5 ms·

How to Resign Gracefully

44 points by cletus 17y ago

chime 17y ago
After reading tons of comments from people with varying viewpoints, I still can't comprehend how someone could say this to their employee: "... Good luck being employee 4,367 at a dying company....Horribly disappointed in you." I don't care if the employee only sent out an email without a face-to-face conversation or resigned in person and then sent an email for documentation purposes. I don't care if the employee was horrible, mean-tempered, or terrible at programming. I don't care if he was core to the entire startup, without whom the company is bound to fail. None of it matters. His email was very polite and I can absolutely see myself in his shoes. Sure he called his next opportunity "amazing" but so what? In next paragraph he commends his ex-coworkers/teams and thanks everyone. What else could he have said in a resignation email? I just can't believe someone in CEO-level position replied to a resignation email like this. Not every email should be treated the same. "Hey I'm sick today, can't make it to work" or "Sorry! I haven't fixed the bug yet" are very different from "This isn’t an easy email to write..." As a manager, you do not treat those emails lightly or brush them off as good riddance.
- ivorjawa 17y ago
  The entire tone of the story turned me off. Nothing can excuse the manager's behavior. If you are a manager, you're held to a higher standard. But as an employee, if you're resigning by email, your message should be "I am resigning as of $(now + 14.days). Sincerely, $name". Anything else can be expressed verbally.
- elblanco 17y ago
  I wish your reply hadn't been deleted, I was about to reply with: http://www.watergate.info/images/resign.jpg http://www.watergate.info/images/resign.jpg
  - chime 17y ago
    I don't know which reply of mine you say was deleted. I haven't deleted anything.
    - elblanco 17y ago
      No, the reply to you. Sorry, wasn't clear.
- cletus 17y ago
  Fact is, Yahoo is a directionless arguably dying company and very much a large company rather than a startup with all that entails, probably meaning many meetings before you can ever change anything and so on. And Jason said something in the heat of the moment? So what? They just promoted the guy and he can't even sit down and have a conversation? I'd be horribly disappointed too. Remember "disappointed" means you actually care and had high hopes/expectations for that person. That's WAY better than no expectations whatsoever.
  - bombayboy 17y ago
    First of all, California is a right to work state, and even if Calcanis were the noblest of them all, no one should have any doubt that were something to go horribly wrong with their revenue stream,the company would let its employees go just as abruptly. Secondly, as far as changing jobs go, the guy wasn't leaving two months into his stint, he was leaving after a year. Thirdly, when the boss throws out a blatant insult because someone resigned, you conveniently let it go as "done in the heat of the moment" but the fact that someone resigned over email is worthy of scorn? And please, spare us the "He got so angry because he cares" sermons. Someone who cares about an employee as a person does not tell them "no need to come to the office". I have been at both ends of this type of transaction several times and never once have I seen such lack of grace as Jason exhibited.
  - chime 17y ago
    > Fact is, Yahoo is a directionless arguably dying company and very much a large company rather than a startup with all that entails, probably meaning many meetings before you can ever change anything and so on. Does not matter. The boss has absolutely no right to judge the next company. Everyone moves around in the tech world. MS employees joined Google, then Facebook, then Amazon, and so on. Bosses are supposed to wish employees good luck in the future or at the very least be polite and respectful. > And Jason said something in the heat of the moment? So what? So TechCrunch. So permanent record & documentation. So bad PR. People in the IT/startup world should know the internet never forgets. Also there is no heat of the moment when you reply to an email titled "Resignation." I can believe heat of the moment if an employee walks into your office and says "Screw you! I quit." But you can't play the "heat of the moment" card if it's an email. Take some time to cool off before you reply. > They just promoted the guy and he can't even sit down and have a conversation? Irrelevant to the discussion. He could have been made CTO and still wanted to resign. It was a very polite email and it is a free country/world. As a boss, you need to be a good leader and say positive things even when someone wants to quit. > I'd be horribly disappointed too. Remember "disappointed" means you actually care and had high hopes/expectations for that person. That's WAY better than no expectations whatsoever. I'd be horribly disappointed too myself. But saying "horribly disappointed" is not constructive criticism or even a poor choice of words. It is outright insulting. Instead of going back and forth over these words, let me just write out what an appropriate reply should be, so you can decide yourself how far this is from what really happened: Hi Evan, I accept your resignation and have notified Elliot to take care of the paperwork tomorrow. You can take the next two weeks off and have someone pick up your personal belongings or let Elliot know where to ship them. I had high hopes for you and am disappointed to see you leave. Good luck with your future ventures. There. Said nearly the same things without sounding rude or insulting. Senior employees resigning can't possibly be such a common occurrence that a CEO can't even take 2mins to think the reply through. Could it?
