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Jason Calacanis at his finest

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Re: Jason Calacanis at his finest

#81

Post by exit »

scorxn wrote: post #73
exit wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

we do know calacanis went on to publicly denigrate the former employee. it doesn't make me think there's more to "his half" than juvenile petulance. >"Free advice for entitled Gen Y trophy kids: if you spend 12 months at a company over and over you look like a flake." 10:06 PM Apr 21st via Twitter for BlackBerry® http://twitter.com/Jason/status/12621363849

Withholding judgement and taking that tweet at face value, it does touch on something important. Usually when entering a job, a candidate will be excited and say just about anything. "Hell yeah I could see myself here for the next 5 years!" Who knows if that happened here. The employer may take on certain expectations, possibility choosing a hire based on that enthusiasm and apparent commitment. Either way, no one ex…

and usually when interviewing for a job, suggesting you might not stick around for a long as is convenient for the company will disqualify you.

invariably hr gives you the "we're looking for someone will grow with the company ... ", and you're expected to oblige them with some reassuring "enthusiasm".

Re: Jason Calacanis at his finest

#82

Post by jacquesm »

wdewind wrote: post #35
jacquesm wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. you could be #3, I couldn't care less, mahalo does not exactly contribute, it just rehashes. 2. good for you 3. The only one I've heard of is 'blippy', and that's only because of some fairly sloppy coding there. 4. great. I'm fairly sure they would have made it without your personal contribution though, you can't possibly take personal credit for that, just like Paul Graham doesn't take personal credit for dropbox…

And to bring the point further: no one cares what you accomplish if you act like a total asshat while doing it. Mussolini and some trains come to mind.

http://www.snopes.com/history/govern/trains.asp

Re: Jason Calacanis at his finest

#83

Post by scorxn »

jacquesm wrote: post #77
scorxn wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Withholding judgement and taking that tweet at face value, it does touch on something important. Usually when entering a job, a candidate will be excited and say just about anything. "Hell yeah I could see myself here for the next 5 years!" Who knows if that happened here. The employer may take on certain expectations, possibility choosing a hire based on that enthusiasm and apparent commitment. Either way, no one ex…

Plenty of people resign via email simply to make it official. That's where the whole 'handing in your notice' expression comes from, people used to literally hand deliver their termination letter, these days letters are emails so it is a logical - even if it feels rude - development.

I'm admittedly assuming, based on the severity of Jason's reaction, that the email was the first he'd heard of Evan's resignation.

Had it been a face-to-face conversation, then a letter, the fireworks could have been avoided. Speaking from first-hand experience, it can be absolutely gut-wrenching, but ultimately feels like the right thing to do.

Re: Jason Calacanis at his finest

#84

Post by jacquesm »

scorxn wrote: post #83
jacquesm wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plenty of people resign via email simply to make it official. That's where the whole 'handing in your notice' expression comes from, people used to literally hand deliver their termination letter, these days letters are emails so it is a logical - even if it feels rude - development.

I'm admittedly assuming, based on the severity of Jason's reaction, that the email was the first he'd heard of Evan's resignation. Had it been a face-to-face conversation, then a letter, the fireworks could have been avoided. Speaking from first-hand experience, it can be absolutely gut-wrenching, but ultimately feels like the right thing to do.

In light of the response, you could even say that mahalo employees might prefer to resign via email rather than to face the full brunt of the response in person, your assumption could easily be right and there might be a good reason for it.

Re: Jason Calacanis at his finest

#85

Post by jbellis »

scorxn wrote: post #73
exit wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

we do know calacanis went on to publicly denigrate the former employee. it doesn't make me think there's more to "his half" than juvenile petulance. >"Free advice for entitled Gen Y trophy kids: if you spend 12 months at a company over and over you look like a flake." 10:06 PM Apr 21st via Twitter for BlackBerry® http://twitter.com/Jason/status/12621363849

Withholding judgement and taking that tweet at face value, it does touch on something important. Usually when entering a job, a candidate will be excited and say just about anything. "Hell yeah I could see myself here for the next 5 years!" Who knows if that happened here. The employer may take on certain expectations, possibility choosing a hire based on that enthusiasm and apparent commitment. Either way, no one ex…

I've failed to get offers when I've been up front and said, "I'll leave in two years if I'm not challenged anymore." And that's okay, because it probably wasn't a good fit.

