[andreysolsty]

If there’s one thing I’ve learnt from this whole debacle, it’s that US employment law is fucked. I can’t believe worker protections are so poor in such a forward thinking, modern country. The things he’s getting away with sound like something out of a Victorian factory.

[Kon-Peki]

Nobody knowledgeable is going to argue that US employment law is great, but in much of the US worker protections are targeted towards those that do not make a lot of money.

Twitter's software developers make a lot of money. The only similarity to a Victorian factory worker is that they have two arms and legs (but all of their fingers and toes).

[oneeyedpigeon]

Is it just software developers that he's fired, though? I was under the impression he's been firing from pretty much every department.

[the_arcadian]

I'm not sure how this is the lesson you're taking away from twitter when the workers are getting three months severance, unlike your typical service sector worker who can basically be fired by their manager on the spot. The US is a dynamic economy and your compensation is for the most part whatever you can negotiate. At the VP level it's not uncommon to get severance packages of a year or more at $200-300k, and at the C-suite level the numbers can hit millions of dollars.

[Ferret7446]

"Worker protections" generally means "small business deterrents". Worker protections are great if you want a small number of large corporations to rule everything.

Hiring people is ridiculously expensive (their salary and even health care/benefits are a small fraction of the total cost), and the last thing small businesses need is even more expense to hire. Large companies can amortize with economies of scale (e.g. HR departments).

You could try to play a cat-and-mouse game (e.g., make laws that apply only to companies with more than X employees, so companies restructure so it applies to them), which then leads to laws so complicated that only large companies with dedicated lawyers could afford to navigate.

And here we are now. "The road to hell is paved with good intentions" combined with "I'm from the government and I'm here to help".

[andreysolsty]

In theory. In reality I live somewhere with lots of worker protections, lots of small businesses and I know people who run very small “mom and pop” type businesses who have absolutely no problem obeying these laws.

[googlryas]

Why should a private company not be allowed to lay off staff that they don't need or want?

If the government cares so much about workers, why don't they take care of them themselves, like with a guaranteed job or training program, instead of forcing other individuals to do so?

[lesuorac]

Well, it's more of you can move fast and break things and then next decade the regulators will catch up with you.

In this case it looks like it'll be Dec 8th when he'll have to show up in court about all of this.

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/65680829/cornet-v-twitt...

[smw]

I'm not sure we're forward looking or modern? We have no trains. Sprawl. Won't build housing. A third of the country seems to believe we should aspire to be in a Margaret Atwood novel.