jarek 17y ago
This article condemns the employee for doing something well within his rights in a polite manner because that's not the Right Way To Do Things. It then goes on to say "An employer is well within their rights to bar you from the premises." I mean, really? This is a two-way street here.
elblanco 17y ago
Early on in my career, I learned a lesson from a retiring colleague -- a former Army Colonel, "never be loyal to a company because the company won't be loyal to you." You can be loyal to individuals, and people can be loyal to you. But the company? Nah. Lots of people get burnt really early in their careers thinking that showing intense loyalty to an organization will be rewarded when no such thing happens -- an "organization" doesn't care. At best, your boss might give you a bump if you are loyal to him/her, and that kind of thing pays off in the long run, in terms of keeping well built bridges (it's amazing how often you meet the same people in a given industry no matter how big). The reason I'm commenting about this? > They’re not in the office? You wait a few days until they are. They new job can’t way? Bullshit. Or, if true, it’s a good sign that it’s an organization you don’t want to work for because they don’t care about you. This is the kind of idealistic naiveté, that while nice in principle, doesn't really matter in reality. Show up, do a good job, when the time is right, move on. If you boss isn't there, call them. If they aren't making themselves available to the employees, then I suppose they fall into the category of "places that don't care about you" anyways. Organizations, by definition never care about you and you shouldn't care about them. Care about your work and doing a good job -- that builds self-respect and your reputation. Ask for what you want when you want it and be patient until you get it, don't be a baby or an asshole, be flexible when better ideas than yours come along, that builds respect. Business isn't about feelings, it's about production and making more money than you lay out. If you want feelings, wait 'till quitting time and the after-work meetup at the local happy hour where everybody can commiserate all they want over $3 beers. Think your company cares about you because of the free t-shirts, catered food and free drinks? Are you kidding me? They just know they can squeeze and extra 2-3 hours a day out of your sorry ass at pretty much no extra pay and about $10-15/day. Other than that, the post is pretty spot on.
- ericd 17y ago
  Your post is probably accurate for most megacorps, but I should hope that employees at a startup or company of less than 10 people don't feel this way about the company. At that level, it's very much a personal relationship rather than a company-employee relationship where loyalty only goes one way. Not all companies are about the creation of profit at any cost... some actually like creating an environment that is pleasant to work in, with free food, etc. for no reason other than making life a bit more enjoyable.
btilly 17y ago
You Will Get Yelled At A lot of comments on TechCrunch revolved around being treated badly. If you’re lucky you have a boss that’s passionate about what they’re doing. If so, such bosses will get heated and yell because they care. Yeah, right. I don't work well while being yelled at. I don't want to deal with that. And so I refuse to work in environments where I get yelled at. Seriously, if you're my boss and you yell at me, my resume is being updated that night and I'm going to shop it around. If you're my co-worker then I'll wait until you calm down some, and raise the issue. If I don't get an apology then I'm going to either my or your boss about it depending on the political dynamics of the company. If the company doesn't agree that you were out of line, I'm going to find another job and go. And yes, there are people I've worked with that have broken this rule which I choose not to work with ever again. Now I understand that some people, cultures, etc differ. In some yelling is OK. That is fine. I choose not to be in those ones. And I'm far from the only person who feels this way. So if you're a boss and you yell, take a moment to consider this. No matter what excuses you give yourself for your crappy behavior, are you losing really good employees because they don't agree with you on this issue? After you've thought about it for a while, perhaps you'll find better ways to handle stress than yelling at people below you in the hierarchy.
- cletus 17y ago
  Expecting to be in a job where there's never any conflict is a lot like expecting to be in a relationship without ever fighting.
  - cglee 17y ago
    He didn't say that.
    - cletus 17y ago
      Actually that's exactly what he said: > Seriously, if you're my boss and you yell at me, my resume is being updated that night and I'm going to shop it around. Yell at him once and he's gone. Note: I didn't say you will get yelled at a lot or even often but it will happen. If you pack your bags the first time you get yelled at well that's a pretty good argument that you should be yelled at sooner rather than later to see what you're made of. Consider it a filter.
DanielRibeiro 17y ago
