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This was a fine read, and somewhat brave, because posting something like this just invites a bunch of people to play the 'let me judge this person and decide wh

This was a fine read, and somewhat brave, because posting something like this just invites a bunch of people to play the 'let me judge this person and decide whether their firing was legitimate / their reaction to it was appropriate' game, as if it was remotely any of their business. The only part I disagreed with was the section on being truthful in internal corporate communications. When it comes to firings, being discreet beats being truthful. The only thing the vast majority of people at the company need to know is that the fired person is no longer a coworker. Those who truly need to know more than that probably already do - and if not, they can quietly be told verbally. Impenetrable corporate BS like "we had a very honest and productive conversation with Zach this morning and decided it was best to part ways" makes me think "oh good, the company is inclined to keep its mouth shut, and I don't need to worry quite as much about defending my reputation." If I'm not Zach but Zach's coworker, I think "whatever happened there (and if I really want to know I can ask around), it's nice that the company's not shit-talking him in public." On the other hand, an honest internal email like "Greg was fired because he had a fundamental disagreement with our engineering team about the interaction between engineering and product management, and this lingering conflict led to him phoning it in" (to use, like Zack, a complete hypothetical) makes me think "great, I wonder who this is going to be forwarded to, and if the company will be just as mouthy later on to outsiders." You might disagree, but I'd take the corporate BS version every time.

parenthephobia 11y ago
> The only part I disagreed with was the section on being truthful in internal corporate communications. When it comes to firings, being discreet beats being truthful. Yes, but honesty doesn't mean telling everyone everything. You can be honest and say nothing. Honesty means not making up a narrative in which you had a nice chat and they left voluntarily. Just tell people "Zach no longer works for GitHub". It's honest, only presents the needed facts, and as a bonus doesn't make people who know that Zach got fired wonder what else management lie about in their internal emails.
rpgmaker 11y ago
I completely agree with you, if the company it's going to say anything at all internally I'd rather it be some feel-good BS than an "honest" explanation of what transpired. It's very likely that their version of events would differ from yours and make you look bad (they're firing you, after all).
malyk 11y ago
The problem with this is that /someone/ knows why. And they'll mention half the story to someone else. Then that person will mention mostly the same half story and interject 10% more. And then the person who heard that will completely mangle the whole thing. It's a game of telephone. Eventually the rumor mill is super excited and has the completely wrong story which ends up getting people all worked up about their place in the organization. The only thing to do then is for the company to "come clean"...but then half the people think they are just covering things up. It's a tough balancing act, but you have to give your employees something or they'll just go and make everything up themselves. It's really hard to put that genie back in the bottle.
- JoeAltmaier 11y ago
  In my experience, remaining employees talk for about a day, then forget the fired person ever existed. And life goes on.

parenthephobia 11y ago

> The only part I disagreed with was the section on being truthful in internal corporate communications. When it comes to firings, being discreet beats being truthful. Yes, but honesty doesn't mean telling everyone everything. You can be honest and say nothing. Honesty means not making up a narrative in which you had a nice chat and they left voluntarily. Just tell people "Zach no longer works for GitHub". It's honest, only presents the needed facts, and as a bonus doesn't make people who know that Zach got fired wonder what else management lie about in their internal emails.

rpgmaker 11y ago

I completely agree with you, if the company it's going to say anything at all internally I'd rather it be some feel-good BS than an "honest" explanation of what transpired. It's very likely that their version of events would differ from yours and make you look bad (they're firing you, after all).

malyk 11y ago

The problem with this is that /someone/ knows why. And they'll mention half the story to someone else. Then that person will mention mostly the same half story and interject 10% more. And then the person who heard that will completely mangle the whole thing. It's a game of telephone. Eventually the rumor mill is super excited and has the completely wrong story which ends up getting people all worked up about their place in the organization. The only thing to do then is for the company to "come clean"...but then half the people think they are just covering things up. It's a tough balancing act, but you have to give your employees something or they'll just go and make everything up themselves. It's really hard to put that genie back in the bottle.

JoeAltmaier 11y ago
In my experience, remaining employees talk for about a day, then forget the fired person ever existed. And life goes on.