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Facebook management moves around but people don’t leave
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- paulsutter 8y agoSheryl Sandberg should run for President in 2020, not take a CEO role
- ceejayoz 8y agoThe current administration is doing a pretty good job casting doubt on the "if you can run a business you can run a government" idea. Tillerson, for example, found that the State Department is a very, very different beast than Exxon.
- mikert5671 8y agoMind listing the failings of the current administration that support this?
- chomp 8y agoParent already provided you an example. I feel like your question is begging for a political argument, and there's multiple places on the internet (that's not Hacker News) where you can have those.
- mikert5671 8y agoWhich example are you referring to?
- untog 8y agoRex Tillerson? "Tillerson was “one of the worst secretaries of state” in modern history, according to experts from across the political spectrum." https://www.vox.com/world/2018/3/13/16029526/rex-tillerson-fired-state-department https://www.vox.com/world/2018/3/13/16029526/rex-tillerson-f...
- ceejayoz 8y agoMy post only had two lines, and one of them literally says "Tillerson, for example".
- ceejayoz 8y agoI cited Tillerson as a nice example. If you want more, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/03/16/us/politics/all-the-major-firings-and-resignations-in-trump-administration.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/03/16/us/politics/a...
- baal232 8y agoIt's pretty easy to follow the news. You don't need others to google things for you.
- mikert5671 8y agoPlease list the failings in clear language here...
- untog 8y agoPeople here are not obliged to do research for you and rephrase it in language you can understand. There is a lot of clearly written source material out there if you look for it.
- baal232 8y agoUnless you've been hiding under a rock, you know how the current administration has been running things. You are free to have a positive of negative opinions of their actions, but you are clearly aware of what other people might characterize as failings. You might think you're being the calm and reasonable one here, but you're not asking this question in good faith. It's clear you just want to pick a political fight on hacker news. While we are not above politics here, there is a time and a place for that. And it's not here or now.
- fifnir 8y agoHow about the inability to repeal obamacare, a main goal of theirs for many years, while having 100% control of the government?
- rconti 8y agoIt would be easier to list a success. Seriously. The failures jump off the page. Maybe it's not PC enough for you because it looks partisan, but frankly, they've proven rank incompetence over and over again. The best compliment I could give Tillerson is he probably WANTS the State Department to collapse which is why he's utterly under-managing and under-staffing it. By any other metric, of course, he's an abject failure.
- apetresc 8y agoYou keep using the present tense, I'm not sure you're aware that Tillerson is not the SoS anymore.
- mikert5671 8y agoWhat are the failures?
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- chomp 8y agoCan't tell if this is sarcasm, so why do you think Sheryl Sandberg would be a good candidate? I personally feel like I cannot trust any Facebook leadership as Commander in Chief.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- 908087 8y agoIf the democrats run Zuckerberg, Sandberg, or Eric Schmidt, they'll once again be losing my vote. I don't even want to imagine what the future would look like under an administration run by someone from the surveillance capitalism world.
- paulsutter 8y agoMark and others designed the total free for all that is Facebook data policy, I wouldn’t vote for him or (especially) Schmidt, who loves surveillance. Yes I’d want to hear what she has to say about that.
- 908087 8y agoSchmidt loves surveillance, and openly idolizes Henry Kissinger. He's probably the most terrifying possibility of the three people I mentioned.
- majewsky 8y ago"Move fast and break things."
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- pluto9 8y agoBecause what we really need in the White House is more corporatism and more identity politics.
- aje403 8y agoTBH it does make sense that the "VP of Social Good" isn't going anywhere
- aje403 8y agoNo but seriously, who else wants a VP of Social Good trophy
- rm999 8y agoI know a few earlyish employees at Facebook, and they are easily the happiest people I've met at any company. In some respects this can be credited to joining the right company at the right time: they got in early at a company that makes insane amounts of money and has a huge influence on the world. But this seems to be the icing on the cake to them. Everyone I know at Facebook who got in before 2010 credits Mark Zuckerberg ("Zuck", ugh). They call him a friend and say he never wavers in his passion or mission. They seriously look up to the guy and won't work anywhere else, even though they have built up generational wealth. Honestly I don't care much for Facebook's methods and I think they are a net negative on the world, but I still really look up to Mark Zuckerberg as a leader.
- 908087 8y agoDid you watch his recent testimony? If so, I'm not sure how you could possibly consider him someone worth looking up to as a leader. If you take everything he said and every question he dodged during his testimony at face value, it would indicate that he knows next to nothing about his own company. If you don't take it at face value, option two is that he's a liar. Those aren't the kind of qualities I consider worth looking up to.
- protonimitate 8y agoIt's really easy to blame everything wrong with Facebook on Zuck. I can't fault him for doing his best to protect the company he built. I don't endorse or commend the shady business practices that happen over there, but I also can't fault him 100%. If you were put on the stand for a company you built, would you throw it under the bus for your principles? I don't know if I can say I would - especially in a high pressure situation like that. Let alone the amount of whispering in his ear from everyone his "team".
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- s73v3r_ 8y agoI think part of the issue is that his company, the one he's supposed to be leading and is fully responsible for, got to a point where he would be pressured to throw it under the bus for his principles. If he was a good leader, it shouldn't have gotten that far (unless, of course, what happened with Facebook was actually in line with his principles).
