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by jvanderbot 1242 days ago
Aside from the money, I'm quite glad my job was cut, in hindsight, but only because Amazon handled it so well: They gave us time to sort out a new position. I'm already much more excited about my new gig, and for the right reason (not $).

I'm not sure a union would have helped there, but I'm not opposed. Amazon tried to make hay while the sun was shining, and it didn't work out for all depts. It happens.
2 comments
Bilal_io 1242 days ago
Looking at unions from a personal lense can make them seem unnecessary and maybe even negative to some people. However their purpose in my opinion is to benefit the collective of members as a whole.

I have nothing to back up this claim, but it seems like selfishness is what caused reduction of unions in the US. And for the same selfishness it's tough to organize people and kickstart a new union.

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subradios 1242 days ago
You have to show they actually benefit the members as a whole. Union laws in the US are extremely strong, and anti union sentiment is largely a hangover from the 70s, where features of unions limited our manufacturing sectors ability to compete internationally with catastrophic consequences for the Rust Belt.
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finikytou 1242 days ago
did you know in advance your job was cut??? because most people did not. some of those people left everything 1 month ago to build a new life in a new country. and for having done that a few times in my past it includes using some of your own money to move / sell things cheaper and obviously for people having to come back to lower wage country where it is harder to find a good job (because tech is not a huge sector like in the US) then it become horrible if you have debts or loans. especially if you left a good job for growing at FAANG
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jvanderbot 1242 days ago
No doubt, I was lucky. Here's the luck factors:

1. I was saving for a house downpayment, so I put most my earnings right into the bank and had already minimized spending

2. They announced layoffs immediately, but then gave us time to finish work and transfer internally. If we couldn't transfer, they would lay us off after 6 weeks. This happened to me as I was a manager of a particular specialty and it was tough to transfer to a job I wanted. Furthermore, everyone around me was cut, so we could all work together and support eachother for 6 weeks.

3. My wife has a full time job so our income was reduced, not eliminated.

4. We had family nearby for any childcare problems, so I could focus on a new job hunt

5. I had friends and network nearby, so I could look for local jobs quickly and efficiently

6. I had a referral from an old co-worker, and that referral turned into my new job, which so far I love.

7. I had insisted on working remote from my hometown area, which has much lower cost of living (which helped with 4, 5), and made our situation much less dire

8. I got a lot of traction from a linkedin post during the 6 weeks job-hunt stage. This is just a function of my coworker network and I'm lucky to have those folks

I feel for those who didn't have these factors. I cannot imagine how difficult it would be to have to navigate visa issues on top of a lack of a local network and reduced / eliminated income. I definitely had home-court advantage in all this.

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