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Mozilla lays off 70

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Re: Mozilla lays off 70

#491

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's appalling. How did that make people still working at Mozilla feel? I can't imagine working under somebody like that.

It seems that there was some subsection of Mozilla employees who were offended by Gerv's views and thus publicly ambivalent, though undoubtedly privately relieved, to hear of his passing. [0] While that doesn't excuse the "obit" Baker posted, I'm sure it had some effect on her thought process. Common decency is apparently not valued above political homogeneity in the tech industry. [0] http://archive.today/2020.01.16…

It's better to criticize people when they're still alive, rather than shortly after their death. Where I come from at least, it's considered crass at best to speak ill of the dead, unless they were some sort of heinous violent criminal.

I would feel deeply uncomfortable if my boss were to post an obit like that about a deceased coworker, even if I had hated that persons guts. It just isn't something you do, as you say it violates common decency.

Re: Mozilla lays off 70

#492

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It also doesn't take into consideration revenue growth, which according to the corporation's Wiki page grew much faster and higher in multiples than her salary. As well, according to the same Wiki, "There will be no shareholders, no stock options will be issued and no dividends will be paid." It would be a bummer to run a company of that size, be dedicated to it for so long, and not have any stake in it. Imagine her…

Wikipedia is unreliable. Perhaps you missed it, but Verizon bought Yahoo!, realized how Marissa's five year default search deal with Firefox was bleeding money as most users reset their default to Google, and Mozilla and Verizon declared the other party in breach in rapid succession. This will go to court, and my money is on Verizon. There will be no balloon payment of the last two years. The jump in comp in 2017, as…

I'm in no way an insider and haven't paid attention to the history of this saga. I was just using public, possibly shaky info like the others. My point was to show that one graph is not the whole story, and it prompted you to add even more details. Your last point is definitely fair. I use Firefox on my phone and recently started learning JavaScript, so um, thank you.

Re: Mozilla lays off 70

#493
post #425

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She used the sandwich feedback technique for a eulogy - an interesting approach. https://www.rightattitudes.com/2008/02/20/sandwich-feedback-...

Gross, is this actually a technique taught in management? Seems disingenuous and sounds like something a really bad manager would do.

Yes, just had it taught to my management class where we universally agreed that it felt fake and unnatural.

Re: Mozilla lays off 70

#494

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't matter - it's legal, protected political speech in donation form. There's nothing wrong with having differing opinions about things; you can disagree as much as you like and donate as much as you want to counter it.

Appeal to legality isn't proof of moral superiority. Racial segregation was also legal via Jim Crow laws, and people still hold the political opinion it should still be despite society changing and moving forward. It is also not censorship nor is it illegal to terminate employment with someone based on their political actions.

> It is also not censorship nor is it illegal to terminate employment with someone based on their political actions.

It is in California: https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/legal-and-compliance/...

Re: Mozilla lays off 70

#495

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He got cancelled for not supporting gay marriage. Nothing he has actually personally done or will do matters in this new moral calculus.

If I remember correctly he didn't get fired for just not supporting gay marriage, he got fired for donating to some bill that was trying to prohibit gay marriage. That's quite the difference.

Please read https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22060643.

Re: Mozilla lays off 70

#496

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think your point is the most important one. This is not "Compensation of Highest paid executive at Mozilla vs Firefox market share" as Eich says. This appears to be a misleading graph of how much one guy has been paid. His salary went way up in 2016, unsurprisingly (shortly after Eich was fired), and Firefox has continued its downward slide from when Eich was there.

Read more carefully: 1. The increase was in 2017, reported per IRS regs in Mozilla Foundation's Form 990 filing (which must list all comp to board members even if they work for the for-profit Mozilla Corporation subsidiary). 2. The "one guy" is Mitchell Baker, and she is chair of both foundation and corporation boards. But nice try attempting to pin blame on market share slide these last almost six years on me.

In your Twitter thread you claimed it was a "chart for top job" at Mozilla. Will you now say that was false, that Baker was not the highest paid employee for the duration of that chart?

Re: Mozilla lays off 70

#497

I'm one of the 70. There were no signs that this was imminent, although Mozilla has been struggling financially for many years. I expected that it would happen eventually; I'm relatively well-prepared for it; and it's not too shocking. I did however expect that there would be some warning signs in the lead-up, but that was not the case. I was working on Cranelift, the WebAssembly compiler that is also a plausible fut…

Is Dan still there?

Re: Mozilla lays off 70

#498
post #406

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> PETA's CEO makes $31,285[2]. TOR Project executives receive $0 compensation[3]. I'm inclined to agree with you, but I think there must be something missing here. Are they receiving some other form of compensation? How much does the median PETA employee make? More than that, I hope!

It seems about median. > Thirty-seven percent of PETA’s dedicated staff earn between $30,000 and $44,999, including President Ingrid Newkirk, who made $31,285 during the fiscal year ending July 31, 2016. Seven percent of PETA’s dedicated staff only earn between $16,000 and $29,999, and the remaining 56 percent make more than $45,000 per year. Most staff members give a portion of their earnings back to PETA’s lifesavi…

Eh.

> the remaining 56 percent make more than $45,000 per year

So the median is more than $45k. I would say the difference between $31k and $45k is pretty significant, at least depending on where you live. In San Francisco that would likely not be enough for someone to live comfortably alone.

Re: Mozilla lays off 70

#499
post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She also wrote this incredibly rude and grotesque obituary for Gervase Markham after he died of cancer (working for Mozilla until the end). You are welcome to disagree, but Gerv contributed just as much to Mozilla as Mitchell did. https://blog.lizardwrangler.com/2018/08/07/in-memoriam-gerva...

That's appalling. How did that make people still working at Mozilla feel? I can't imagine working under somebody like that.

Gerv's behavior would have led to him being fired a long time ago in any other company. He was a toxic employee. MoCo did him and his family a favor to keep him on the payroll until his death.

Re: Mozilla lays off 70

#500

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I remember correctly he didn't get fired for just not supporting gay marriage, he got fired for donating to some bill that was trying to prohibit gay marriage. That's quite the difference.

He was forced to resign (the Mozilla board was actually in favor of having him stay on) for having donated to a group supporting an anti-gay-marriage bill 3 years before he became CEO. And, as far as I am aware, not giving any further indication of support in the intervening 3 years.

Hi jcranmer, please be careful. Prop 8 passed in 2008, almost six years before 2014 when I was CEO. Also, neither of us can say (for different reasons) whether I was forced, and if so, by whom. Mozilla is clear that it did not fire me, nor could it have legally:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22060643

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