- Cthulhu_ 8y agoCall me cynical, but how many companies could they become a CEO where they would own more / more valuable stock and/or earn more from said stock?
- vonmoltke 8y agoMaybe I am atypical, but I would take a significant discount to run a company. I value freedom, authority, and responsibility more than money.
- jonknee 8y ago> I value freedom, authority, and responsibility more than money Those don't seem like traits of people who work at Facebook, perhaps this is the reason they don't leave.
- vonmoltke 8y agoGood point. Facebook employees are probably a pretty self-selecting group, particularly since the IPO.
- s73v3r_ 8y agoBut money is the quickest way to get those things.
- vonmoltke 8y agoOne of, and the only reason I would join a company like Facebook would be to build up enough of a war chest to fund my own venture. The point is that the people who do join and have enough money to break out on their own are not doing so.
- marssaxman 8y agoThat has been the opposite of my experience. There's a sweet spot around $90-$110k where life is pretty good; below that, financial constraints are distracting, while above it, the sacrifices you have to make in terms of freedom, responsibility, etc. will rapidly drain away whatever satisfaction you might have been able to buy with the extra money.
- jonbarker 8y ago"Impact" is the new buzzword of the creative class, aka the knowledge worker. Also, it might be noted, someone else cleans the toilets, that comment from the social good person was just argument by example, and a strange example coming from the person whose title kind of most closely resembles advocating for working people. Because the people who actually clean their toilets don't likely talk much about 'impact'. For folks who are worried about groupthink and feedback loops at FB look no further than comments like these.
- krishna_sh 8y agoGenuinely curious... What is wrong in craving impact? Why does it feel like a buzzword to you? I like to think my impact drives me. I doubt I would have cared about it as much if I wasn't financially comfortable. But I am not rich by any measure. But 'impact', quality of work and the people I work with is still what I prioritize while looking for a job.
- adamnemecek 8y ago“There are more could-be CEOs at Facebook than any other company”. This is such a meaningless non-statement. “There are more could-be Picasso’s at Facebook than any other company”. Wow. #inspired. If only they picked up the brush. Be less concerned about being a CEO and more concerned about creating things of value.
- cjhopman 8y ago> Be less concerned about being a CEO and more concerned about creating things of value. Isn't that basically how the article is representing these people? That they don't care about being CEO and just want to be where they can create things of the most value?
- WisNorCan 8y agoSnap, Twitter and Uber have all had unprecedented amount of turmoil in the executive ranks of the company. Snap and Twitter's stock are both trading below IPO. Uber is not public yet. It makes me wonder about the deeper causality. Do execs stay because of the mission and that causes stock appreciation? Or do execs stick around because of stock appreciation and then explain it through the mission?
- blklifematters 8y agoWhat a billshut
- davidhyde 8y agoIf money is no longer a driving force and FB is a happy place to work at then power / influence / impact is what is left. Perhaps the execs simply believe that they will have more of this by remaining than starting a new company. Power can be a good or bad thing depending on perspective.
- xivzgrev 8y agoI recently interviewed there, and I definitely got this sense. Everyone in management had been there at least 3 years, and the directors / VPs had been there 8+. When I asked one person where people go if they leave Facebook, he didn't answer. He just said Facebook works hard to retain employees, and that if he ever felt bored he would leave. The campus is idyllic, designed apparently by the same person who designed Disneyland. Free food, arcades, ice cream, movies, etc. I think they try very hard to make you comfortable (no "stick") and keep presenting you with opportunities to have more impact ("carrot"). To the point where people don't appear to think as much about the bigger picture and who they want to be / where they want to go. I often heard that phrase "as long as I'm challenged and having impact, I'll stay here".
- sadamznintern 8y agoCompare this to Amazon, which has constant turnover, without free food, arcades, ice cream, movies or celebrities with the added benefit of lower-than-average pay. Most of us sadly don't have the privilege of "leaving" anytime we want because we can't pass every interview.
- gowld 8y agohttps://www.quora.com/What-startups-have-been-launched-by-ex-Facebook-employees https://www.quora.com/What-startups-have-been-launched-by-ex... https://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/03/technology/03facebook.html https://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/03/technology/03facebook.htm... "But a number of Facebook’s early employees are giving up their stable jobs..." http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-former-employees-are-funding-the-next-generation-of-startups-2012-4 http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-former-employees-are...
- shubidubi 8y agoso the message for new hires is: don't even try, you are not part of the old-friends-cloed-group
- ozim 8y agoYour comment reads like you expect software dev or other entry level employee nagging he does not have a shot at C suite position right after joining. You know that how life works, you hire people who you trust and you trust friends, colleagues you worked for couple years. Sometimes you do not have option but bring in C level employee from outside, but that is huge thing. Probably that person will also be from network of biggest share holders, not person from the street.
- johnny313 8y ago> “When we learned our platform was abused and interfered with, that was super shocking to all of us,” said Chief Privacy Officer Erin Egan in a recent interview with Recode. “[I was] shocked that we were abused. Angry that our platform was abused, manipulated.” Really? I am genuinely confused about how this would come as a surprise.
- gowld 8y agohttps://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/11/30/salary/ https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/11/30/salary/ "It Is Difficult to Get a Man to Understand Something When His Salary Depends Upon His Not Understanding It" Nowadays, s/Man/Person/. Women of course have equal right to be hypocrites.
- xkjkls 8y agoI feel like they missed a Hotel California reference.