Massive Layoffs At AOL 565
JLavezzo writes "Several news sites are reporting that the United States' largest ISP has laid off 750 employees. My sources at AOL put the actual number at approximately 950 regular employees and 300 contractors from various departments including new technology and marketing. The contractors aren't mentioned by the news outlets. Severance packages are known to include up to four months pay and keeping laid off employees on the AOL payroll through February (to retain health insurance). With most of the layoffs coming from the Northern Virginia offices, what are their hopes for finding new jobs?"
back to their previous jobs of course (Score:2, Informative)
contractor positions available (Score:2, Informative)
FC link (Score:4, Informative)
If they have skills, they'll find jobs in NoVA (Score:4, Informative)
US (nation) for Oct 04: 5.1%
VA (state) for Oct 04: 3.2%
If these poor souls have skills, they will find jobs here. I doubt most of them have security clearances, but those that do will be immediately re-employed.
Helevius
Re:"Massive"? Kids these days. (Score:5, Informative)
Getting fired in Northern Virginia isn't so bad (Score:2, Informative)
No.Va. has benefitted tremendously from the steady upswing in government spending post-9/11. Last time I went back and drove around a bit the number of new and under-construction office buildings was stunning. Getting fired sucks, but if you want a liquid job market -- NoVa's a great place to look.
Point being -- don't sob too hard.
Old news (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Ok (Score:3, Informative)
"No matter what the provocation, I never fire a man who is honestly trying to deliver a job. Few workers who become established at the Disney Studio ever leave voluntarily or otherwise, and many have been on the payroll all their working lives."
--Walt Disney
Re:Chances for Jobs (Score:1, Informative)
Re:back to their previous jobs of course (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Ok (Score:2, Informative)
1099 is (not from the form name, but what it is used for) "Temporary/Contract worker", and the employee is responsible for all taxes, benefits, etc. However, a 1099 employer rarely pays enough to pay for benefits, and it's legally NOT THEIR PROBLEM. As a 1099 employee, you are legally self-employed as a contractor/subcontractor.
W-4 employment is where you are legally on their payroll, they handle all the payroll taxes, benefits, etc, and you are a permanent worker (well as permanent as you can get).
Hopefully this will help with any confusion. And I can be assured to not get a karma boost, as the moderators are much furthe down the page by now
Expectations of a McJob. (Score:1, Informative)
Not when you're starving, you don't.
Re:Merry F'ing Christmas (Score:3, Informative)
Re:"Massive"? Kids these days. (Score:2, Informative)
Shoutcast was originally developed by Justin and Tom Pepper while Tag was still at Phoenix BIOS. Tag sorta acted as a offhours consultant along with several other developers and testers on #nullsoft. After the AOL merger, Nullsoft brought Tag on-board fulltime to further the shoutcast development.
But AOL pushed shoutcast to be forked away from Winamp so that they could roll shoutcast technology into an enterprise product. They soon realized that Winamp would not make them any money, but saw potential in shoutcast. So that's where Tag went.
P.S. It's probably not a good idea to go posting about how someone is looking for another job on a forum like slashdot. Especially when their wife just had a baby. Especially when (as you said) they haven't been able to find a new job yet.
Re:"Massive"? Kids these days. (Score:2, Informative)
In the DC area... (Score:2, Informative)
You need a clearance, and you can't get one.
-Jeff