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Changes at YC

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Re: Changes at YC

#121

Post by DeltaCoast »

loeg wrote: post #95
voz_ wrote: post #46

> Seventeen of our teammates are impacted today. Never allow corporations to speak in passive, weak, blameless terms. Use direct, honest, language, and force them to do the same. "Seventeen of our teammates are impacted today." - > "We laid off 17 employees today" "I was impacted by layoffs" -> "Google laid me off" etc

"Exonerative tense," "mistakes were made," etc. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/past_exonerative https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mistakes_were_made https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/07/14/...

I've never heard this as an actual term, thank you for sharing.

Re: Changes at YC

#122

Post by tomnipotent »

adfm wrote: post #99
margalabargala wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're not quite the same, those two terms have taken on different meanings. "Fired" has come to mean "for cause", and "laid off" has come to mean "not for cause".

For some, "laid off" has the same connotation as furlough.

A furloughed employee has the expectation that employment can resume with the company, while a laid off employee does not. This is important for tax and other legal considerations.

Re: Changes at YC

#123

Post by lcw »

voz_ wrote: post #46

> Seventeen of our teammates are impacted today. Never allow corporations to speak in passive, weak, blameless terms. Use direct, honest, language, and force them to do the same. "Seventeen of our teammates are impacted today." - > "We laid off 17 employees today" "I was impacted by layoffs" -> "Google laid me off" etc

I think this is just a matter of opinion. When something severe happens it's natural to not use the most harsh term to describe the event. It doesn't seems like something malicious.

When describing a death many people will say "they are no longer with us" instead of describing the circumstance of death. When talking about traumatic events we as a society have a natural propensity to not use triggering words. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with that unless it's hiding information. As described above no one is hiding anything because we all understand what happened.

Re: Changes at YC

#124

Post by sverhagen »

jeron wrote: post #92
comte7092 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Begs the question, what do you think companies gain by using such passive language?

when you first read it, did you feel better or worse for the employees when they wrote impacted vs "laid off"

I went back to GitLab's announcement, because I thought it was better: https://about.gitlab.com/blog/2023/02/09/gitlab-news/

Turns out, it says: "reduce the size of our team by 7%", which also isn't as specific as the OP is suggesting.

HOWEVER, they then go on to spend more than half of their post explaining how the impacted staff is supported, and YES, that did make me feel better.

Re: Changes at YC

#125

Post by bsuvc »

djyaz1200 wrote: post #17

I'd be very interested in the specifics of how and why late stage investing is so different that the success of YC in early stages doesn't translate.

Well, for one, I imagine the "network" provided by YC is less valuable to late stage companies than it is to early stage, so YC probably found they were not able to bring as much value.

Second, the amount of capital needed to invest in later stages is much higher, and with companies delaying IPO, they would be tying up capital for much longer than they probably expected originally.

I have no insight into YC, this is just my guess as to how it is different.

Re: Changes at YC

#126

Post by itronitron »

bradleyjg wrote: post #56
voz_ wrote: post #46

> Seventeen of our teammates are impacted today. Never allow corporations to speak in passive, weak, blameless terms. Use direct, honest, language, and force them to do the same. "Seventeen of our teammates are impacted today." - > "We laid off 17 employees today" "I was impacted by layoffs" -> "Google laid me off" etc

Laid off is itself a less harsh version of fired.

We hereby lay their employment with us to rest.

Re: Changes at YC

#127

Post by bradleyjg »

margalabargala wrote: post #62
bradleyjg wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Laid off is itself a less harsh version of fired.

They're not quite the same, those two terms have taken on different meanings. "Fired" has come to mean "for cause", and "laid off" has come to mean "not for cause".

My hunch is that the evolution was driven by executives, probably in the 70s and 80s, that didn’t want to say they were firing people in order to make more money.

In other words the same dynamic that now leads to ‘impacted’.

Re: Changes at YC

#128

Post by gordon_freeman »

fnordpiglet wrote: post #6

Sorry to everyone who lost their jobs. It can feel like the end of the world and your worth. But I’ve seen throughout my career people land somewhere better. Someone once wise told me the most important saying in the world is “this too shall pass,” which applies to all things, good and bad.

Also wanted to add: never forget that “the law of averages” is our friend when this happens. It ensures that there is always a good chance to lend somewhere if one keeps trying (submitting applications and giving interviews).

Re: Changes at YC

#129

Post by lazide »

beebmam wrote: post #116
simonebrunozzi wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When there's a PR person involved, truth goes away, double-speak comes in. Even in the case of YC, which in general is way better than most other organizations.

There's nothing diplomatic about it. It enrages me far more than the truth.

For you, but often for others it doesn't.

It depends on if someone wants to believe the truth, or believe something else. Most want to believe something else.

Re: Changes at YC

#130

Post by UncleOxidant »

whitemary wrote: post #86
fnordpiglet wrote: post #6

Sorry to everyone who lost their jobs. It can feel like the end of the world and your worth. But I’ve seen throughout my career people land somewhere better. Someone once wise told me the most important saying in the world is “this too shall pass,” which applies to all things, good and bad.

[flagged]

I worked with a guy who came up as an engineer in the Soviet Union. Back around 2014 he was laid off from a US tech company that had moved him over from Russia. He couldn't wrap his head around it. Said that in the Soviet Union there was no such thing as a layoff. If they needed to shut down some program they'd move you to another one. The whole layoff was just extremely disorienting for him - especially since the company had moved him over here only a few years prior.
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