zlacker

>>RBBron+(OP)
> companies made wholesale terminations of nearly all our people

The "employment at will" doctrine at work. Terrible.

I would attribute that to the weak US labor, and its failure to do away with this via country-wide/industry-wide labor agreements make this impossible, or appropriate legislation. Many (most?) countries don't have this doctrine.

>>einpok+Tu
And they are nowhere near as liquid when it comes to employment as in the US. The trade off of not having employment at will is extremely slow hiring processes and a lot of difficulty when firing employees that do not perform well. All in all employment at Will is probably what makes Silicon Valley thrive. Otherwise nobody would dare to start a company.

>>oliver+lx
> The trade off of not having employment at will is extremely slow hiring processes

Not true. Countries without employment-at-will don't generally have extremely slow hiring processes.

> a lot of difficulty when firing employees that do not perform well

Termination for cause - i.e. failure to perform one's duties well enough - is not difficult. The difficulty would be in firing employees without demonstrable cause.