A warn notice was issued today by the State of Washington for an expedia, layoff occurring on April 1.
It's interesting we've not seen anything for the t mobile layoffs yet.
https://esd.wa.gov/employer-requirements/layoffs-and-employee-notifications/worker-adjustment-and-retraining-notification-warn-layoff-and-closure-database
I've done this both ways - working at a company with full WARN act and with Garden Leave. Trust - Garden Leave is 100x better.
With the WARN notice and a 60 day countdown, it's awful. You have 60 days of coming into work with everyone trying to figure out who is getting cut and every single request being filtered through the "is this a sign that I'm going to be one of the ones kept/laid off" paranoia. Every report request, every request to train people, every request to update documentation, every request to look at a job posting, every request to optimize or automate something - even when the layoffs are like 10% of the people. And then there are the people that get so paranoid, they shoot themselves in the foot by quitting prematurely (they literally save no one).
In some cases, people start to openly try to stab co-workers in the back. It gets ugly in some places. It's awful. And then, the day of - it's escorting people out. All the people looking for calls or managers coming over - it's exhausting not just for the people leaving, but everyone around them.
Garden Leave - a bunch of 10 minute meetings hit, you get told to go home and get paid for the next 2-3 months, you have full benefits that entire time and you know what your severance is. You have time to process and plan. Not a whole lot of stress, games, STILL having to do all the nonsense (heaven forbid this still happen during review time) and everyone going feral. You get paid to look for your job and the people that laid you off get to figure out how to redo everything you've been doing.
Both still meet WARN act guidelines and the results were absolutely the same. One is way less stressful and a far better use of your time.
@a6 The folks that got laid off on August 12 only got 60 days garden leave.
Listen I dont agree with everything this company does but this one is legal. 100%. You are getting your 60 or 90 day notice, you just dont have to work. That's why you have benefits, paychecks, etc for 60 or 90 days depending on where you live.
@aa “ Back to your iced latte with soy.”
Dude that’s only a quarter of the order, get it right. Didn’t even get a shot or a splash added. Starbucks Blasphemy.
@a5 Obviously you dont know the legal requirements and the associated laws. Just another passive aggressive keyboard warrior. Back to your iced latte with soy.
@a7 No, they do give 90 days of garden leave to layoffs in WA. I know because I was laid off in the big layoff in Factoria and they specifically gave us 90 days of garden leave so the WARN act notice could come after announcing the layoff. In our case, it came out 1 month after we were notified.
Looks like there's some recently laid off newbies in the comments. Is it ethical to skirt the rules? NO! Is that how T-Mobile is skirting the letter of the law? YES!
By giving 60 days garden leave it's a win/win for TMUS. They do not have to publish an embarrassing WARN notice and they get to hide headcount that were cut. Corporations like T-Mobile get to keep that data private by giving 60 days heads up even though the employee is already kicked out the door and no longer has insider login access and networking to find another internal position.
My suggestion to those laid off. I was angry and disgruntled and constantly looking up names of those who were not impacted and trying to justify why "this person saved, that person let go" mentality. "This person had this much tenure and this person seems 50+, while newbie Jill is 9 mo intern and 23". We are merely employee numbers who received the unlucky lottery.
Take that energy and that 60 days time and repackage that anger into job hunting and networking outside of your circle. Another fun fact, those peers who you thought had your back will quickly go cold because they don't want that heat of trying to help so-and-so who had the perception of being let-go for likely no fault of their own.
@a6 Only certain states have 90 days of garden leave, unless something has changed it was 60 for WA.
They are infact not skirting the requirements, T-Mobile gives 3 months (90 days) of garden leave. The WARN notice comes 1 month AFTER the employee has been notified (60 days)
It doesn't make sense. Employees have gotten notice. Yet there's no warn notice. Personally, I think T-Mobile is skirting the rules again just so that they don't make it look bad for their next big finance call. T-Mobile has a habit of playing fast and loose with the rules.
The way T-Mobile does layoffs is giving paid garden leave after informing the employee of their layoff. The WARN Act notice accordingly comes usually after the employee has been notified.