Re: Jason Calacanis at his finest

#86

Post by endgame »

jacquesm wrote: post #14

Suggested rewrite: Hey Evan, We're mighty sorry, but we understand. If things don't work out at yahoo! as planned we want you to know the door is always open to return, after all we hate to see you go. Please tell the rest of your team that you go with our blessing and that we look forward to seeing you do great things in the future. We all know if there is one thing they need over there it is quality people. Since w…

That's good. It reminds me of TheDailyWTF's piece on a "culture of quitting": http://thedailywtf.com/articles/up-or-out-solving-the-it-tur...

It would be ideal if an employee parting ways didn't seem like a betrayal or bad break-up.

Re: Jason Calacanis at his finest

#87

Post by detst »

hugh3 wrote: post #67
jacquesm wrote: post #14

Suggested rewrite: Hey Evan, We're mighty sorry, but we understand. If things don't work out at yahoo! as planned we want you to know the door is always open to return, after all we hate to see you go. Please tell the rest of your team that you go with our blessing and that we look forward to seeing you do great things in the future. We all know if there is one thing they need over there it is quality people. Since w…

I think it would be legitimate to express some disappointment that the employee decided to tell you he was resigning via a mass email rather than in person or even via a phone call.

Considering Jason's response, I would think Evan had good reason to think that a phone call might not offer him the opportunity to properly express why he's leaving and his appreciation for the job. He may also not want to subject himself to such treatment on the phone.

Re: Jason Calacanis at his finest

#88

Post by idoh »

spamizbad wrote: post #74
exit wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

we do know calacanis went on to publicly denigrate the former employee. it doesn't make me think there's more to "his half" than juvenile petulance. >"Free advice for entitled Gen Y trophy kids: if you spend 12 months at a company over and over you look like a flake." 10:06 PM Apr 21st via Twitter for BlackBerry® http://twitter.com/Jason/status/12621363849

I'm beginning to resent that my generation has been dubbed the "Trophy Kids." Those trophies were more for parental egos than our own self-esteem. We weren't dumb, we knew it was just a meaningless participation trinket. Most of those things ended up going in the trash unless your parents mandated you keep them (Mine didn't, thankfully). I think I'd keep them around for a year or two just for the sake of having a kni…

Agreed. Blaming a whole generation is silly. If you want to play that game, then blame the parents of the trophy kids who decided that it was a good idea to give everyone a participation trophy.

Re: Jason Calacanis at his finest

#89

Post by tokenadult »

pg wrote: post #34

Let's be fair here. For all we know, the guy might have done something quite bad. Or not. But if he did, Jason couldn't say so. We just don't know. But what we do know is that this is exactly the kind of half-story that gets people going on forums: an antagonist everyone loves to hate, and structural reasons why we're probably not getting the whole story. Many, many times I've seen users on a forum go on the warpath…

It would be nice if Internet culture could evolve to reserve judgment when a story like this appeared, in the same way it has evolved not to trust any story that appears in a much-forwarded email. I would be proud if HN was the place that mutation began.

I'll keep this goal in mind, and try to remind participants here not to jump to conclusions based on first, partial reports.

BTW, the comparison to how skeptically we read forwarded emails makes the point well. We should treat most blog postings, and especially most viral tweets, in much the same way.

Re: Jason Calacanis at his finest

#90

Post by gojomo »

pg wrote: post #34

Let's be fair here. For all we know, the guy might have done something quite bad. Or not. But if he did, Jason couldn't say so. We just don't know. But what we do know is that this is exactly the kind of half-story that gets people going on forums: an antagonist everyone loves to hate, and structural reasons why we're probably not getting the whole story. Many, many times I've seen users on a forum go on the warpath…

Even if this is the whole story, the pose of righteous anger by many commenters is silly overkill.

So, Calacanis got emotional and snippy about losing an employee. It shows he cares. Despite the armchair philosophizing about its effects on morale or recruiting, it might be a net win for the Mahalo team for Calacanis to show a little anger/disapproval/impatience when this happens.

You'd think some of the finger-wagging fuddy-duddies had never heard the stories about Steve Jobs' "soft touch" with employees and partners...

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