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Comment by aetherson | Hacker News Reader

Meta's layoffs: 16 weeks severance + 2 weeks per year employed. https://about.fb.com/news/2022/11/mark-zuckerberg-layoff-mes...

Google's layoffs: 16 weeks severance + 2 weeks per year employed + accelerate 16 weeks GSU vesting. https://blog.google/inside-google/message-ceo/january-update...

Amazon retail workers: 60 days of employment in which they aren't expected to come to work. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/20/google-amazon-microsoft-meta...

Etc. The idea that companies would "never give anyone 2 weeks notice" is deeply unconnected from reality.

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I'm not sure that's the norm though. FAANG is typically outlier for X Y Z... I would guess that something like 90% of companies don't do severance. Hell, 16 weeks plus 2 weeks per year of tenure is GENEROUS. I'm honestly not sure why they are doing that, unless it isn't voluntary (e.g. some law in CA).

The idea that companies would never give anyone 2 weeks notice is probably closer to reality than the inverse of that assertion.

> Hell, 16 weeks plus 2 weeks per year of tenure is GENEROUS.

You call it generous, Germany calls it the law (depending on tenure, with some other European countries having a similar timeframe), and somehow non-FAANG non-tech companies are also able to stomach it. This is obviously very influenced by a very high demand for stability in Germany, but I also find it crazy how little people in other countries expect from their employers.

I know nothing about Germany, but FWIW several web references suggest that severance pay in Germany is "Standard severance pay in Germany is 50% of one month’s wages for every year of service. This increases to a maximum of 12 months’ salary for employees under 50 years old."

This is significantly less generous than FAANG layoff severances.

I’ve thought about moving to Germany. I know “the grass is always greener” but god damn is it true you guys can have a 4-day workweek, you just get paid 20% less?

Very much depends on the employer still (and there are quite a few political debates ongoing on whether 4 day work weeks should be incentivized, or whether they are the worst thing ever).

Anecdotally, for experienced devs, it is something that is commonly demanded and granted. For entry level positions it's quite common, but more and more people are asking for it quite early in their careers (even outside of tech).

WARN requires certain employers in most circumstances to give 60 days notice or pay at least 60 days of severance when laying off

I think that FAANG companies are indeed more somewhat generous than the norm. It's just easier to find the details of severance packages for big companies than mid-sized/small, because they're much more reported on.

However, I think you're going WAY too far in the other direction to suggest that "no severance" or "only two weeks of severance" is closer to true than not. I've seen a lot of mid-sized companies give 30 days of severance.

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