Reddit CEO Calls Out Former Reddit Employee on Reddit • Hacker News Board

Re: Reddit CEO Calls Out Former Reddit Employee on Reddit

#71

Post by TheOsiris » Mon, Oct 06, 2014, 7:16 PM UTC

opendais wrote: post #64

TheOsiris wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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…

sure, but did the CEO have to do it? And if the CEO was to respond, shouldn't "not true, you were fired" be enough? No need to call him incompetent and lazy (even if he is). That's the part that rubbed me the wrong way, especially since the guy didn't actually trash reddit as bad as they did to him.

Re: Reddit CEO Calls Out Former Reddit Employee on Reddit

#72

Post by tptacek » Mon, Oct 06, 2014, 7:16 PM UTC

shostack wrote: post #59

sama wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

obviously not going to take it down, but it has 6 flags in 36 minutes (a very high number), and with a few more it will fall off the front page.

This is an interesting phenomenon. Given that the story is arguably fairly relevant to the recent investment by Sam, what safeguards are in place to ensure that content like this can't be taken out of the public light by a "reporting brigade?"

What's a "reporting brigade"? I've never met Sam and am not a Reddit fan, and I flagged this story, because it's just drama.

Re: Reddit CEO Calls Out Former Reddit Employee on Reddit

#73

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Oct 06, 2014, 7:16 PM UTC

bane wrote: post #45

Once again, reddit is a free-for-all until it looks like reddit might lose face, then we get an amateur level public response. The employee might not have been a good employee, but this kind of public dressing down is absolutely unprofessional by the CEO. Also: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2iea97/i_am_a_former_...

[deleted]

Re: Reddit CEO Calls Out Former Reddit Employee on Reddit

#74

Post by mentat » Mon, Oct 06, 2014, 7:19 PM UTC

dang wrote: post #25

thebiglebrewski wrote: post #2

Aw man. This is totally gonna get taken down by YC management/altman...

It's so much easier to casually fling things like this out there than it is to answer them, but FWIW, what you're insinuating is false. We penalize stories less, not more, when they're anti-YC, and every moderator is strictly instructed about it.

Thank you for being very explicit about that.

Re: Reddit CEO Calls Out Former Reddit Employee on Reddit

#75

Post by demachina » Mon, Oct 06, 2014, 7:19 PM UTC

gatsby wrote: post #7

jyxent wrote: post #6

Is this legal? Where I live, I'm pretty sure this kind of public disclosure isn't allowed due to privacy laws.

"When an employee is dismissed from employment at a company, the policy of almost every company (including reddit) is not to comment, either publicly or internally. This is because companies have no desire to ruin someone's future employment prospects by broadcasting to the world that they were fired. In return, the polite expectation is that the employee will not go shooting their mouth off about the company especia…

If nothing else the Streisand effect insures Reddit is going to get about a million times more bad exposure, now that its going viral, than they would have when it was just a thread from a disgruntled ex employee.

People were starting to question whether Reddit had a good CEO and corprate culture already, now its certain to gain momentum.

Re: Reddit CEO Calls Out Former Reddit Employee on Reddit

#76

Post by kazinator » Mon, Oct 06, 2014, 7:19 PM UTC

opendais wrote: post #64

TheOsiris wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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.

Re: Reddit CEO Calls Out Former Reddit Employee on Reddit

#77

Post by nknighthb » Mon, Oct 06, 2014, 7:19 PM UTC

shostack wrote: post #66

nknighthb wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "speculation" was pretty mild. Most of it was vague, the most specific bits were either implausible (fired for being insufficiently charitable) or have been said by almost every employee of every company in history (management doesn't like criticism). I see no reason a rational executive would feel compelled to raise the profile of the issue by responding at all, much less in this dramatic fashion.

Not arguing one way or another, but I personally would categorize the implied allegation (Reddit is being unwise in how it manages its finances, on the heels of a large investment round being announced) as a bit more than "mild." Was this the best way to respond? Probably not. Did it warrant some kind of response? Probably.

Reddit deliberately portrays itself as unwise in how it manages its finances. It's a key part of their corporate image. If any of the investors didn't know this, they didn't do any due diligence.

Companies wasting money isn't an unusual theme, either. Even on the days I've been happiest in my employment, I could probably name you a half dozen ways in which I believed the my employer(s) were spending unwise amounts of money on things they shouldn't be.

Re: Reddit CEO Calls Out Former Reddit Employee on Reddit

#78

Post by opendais » Mon, Oct 06, 2014, 7:19 PM UTC

nknighthb wrote: post #65

opendais wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. If you make accusations in a public forum (as that employee did) the company is going to respond. That is a given and perfectly normal. The guy basically said he was "laid off" followed by "because I pissed off management with my feedback". Claiming it was a retaliatory firing forces a response.

Management being averse to criticism is not unusual, nor is it unusual for someone to believe that is why they were fired, nor is it unusual for someone to say that is why they were fired even if they know otherwise. Until the CEO responded, this was just an ex-employee with limited credibility saying pretty mild and unremarkable things few people would ever see. Now it's a CEO obviously feeling threatened and bringi…

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 is comfortable that he won't be sued successfully over it. That means the former employee (at best) failed to understand why he was let go.

Re: Reddit CEO Calls Out Former Reddit Employee on Reddit

#79

Post by Karunamon » Mon, Oct 06, 2014, 7:20 PM UTC

penprog wrote: post #63

tdicola wrote: post #50

Good lord, I hope the $50M investors in reddit are beating down the doors to get a PR person at the company so the CEO stops making crazy moves like this. There's no way a good developer would want to go work for Reddit when the CEO slaps people around in public (whether they deserve it or not). Sometimes you need to be the bigger man and move on instead of quarreling in public.

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.

Re: Reddit CEO Calls Out Former Reddit Employee on Reddit

#80

Post by api » Mon, Oct 06, 2014, 7:20 PM UTC

TheOsiris wrote: post #57

arram wrote: post #24

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…

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.

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 details omitted. Calling people out in a public forum -- even if you are in the right -- just makes you look like an asshole.

But this response is also a terrible response from a CEO. He descends rapidly into the same muck as the original "AMA" poster. I agree that he was presented with two sucky options, but he should have taken the high road with his response and simply said something like "all I can say is that this individual was terminated for different reasons than the ones he states." In public at least, leave it at that.

Reddit in general is an increasingly toxic community. There was a great writeup a while back theorizing about various reasons that social networks select for snark, cynicism, and obnoxiousness over deeper and more thought-out content. If someone recalled it I'd love a link.