July 5, 2022
"Some of you might decide that this place isn't for you, and that self-selection is OK with me. Realistically, there are probably a bunch of people at the company who shouldn't be here."
Said Mark Zuckerberg, quoted in "Mark Zuckerberg Just Told Facebook Employees to Quit. He Missed the Most Important Point/In a call with employees, Facebook's founder tried to rally the troops" (Inc.).
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25 comments:
"The thing is, assuming that some of the people who work for your company don't belong is a terrible way to lead."
The idiocy. It burns. That is exactly the way to lead, and improve an organization while you're at it. Whether it be the military or a corporation, are you really going to assume that everyone you brought on board is the right fit? Is your ego really that big? You - no one else - always bats a 1000 when it comes to hiring and judging performance? Since we're making assumptions, are you really going to assume that everyone in your org is going to be there...forever? If not, why will they leave? Will some of them find places that are 'better for them' than yours? In your pie-in-sky communist organization are you going to distribute performance from each according to their ability to others according to their need? Really?
What a confoundingly stupid thing to write.
"Some of you might decide that this place isn't for you, and that self-selection is OK with me. Realistically, there are probably a bunch of people at the company who shouldn't be here."
It's not hard to translate this from "corp-speak" to "real speak."
RealSpeak Version:
"Yeah, we're going to need a lot of you to quit because we don't want massive increases in our unemployment insurance bill. If we lay you off, then you can claim COBRA, you get unemployment, you get certain other rights in many of the jurisdictions that we operate in, and there are regulatory hurdles we have to jump over like giving you advanced notice and whatnot, yeah, so if you could just go ahead and quit so we don't incur all those expenses ... that would be great."
To make sure the employees got the message, they're going to make employee life miserable come "review" time.
What an ahole. Then again, if you work for Facebook, I don't really feel sorry for you. You people are all aholes.
Facebook is a sewer. Not everyone is Ralph Kramden.
There is another way of looking at this message to employees. Maybe he did not miss the point. My business involves consulting with companies on hiring. One thing I've learned about "fat" companies like Meta is that they have a lot of non-performers and that pisses off the true performers. The performers feel unappreciated. Sometimes, getting rid of the crap is actually a positive motivational event for the good people who are left. I guarantee you that at least half of the people at Meta are coasting in jobs that are not really necessary. The way people get in the way.
I'll bet the upcoming downturn doesn't affect the slush fund of Zuckerbucks flowing into populous Democrat strongholds in swing states to harvest untraceable absentee ballots.
In Wisconsin, Governor Tony Evers is counting on it.
"Some of you might decide that this place isn't for you, and that self-selection is OK with me. Realistically, there are probably a bunch of people at the company who shouldn't be here."
Realistically, this makes no sense. There's only two audiences for that: Deadwood you wish would quit, so you don't have to find them and fire them and pay for their severance package. And high performers you wish would stay, because they're adding value way above what you're paying them.
The former aren't going to leave unless you force them to, obviously. And you really don't want the latter thinking along these lines if you can help it. Zuckerberg saying this does nothing to nudge the passengers on the gravy train. And it does entirely too much to nudge the one group of people whose enthusiasm for the company he depends on.
Zuckerberg rode a lucky wave: He stole the Facebook concept while working for the Winklevoss twins at Harvard, was anointed by Bill Gates with $100M early along (as he likely recognized the same predatory characteristics), then was in the right place at the right time to receive a huge push from Wall St.
Most famous quote about his end users: "Suckers."
His luck started to turn with the likely dead-end move to virtual reality (Oculus Rift), the loss of detailed tracking information/targeted ads, and perhaps his looming indictment for bribery during the 2020 election cycle. Let him burn. Help him burn.
Every once in a while, an executive has to walk through the office and shoot the wounded.
This kind of talk sounds bad but is becoming more common if you have youngsters at your firm. The kids are so accustomed to complaining and getting their way they don’t understand what lean times look like.
This Spring we had two recent hires quit together once they learned a full time job meant you work longer than 35 hours a week. A third graduated this spring then quit three weeks later after taking a 50k signing bonus with another firm. Repeat: three weeks after graduation. Undergrad…
I’m sure Zuck has the same problems…
When i worked at MCI, my boss told me "If you don't like it*, you can quit!"
And i left for Raytheon the next day
At the end of the week, MCI announced the Cedar Rapids Datacenter, and EVERYONE still working (NOT ME!) got severance pay AND Unemployment..
it* When he hired me, he told me he couldn't offer more than i Was making, but that "In 6 months", i would be getting "a BIG Raise".. The raise ended up being $105/yr (Five cents an hour)
stutfish said
There's only two audiences for that:
Deadwood you wish would quit, so you don't have to find them and fire them and pay for their severance package.
