Repost this to get more people’s attention. My girlfriend who works for Twitter with H1B got terminated while stuck outside of the States but continues to work remotely for the company. Some facts about it: 1. Company HR and the manager confirmed that working from overseas is acceptable and the company works to accommodate the work situation before the date of termination. They changed the decision abruptly over the weekend. 2. No other options were discussed at the time of termination. (such as unpaid leave) 3. No discussion before the termination meeting about what my girlfriend has done wrong to prevent employment. Nothing was mentioned what she could do to keep the employment. 4. During remote working periods, her working mates speak highly of their work, which was shared during Team All Hands twice and featured in monthly newsletter. Temination is not performance related. 5. My girlfriend has been paying personal expenses trying to continue to work for the company(flights and hotels for the past 5 months). We have been paying the rent in bay area as well. 6. No compensation was discussed during the termination meeting. 7. She came to another country trying to get the visa and also she could continue her work. She has adjusted the time difference to sync with PST for the past 5 months. 8. Her manager has known that she has come to a third country for the past 5 months and no concerns was delivered by her manager about it. HR eventually attributes the termination to that we came to another country for work. What we know so far 1. Teminate/lay off an employee doesn’t incur much costs to the company. The company is not obliged to compensate for anything because it is at will. 2. H1B is so highly dependent to the company that even when people don’t do anything wrong, their job security is not as high as they expect. The company has power over it. We hope people could know more from our story.
Yeah...welcome to America where you can be fired for no reason and get no severance.
Where in the post did they say no severance
Having H1B and working from home country is not “no reason”.
That sucks man :/ This is the reason that in such situations it’s better to “fly under the radar” than catch everyone’s attention. You never know who thinks what about you and how they would react to a certain thing. I know your gf wouldn’t have gone asking for the attention, but this is for others who might be in a similar situation, just ask your manager to keep it between the both of you and not make a big deal out of it.
Earlier in the lockdown (May) I left for a couple of months to work in a different state and stay with family, I didn’t even tell my manager at all. Honestly it’s just a headache and all it does in my mind is add a layer of doubt around performance. Like oh if he’s not in Seattle he must not be working as hard as usual, maybe that’s why XYZ task took 3 weeks instead of 2, etc. I know that’s pretty toxic and my manager isn’t like that, but if I can just fly under the radar then who cares. I’m back in Seattle now and no one had a clue I was even gone.
Exactly!
Sorry to hear that. Can’t believe a reputable company like Twitter would do this.
Yes color me shocked that Twitter randomly fires people. Employers in the US have way too much control over people’s lives.
That is BS. Compared to any other country especially Asian countries things are much better here. Chalk it to work culture H1b visas are specifically non immigrant visas and need to work from here. Even as a l1 or gc or permanent citizen if you are work from another another country for extended period of time there are legal and tax repercussions. Companies obviously need to protect themselves
She’s not the only one. Many H1Bs who are stuck outside the U.S. are being terminated effective immediately.
At twitter or wayfair?
According to Fragomen.
Does she have a valid H1B stamping?
In which country was she stuck? Did she have work permit in that country or was she a citizen of that country? Does Twitter have an office in that country?
She can’t work from Overseas on h1b (short time like a month or so is ok). The reason is taxation complexities. Working for a US based company on a US based payroll means paying taxes like resident aliens. And irs treats those employees as resident aliens for taxation purpose. If you are working from outside for a long time, you’ll fail the substantial presence test. https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/substantial-presence-test
Substantial presence test requires presence for 31 days in last year and 183 days in the last 3 years - so that allows 11 months to work outside the country. It's not illegal to work a few months from outside the US on H1B. It's complicated for tax purposes for the company.
You can be outside the US for 8 months and still pass the SPT
There must be many others in her situation right? Do you know anyone else who was also let go abruptly? Thanks for spreading the news! Take care!
Technically your gf is working for Twitter from another country. There are various reasons why that might not be legal (your gfs visa situation/Twitters ability to employ people in that country). It sounds like their legal department is panicking about this and terminating her to cover their asses.
👆🏾this is the very likely reason
Yep. Came here to say this. It’s a huge HR and legal mess for employees to work from another country without special arrangements. Add in H1B and it’s just another dimension of complexity. And with at-will employment and waiving rights to sue, you don’t have many options.