Comments on: SiPort Shooting: No Layoffs, Killer Was Fired

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 02:57:35 +0000

I agree – people are so blinded by greed that they will treat people like animals to preserve their bonus, their stock price, or save something totally meaningless like corporate earnings – relative to human lfe.

By: George

George — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 00:41:45 +0000

Listen up people ! The bottom line here is it doesn’t matter if it’s a layoff, or fired, there is no excuse for killing people no matter how arrogant management may behave. Sure I have wanted to kill some employers,who laid me off,or fired me, but I certainly new the difference between, right and wrong, life, and death. Obvioiusly the killer snapped, however that still does not excuse the fact he killed three people, which will affect his family, and the familys of the deceased for the rest of their lives.

By: lubna

lubna — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 19:30:24 +0000

Could you please stop making useless meaningless hurtful comments.
You are causing us so much pain.
Use your time and energy in something more useful.

By: jay

jay — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 19:09:21 +0000

They fired him, then he fired at them. All families are crewed up.

By: mike

mike — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:54:51 +0000

God bless all the families involved in this tragedy!

By: lj

lj — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 07:06:04 +0000

to “expert”:
in California, it is at will employment (he probably signed some paper upon being hired with those exact words), he can be terminated at will, for any reason or for no reason (these words would be on the paperwork too). this is a widely known fact… I don’t think he qualifies for unemployment insurance ($4xx/week), I don’t think he even got his 2 weeks’ notice or pay upon termination, this is required by law (I believe?), for termination without a cause… I would speculate that he is asking for the HR manager to discuss this, that is the point I am trying to make in my bloggings above.

By: expert

expert — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 03:54:49 +0000

He would have qualified for unemployment insurance unless he voluntarily resigned or if the employer was able to show he was fired for theft which is hard to prove. Most likely, he would have gotten unemployment insurance.

By: lj

lj — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 23:33:30 +0000

I am speculating with some common sense, I have no first hand knowledge of this case whatsoever: the news says Wu asked for HR Manager, that tells me this somehow has something to do with HR. he obviously walked back with intent to kill, I don’t see why he would ask for the HR manager (as a product test engineer, how much contact does he have with the HR manager)–unless he wants his old job back, then he really is insane…

By: Om Malik

Om Malik — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 23:14:11 +0000

@lj said

It is not clear whether you are speaking with first hand knowledge or just speculating. It seems you are speculating, but I want to do that so if you can you please elaborate.

It seems this shooter was fired. I have not seen or heard other so-called people who were laid off emerge and talk to the media.

@Jeff do you know why your friend was laid-off? Or was he/she fired.

By: lj

lj — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 23:08:58 +0000

okay, nobody here knows what really happened, just more unsubstantiated rumors.

it is possible that this person was “terminated individually” (possibly with others who were also “terminated individually”) while there was a “general layoff” because the company simply had too many people already on the “general layoff” list, and wish to avoid having their unemployment insurance go up dramatically (which would happen when a certain percentage of a company gets laid off). and he was mad bec he wouldn’t qualify for the unemployment insurance and doesn’t look good on his resume. this may explain why he wanted to see the HR manager–if he were just mad with the technical management, he would have just asked for the CEO and the VP of Operations.

condolences to all involved.

By: tony

tony — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 22:40:12 +0000

Startups in silicon valley work you to death, they never give you any inclination that you are not performing as per their expectations and they fire you, I wish they start doing business better give them warning, time to improve performance just like big companies, sometimes people may not perform same way for months on end. I am not justifying what Wu did was right, I am just trying to find what made somebody do this. He must be a normal employee like any of us. I heard from someone his wife was laid off ealier in the week(not sure if it is just a roumor) I have never seen companies letting previous employee back in unless company wanted them to come back.

Please, please start treating employees properly don’t drive them in to doing something like this. Not sure there is any way to avoid this completely but some steps can be taken I guess

By: Jeff

Jeff — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 21:12:19 +0000

I personally know someone who was let go from siport the same week.

Maybe it was a coincidence that they both had bad performance?

By: sm

sm — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 06:56:19 +0000

NGOC, you are a cynical idiot

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 01:55:15 +0000

I do not understand what “terminated individually” means in the statement. Employees can be either be laid-off or fired.

Laid-off employees usually get a severance package, and can apply for unemployment benefits from the state. Fired employees has no severance package, and cannot apply for unemployment benefits.

The wording smells fishy. No matter what, the shooting cannot be justified. My condolence goes to all the victims, the shooter’s family included. They may be the biggest losers.

By: SiPort shooting after lay-off (Update 11/17/2008) « Layoff Blog

SiPort shooting after lay-off (Update 11/17/2008) « Layoff Blog — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 00:24:35 +0000

[...] Full story [...]

By: Board Member

Board Member — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 22:04:34 +0000

Please, please, please, please, please do a little homework before you blog on this. You are doing real harm to people who have been traumatized. The press release is here http://furrier.org/2008/11/17/siport-shooting-killer-missed-his-target/. Please read it and put the victims’ families and the surviving employees and their families in your prayers.