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Comment by roflyear | Hacker News Reader

Yeah this is quite ridiculous. Even at very high salaries (no one makes these at Flexport, FYI) you're talking about a few million dollars to make this right (2 months severance).

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Two months' severance? That hasn't been a norm in ages. You're lucky to get 2 (maybe 4) weeks and a month's worth of COBRA (in California).

Edit: I'm not defending it and it's just anecdotal; but it's definitely what I've seen/experienced.

I had always heard the default to be "a month per year of service," so paying nothing to people who hadn't started is definitely crappy for the people who had probably put in notice elsewhere (who are now, for unemployment insurance purposes, considered to have voluntarily quit their last job), but it doesn't really surprise me.

I like how everyone tosses out COBRA. However, COBRA fees will chew up a large chunk of that severance.

Afaik, all employees are entitled to COBRA - in my experience, when it’s mentioned as a severance benefit, the company is paying the employee’s portion of that expense (it’s what all the companies I’ve been involved with have provided) and the remainder of the severance is in addition to that.

That sounds like a decent severance. I’ve only ever been offered COBRA at my own expense which is the full rate of the insurance including the part the company normally chips in.

Anecdata: Spouse was let go from Salesforce in the January round of layoffs, after 2 years there. She received 6 months salary, was allowed to keep RSUs that would have vested within 90 days (which amounted to another ~2 months salary), and the company paid for COBRA for her and family for 6 months.

That was very generous, but it's not at all unheard of. There are people who were on her team who got more than 12 months. They had been there quite a bit longer.

I’ve been on the company’s side of a few RIFs lately, it’s not fun for anyone, and clearly worse for the employees. But even for brand new employees we do at least a month’s severance + health care etc. For many, it’s 90+ days. Unless your company is at urgent risk of bankruptcy, just be a normal human and spend the few extra dollars so a bad day is a as good as possible.

I never said it was the norm, but I would think it would be a good sign here if they gave two months. I suspect they will give something like two weeks when this shakes out.

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