Statiscally speaking, it is a sad episode for both Jason and Evan: the former will be condemned by several people for handling the matter not in the best possible way, and the later for making its employer's inadequate response public. Which is relevant, as Jason, being more well known, is more likely to actually suffer a bigger impact from this bad press than the engineer. Not a win-win situation by far.
- exit 17y ago
  i'm pretty happy jason's character is being exposed. hopefully every future potential hire will see this.
dennykmiu 17y ago
Jason needs to chill. It is not clear to me if Evan has damaged his brand as an individual. But it is clear that Jason has damaged Mahalo as a brand. As the CEO, Jason has responsibility to his shareholders. If you promote someone and still he leaves, you need to find out why and you need to ensure that the team left behind is still motivated. A good CEO does that by inviting the departing employee to a face-to-face in order to provide a reasonable explanation to the rest of the company. It is all optics, but it is important optics. How Jason feels emotionally is not important. What he does to maintain shareholder values is.
- cletus 17y ago
  Mahalo is no better or worse off for this incident. The people who hate Jason and/or Mahalo still hate them. The people who like Mahalo, well, I can't imagine they quite match up with the profile of the average YC reader...
  - russgray 17y ago
    Mahalo are worse off. There are plenty of people out there - me included - who neither knew much nor cared much about Mahalo but may have considered working there had an opportunity arisen. I wouldn't work there now though. That might not give Jason any sleepless nights, but I bet many better developers than I have watched this play out with great distaste and resolved never to put themselves in the way of the people involved.
    - dennykmiu 17y ago
      That's exactly the point. If Mahalo was a restaurant and I am a dish washer, I probably won't think too much about who I work for and who I work with. But if I am a technologist then I would have to choose to work for a startup. Life is too damn short to be working for a dick.
sabat 17y ago
This is the tragedy of the modern education system in that it rewards participation not winning. Winning is entirely beside the point. Sure, merely showing up should not be enough (never mind what Woody Allen said). But education should be about bettering yourself, not defeating others. Oh, and learning how to learn. Not just memorizing facts to pass tests. Eighty percent of success is showing up. -Woody Allen
danbmil99 17y ago
hmm... I wonder if Jason would/has ever fired someone in as 'shitty' a way as this kid quit? If his business was in trouble and he had to do it, I guarantee he would; notice would be minimal; and the process would be formal (otherwise he's not doing his fiduciary duty to his investors). Having fired > 100 people, I think 'at will' is in force in startups just as it is in the real world, and it cuts both ways. If someone was willing to email 2 week notice, they probably didn't drink the kool-aid, or felt like they weren't appreciated. Or maybe they're just an unsocialized 20-something who didn't want to deal with the drama. Either way, the pay-it-forward karma would be to take him into the office and say "hey, next time keep in mind the company is comprised of people who give a shit; man up and quit in person, with reasons". That should have been the end of it.
swombat 17y ago
Let's play word-replace... A lot of comments on SocialCrunch revolved around being treated badly. If you’re lucky you have a husband that’s passionate about you. If so, such husbands will get heated and yell because they care. Yeah, sounds just as lame.
- donw 17y ago
  This is one of my favorite techniques in showing why some arguments are asinine; well played.
akkartik 17y ago
+1. I haven't seen another article or comment pointing out that resigning over email is a terrible idea. I said recently that egregiously bad behavior should be publicized (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1274033 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1274033). This is not an example of such behavior. You resigned over email and received a harsh response? Airing it in public will only cause you harm. (None of this is a defense of don't-hire-job-hoppers. See http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1287253 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1287253)
ErrantX 17y ago
> Had it remained private, which it should’ve, Jason may have calmed down and mellowed about the situation over time. Honestly, I find that highly unlikely. Why shouldn't the guy post it online, really? I believe he was "verbally" abused on twitter and "yelled at" rudely in an email. It's important to know these things about an employer. > you that if there was anything urgent there (eg prescription medication) that he would’ve gotten that ASAP Yeh, he lost me there. It's a huge assumption that may or may not have held out - you can't make a point off the back of it.
- cletus 17y ago
  > Why shouldn't the guy post it online, really? Because now on the first page when you google his name you'll find a post about him leaving a company after 12 months and posting a private exchange with his (former) boss on his blog.
exit 17y ago
it's ironic, given the tweet from calacanis, how it's the employers demonstrating the sense of entitlement in reacting to all of this. "So ignore any comments about the at-will issue. It’s irrelevant." no, my legal rights are never irrelevant. go screw yourself.

