Severance (lcamtuf.substack.com)
63 points by surprisetalk 3 hours ago
tombert 37 minutes ago
One time when I was in one of these calls. It was pretty obvious it was coming, the company wasn't doing great and there were plenty of whispers.
Still, I was pretty upset I was laid off, because it's just not a fun feeling. After the HR person explained the severance and COBRA stuff, I said something to the CTO like "I wish you all the best in trying to save this company, and for the sake of this conversation, let's just pretend I'm not lying". Then I hung up.
I wish I could feel guilty over that, but ultimately they were cutting off my livelihood, they can deal with momentary hurt feelings.
Waterluvian 19 minutes ago
It's their job to endure the discomfort of having to do the job they're paid to do. It's not your job to make it comfortable for them. That's not to say that there aren't personal or professional consequences for how you conduct yourself. Burning bridges and all that. But I feel that's completely up to you.
marcosdumay 9 minutes ago
It takes a special kind of company for counting it as a burnt bridge for somebody that said "I hope you all fail" and gone away after being fired.
donbox 39 minutes ago
Are cherry09 and steve_ AI agents?
nancyminusone 26 minutes ago
I thought they were real people, in a near future where everyone is so dependent on AI that not even a company so callous as to fire by video call would even think of depriving another human the tokens they need to get by.
idle_zealot 32 minutes ago
I think the joke is they all are. It's an autonomous company replicating what it was trained on.
Retr0id 27 minutes ago
Oh, I'm dense. I thought it portrayed a scenario in which tokens were unaffordable to individuals, yet necessary for survival. Kinda like US health insurance.
jaggederest 18 minutes ago
jihadjihad an hour ago
“What about health insurance?”
“Your enrollment will end on the last day of this month, and we will be providing every affected employee with information about extending their coverage through COBRA.”
“The last day of the month, so, today?”
“Yes, that is correct. On the other hand, our OpenAI and Anthropic accounts are paid quarterly, so you will retain access to your chats and may continue using these tools until the end of September.”
Animats an hour ago
"Is assisted suicide covered by the severance terms?"
donbox an hour ago
"Absolutely. It's covered through the end of the month, per our generous benefits policy. "
nkg an hour ago
I fell for it!