At Netflix, Radical Transparency and Blunt Firings Unsettle the Ranks
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Re: At Netflix, Radical Transparency and Blunt Firings Unsettle the Ranks
#2Outline link: https://outline.com/PTGkER
Re: At Netflix, Radical Transparency and Blunt Firings Unsettle the Ranks
#3> An effort more recently by Mr. Hastings to allow Netflixers to see the salaries of any other employee, regardless of rank, was soundly defeated in a company poll of executives.
I love transparency!!
Re: At Netflix, Radical Transparency and Blunt Firings Unsettle the Ranks
#4“When life gives you lemons,” he said, taking a swig on stage, “you make lemonade.”
Are you serious? What is it with the trite theatrics?
Re: At Netflix, Radical Transparency and Blunt Firings Unsettle the Ranks
#5Outline link: https://outline.com/PTGkER
First time seeing Outline. How in the heck is that legal/welcome in Chrome Web Store?
Hm, are you just violating their TOS and they're putting the onus on WSJ to ask them to take down your link:
Re: At Netflix, Radical Transparency and Blunt Firings Unsettle the Ranks
#6> Richard Siklos, a Netflix spokesman, said the company only fires employees for performance reasons, not because managers don’t like them
Oh how I wish I could have had that. I've had an experience in the past where I was dismissed because my manager decided he just didn't like me anymore. Although I was the best performing, most senior developer on the team and was doing all the hiring and mentoring of others, it didn't save me.
Within two months I went from having a glowing performance review that recommended me for a management role to being summarily dismissed for "attitude."
Re: At Netflix, Radical Transparency and Blunt Firings Unsettle the Ranks
#7> Richard Siklos, a Netflix spokesman, said the company only fires employees for performance reasons, not because managers don’t like them
That's not true at all. The company fires people all the time because their skills just aren't necessary. I mean I guess technically it's a layoff, but a layoff and getting fired are functionally the same at Netflix as they both come with the same severance.
When we moved to AWS, there were plenty of folks who were let go because their expertise was in physical infrastructure and they had no desire to learn about the cloud.
They were stellar performers, their expertise just wasn't needed anymore.
I very much enjoyed working in a culture where both hiring and firing were easy to do, to make sure that the team was always the right people at the right time.
Re: At Netflix, Radical Transparency and Blunt Firings Unsettle the Ranks
#8>Many employees say they see the keeper test as a guise for ordinary workplace politics while some managers say they feel pressure to fire people or risk looking soft.
I worked for a place like this. Regular firings, sometimes every month. The CEO (who also self-funded the company) believed that regularly letting people go was a way of eliminating bad apples and forcing people to work harder and smarter. Similar to Netflix philosopy, but on a smaller scale.
Firings happened for all the reasons you'd think--politics, cliques, not being a "cultural fit." "Not being a team player" was often code for not trying hard enough to make your lead look good.
It was toxic and led to massive tech debt accumulation, as a succession of engineering managers all made new and different decisions on frameworks and technologies as soon as they were hired. Very little institutional knowledge.
Implicit quotas for regularly letting people go is just an insane way to run a business.
(edit: clarity)
Re: At Netflix, Radical Transparency and Blunt Firings Unsettle the Ranks
#9Outline link: https://outline.com/PTGkER
First time seeing Outline. How in the heck is that legal/welcome in Chrome Web Store? Hm, are you just violating their TOS and they're putting the onus on WSJ to ask them to take down your link: https://outline.com/dmca.html
Yes, it is on the copyright owner to take it down.
I use it often on news websites as it allows you to by-pass most soft paywalls.
Re: At Netflix, Radical Transparency and Blunt Firings Unsettle the Ranks
#10I recently quit a job that had me burned out, and in the meantime I've decided to take a couple months off before my next job. My biggest fear in going back is that I feel like now that I have 0 tolerance for the corporate culture bullshit that permeates all large organizations. I don't really even fault Netflix for what they're doing (I've certainly seen much worse) but I've determined that to function that pretty much all large organizations have to do this weird theatrical dance that separates them from their humanity, and no one (or sometimes too many people I guess??) are willing to call them out on their bullshit.
Oh well, guess I could always be an Uber driver.