44 points by cletus 17y ago

chime 17y ago

After reading tons of comments from people with varying viewpoints, I still can't comprehend how someone could say this to their employee: "... Good luck being employee 4,367 at a dying company....Horribly disappointed in you." I don't care if the employee only sent out an email without a face-to-face conversation or resigned in person and then sent an email for documentation purposes. I don't care if the employee was horrible, mean-tempered, or terrible at programming. I don't care if he was core to the entire startup, without whom the company is bound to fail. None of it matters. His email was very polite and I can absolutely see myself in his shoes. Sure he called his next opportunity "amazing" but so what? In next paragraph he commends his ex-coworkers/teams and thanks everyone. What else could he have said in a resignation email? I just can't believe someone in CEO-level position replied to a resignation email like this. Not every email should be treated the same. "Hey I'm sick today, can't make it to work" or "Sorry! I haven't fixed the bug yet" are very different from "This isn’t an easy email to write..." As a manager, you do not treat those emails lightly or brush them off as good riddance.

ivorjawa 17y ago
The entire tone of the story turned me off. Nothing can excuse the manager's behavior. If you are a manager, you're held to a higher standard. But as an employee, if you're resigning by email, your message should be "I am resigning as of $(now + 14.days). Sincerely, $name". Anything else can be expressed verbally.
elblanco 17y ago
I wish your reply hadn't been deleted, I was about to reply with: http://www.watergate.info/images/resign.jpg http://www.watergate.info/images/resign.jpg
- chime 17y ago
  I don't know which reply of mine you say was deleted. I haven't deleted anything.
  - elblanco 17y ago
    No, the reply to you. Sorry, wasn't clear.
cletus 17y ago
Fact is, Yahoo is a directionless arguably dying company and very much a large company rather than a startup with all that entails, probably meaning many meetings before you can ever change anything and so on. And Jason said something in the heat of the moment? So what? They just promoted the guy and he can't even sit down and have a conversation? I'd be horribly disappointed too. Remember "disappointed" means you actually care and had high hopes/expectations for that person. That's WAY better than no expectations whatsoever.
- bombayboy 17y ago
  First of all, California is a right to work state, and even if Calcanis were the noblest of them all, no one should have any doubt that were something to go horribly wrong with their revenue stream,the company would let its employees go just as abruptly. Secondly, as far as changing jobs go, the guy wasn't leaving two months into his stint, he was leaving after a year. Thirdly, when the boss throws out a blatant insult because someone resigned, you conveniently let it go as "done in the heat of the moment" but the fact that someone resigned over email is worthy of scorn? And please, spare us the "He got so angry because he cares" sermons. Someone who cares about an employee as a person does not tell them "no need to come to the office". I have been at both ends of this type of transaction several times and never once have I seen such lack of grace as Jason exhibited.
- chime 17y ago
  > Fact is, Yahoo is a directionless arguably dying company and very much a large company rather than a startup with all that entails, probably meaning many meetings before you can ever change anything and so on. Does not matter. The boss has absolutely no right to judge the next company. Everyone moves around in the tech world. MS employees joined Google, then Facebook, then Amazon, and so on. Bosses are supposed to wish employees good luck in the future or at the very least be polite and respectful. > And Jason said something in the heat of the moment? So what? So TechCrunch. So permanent record & documentation. So bad PR. People in the IT/startup world should know the internet never forgets. Also there is no heat of the moment when you reply to an email titled "Resignation." I can believe heat of the moment if an employee walks into your office and says "Screw you! I quit." But you can't play the "heat of the moment" card if it's an email. Take some time to cool off before you reply. > They just promoted the guy and he can't even sit down and have a conversation? Irrelevant to the discussion. He could have been made CTO and still wanted to resign. It was a very polite email and it is a free country/world. As a boss, you need to be a good leader and say positive things even when someone wants to quit. > I'd be horribly disappointed too. Remember "disappointed" means you actually care and had high hopes/expectations for that person. That's WAY better than no expectations whatsoever. I'd be horribly disappointed too myself. But saying "horribly disappointed" is not constructive criticism or even a poor choice of words. It is outright insulting. Instead of going back and forth over these words, let me just write out what an appropriate reply should be, so you can decide yourself how far this is from what really happened: Hi Evan, I accept your resignation and have notified Elliot to take care of the paperwork tomorrow. You can take the next two weeks off and have someone pick up your personal belongings or let Elliot know where to ship them. I had high hopes for you and am disappointed to see you leave. Good luck with your future ventures. There. Said nearly the same things without sounding rude or insulting. Senior employees resigning can't possibly be such a common occurrence that a CEO can't even take 2mins to think the reply through. Could it?

