3 ms·

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 meetin

by 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?
- cletus 17y ago
  > > They just promoted the guy and he can't even sit down and have a conversation? > Irrelevant to the discussion. It's entirely relevant. If you accept a promotion, you are making some kind of commitment. To turn around and quit 2 weeks later just goes to show your actions were, at best, disingenuous. > As a boss, you need to be a good leader and say positive things even when someone wants to quit. The chance to do that went out the window once this private email was made public. That's kinda the point of this whole thing.
  - jarek 17y ago
    Correct me if I have the chronology wrong, but I believe negative things were said before any emails were made public. Do you really think Jason Calacanis would have actually apologized the next day if stuff didn't go public? Told him he's not really disappointed? Wished him luck? After disabling the guy's email account?
  - ericd 17y ago
    If it didn't involve some sort of rearrangement or big announcement, I would say that the promotion acceptance being a commitment argument is weak. It's not that big of an investment by the promoter. WRT the second, as a boss, you should not be petulant. If you're not someone who your subordinates can look up to and admire, morale suffers badly. He doesn't deserve a chance to issue an email redaction any more than I deserve the chance to redact insults I make to someone at a bar. Sure, it would be nice to be able to apologize before it has any negative impact, but it is by no means one's right.
- sage_joch 17y ago
  I read your version as someone who is starting to examine new opportunities, and that "high hopes" part would definitely sting me. I'm not disagreeing with you at all, but at least in Evan's case, the email helped confirm he made the right choice.

by cletus 17y ago

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?

cletus 17y ago
> > They just promoted the guy and he can't even sit down and have a conversation? > Irrelevant to the discussion. It's entirely relevant. If you accept a promotion, you are making some kind of commitment. To turn around and quit 2 weeks later just goes to show your actions were, at best, disingenuous. > As a boss, you need to be a good leader and say positive things even when someone wants to quit. The chance to do that went out the window once this private email was made public. That's kinda the point of this whole thing.
- jarek 17y ago
  Correct me if I have the chronology wrong, but I believe negative things were said before any emails were made public. Do you really think Jason Calacanis would have actually apologized the next day if stuff didn't go public? Told him he's not really disappointed? Wished him luck? After disabling the guy's email account?
- ericd 17y ago
  If it didn't involve some sort of rearrangement or big announcement, I would say that the promotion acceptance being a commitment argument is weak. It's not that big of an investment by the promoter. WRT the second, as a boss, you should not be petulant. If you're not someone who your subordinates can look up to and admire, morale suffers badly. He doesn't deserve a chance to issue an email redaction any more than I deserve the chance to redact insults I make to someone at a bar. Sure, it would be nice to be able to apologize before it has any negative impact, but it is by no means one's right.
sage_joch 17y ago
I read your version as someone who is starting to examine new opportunities, and that "high hopes" part would definitely sting me. I'm not disagreeing with you at all, but at least in Evan's case, the email helped confirm he made the right choice.