[nradov]

What do you mean? Information about previous layoffs is all over the news, social media, and dedicated sites like Glassdoor. Only a fool or someone really desperate would take a job without doing a thorough background check on the company first. And while I sympathize with workers who have to take whatever job they can get, that doesn't apply to most HN users.

[ironmagma]

Glassdoor itself encourages users not to post anything factual, only opinion-based, because of the legal consequences [1]. Glassdoor is more like a Google business review than a background check anyway.

Also your estimation of HN users is probably out of date with the current state of the employment market.

[1] https://help.glassdoor.com/s/article/Tips-on-writing-a-revie...

[JumpCrisscross]

WARN notices are public.

> your estimation of HN users is probably out of date with the current state of the employment market

You're probably not around start-ups if layoffs are a top concern.

[ironmagma]

I worked at startups for 7 years. Interestingly, WARN acts are mostly irrelevant for startups because they are only triggered when a certain number of people are about to be laid off (100 or more, I believe). When an employer accesses your employment record, they can see very detailed information. A WARN act filing is neither comprehensive nor detailed.

[JumpCrisscross]

> WARN acts are mostly irrelevant for startup

Well yes. If you're at a startup you should assume you're always a few months from being laid off. Everyone should assume that. You're fighing to survive; the default is dead.

Dropbox, on the other hand, is not a start-up. It's had to file WARN notices [1]. "Nobody can do a background check on a company to see who they laid off or fired before they work there" is false.

[1] https://www.warntracker.com/company/dropbox

[ironmagma]

Once again, an employment check is not like a WARN act filing. I want to know for a given startup exactly who was fired and why, when, etc.

It’s one thing to be laid off from a startup in general. Another entirely to be laid off right now.

The number of recent layoffs is everyone’s concern right now because of how hard it will be for you to find a job afterward. Layoffs always were going on, and always will for startups, but the days of turning down job offers due to small uncertainties are mostly paused or gone at this point. The demand crunch is very real.

[JumpCrisscross]

> I want to know for a given startup exactly who was fired and why, when, etc.

What? I don't want you to know when I was fired and why. Employment reports typically don't contain the why either because that's litigation bait.