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Comment by hysan | Hacker News Reader

Why did HR lead with it being performance based? It makes no sense given that this is very clearly part of a layoff. And especially so since they had no details. All they did was set themselves up for a very bad conversation with anyone who asked why. It comes off doubly worse because they kept repeating the same “we got nothing” reply because it removes all perceived empathy from the interaction.

To be clear, I don’t see this as a fault of the messengers. I see this as a reflection of the company leadership and/or culture. I’ve experienced multiple layoffs in my life (on both sides). Surprisingly, only one went poorly and was a clear reflection of leadership’s historical behavior. So I’m leaning towards believing that this is on Cloudflare’s leadership.

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No severance or unemployment if its performance based.

This is not universally true. In at least Pennsylvania, "poor performance" as the reason does not disqualify from unemployment.

On paper, she probably scored very low on the performance metrics they referred to. As she said, she was in a 2-month ramp-up, and had one potential contract and it fell through (through no fault of her own, she says). She was reviewed at the same time as everyone else who had been there for years, and they determined (perhaps with flawed methodology and a bad time for review) that she wasn't going to be a high-performer.

She wasn't surprised that she was called and knew she'd have to be defensive about the situation. You could chalk it up to bad luck, or CloudFlare not wanting to take a chance with her when they were already going through the trouble of getting rid of longer-term low performers.

Also recording it, posting it unredacted, and acting like you've been greatly aggrieved when you've only been there 3 months is idiotic and not good business savvy.

A stronger employee would've said: "I disagree with your assessment and would've hoped that CloudFlare was able to provide clearer communication, and I believe you're in the wrong, but I understand you wish to part ways and I personally wish you the best in your firing meetings."

Frankly she sounds like a pain in the ass and doesn't understand the cold reality of the business-employee relationship.

> Frankly she sounds like a pain in the ass

It's almost as if she's pissed at the prospect of doing other pain in the ass things, like looking for a new job. People being a PITA when getting surprise fired is such a weird thing, right ?

> doesn't understand the cold reality of the business-employee relationship.

Looks like Cloudflare's HR will now understand the hot reality of having their firing meetings scrutinized on social media.

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