Most countries have probationary periods before most of those rights kick in.

Depending on the European country, there is a probation period between 3 to 6 months, where any of the parties can cancel the relationship at any time, usually 1 week notice, unless it is really bad.

That should be more than enough to assess if someone is fit for the job.

How does an employer distinguish a worker who is trying hard only because he is on probation from a worker who will continue to try hard after the probation period ends?

If they try hard for 6 months during probation, then congrats on having a motivated dev for 6 months. If they fall off hard after, kick them out. It's only 3 months of salary. Compare that to thesalary and hiring process of finding a good dev, which is more expensive in many cases.

>If they fall off hard after, kick them out. It's only 3 months of salary.

Thanks for the info.

Was for Europe, I am sure its easier in less regulated countries.

That wouldn’t be caught in a live-coding interview either, right?

At some point of your society has decided it values job security, the jobs will have to become secured. It is a trade-off.

OK, but that is not responsive to "Just hire devs and kick them out if they dont fit ur needs."

I’m not sure how to respond to this, saying “that is not responsive” doesn’t really make an argument or anything.

I'm not expressing an opinion on live-coding interviews or the choice between them and probationary periods. I'm changing the subject away from the original subject -- or rather I would be if "just hire devs and kick them out if they dont fit ur needs" hadn't already done so.

I was just pointing out that your "that wouldn’t be caught in a live-coding interview either" does not shed any additional light on the topic I personally am interested in, namely, the choice between a free market in labor and legal regime that grant employees some job security.

Coding tests aren't filtering for people who work hard, they're filtering for people who know how to code. Whether they will work hard on the job seems like an orthogonal question?

They don't but usually wages are scaled to average. So So average output will still be what is expected. Really bad ones well, you start giving notices. And then with enough evidence you can terminate contract.

You can't, in the same way you can't distinguish a romantic partner who is using you from one who genuinely likes you. Because clairvoyance is not real.

That's just a risk we all have to take.

There is no 60 minute test for months of malingering

In many non-US countries there is also a probation period before full employment rights kick in, allowing employers to fire new hires without reason, so definitely you can "kick them out if they don't fit your needs" in many countries.