4 ms·

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

by 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?

by chime 17y ago

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?