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OMGPOP CEO tweets: "Shay Pierce was the weakest employee on the team"

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Re: OMGPOP CEO tweets: "Shay Pierce was the weakest employee on the team"

#101

Post by wpietri »

ChrisNorstrom wrote: post #27
zrgiu_ wrote: post #15

Like Notch said... "you are an insane idiot!". What did the CEO of OMGPOP had to gain from making those remarks ? He surely didn't expect the world to take his side.. Even if Shay Pierce really was "the weakest link of the team", you just don't say that. You just got bought for $200 million, now it's the time to show that you deserved to be the CEO of that company, by being diplomatic, respecting those around you (or…

True. It is indeed very unprofessional. But how come people like him are held up to such high standards? When you're not anyone important you can be brutally honest and say what you want like everyone else does. But as soon as you're in the public eye you're put on this pedestal. This is what scares the hell out of me. I'm a very uncensored person who says what he means and means what he says (and am an asshole somet…

Those people you name are all artists who make their living performing. "Professional" for them has a different meaning. But they still can't say anything they want without censure. Look at how much crap Kanye West took for "Imma let you finish", for example. You will very rarely find them talking trash about people they've worked with, and when it does it often has consequences. Megan Fox, for example, got fired from the Transformers movie because she said some unprofessional things about the director. Her co-star said, "Criticism is one thing. Then there's public name-calling, which turns into high-school bashing. Which you can't do."

More importantly, they're not executives or leaders. Dan Porter is in charge of hundreds of people. How he treats the people who work for him isn't some minor thing; it's the essence of management. His tweet made him look like a petty asshole, and his non-apology confirms that for me.

Re: OMGPOP CEO tweets: "Shay Pierce was the weakest employee on the team"

#104

Post by ajays »

RexRollman wrote: post #26

I don't understand this. Pierce didn't slam OMGPOP, from what I have read, just Zynga's unwillingness to exempt his personal project from its IP clutches. I have to wonder why OMGPOP's CEO felt the need to do this.

My thoughts exactly. My first hunch was: Pincus (CEO of Zynga) put him up to it (or called him out, "how did you ever hire this asshole?"), and Porter jumped at the chance to please his new boss.

Re: OMGPOP CEO tweets: "Shay Pierce was the weakest employee on the team"

#105

Post by wpietri »

j_baker wrote: post #50
scott_w wrote: post #31

What a fool. Shay Pierce's article was incredibly polite and graceful, so there's no way OMGPOP can come off looking like anything but pathetic and vindictive. I think the worst thing I've heard our CEO say about a former employee is "it was time for the company and X to part ways" after X took a job elsewhere, and this was an internal meeting. We don't take to tweeting the inner workings of our company.

Out of all the ways I can think of to describe Pierce's article, "incredibly polite and graceful" is probably at the bottom of the list. Pierce branded a potential employer "evil" because of a minor detail in his contract (granted, a minor detail he had every right to turn the contract down for). Zynga isn't exactly well known for having the most integrity as a company, but it's certainly neither polite nor graceful…

Pierce said no such thing.

Frist, he said he wasn't joining because they wouldn't let him keep ownership of his prior work. They publicly announced that all developers were joining, forced him to make a decision quickly, and refused to negotiate. They in effect forced him out of his job. Him losing a game he built was not a "minor detail".

Second, he did not call Zynga evil because of that. His actual words: "When an entity exists in an ecosystem, and acts within that ecosystem in a way that is short-sighted, behaving in a way that is actively destructive to the healthy functioning of that ecosystem and the other entities in it (including, in the long term, themselves) -- yes, I believe that that is evil. And I believe that Zynga does exactly that."

Politeness and grace do not require you to bend over and take it. They do not require you to shut up when your conscience insists that you speak.

Re: OMGPOP CEO tweets: "Shay Pierce was the weakest employee on the team"

#108

Post by wpietri »

huggyface wrote: post #67
whateverer wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's very childish, to say the least, to take offense and lashing out upon hearing of someone else's morals. Or more accurately, it's self-centered, oblivious and aggressive. I'm more than content with the outcry all over the net.

It's very childish, to say the least, to take offense and lashing out upon hearing of someone else's morals. Many would see Pierce's media efforts as childish and unprofessional. I originally saw it presented with the title "The one smart OMGPOP employee", and it was pretty obvious what the deal was (when you make demands and the other side ignores you, it means you aren't in a position to make demands). Further his…

That is not an "oddball" waiver. Saying that creative people continue to own what they owned before they took the job is a common contract feature. I know we have that in the IP agreement that our developers sign -- anything they explicitly list as theirs continues to be theirs.

Re: OMGPOP CEO tweets: "Shay Pierce was the weakest employee on the team"

#109

Post by loso »

Klinky wrote: post #99
loso wrote: post #95

While I don't agree with how Dan Porter came across on Twitter I think I can understand the frustration. You are having one of the best days of your life and then out of left field someone you know does an article that sideswipes it. I read the Shay Pierce article when it was published and it was very respectful of his former employers...but it didn't have to happen now. Why did he write that article NOW? There is al…

There is already a well deserved Anti Zynga sentiment and that article made his fellow employees look as if they were traitors to the forces of good. How would holding off on the article change the contents? It wouldn't. Timing matters, he struck while the iron was hot. There is no reason he should self-censor himself for the benefit of a company that looks like it's run by a bit of an ass.

I'm not talking about for the benefit of the company. I am talking about for the benefit of his fellow employees who took the deal. His article does not put them in the best light.

Re: OMGPOP CEO tweets: "Shay Pierce was the weakest employee on the team"

#110

Post by wpietri »

brooknam wrote: post #29
v21 wrote: post #11

Sounds like he's well shot of them. And this seems bizarre behaviour on OMGPOP's part - he was entirely complimentary to OMGPOP and he publicly disclaimed credit for Draw Something. Even if you did hate him and the press he stirred up, the best way to make it go away is to completely ignore it. Why on Earth would you make this the story?

It was a poor decision, but I can see being furious/frustrated that the story of your company's success had mutated into one on how your new parent owner was evil.

True, but he shouldn't blame Shay Pierce. Porter's the one who decided to do a deal with Zynga. Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas.

Further, Porter's the one who set up the retention process in a way that forced somebody out the door over a perfectly reasonable issue. A manager who's first instinct for a problem is to blame others has a big problem. One who does it publicly is a fool.

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