6 ms·
Sounds like a pretty clueless layoff, I guess I expected better from Mozilla than usual corporate derp. If there was truly no dead weight, surely the managemen
by _kp6z 7y ago
Sounds like a pretty clueless layoff, I guess I expected better from Mozilla than usual corporate derp. If there was truly no dead weight, surely the management could have scaled back their own comp for misdirecting the company? Very few people understand what it means to be a leader in corporate world.
- scarface74 7y agoHow much could they have scaled backed their comp to save 70 jobs?
- mcny 7y agoIf they scaled back their own compensation maybe it would be half of seventy? Better than inadvertently laying off someone you need I would imagine...
- Aeolun 7y agoIs 70x a strange multiple for an executive to make? I’m sure I’ve heard stories of more. That said, I doubt the executives at Mozilla make north of 7M
- inferiorhuman 7y agoWell a bit further down Mitchell Baker is being skewered for making $2,500,000 annually. I'd assume that the multiplier at Mozilla is much, much lower than 70x.
- jimmydorry 7y agoHardly any executive is just getting paid 7m in cash. They are typically paid in financial instruments that are time locked for several years. The media however, will go bananas on reporting about how they are paid crazy amounts when these instruments are finally unlocked, ignoring the tax implications, the lack liquidity and massive risk involved, and also just how much the rest of the market has increased during the time period of those instruments being locked. When you pay yours executives a modest amount using such a method, it's often very feasible for this to be a massive windfall at the time of maturity (e.g. $1 options becoming $6, etc.).
- whatthefoxer 7y agoMozilla has no equity so they make up for it in cash.. well for executives mainly. This makes for lofty salaries
- kabes 7y agoFor a single executive yes. But all of them combined could add up to 70x
- 9152ba83773b 7y agoMozilla has way too many VP and above employees that are useless (check what the once VP engineering, then interim CTO, then fellow is actually doing for instance). They should let go a few, but as far as I know, none has been fired. Gotta keep getting twice the bonus percentage as regular ICs...
- whatthefoxer 7y agoYou mean ekr yea? I don't know what he's doing either or why he's been promoted along the way. Nobody really knows.
- 9152ba83773b 7y agoNo, not ekr. There's much worse.
- deepaksurti 7y agoMany corporate leaders are Peters at work [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle
- klagermkii 7y agoI would think the Peter Principle would be better represented if there was someone who was a star on the technical side, but messed up as the CEO in a role they couldn't handle. i.e. if Brendan Eich was CEO and this happened it would be a Peter Principle moment. All these senior leadership people seem to be straight from the management track. Doesn't seem like they showed their excellence in another discipline and were then misplaced as CEO.
- chillfox 7y agoJust because they might have made excellent middle managers at some point in time does not mean that they would be any good at being executives.
- BrendanEich 7y agoRead the link above. The Peter Principle does not require change from tech to mgmt — it simply describes promotion above one’s level of competence.
- klagermkii 7y agoYes, I'm just using tech as an example. It still requires them to be excellent in any one field and then move into another field on the basis of that excellence, but then fail to have the excellence carry over to the new and different discipline. None of these people show some kind of original standout excellence in a different field that was lost in their transition to Mozilla leadership roles.
- BrendanEich 7y agoYou are introducing a change of “field” where https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_principle talks only of skills from lower level position being insufficient for competency at higher level. No change of field in the standard definition. I’ve read about, heard, and used the PP for decades without any change of field or tech vs mgmt being required to use the phrase correctly. It may be that higher level management requires training in a different field from lower, but in many firms it does not exclude promotion from below. Some of the best CEOs confound the PP to rise from the ranks.
- ksec 7y ago> for misdirecting the company? As someone who has been using Netscape before even Internet Explorer exists, and followed all of its development through to Firefox till recent few years. I am not surprised. At first you give them benefits of doubt, because their ideal were good. Then it happened again, again, and again. >Mozilla Corporation (as opposed to the much smaller Mozilla Foundation) said it had about 1,000 employees worldwide. Yes, you do need lots of people for making something as complex as browser, But 1000? Out of the 70 employees, they decided to lay off more than a few senior engineers with a decade of experience. I dont know if this will change HN's perspective on Firefox and Mozilla. Every time I pointed something negative on Mozilla there are someone quick to defend it. As someone who used to religiously defend Netscape and Mozilla when I was much younger. I get it. I could understand the appeal, the ideal. Until you grow older and realise, You didn't have that ideal, the ideal had you.
- pergadad 7y agoWhat's the alternative? Google? Not really better even if this disappoints about Mozilla.
- gsvelto 7y agoA fairly large number of managers have been laid off too.
- gsvelto 7y agoAnd also a VP