← Back to context

Comment by 33MHz-i486

8 hours ago

its sickening that these companies making 10s of Billions in profit annually at 60% gross margins are going to throw their employees that got them there under the bus.

layoffs are for at risk companies undergoing restructuring not semi-annual financial engineering of your earnings release

I’m not a big collective action proponent historically but in the face of this bs, it might be time.

> that got them there under the bus.

Do you employ construction workers for lifetime after they have built your house?

  • Among other differences, a house construction contract is understood to be limited in time.

    Imagine the construction company said "record profits this year, thanks for building great houses, you're fired." The message wouldn't go over well. They are being outrageously cutthroat or hiding bad news.

  • Ive seen this exact analogy on HN quite a few times now, and its a bit odd (read: nonsensical). You dont tend to employ construction workers directly to build your house. You contract a housing company, who contracts construction companies (or has inhouse workers), who do keep their employees employed.

    • The individual is his own construction company in this scenario. Just like the construction company has to advertise itself to keep getting contracts, here the individual has to do the same with employers. The analogy is not superficial.

Layoffs are not “for” that. That’s your fantasy.

You believe more in the individual relationship each worker has with their employer to negotiate times like these? With what power? The employees did excellently so they are being let go. The individual worker has no leverage for anything.