And high performers you wish would stay, because they're adding value way above what you're paying them
and THREE: ALL Those People you're Going to have to lay off, come the crash
ps. Oh, i forgot to mention in earlier post.. 6 months after i quit MCI, there WAS No More MCI
Around 2000, a company is just left was purchased by Cisco. From friends I learned that Cisco required managers to cut 20% of their workforce each year. The assumption was that about 20% are always underperforming and this is a systematic way to cull the herd.
"Jersey Fled said...
Facebook is a sewer. Not everyone is Ralph Kramden."
Ralph was a bus driver. His pal Ed Norton was the sewer worker.
1 bad Coder is job security for 2 good Coders.
The hardest thing to do as a business owner and executive is fire people.
Some people are nice and otherwise fun to have around, but they just don't do anything. Some people are toxic in a variety of ways. And 1 out of 20 or so people are just selfish and terrible and there in bad faith. They are lawsuits waiting to happen.
There is a particular demographic of people that should never get hired. Many of them are fine but enough are guaranteed lawsuits that it is just too risky to hire them.
Gilbar @ 1:38. Agree. Layoffs aka firings are coming. Talk like Zucke's will get everyone thinking of their options so when one gets fired, one will have at least contemplated one's options before the (assumed) trauma.
My mother-in-law lost the largest chunk of her retirement savings when MCI/Worldcom went under. Her husband had hated AT&T so he'd bought MCI when it initially went public. He never sold a share, she couldn't after he died, so they never realized any gain and then it was worth nothing. Bernie, Sullivan, et al. weren't punished enough.
I know a principal of one of the small companies that Worlcom bought in the last 1990s, who personally dealt with Sullivan in the acquisition. They got their money out was soon as they could.
I bet Facebook is a really, really good job...fat stacks, crazy bennies, everybody there knows why manhole covers are round...seems like the skaters would recognize how unbelievably lucky they'd gotten and would be the last people to quit.
The whole world, and a whole generation of young workers now, has ridden the wave of a booming world economy, thanks to the printing presses that have been churning out money supply - something like 40% of our money supply has been created after the last recession! All of these Woke Workers are among this new generation of workers that has never seen employment during hard times, never had to sweat out a round of firings, never had to really worry about keeping their jobs. With the recession already upon us, the Woke Reckoning is coming. If you think their complaints are sometimes ridiculous, you ain't seen any kinda tantrum-throwing yet, Hoss.
"at least half of the people at Meta are coasting in jobs that are not really necessary"
Gee, who hired all those people? Which person in management was responsible? Isn't the CEO responsible if his corporation hires a bunch of unnecessary people?
What the left is about to find out is that you can demand "grieving time off" for Roe V. Wade ONLY when the economy is humming. But you voted in a moron, and the economy is no longer humming thanks to you people. And so you will be shown the door. Enjoy your coming poverty. You richly deserve it.
Next time, VOTE BETTER.
Zuckerberg said the company would slow hiring as it tries to cope with what he called the "worst downturns that we've seen in recent history." According to reports of the call, Zuckerberg told employees to be prepared to work more with fewer resources.
--
Courtesy 2020 Zuckerbucks
Very meta
Sounds like someone had an unhappy visit from the counsel's office and now is going to have to excise the toxic tissue, and is hoping they will leave on their own accord.
If anyone had any doubts, the recession is here. A lot of young people who bought into the whole woke crap are going to find themselves jobless. Unfortunately the economy is going to get worse before it gets better. Unfortunately most of the commenters here have seen this rerun of the 70's show before. I feel bad for the young, as the parents it is collectively our responsibility for allowing all the crazy we have now and the mindset the young have because of it.
People who would quit Zuck?
My immediate reaction was "You know who else talked like that? Hitler!" But strictly speaking, Hitler wasn't about self-selection.
I am reminded of my father who told me that the dean of his college told the students on the first day "Look to your right. Now look to your left. One of you won't be here at the end of four years."
Maybe it was two of you, but people in authority talked that way 70 years ago.
If employees quit, they don't get unemployment benefits. Make Mark fire the excess employees, and make Mark's company pay the severances and unemployment benefits to his fired former employees.
And to every Meta employee: when a CEO calls for staff reductions, and employees quit, the first to leave are the best and brightest, who find employment elsewhere most readily. The next to leave are the competent core of the company, who won't put up with doing the work of 2 or 3 people. The only ones left will be the toxic employees, the incompetent, who know they got lucky getting hired and won't get a job as good anywhere else. And they will pretend to pick up the slack, while the company goes down the drain.
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