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Comment by lacker | Hacker News Reader

I’m curious, how long does it take in Scandinavia to fire someone? From my experience in large American tech companies, it usually takes around a year of documented underperformance.

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I'd say a year would also be a reasonable estimate here once the person is out of their 6 month probation period. It varies by country how much easier life is during the probation (easier in Sweden, not super much easier in Norway, not sure about Denmark). However, I've heard cases where HR people simply refuse to go through with the actual process because they don't believe the case is strong enough.

Interesting you've experienced it taking a year in the US. I would've assumed with employment at will that it was easier, but I guess they want to cover themselves from lawsuits.

Legal risk is nowhere near the limiting factor in how quick big U.S. tech companies are to fire people. There's something of a culture of doing so very gradually and reluctantly. I suppose this is because firing people is unpleasant and requires admitting things we'd rather not acknowledge, and big tech companies can afford to put it off for a long time.

I should have been more specific - I meant a year from the time at which the employee starts performing badly, not from the time a manager decides they want to fire someone. A typical timeline in the US would be something like, someone is performing badly for a 6-12 month period, then the employee's direct manager decides that firing is a possibility, then the employee does a PIP for 1-2 months, then either it is decided that the employee is doing better and should be retained, or the employee is fired.

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