How to kill a company's morale in one easy memo • Hacker News Board

Re: How to kill a company's morale in one easy memo

#21

Post by foulmouthboy » Wed, Jun 23, 2010, 7:45 PM UTC

mrbgty wrote: post #16

jgrahamc wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the company's web site there's a page about him (he's the CEO): http://cerner.com/public/Cerner_2.asp?id=27586 In that it says: "Cerner associates extol Neal for his passion and foresight, his ability to drive change within organizations, his entrepreneurial spirit, and his candid, uninhibited conversational style." So that's just a candid, uninhibited conversational style :-) Note that that message was sent in 20…

Are you defending this guy?

Sure. Why not?

The morale of the company was supposedly "killed" after that email and the evidence used was a drop in stock price, but a little investigation shows that the stock price is actually fine. Therefore, any accusation that the CEO is ineffective appears to be false and deserves to be defended against.

Re: How to kill a company's morale in one easy memo

#22

Post by aphyr » Wed, Jun 23, 2010, 7:45 PM UTC

Am I the only person who saw the line about the parking lot being half empty at 8 and 5 and thought, "Oh, that's consistent with a normal distribution of people working 10 hour days with a couple hour variance in arrival times"?

Re: How to kill a company's morale in one easy memo

#23

Post by lotharbot » Wed, Jun 23, 2010, 7:46 PM UTC

mcantor wrote: post #12

mcantor wrote: post #2

From mildweed's comment in the CalTech thread: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1455037

Just idly curious, but why did people upvote my attribution comment?

It's a behavior we wish to encourage.

Re: How to kill a company's morale in one easy memo

#24

Post by j_baker » Wed, Jun 23, 2010, 7:47 PM UTC

jgrahamc wrote: post #8

j_baker wrote: post #6

"I think this parental type action SUCKS. However, what you are doing, as managers, with this company makes me SICK. It makes sick to have to write this directive. I know I am painting with a broad brush and the majority of the KC based associates are hard working, committed to Cerner success and committed to transforming health care. I know the parking lot is not a great measurement for 'effort'. I know that 'result…

On the company's web site there's a page about him (he's the CEO): http://cerner.com/public/Cerner_2.asp?id=27586 In that it says: "Cerner associates extol Neal for his passion and foresight, his ability to drive change within organizations, his entrepreneurial spirit, and his candid, uninhibited conversational style." So that's just a candid, uninhibited conversational style :-) Note that that message was sent in 20…

That's speculation. They've done better than the NASDAQ, but how do you know they couldn't have done better without the memo being sent out?

Re: How to kill a company's morale in one easy memo

#25

Post by mrbgty » Wed, Jun 23, 2010, 7:48 PM UTC

xenophanes wrote: post #19

mrbgty wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you defending this guy?

He's commenting on the truth of certain statements. Are you saying we should gloss over some facts just to make the guy look even worse than he already does?

Nope. I'm saying, "Are you defending this guy?"

Re: How to kill a company's morale in one easy memo

#26

Post by antidaily » Wed, Jun 23, 2010, 7:51 PM UTC

In April of 2010, Forbes magazine named Patterson fourth on their annual list of "America's Best-Performing Bosses"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neal_Patterson

Re: How to kill a company's morale in one easy memo

#27

Post by mrbgty » Wed, Jun 23, 2010, 7:52 PM UTC

jgrahamc wrote: post #18

mrbgty wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you defending this guy?

No. I'm pointing out that he may be a total ass, but it doesn't seem to have hurt his company.

I appreciate you pointing out that it doesn't seem to have hurt company, although its very like that it did in other unmeasurable ways.

Your post seemed to excuse his actions as if its just his style.

Re: How to kill a company's morale in one easy memo

#28

Post by xenophanes » Wed, Jun 23, 2010, 7:54 PM UTC

mrbgty wrote: post #25

xenophanes wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's commenting on the truth of certain statements. Are you saying we should gloss over some facts just to make the guy look even worse than he already does?

Nope. I'm saying, "Are you defending this guy?"

By conflating making true statements about the stock market (good) with defending assholes (bad), you create an environment hostile to truth.

Re: How to kill a company's morale in one easy memo

#29

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jun 23, 2010, 7:56 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: How to kill a company's morale in one easy memo

#30

Post by leelin » Wed, Jun 23, 2010, 7:56 PM UTC

I'll call some BS on the stock price affect... after some quick Googling this article seems to pinpoint the exact date:

http://www.healthdatamanagement.com/news/4296-1.html

Comparing CERN stock vs the S&P500, Dow Jones, and a related company ECLP and MDRX will show that all of them tanked the same week, and all of them recovered quite well within a month or so.