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Comment by bluGill | Hacker News Reader

There are pros and cons. The ability to lay someone off quickly means someone in the US can risk hiring a bunch of people on a risky bet - if/when they give up on the project they can let the people go and cut their losses. Some of those risky bets pay off though and the people are not laid off.

Note that I said lay off not fire above. There is an important legal difference.

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There are both side of the coin when it comes to at-will employments with layoff. They can use it to get rid of high paying employees to hire lowest quality of employee for little pay that will affects the quality of their product. And they don't care because it looks good on their balance sheet. And there is no recourse for high paying employee against the company (unless they have a signed contracts that have a clause to prevent this).

My former job laidoff few people because of high paying salary. They got high salary because positions required a specialized and niche knowledge for their jobs. They are good at what they do which earned their justification for high paying. It took the company a year to hire a barely qualified person because they don't want to increase the pay after declined job offers from multiple potential candidates.

> an important legal difference.

so what is the difference?

a layoff is due to business "loss" or changes? How is that really any different to a firing?

Fire is for cause and that means they will tell others when asked. This also means more paperwork to prove you are bad. That is they want someone doing the job you are supposed to do,but for whatever reason not you.

Laid off just means they don't need the job done anymore, and has nothing to do with how good or bad you are.

> Laid off just means they don't need the job done anymore, and has nothing to do with how good or bad you are.

Eh, in theory maybe. Not really in practice. When layoffs happen, companies often prioritize laying off lower performers. And they often still need the jobs done, just fewer people.

Of course none of these are legal differences. The legal difference I know of is that being fired for cause affects whether you are eligible for unemployment insurance benefits.

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