As far as layoff packages go, this is pretty good. 6 months health insurance and at least 4 months pay. The last 2 layoffs I experienced were just 1 week pay for every year you worked there and zero extended health benefits. And they made sure to note that they didn’t have to pay out anything at all, legally.
The wording of the announcement is better than the usual corporate non-speak too.
> they didn’t have to pay out anything at all, legally.
And still the overwhelming sentiment on HN is that unions are worthless.. When my company had layoffs the laws (thanks to the unions) made it favorable to us without needing the goodwill of the company. Additionally, representatives from the union were involved in all steps and made sure everything went as it should.
I think they're arguing that it should not be up to the companies being nice. Yeah, Epic's layoffs were nice, but a lot of companies give shit or no severance at all.
I've been laid off and I only get paid until the end of the week, and for healthcare the only thing I have access to is overpriced COBRA.
Well I have a job now so it's not as big of a deal. This was awhile ago.
I live in NYC, and when I was laid off from a job in 2023. I looked into the COBRA options, and they wanted something like $3500/month, which is a lot of money. I called around around and I was eventually able to do a program through NYC where we got insurance for free. It actually worked great; we were able to get insurance within a week. NYC ain't perfect but every now and then they come through.
If I get laid off or fired, I will likely check this option again.
There is a legally required 60 day notice period, and plenty of states have their own requirements on top. New Jersey for example explicitly requires 1 week of severance for every year worked. Yes tech companies are often more generous, but doing a mass layoff with no notice and no severance was never an option to begin with.
The wording of the announcement is better than the usual corporate non-speak too.