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Comment by onlyrealcuzzo | Hacker News Reader

Google is a company with a fiduciary obligation to maximize shareholder profits.

The average employee laid off is going to have 2 months of work - paid - to find a new job, plus an additional close to ~$80k or so to hold them over til they find a new job.

If Google hires people they don't need anymore - regardless of how good they are - are they supposed to just keep them on payroll indefinitely? Why?

Why are we feeling sorry for employees with great severance packages who are deep in the global 1%?

If the worst thing that happens to you in life is that you get laid off at Google, you've got a great life.

Life isn't all roses, there's ups and downs - and some people who were laid off are going to have a hard time, and that's sad. But it's also life.

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> fiduciary obligation to maximize shareholder profits.

This is kind of true, but not really.

To quote the U.S. Supreme Court opinion in the Hobby Lobby case: “Modern corporate law does not require for-profit corporations to pursue profit at the expense of everything else, and many do not.”

https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/13-354.html

They could shuffle them around for 6-9-12 months first...

Now they're just saying "you're bad for our company, period", which is demonstrably false. Some people lost motivation for their current project, current team, current manager, current org, etc, they just need a jolt.

> Google is a company with a fiduciary obligation to maximize shareholder profits.

Yes, both true and also a cop out. We should freaking put it in the legal description of a corporation that they also have social responsibility.

Otherwise if you follow your definition to its logical conclusion you end up with the East India Company starving 25% of Bengalis to death because that "maximized shareholder profits" (-.-)

> We should freaking put it in the legal description of a corporation that they also have social responsibility.

Until that happens - people should blame the company, it's the system you have beef with.

> Otherwise if you follow your definition to its logical conclusion you end up with the East India Company starving 25% of Bengalis to death because that "maximized shareholder profits"

Isn't this essentially what we have now? With US companies employing lots of people in Bangladesh & Philippines for like $2 for 10 hours of labor - living and working in unimaginably poor conditions by Western standards?

> Until that happens - people should blame the company, it's the system you have beef with.

Companies bribe, sorry, lobby politicians for that to not happen.

> Isn't this essentially what we have now? With US companies employing lots of people in Bangladesh & Philippines for like $2 for 10 hours of labor - living and working in unimaginably poor conditions by Western standards?

I honestly don't even know what to say for your comparison. Chill out, think about it some more, ask a friend if you have to, then realize why your comment is both incorrect and also bordering on grotesque.

One thing that is easily overlooked is the % of the laid off employees who are on a work VISA. This can be easily looked up and it is not insignifcant. Once an employee on a work VISA is laid off, he/she has a clock ticking. Imagine if such a person has invested their and their kids lives here -- mortgage, school, etc -- this puts an enormous mental stress on such families. I am one of those.

Don't get me wrong I am forever grateful the opportunities this country has given me and my family. But this rule of "get another job in 2 months or get the hell out of the country" is just cruel.

Yes, I did overlook this - and you're absolutely right, and I couldn't agree more. Thanks for calling me out on it.

We shouldn't be booting out some of the most productive / educated people in this country just because they get laid off.

We should be trying as hard as we can to keep them in this country!

To the extent that - a lot of people feel if a company does layoffs - the company should be forced to layoff H1B workers first. I think that is complete BS. Layoff the people it makes sense to layoff - not the people on the other side of the lottery.

People misunderstand this.

Google's board can be sued by its investors if it decides to do something like make a pile of $50b and light it on fire. "We don't think you are maximally leveraging your payroll" is not actually a real concern.

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