One time when I was in one of these calls. It was pretty obvious it was coming, the company wasn't doing great and there were plenty of whispers.

Still, I was pretty upset I was laid off, because it's just not a fun feeling. After the HR person explained the severance and COBRA stuff, I said something to the CTO like "I wish you all the best in trying to save this company, and for the sake of this conversation, let's just pretend I'm not lying". Then I hung up.

I wish I could feel guilty over that, but ultimately they were cutting off my livelihood, they can deal with momentary hurt feelings.

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grahamburger 14 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

Ha, that's a good one. At a job 10 years ago or so I had a similar premonition of upcoming layoffs—lots of closed door meetings between the execs, travel and expansion plans getting cancelled, etc. One day my immediate boss, who I genuinely like, walked into my office, closed the door, and told me he was gonna have to lay me off in two weeks. He said if I would handle x,y,z tasks (a few days of work) I could just stop showing up until the layoff day and he'd make sure I got a good severance. Listen, I appreciated this! it still sucked, but he wasn't supposed to tell me at all.

Anyway, a few weeks after the axe dropped, I went to an industry conference (putting out the feelers for a new job, etc) and during the keynote he walked in. I waved, and he came and sat at the table with me. After the speech, we were chatting with the others around the table, and someone asked where I worked. I said something like "well, I'm between jobs. This guy just fired me <thumb jerk towards him>." They laughed, and he squirmed in his chair! But I didn't let him squirm too long, it really wasn't his fault.

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Waterluvian an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It's their job to endure the discomfort of having to do the job they're paid to do. It's not your job to make it comfortable for them. That's not to say that there aren't personal or professional consequences for how you conduct yourself. Burning bridges and all that. But I feel that's completely up to you.

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outworlder 29 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

As a rule, you shouldn't burn bridges.

But in some occasional cases, the bridges you burn light up the way forward.

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marcosdumay an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

It takes a special kind of company for counting it as a burnt bridge for somebody that said "I hope you all fail" and gone away after being fired.

	▲	pc86 9 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Well the company is an inanimate object and doesn't think anything about anything. The person you are saying that to, who almost certainly didn't make the decision that you should be laid off, may rightfully view it as someone unable to control their emotions in a difficult moment.
	▲	xp84 34 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		The company isn't considering it that. After all, it'll probably fail and you almost certainly won't work there. But the people you say it to might think it was pissy. Participating in the upside of working in the private sector and, more broadly, in any capitalist system, means also participating in the downside risk. Sometimes you'll be out. Don't take it personally, and do your best to jump ship at the point when you think that some bozo is steering the company toward ruin.

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01284a7e an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

You should have been straightforward and told them to go fuck themselves. Laying people off by a brief call is for cowards.

	▲	pc86 9 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Is a long one better? Most programming jobs are remote. What's the alternative, exactly?