> The severance package seems quite generous as well.
I guess it depends a bit what they mean by `the average employee receiving approximately five months of severance` (and also where you are seeing it from, maybe its seen as more generous when seen from the US). In Sweeden the notice period for the employer is between 1 and 6 months, depending on how long the empoyee has worked there. If they count that period in as part of the severance package, it could wery well be "the legal minimum" or "the legal minimum + 2 months", which sounds less great than 5 months :-p
If its "the legal minimum + approximately 5 months" then it's generous.
In the other developer-downscalings I know about here in Scandinavia (Norway if it matters) the most common deal has been 6 months, either "work for the remaining notice period, then 6 months pay" or "6 months pay, you work out the current month". I say "deal", because its a deal where the employee gets that pay, and then resigns voluntarily. If they don't take the deal they only receive the legal minimum, but they can then fight the firering, which can get expensive and complicated (I have never heard about anyone not taking the deal).
Yeah you're not entitled to anything in the States. There are no employment contracts and you can be fired for any reason without notice. The only reason to give severance is to avoid bad publicity. There isn't any mandate that the company has to offer anything.
There really should be though especially when the company in question was able to afford $1 billion in stock buybacks just 2 years ago, and when the CEO has a $3 billion net worth, and when they are well known for not paying their suppliers (the artists) a fair price for the content they create.
> There are no employment contracts and you can be fired for any reason without notice.
You can also leave the job at any time, which as a frequent HN user I'm sure you know and may have used it to your advantage.
> There really should be though especially when the company in question was able to afford $1 billion in stock buybacks just 2 years ago, and when the CEO has a $3 billion net worth
They were also in a hiring spree 2 years ago, like many tech companies. Many of the current employees wouldn't have a job otherwise.
The CEO is also the founder of the company, who built it over time from scratch. There have been many ups and downs during their 17 year history. 10,000 jobs didn't appear overnight. We hardly hear when company hire, only when they let people go.
> and when they are well known for not paying their suppliers (the artists) a fair price for the content they create.
Apparently they don't make big fat profit given this layoff
The employer/employee relationship is imbalanced. The ability to leave jobs instantly is not equivalently powerful as the ability to fire people instantly. A corporation that loses an employee suddenly is typically disrupted in a very minor way. A person that loses their job instantly might not make rent next month.
That may be true in aggregate, but for tech workers over the past 20 years the scales have been as heavily in their favor as any industry's employer/employee relationship potentially ever.
In the U.S. the WARN act does mandate 60 day notice for layoffs over a certain size. In practice, (at least with many of the recent tech layoffs) you get 60 days on-payroll during which you don’t have to do any work. Severance after that is optional but often still paid, again at least among tech companies. ~2 weeks per year of service is common, although some have offered more than that.
I got laid off in Jan 2023 and they only gave me the 2 weeks, but was able to at least negotiate that my end date fell on on Feb 1 so I could at least have healthcare until the end of the month.
for context in case you missed it, Spotify are headquatered in Sweden. Hence the GP's comment about it potentially being the legal minimum they are allowed to give.
"Today, we still have too many people dedicated to supporting work and even doing work around the work rather than contributing to opportunities with real impact. More people need to be focused on delivering for our key stakeholders – creators and consumers. "
While this is likely partly true, this is mostly management's fault. I didn't see anything in the email that talks post-mortem about the root cause and how it will be prevented going forward.
Having worked previously in Chase (JPM side of it), I wouldn't be surprised if this is due to a hardcoded list of user agents somewhere - rather than an intentional blocking of Linux on ARM.
> This adjustment is challenging. It's weird to not have my technical abilities be the thing my performance is measured against (though you definitely need to have it, and having more of it is an edge, if your sales/soft skills can counterbalance it).
This is actually one of the reasons holding back as I feel like I am giving up a tangiable hard skill I have (tech / being judged on tech) to a more riskier performance barometer. But hey, need to risk it to get the rewards I guess.
I would read the book regardless of whether you choose to make the move or not. It'll give you a good idea of what the day in the life of an SE is like. I found it to be accurate.
As for being afraid of giving up that hard skill:
1. Unlike going into actual sales or management, you don't give it up entirely. Your technical skills are still very valuable. It will give you confidence when you demo stuff and clout amongst engineering types (which are key to getting the technical win). It's just not THE thing that your performance is measured against.
2. Having presales experience will help you significantly if you choose to go back into full time engineering. You'll have a better idea of what customers want and how sales are made. This will help you gauge when/how to build the right thing and approach sales-y/business people.
In fact, my biggest pet peeve with engineering is that unless you're working at the earliest stages of a startup, you're so far removed from what customers actually want but are incentivized on your tech prowess. This creates perverse motives that tend to be more complex and anti-customer in the name of software craftsmanship and scalability.
Agreed on the current situation, not really thinking about right now. I have a good role now, with scope to grow and learn for the short term.
But considering this more of a long term question, might transition to Product and then Solutions Engineering as a pathway to maintain some sense of level or seniority.
I'd say the roles are quite different. You could argue about ICs / SDE / SDMs - but Solution or Sales Engineering require different skill sets. They are more client facing and your KPIs (or OKRs) are more tied to sales, client relationships or contract renewals.
