PagerDuty CEO Quotes Martin Luther King Jr. In Worst Layoff Email Ever • Hacker News Board

Re: PagerDuty CEO Quotes Martin Luther King Jr. In Worst Layoff Email Ever

#31

Post by SantalBlush » Fri, Jan 27, 2023, 6:55 PM UTC

ccn0p wrote: post #4

tldr; You’re fired, we’re doing great thanks to cutting your cost, but stay strong in your job search during this recession like those who have been persecuted for the color of their skin!

>this recession

HN needs to stop repeating this nonsense to one another. We are not in a recession. The latest GDP figures came out yesterday, and growth beat expectations by 12%. Service industries are hiring. The tech sector can no longer make billions by using AI to draw cat faces on selfie pics, but that has little bearing on the rest of the economy.

People on this site have willfully changed the definition of recession to "layoffs are happening in my industry". That's not what it means, at all.

Re: PagerDuty CEO Quotes Martin Luther King Jr. In Worst Layoff Email Ever

#32

Post by kodah » Fri, Jan 27, 2023, 6:55 PM UTC

If you're a line worker businesses, managers, and executives are not your friends. That might seem controversial to some, but to me it's just the pecking order. Executives usually take home large sums from these businesses for very little personal risk. Meanwhile, line workers are the ones that produce the product that earns them large sums in bonuses while sacrificing their time, energy, and often personal well-being. We move to new, expensive cities for these people. We work weekends for them. We work nights for them. As long as executives are perceived as different from employees in all the wrong ways beatings will continue and morale will not improve.

Re: PagerDuty CEO Quotes Martin Luther King Jr. In Worst Layoff Email Ever

#33

Post by woodruffw » Fri, Jan 27, 2023, 6:55 PM UTC

injb wrote: post #10

ccn0p wrote: post #4

tldr; You’re fired, we’re doing great thanks to cutting your cost, but stay strong in your job search during this recession like those who have been persecuted for the color of their skin!

The quote in question had nothing to do with that. It was a generic statement about leadership: "‘the ultimate measure of a [leader] is not where [they] stand in the moments of comfort and convenience, but where [they] stand in times of challenge and controversy,’”

This is "states' rights" reasoning: "challenge and controversy" around what, precisely?

(It's exceedingly clear that MLK is talking about racial equality, and quoting him in an tone-deaf layoff email is execrable.)

Re: PagerDuty CEO Quotes Martin Luther King Jr. In Worst Layoff Email Ever

#34

Post by mritchie712 » Fri, Jan 27, 2023, 6:55 PM UTC

vkou wrote: post #25

jacquesm wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice one. Instant wave of resignations?

Not in that economy. You do get an instant wave of people not giving two shits about work, though.

"Quiet quitting" they're calling it now.

Re: PagerDuty CEO Quotes Martin Luther King Jr. In Worst Layoff Email Ever

#35

Post by deepsquirrelnet » Fri, Jan 27, 2023, 6:55 PM UTC

“You’re all fired, but on a positive note, MLK would say I’m an amazing leader.”

Ouch. I’m not sure if it’s worse to get laid off after that email or have to stay for that kind of leadership.

Re: PagerDuty CEO Quotes Martin Luther King Jr. In Worst Layoff Email Ever

#36

Post by pavlov » Fri, Jan 27, 2023, 6:56 PM UTC

guardiangod wrote: post #26

jeffwask wrote: post #21

I'm really happy for her. Worst CEO has typically been a male dominated category. It's nice see some diversity in lacking empathy and having over inflated egos.

HP "The Witch" Carly Fiorina is still the leader I'd say.

HP also had Léo Apotheker as CEO, so the competition is very tough at this company. A pet rock would have done a better job for cheaper than Apotheker.

Re: PagerDuty CEO Quotes Martin Luther King Jr. In Worst Layoff Email Ever

#37

Post by Nimsical » Fri, Jan 27, 2023, 6:56 PM UTC

Unclear to me how much of the negative perspective of this is because of her gender. Media has a bias against female leaders. The fact that they don't put the whole email in there is concerning as well.

E.g. Stripe had a similar tone in that they basically wanted to maintain their margins but didn't get anything close to this type of negative coverage. No MLK quotes though

Re: PagerDuty CEO Quotes Martin Luther King Jr. In Worst Layoff Email Ever

#38

Post by markus_zhang » Fri, Jan 27, 2023, 6:57 PM UTC

"It doesn’t seem to have been written with ill intent, but rather with the goal to save time"

I guess that's even more scary than ill intended.

Re: PagerDuty CEO Quotes Martin Luther King Jr. In Worst Layoff Email Ever

#39

Post by nus07 » Fri, Jan 27, 2023, 6:57 PM UTC

I once worked for a well known healthcare consulting firm where right after layoffs the CEO said on a company wide call that the layoffs would help all the rest to reach their target bonuses. I have reached the conclusion that most executives in the US reach their level because of factors outside expertise and capability and for the most part are clueless and tone deaf .

Re: PagerDuty CEO Quotes Martin Luther King Jr. In Worst Layoff Email Ever

#40

Post by SQueeeeeL » Fri, Jan 27, 2023, 6:58 PM UTC

jMyles wrote: post #28

Hanlon's Razor and all that, but this reads as intentional to me. She wanted attention; she got attention. Specifically, she wanted people to know about items that she believes will increase her company's valuation, and she found a way to get attention in that area (the giveaway is that she even boasted about some elements of the company's financials and reports in the very same letter). She knew damn well that this…

That "all PR is good PR" kinda only applies to actors. Some random startup that does God knows what (probably not very much if their leadership is so shit) doesn't benefit from having a massive scandal come up every time you Google them. Most technical people don't use the same criteria to purchase SaaS software that they use to purchase tabloids