Where are laid off employees gathering?
I'm in SF. Besides the linkedin posts... is there a forum, discussion etc? I feel like I saw a thing/form launched on HN. Also - might be time for an old fashioned meet up!
It just occurred to me that so many people were laid off, we could start the world's largest software co-op (and arguably one of the largest tech orgs, period). We could build software products that every industry needs, that every worker owns a part of and can vote on org-wide decisions.
Literally everyone you need was laid off... Tech people, business people, marketing, sales, etc. We just need a forum and some volunteers to organize. We all know what products companies/individuals would pay for, because we used to build/buy them.
(there are lots of different kinds of co-ops, and I'm not suggesting any particular model other than a worker owned organization where the workers own and control the company)
Hey folks!
I'm a member of just such a cooperative, worker-owned tech community / consultancy. It's still early stages but we're growing really fast! Let's make that dream a reality.
Check out the following link and if it resonates for you then shoot me a message on LinkedIn (https://LinkedIn.com/in/gscrawley) to discuss next steps and answer any questions you might have.
https://wiki.quorum.one/blog/what-is-quorum1
We're sitting in the park, drinking Thunderbird and arguing with the pigeons.
Wow.. I didn't expect this many comments.. the amazing extended discussion about software collectives and communities.
Some things that looks in the neighborhood is #openforwork, Quorom1, Loomio, and the discord posted here https://discord.gg/TyQfcSZk
But I was looking for a simple meetup organized in San Francisco, and perhaps an online forum/discussion area. No business model, no guild.. just community. Would others join?
I've already committed the ultimate sin: registered a domain: openforwork.community. Nothing there yet.
To keep the good discussion juice going - what do you recommend for a forum? Last one I installed was Discourse. I think these days a slack/discord channel is what new communities do.. but..I'm old.. and a place on the internet with its own domain could work for this.
Related question: are any actual software engineers getting laid off or is it just support/admin/management who work in the tech sector?
(I have been dealing with consulting contracts for software engineers lately, and was surprised to see that hourly rates are significantly higher than they were 5 years ago)
The closest thing to gathering I've seen is the consistency of posting on LinkedIn with the #layoffs and #opentowork tags. I've also seen a decent amount of activity in the ex-Googler community where former Google leaders (e.g. Laszlo Block, former head of HR) host Zoom discussions about what life's like on the outside and whatnot.
They're probably either working a new job, job hunting, or vacationing. If I got laid off I'd probably grab a beer with a couple employees or fellow ex employees. Maybe grab a couple numbers. Then.. adios. Don't make it a bigger thing than it needs to be.
Right now, the biggest problem is discovery, i.e. who is still hiring vs who just has stale jobs listed on their website. I'm working on making this list so it's much easier to discover the (literally thousands of Seed to Series B companies still hiring!)
See companies that are hiring: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OeuaamkeOpMzlufPk6hY...
Add company here: https://forms.gle/abCCJ5ByvDFcyRP2A
If anyone is struggling and is on the mid/senior/director side of their career (3+ yrs), I'm helping place people at my friends' Seed and Series A companies. Email me at j{at}markovmanagement.com if I can help :)
Maybe I was thinking of this: https://layoffs.fyi/. The "list of employees" must be an opt in spreadsheets where people are posting their own info. Could be improved with a forum IMO.
Probably around the water cooler with their new coworkers.
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Each man for himself. I'm seeing a dog eats dog mentality.
If laid off folks are looking for work or side projects, we've got a collective you can join. Based in SF but with members from all around the world.
More info here: https://wiki.quorum.one/join
The gist is that 1/3 of them joined startups.
A couple of them started new startups.
I sort of thought this is what git was designed for. Need to signal your proficiency? Start contributing to projects and answering stackoverflow questions, but with a flag that says you are interested in new work.
The problem is same as with any group of people coming together especially at scale. That of aligning incentives. 100k people or even 1k can create a pretty formidable force. But Who decides influences which problems to solve and when? Who holds said unit accountable and how? How do you split the rewards? This ends up devolving into yet another big company no? A good example is even in yc startup school you meet so many awesome cofounders and still it is so hard to just align on a problem to solve!
> Where are laid off employees gathering?
I'd guess underneath bridges, in public open parks, backside service roads, and similar places.
I'm in a few Slacks where former employees have gathered. Not necessarily just in the most recent round of lay offs.
It is critical for me to keep in touch with like minded people not to mention to maintain friendships.
Slack is pretty easy and free as long as you don't care much about retention of old content.
Here: I reckon if you all put your heads together you could coordinate something.
I also suspect AI coordinated organisations are very close to being achievable.
https://discord.gg/aheb8j9b
for data science/ML folks, I created a small slack group with 17 ppl who are helping mentor and mock interview each other ..
if anyone is interested in joining, pls fill this out: https://forms.gle/CAbVhBYmc34EeBMM9
we have a notion page to help with introductions/interview scheduling and a slack to chat with each other.
Ooh, I like this. I would be happy to co-organize, say, an evening at Zeitgeist. Contact me via email or mastodon!
SF is the worst place to be unemployed right now.
High burn rate, and opportunities are moving out.
Does anyone have any recommendations for referral community/platform?
hopefully doing absolutely nothing and taking some time off
Blind[1] is a decent community to get a glimpse into what employees truly feel about employers, get referrals and overall tech career advice. It can get rather toxic and troll-ey at times, but you can filter that out to focus on the useful stuff.
[1] - https://www.teamblind.com/