jarek 17y ago

This article condemns the employee for doing something well within his rights in a polite manner because that's not the Right Way To Do Things. It then goes on to say "An employer is well within their rights to bar you from the premises." I mean, really? This is a two-way street here.

elblanco 17y ago

Early on in my career, I learned a lesson from a retiring colleague -- a former Army Colonel, "never be loyal to a company because the company won't be loyal to you." You can be loyal to individuals, and people can be loyal to you. But the company? Nah. Lots of people get burnt really early in their careers thinking that showing intense loyalty to an organization will be rewarded when no such thing happens -- an "organization" doesn't care. At best, your boss might give you a bump if you are loyal to him/her, and that kind of thing pays off in the long run, in terms of keeping well built bridges (it's amazing how often you meet the same people in a given industry no matter how big). The reason I'm commenting about this? > They’re not in the office? You wait a few days until they are. They new job can’t way? Bullshit. Or, if true, it’s a good sign that it’s an organization you don’t want to work for because they don’t care about you. This is the kind of idealistic naiveté, that while nice in principle, doesn't really matter in reality. Show up, do a good job, when the time is right, move on. If you boss isn't there, call them. If they aren't making themselves available to the employees, then I suppose they fall into the category of "places that don't care about you" anyways. Organizations, by definition never care about you and you shouldn't care about them. Care about your work and doing a good job -- that builds self-respect and your reputation. Ask for what you want when you want it and be patient until you get it, don't be a baby or an asshole, be flexible when better ideas than yours come along, that builds respect. Business isn't about feelings, it's about production and making more money than you lay out. If you want feelings, wait 'till quitting time and the after-work meetup at the local happy hour where everybody can commiserate all they want over $3 beers. Think your company cares about you because of the free t-shirts, catered food and free drinks? Are you kidding me? They just know they can squeeze and extra 2-3 hours a day out of your sorry ass at pretty much no extra pay and about $10-15/day. Other than that, the post is pretty spot on.

ericd 17y ago
Your post is probably accurate for most megacorps, but I should hope that employees at a startup or company of less than 10 people don't feel this way about the company. At that level, it's very much a personal relationship rather than a company-employee relationship where loyalty only goes one way. Not all companies are about the creation of profit at any cost... some actually like creating an environment that is pleasant to work in, with free food, etc. for no reason other than making life a bit more enjoyable.

btilly 17y ago

You Will Get Yelled At A lot of comments on TechCrunch revolved around being treated badly. If you’re lucky you have a boss that’s passionate about what they’re doing. If so, such bosses will get heated and yell because they care. Yeah, right. I don't work well while being yelled at. I don't want to deal with that. And so I refuse to work in environments where I get yelled at. Seriously, if you're my boss and you yell at me, my resume is being updated that night and I'm going to shop it around. If you're my co-worker then I'll wait until you calm down some, and raise the issue. If I don't get an apology then I'm going to either my or your boss about it depending on the political dynamics of the company. If the company doesn't agree that you were out of line, I'm going to find another job and go. And yes, there are people I've worked with that have broken this rule which I choose not to work with ever again. Now I understand that some people, cultures, etc differ. In some yelling is OK. That is fine. I choose not to be in those ones. And I'm far from the only person who feels this way. So if you're a boss and you yell, take a moment to consider this. No matter what excuses you give yourself for your crappy behavior, are you losing really good employees because they don't agree with you on this issue? After you've thought about it for a while, perhaps you'll find better ways to handle stress than yelling at people below you in the hierarchy.

cletus 17y ago
Expecting to be in a job where there's never any conflict is a lot like expecting to be in a relationship without ever fighting.
- cglee 17y ago
  He didn't say that.
  - cletus 17y ago
    Actually that's exactly what he said: > Seriously, if you're my boss and you yell at me, my resume is being updated that night and I'm going to shop it around. Yell at him once and he's gone. Note: I didn't say you will get yelled at a lot or even often but it will happen. If you pack your bags the first time you get yelled at well that's a pretty good argument that you should be yelled at sooner rather than later to see what you're made of. Consider it a filter.

