[webbruce]

Based on some of these comments, the degree to which so many are out of touch is unbelievable. 17 MILLION people have filed for unemployment and I'm sure this week will be another 6M as companies don't keep this much cash on hand.

Tech's been living in a bubble for a long time and reality is starting to hit. Get out and talk to real people, not your Slack buddies working in SF.

[stephsmithio]

I have to agree with this. People have focused the entire conversation on if/when the virus will slowdown (which is of foremost importance), but there are business fundamentals that have already been stretched. We are already in a recession.

To reinforce this concept, take a look at how unemployment now compares to previous recessions: https://twitter.com/stephsmithio/status/1250122624094490624

[vsareto]

>Get out and talk to real people

Uh, nah, don't do that yet

[Ididntdothis]

I agree with you but the high number of unemployment claims is also a feature of the bailout plans. Let’s hope people will get hired back quickly.

[anonanon42]

My employer has just furloughed 30% of the company for 6 months. 6 freakin' months. And we were very profitable. This cut was not necessary to maintain neutral profit/loss...they want to keep profits up.

We're a software company backed by a brand name VC in SF. The board is in total meltdown.

[Ididntdothis]

Our system rewards people who relentlessly pursue their own advantage at the expense of others. The official talk is about shared sacrifice but the real winners are the ones who make others sacrifice. My company has a lot of problems but I really appreciate that they set out a goal to not lay off anybody. They could easily have laid off a lot of people but they didn’t. This will probably not get rewarded in the stock market but it shows that the company is not run by complete sociopaths like many others.

[eli]

Many companies will go out of business permanently. Even deep payroll cuts will not be enough to keep them solvent.

[sebazzz]

Those companies that fire people, do they also file for support money from the government? If that is the case, is that fair? Thinking from the perspective of a country which has actually good worker protection, so not as many people get fired and companies get support in paying their workers.

[user5994461]

Speaking from a country that may have one of the best worker protection (France) in the world, it's all smokes and mirrors. If your small-medium business is in trouble, the only sane thing to do for your employees is to layoff as quickly as possible, so they can register to unemployment benefits (and count in statistics).

You think any government is going to give you money as a business owner? Maybe if you're lucky but how much time and paperwork is it gonna take? You're not guaranteed to see any of it or when. Meanwhile, you're accruing significant debt from each employees and suppliers day over day, with no end in sight.

[jlaurend]

The legislation being enacted's main goal is to keep people employed. The PPP (payment protection plan) is directed at small businesses (< 500 employees) and can be forgiven if it's used toward payroll, rent, etc. In order for the loan to be forgiven, in the 8 weeks following taking the loan out, your employee headcount "cannot decline from average monthly levels during 2019 or during the past 12 months" [1]

Now, the larger company / industry bailouts -- those seem less well-defined. I haven't seen the latest on those but I'm sure the government would _like_ to tie them to employment as much as possible but we'll have to wait to see.

[1] https://smartasset.com/financial-advisor/paycheck-protection...