Onlive CEO fires staff, then donates $50,000 to health insurance fund • Hacker News Board

Re: Onlive CEO fires staff, then donates $50,000 to health insurance fund

#11

Post by ConstantineXVI » Sat, Aug 25, 2012, 3:39 AM UTC

keidian wrote: post #10

ghshephard wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He seems to have done something that we very, very rarely see in corporate america, which is show genuine leadership. I'm wondering, keidian, what you believe you would have done that would have been less "really crappy." Genuinely interested.

Honestly? Doing a mass layoff will suck regardless, but doing it by shutting down the company and making a brand new one immediately rubs me the wrong way. While no one likes to be laid off, I think people would have been able to at least hold their head high about the work they had been doing rather than the stigma of being remembered as working at OnLive before AND being out of a job. Side note: Wonder just how low…

The shutting down/new company business is essentially a convoluted form of bankruptcy[0] that allowed them to keep the lights on; out of context it looks bad but it could have been much worse.

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_assignment (note this technically/legally isn't bankruptcy, but has a rather similar effect)

Re: Onlive CEO fires staff, then donates $50,000 to health insurance fund

#12

Post by wmf » Sat, Aug 25, 2012, 4:10 AM UTC

keidian wrote: post #8

wmf wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would it have been less crappy to shut the company down completely?

Being able to dump in 50k after bad press and saying "I just added $50K to the bucket and will add more as needed" makes me cynical I guess. shrugs

It proves that he didn't put every last cent into the company, but that's a pretty high standard considering he's probably already lost millions.

Re: Onlive CEO fires staff, then donates $50,000 to health insurance fund

#13

Post by SoftwareMaven » Sat, Aug 25, 2012, 4:21 AM UTC

ConstantineXVI wrote: post #6

keidian wrote: post #3

Seems like an attempt to get over some of the extremely bad press to me. While it's good for the ex-employees, it was still a really crappy thing to do in the first place.

Letting the company run dry and not telling anyone until paychecks bounce would have been even worse. It doesn't seem like anyone made a clean getaway from this at all (Perlman himself isn't even taking salary from "OnLive2").

That's noble, but only valuable if you have FU money to start. Otherwise, there will be a little drag in the back of your mind saying "should I be doing this?" at a point when you want the leader in and committed 100%.

Re: Onlive CEO fires staff, then donates $50,000 to health insurance fund

#14

Post by vlokshin » Sat, Aug 25, 2012, 4:30 AM UTC

tomasien wrote: post #2

If you want to stay a leader, this is how you do it. Treat every single person who sacrifices their time for you like family. That's a leader.

^THIS. Seriously. Go write a book with this title and make millions. Take care of the people that help you on the way, of course.

Re: Onlive CEO fires staff, then donates $50,000 to health insurance fund

#15

Post by crag » Sat, Aug 25, 2012, 4:48 AM UTC

ghshephard wrote: post #7

keidian wrote: post #3

Seems like an attempt to get over some of the extremely bad press to me. While it's good for the ex-employees, it was still a really crappy thing to do in the first place.

He seems to have done something that we very, very rarely see in corporate america, which is show genuine leadership. I'm wondering, keidian, what you believe you would have done that would have been less "really crappy." Genuinely interested.

Actually I have my doubts about this guy being "genuine". I read is as "guilt". Or maybe he's trying to save his own rep.

But You know, it's possible - I mean redemption is also possible. Even among CEO's. ;)

Re: Onlive CEO fires staff, then donates $50,000 to health insurance fund

#16

Post by dpe82 » Sat, Aug 25, 2012, 6:10 AM UTC

keidian wrote: post #10

ghshephard wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He seems to have done something that we very, very rarely see in corporate america, which is show genuine leadership. I'm wondering, keidian, what you believe you would have done that would have been less "really crappy." Genuinely interested.

Honestly? Doing a mass layoff will suck regardless, but doing it by shutting down the company and making a brand new one immediately rubs me the wrong way. While no one likes to be laid off, I think people would have been able to at least hold their head high about the work they had been doing rather than the stigma of being remembered as working at OnLive before AND being out of a job. Side note: Wonder just how low…

Brad Feld has a great blog post on what he suspects happened at OnLive, given his experience with similar situations in the past: http://www.feld.com/wp/archives/2012/08/what-just-happened-w...

Re: Onlive CEO fires staff, then donates $50,000 to health insurance fund

#17

Post by astrodust » Sat, Aug 25, 2012, 6:42 AM UTC

wmf wrote: post #12

keidian wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being able to dump in 50k after bad press and saying "I just added $50K to the bucket and will add more as needed" makes me cynical I guess. shrugs

It proves that he didn't put every last cent into the company, but that's a pretty high standard considering he's probably already lost millions.

When you do that you won't get very far. Not everyone has Elon Musk's golden horseshoe.

Re: Onlive CEO fires staff, then donates $50,000 to health insurance fund

#18

Post by anigbrowl » Sat, Aug 25, 2012, 6:59 AM UTC

ghshephard wrote: post #7

keidian wrote: post #3

Seems like an attempt to get over some of the extremely bad press to me. While it's good for the ex-employees, it was still a really crappy thing to do in the first place.

He seems to have done something that we very, very rarely see in corporate america, which is show genuine leadership. I'm wondering, keidian, what you believe you would have done that would have been less "really crappy." Genuinely interested.

Putting the firm on sale earlier and saving the jobs or negotiating a decent severance package would be my idea of leadership. This is charity - worthy as far as it goes, but reactive rather than being out in front of the company's problem.

Re: Onlive CEO fires staff, then donates $50,000 to health insurance fund

#19

Post by droithomme » Sat, Aug 25, 2012, 7:06 AM UTC

The link shows is a community fundraiser for COBRA donations to the laid off staff. It shows a bit over $55,000 in donations which came from a list of dozens and dozens of people, 52 right now. Stephen G. Perlman, the CEO is in fact in the list of donors, but it doesn't say how much each person donated. There is no indicator anywhere here that he himself donated almost everything there. Does the OP have another source where he mentions having donated $50k personally?

Re: Onlive CEO fires staff, then donates $50,000 to health insurance fund

#20

Post by zizee » Sat, Aug 25, 2012, 7:08 AM UTC

vlokshin wrote: post #14

tomasien wrote: post #2

If you want to stay a leader, this is how you do it. Treat every single person who sacrifices their time for you like family. That's a leader.

^THIS. Seriously. Go write a book with this title and make millions. Take care of the people that help you on the way, of course.

A little meta, but whatever... I am not sure the reason, but the "this" thing really annoys me. Am I the only one?