is _no_ good reason that any third party should see more
       | than a tiny tiny bit of operating money for the act of local
       | drivers delivering local food from local restaurants to local
       | customers.
       | 
       | They made a bit of money in the beginning, great. Time to move on
       | to a fairer solution, given that it's trivially easy to
       | replicate.
        
         | umanwizard wrote:
         | If it's so easy to replicate, what stops competitors from
         | undercutting them with lower fees and dominating the market?
        
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