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Yammer CEO won't hire anyone from Yahoo who doesn't quit in next 60 days

venturebeat.com

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Re: Yammer CEO won't hire anyone from Yahoo who doesn't quit in next 60 days

#71

Post by Jimmie »

shingen wrote: post #33

While it's a perfectly fine choice to ostracize Yahoo for their actions, Yammer's CEO is going to end up looking like little more than a hypocrite at the least, and maybe a dipshit, if he doesn't apply the same rules to all companies equally based on behavior. The odds the CEO will apply the same rule to all other companies acting with patent belligerence? Approximately zero. They'd need a substantial piece of tracki…

Actually he specifically mentioned people with families.

' “People were telling me I need to think of the Yahoo rank and file, folks who have families, but the talent market in Silicon Valley is so hot right now, the only folks staying at Yahoo are the ones who have stopped caring,” Sacks told VentureBeat. '

Re: Yammer CEO won't hire anyone from Yahoo who doesn't quit in next 60 days

#72

Post by dlss »

Looks like the other comments on here are anti-Yammer. I guess I'll write up why this doesn't seem unreasonable to me.

1. If you read the article, he was apparently talking about people with options and control (Executives, Lawyers, Engineers), rather than janitors or other people who might not have as much say in who they work for.

2. The CEO states that his reasoning is that who you work for and support indicates what kind of person you are ("the talent market in Silicon Valley is so hot right now, the only folks staying at Yahoo are the ones who have stopped caring"). Contrast this with the knee jerk reactions to the article indicating that this is purely about punishing Yahoo. He just doesn't want people who enable bad behavior. He wants Yammer employees who will stand up to him if things look immoral.

3. Yes the article / his announcement is sensational. But look at the general idea: expecting engineers to refuse support to business doing immoral things is taught in every university ethics class. Why not include ethics questions in the interview?

Re: Yammer CEO won't hire anyone from Yahoo who doesn't quit in next 60 days

#75

Post by pbreit »

shingen wrote: post #33

While it's a perfectly fine choice to ostracize Yahoo for their actions, Yammer's CEO is going to end up looking like little more than a hypocrite at the least, and maybe a dipshit, if he doesn't apply the same rules to all companies equally based on behavior. The odds the CEO will apply the same rule to all other companies acting with patent belligerence? Approximately zero. They'd need a substantial piece of tracki…

No he's not. The patent move isn't the only reason to frown on Yahoo employees. The company has been moving sideways for quite some time which is when good employees tend to leave for better opportunities.

Re: Yammer CEO won't hire anyone from Yahoo who doesn't quit in next 60 days

#76

Post by dwynings »

jrockway wrote: post #53

What's "Yammer" and what hiring process is finding them so many qualified potential employees that they can afford to artificially limit the supply? Also: when you want employees rather than startup founders, you have to expect that they are in it for security rather than ideals. Very few employee-types who are otherwise happy with their company are going to quit over one lawsuit. It's simply not worth not being able…

On the other hand, I'd be more likely to hire someone who quit Yahoo because of the patent issue.

Re: Yammer CEO won't hire anyone from Yahoo who doesn't quit in next 60 days

#77

Post by dlss »

larrys wrote: post #63
potatolicious wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If my employer suddenly got into the business of mulching orphans for fertilizer, I'd consider it my personal responsibility to quit/move on as soon as possible. Yahoo employees should get no blame for decisions they didn't make, but they do have to bear the responsibility for tacitly condoning this behavior. Considering the current job market for software engineers in the Bay Area, the whole "but I need to pay rent"…

"If my employer suddenly got into the business of mulching orphans for fertilizer, I'd consider it my personal responsibility to quit/move on as soon as possible." You mean you wouldn't leave the same day? What's the point of using an example like that?

Using humorous examples generally increases understanding. See http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/20151750?uid=3739560&#... (or your local psych textbooks :p)

Re: Yammer CEO won't hire anyone from Yahoo who doesn't quit in next 60 days

#78

Post by psycho »

mindstab wrote: post #24
brown9-2 wrote: post #6

Does Yammer have similar policies against hiring people from Apple, Microsoft, or Oracle? This reeks of publicity-seeking.

Also this is the first time I've heard of Yammer, while Yahoo is big and old. Is this even a likely occurrence? Have they had or hired many or any yahoo ex employees in the past? Headline read to me "Small no name startup says they won't hire employees from huge company that's also never heard of them" Seems all about the publicity.

You may check this out: http://www.linkedin.com/search/fpsearch?keywords=Yahoo&c...

Re: Yammer CEO won't hire anyone from Yahoo who doesn't quit in next 60 days

#79

Post by pbreit »

Pretty much everyone is missing that the patent situation isn't the only reason an employer might frown on Yahoo employees. The company has been moving sideways (at best) for quite some time and better employees tend to leave in those circumstances. The patent move was just the final straw.

Re: Yammer CEO won't hire anyone from Yahoo who doesn't quit in next 60 days

#80

Post by psycho »

untog wrote: post #3

While his stance is perhaps extreme, I think it forms part of a larger rejection of Yahoo by the tech community. Sadly, that's going to hurt everyone- Yahoo has some phenomenal tech going on, but most of it generates no revenue. So, we stop using it, Yahoo just fires the developers and continues on it's "content portal" path. Sad.

Why so sad? There are a lot of good tech companies to work at and Yahoo's current business model isn't bad for it at all, I think.
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