Agreed, this post only makes reddit look like a very unprofessional workplace.
Maybe it's not "professional", where that word has the common meaning of avoiding saying hard truths on the grounds that someone's feelings and/or political position might be hurt. This significantly elevates Reddit, IMO. Their CEO acts like a fucking human being instead of a politicized, sanitized, pretentious, weasel-wording sock puppet like so many other CEOs. You have no idea how much respect I have for this.
Tbh, I view it the opposite way. If an ex-employee publicly posts/publishes in a visible way that would be obvious to the previous employer...and the previous employer says nothing, that speaks volumes more. Generally corporate silence is a sign they can't refute the statement without opening themselves up to libel/being sued. The fact yishan is willing to say this (no matter how poor the delivery) basically means he…
"It is company policy not to comment on personnel matters." is the standard, expected response, no matter the guilt or innocence of either party. Is it satisfying? No. But it avoids exactly this situation. And by the way, even that response is only expected when the company is directly asked. The correct response until then is to simply pretend nobody (or at least nobody in management) is aware of the issue.
And some potential employees will look at it and go "Well, I am not going to risk working there" as a result either way.
IMHO you and the parent post are both right: this is all around bad behavior by all parties involved. I was let go once. I've told the story, but I have never mentioned the name of the company and I won't tell you if asked. I also had a horrible experience with a co-founder in my first startup to the point that I consider the guy a con man, but likewise I will only tell the story with all names and identifying detail…
Agreed the response is too much. As a CEO getting involved in a dispute like this seems to be all downside with very little upside. If I had to draft a response in his position It'd go something like this: > Reddit is not laying anyone off, you were fired. > Your comments about our revenue had no effect on this decision. This type of criticism is welcome and even encouraged at our company. > I don't believe it is in…
Most importantly, none of these statements should be made in public. The company stands to gain much more with a dignified silence and a personal explanation to the hapless individual, than by wringing the dirty laundry out in public. That an individual employee is immature / causes a stink, happens every second of every day. That a company CEO does the same is unacceptably poor management, and poor PR.
Maybe it's not "professional", where that word has the common meaning of avoiding saying hard truths on the grounds that someone's feelings and/or political position might be hurt. This significantly elevates Reddit, IMO. Their CEO acts like a fucking human being instead of a politicized, sanitized, pretentious, weasel-wording sock puppet like so many other CEOs. You have no idea how much respect I have for this.
this is not how I read it at all. This seems very vindictive to me. The employee's comment was not as bad as the response from the CEO. He was just guessing as to why he was laid off. For the CEO to jump in and respond himself shows a very thin skin. Also, the tone of the response is a little too angry. This could've have been handled by the employee's direct manager, not the CEO.
He wasn't laid off - he was fired. This is the first point the CEO makes and it's an important distinction that the poster seemed to not own up to at all. Not knowing the difference between being fired and being laid off is bad - there's a pretty remote possibility that the poster's direct manager didn't own the message well and told the guy "we're letting you go" and he didn't understand he was being fired, but even…
> I was laid off.
> > What was the reason?...
> > > Officially: no reason...
This basically reads like he was trying to dance around saying he was fired, but he was saying he got fired. You don't get laid off by yourself, and you definitely don't get a "reason".
OMG, reddit hires incompetent people who are not getting much work done. I thought only demigods work there.
reddit hires incompetent people who are not getting much work done.
That explains why I don't recall ever seeing a new user feature (e.g. tagging, user blocking, a useful save or search function) in the years I've been on Reddit.
Umm. It was pretty clearly not done for vindictive reasons. The guy lied about why he was let go and put Reddit in the awkward position of either saying nothing and letting people believe they're a shitty workplace that fires people for disagreeing with management, or telling the truth about why the guy was fired (not laid off.) Frankly, he brought this on himself by forcing Reddit into choosing between two sucky opt…
Fallacy of the excluded middle: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fallacy_of_the_exc... The choice is not between saying nothing, and completely devastating that person. Surely there is a third (or even fourth, fifth) alternative. Also, saying nothing doesn't lead to the belief it is a shitty workplace. Just because someone posting in a forum that he's been fired from Company X for a reason he doesn't underst…
Sure it would be nice to have other options, but the reality of social media and group-think means they could really only say nothing or say everything. I don't like it, but to deny that is a dangerous gamble for any company.
Replying to public statements about yourself or your company isn't "vindictive". Things like this have a real business impact. I've cancelled interviewing at companies based on conversations with former employees that the company didn't have a satisfactory answer for. If I saw this in a public forum and Reddit failed to point out that the former employee was fired (and was aware he was fired) in a public setting (whi…
Indeed, why would you go interviewing at companies that don't have satisfactory answers for he-said-she-said, when you can go interviewing at companies whose CEO's "call out" former employees.
Personally, I like straight talk. I'm happily employed, but if I weren't, this would increase my desire to work at Reddit, not decrease it.
Umm. It was pretty clearly not done for vindictive reasons. The guy lied about why he was let go and put Reddit in the awkward position of either saying nothing and letting people believe they're a shitty workplace that fires people for disagreeing with management, or telling the truth about why the guy was fired (not laid off.) Frankly, he brought this on himself by forcing Reddit into choosing between two sucky opt…
It may have not been done for vindictive reasons, but it was definitely done for the wrong reason. This shows a clear lack of leadership abilities on the part of Yishan. I know people love a Jobsian dick in charge of tech companies (I use that loosely with reddit; they're an entertainment company), but that era is over. Show some professionalism even if someone is unprofessional toward you and your company.