DanielRibeiro 17y ago

Statiscally speaking, it is a sad episode for both Jason and Evan: the former will be condemned by several people for handling the matter not in the best possible way, and the later for making its employer's inadequate response public. Which is relevant, as Jason, being more well known, is more likely to actually suffer a bigger impact from this bad press than the engineer. Not a win-win situation by far.

exit 17y ago
i'm pretty happy jason's character is being exposed. hopefully every future potential hire will see this.

dennykmiu 17y ago

Jason needs to chill. It is not clear to me if Evan has damaged his brand as an individual. But it is clear that Jason has damaged Mahalo as a brand. As the CEO, Jason has responsibility to his shareholders. If you promote someone and still he leaves, you need to find out why and you need to ensure that the team left behind is still motivated. A good CEO does that by inviting the departing employee to a face-to-face in order to provide a reasonable explanation to the rest of the company. It is all optics, but it is important optics. How Jason feels emotionally is not important. What he does to maintain shareholder values is.

cletus 17y ago
Mahalo is no better or worse off for this incident. The people who hate Jason and/or Mahalo still hate them. The people who like Mahalo, well, I can't imagine they quite match up with the profile of the average YC reader...
- russgray 17y ago
  Mahalo are worse off. There are plenty of people out there - me included - who neither knew much nor cared much about Mahalo but may have considered working there had an opportunity arisen. I wouldn't work there now though. That might not give Jason any sleepless nights, but I bet many better developers than I have watched this play out with great distaste and resolved never to put themselves in the way of the people involved.
  - dennykmiu 17y ago
    That's exactly the point. If Mahalo was a restaurant and I am a dish washer, I probably won't think too much about who I work for and who I work with. But if I am a technologist then I would have to choose to work for a startup. Life is too damn short to be working for a dick.

sabat 17y ago

This is the tragedy of the modern education system in that it rewards participation not winning. Winning is entirely beside the point. Sure, merely showing up should not be enough (never mind what Woody Allen said). But education should be about bettering yourself, not defeating others. Oh, and learning how to learn. Not just memorizing facts to pass tests. Eighty percent of success is showing up. -Woody Allen

danbmil99 17y ago

hmm... I wonder if Jason would/has ever fired someone in as 'shitty' a way as this kid quit? If his business was in trouble and he had to do it, I guarantee he would; notice would be minimal; and the process would be formal (otherwise he's not doing his fiduciary duty to his investors). Having fired > 100 people, I think 'at will' is in force in startups just as it is in the real world, and it cuts both ways. If someone was willing to email 2 week notice, they probably didn't drink the kool-aid, or felt like they weren't appreciated. Or maybe they're just an unsocialized 20-something who didn't want to deal with the drama. Either way, the pay-it-forward karma would be to take him into the office and say "hey, next time keep in mind the company is comprised of people who give a shit; man up and quit in person, with reasons". That should have been the end of it.

swombat 17y ago

Let's play word-replace... A lot of comments on SocialCrunch revolved around being treated badly. If you’re lucky you have a husband that’s passionate about you. If so, such husbands will get heated and yell because they care. Yeah, sounds just as lame.

donw 17y ago
This is one of my favorite techniques in showing why some arguments are asinine; well played.

akkartik 17y ago

+1. I haven't seen another article or comment pointing out that resigning over email is a terrible idea. I said recently that egregiously bad behavior should be publicized (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1274033 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1274033). This is not an example of such behavior. You resigned over email and received a harsh response? Airing it in public will only cause you harm. (None of this is a defense of don't-hire-job-hoppers. See http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1287253 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1287253)

ErrantX 17y ago

> Had it remained private, which it should’ve, Jason may have calmed down and mellowed about the situation over time. Honestly, I find that highly unlikely. Why shouldn't the guy post it online, really? I believe he was "verbally" abused on twitter and "yelled at" rudely in an email. It's important to know these things about an employer. > you that if there was anything urgent there (eg prescription medication) that he would’ve gotten that ASAP Yeh, he lost me there. It's a huge assumption that may or may not have held out - you can't make a point off the back of it.

cletus 17y ago
> Why shouldn't the guy post it online, really? Because now on the first page when you google his name you'll find a post about him leaving a company after 12 months and posting a private exchange with his (former) boss on his blog.

exit 17y ago

it's ironic, given the tweet from calacanis, how it's the employers demonstrating the sense of entitlement in reacting to all of this. "So ignore any comments about the at-will issue. It’s irrelevant." no, my legal rights are never irrelevant. go screw yourself.