[myk9001]

> because of how employee friendly the laws are.

Do you have anything specific in mind? Maybe European law if friendlier to employees on avarege. But in tech US companies seem to offer similar if not better conditions. E.g., Amazon is widely considered an employer straight from hell, and yet they offer 3 monthly salaries when letting an engineer go -- that's more than a European employees typically gets.

On the other hand, both layoffs and long-hours aren't unheard of in, say, Getmany.

[Muromec]

3 months is nothing really. Half a year is more the start of negotiation in a comparable place in Europe. That and having a 2 years burnout leave as an option and having trade unions and the regulator to sign off on your layoffs plan in more reputable places.

Add: It's not that layoffs are not a thing, they are a bit more complicated and expensive for a company than getting a list of people and sending mass-email, then blocking all access.

[disgruntledphd2]

> 3 months is nothing really. Half a year is more the start of negotiation in a comparable place in Europe.

Employment law differs wildly from country to country, there is no general European labour law (with the exception of the working time directive). For instance, I live in Ireland where you can fire anyone for any reason for the first six months, and are not required to pay redundancy until after they've been employed two years.

The statutory redundancy limits on wages are super low for tech, so it's almost free to do layoffs. Additionally, firing people is not really very hard, you just need to have a reason, and follow a process. You need to give a verbal warning, then a written warning, and then fire.

You can't fire people because they don't suck up to you, but you can basically find a reason if you want to.

I recognise that Germany/Austria/France are different, but that's exactly my point, there is very little common European labour law.

[myk9001]

> I recognise that Germany/Austria/France are different, but that's exactly my point, there is very little common European labour law.

So, I don't live in Germany but I tried to look into how things work there a little deeper.

It seems to have a lot in common with what you describe about Ireland actually.

[disgruntledphd2]

That's possible, but Germany has much stronger unions and work contracts than we would in Ireland.

In Ireland, companies are not obliged to recognize a union and can do other forms of employer representation instead. This is quite different from other EU countries.

[myk9001]

Thanks for the insight!

[myk9001]

Do you have a link to a labor law stating it's half a year?

[Muromec]

I'm not saying it's the law, I'm saying it's the practice