I have survived my second annual thinning of the herd

[Al B. Sure!]

Well there were the Gracchi reforms


Also...

The poor in the city of Rome largely depended on the corn dole to supply them with grain. During the From 122 BC onward a grain ration was available to the Roman poor at half price, having already previously been sold at a reduced market price, subsidized by the state. In 58 BC it became completely free. The in AD 274 emperor added small rations of pork, oil and salt to the meager dole.

[Hauldren Collider]

bread and circuses

keeps the plebs content

I think we ought to keep redistribution to levels a bit higher than that.

[MikeH]

Brioche and Circuses?

[BlackCat]

Cakes ?

Oh, wait

[Lefty Scaevola]

I am not sure whether I am in what you call an "at will" state

Many USA jurisdiction have "at will" as the default employment temination standard, meaning that no cause is need for teminating an employee, you just have to avoid unlawfull reasons like race discrimination, for engage in fedrally proted labor activities, wistleblower retaliation and the like. This can, and commonly is, be modified by employment contract.
In a "for cause" jurisdiction teminating an employee without a legally recognized is unlawful.
Texas is "at will" for employment, but liability for increased unemployment tax rate ("Charge backs") is on a "for cause" standard, so that empolyers who made at will terminations and layoffs will pay addtional umemployment taxes for the next few years, assumming that they are still operating with a wage base to cahrge taxes against.

[The Mad Monk]

Nice to see that Kansas City made the cut.

[The Mad Monk]

Cakes ?

Oh, wait

The only mistake she made with "Let them eat cake" was neglecting to follow through on supplying the cake.

[Docfeelgood]

Many USA jurisdiction have "at will" as the default employment temination standard, meaning that no cause is need for teminating an employee, you just have to avoid unlawfull reasons like race discrimination, for engage in fedrally proted labor activities, wistleblower retaliation and the like. This can, and commonly is, be modified by employment contract.
In a "for cause" jurisdiction teminating an employee without a legally recognized is unlawful.
Texas is "at will" for employment, but liability for increased unemployment tax rate ("Charge backs") is on a "for cause" standard, so that empolyers who made at will terminations and layoffs will pay addtional umemployment taxes for the next few years, assumming that they are still operating with a wage base to cahrge taxes against.

they do lie

[KrazyHorse]

I have survived my first ad-hoc thinning of the herd

Looks to have been an additional 5-8%

[-Jrabbit]

Good on you. Congrats!

[Dinner]

A couple of months ago, my aunt went to visit relatives in France, and on the way back customs inspectors caught all her cheese and threw it away

That's a crime against humanity.

[Flubber]

At Yellow Pages, people usually found out they were being laid off when their user accounts didn't work in the morning when logging in. #classy

Thats stupid

At my current employer we have a set process-- You set the time for the termination meeting when you tell the person and HR informs IT. Typically their user account and internal listing go dark while they are still in the room discussing their termination.

It can be interesting sometimes-- I was surprised not to be able to find my boss's boss phone number one day and just thought it was an IT glitch. About 30 m nutes later I get an email from my boss that his boss was "no longer with the company". and thats all you say

I actually consider it inexcusable if companies do not do this reasonably efficiently.

[Asher]

Speaking of layoffs...my company just closed down its Canadian manufacturing facility in Ottawa to outsource it. Laid off 200 people.

18 of them won the lottery that afternoon. No joke.

[Hauldren Collider]

Seems like it would be more in the company's interest to fire people more kindly. (RE: yellow pages)

Is yellow pages just a terrible company, or is that normal?

[MikeH]

It's never going to be nice to be fired, no matter how gently the company does it.

It is pretty standard practice, especially when a disgruntled employee has access to sensitive data, or can do severe damage to your systems with their access.