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> who found that her decision to write about the media in the midst of her maternity leave, rather than Black Lives Matter or Pride, reflected poorly on the bra

> who found that her decision to write about the media in the midst of her maternity leave, rather than Black Lives Matter or Pride, reflected poorly on the brand people have different interests. and not everybody wants to be an activist. in fact people should be encouraged to talk about different issues. It's crazy to be ousted from your company while on maternity leave because you tweeted about "editorial standards" and "defamation lawsuits" without first making a public statement about BLM.

askafriend 6y ago
You're missing the full story. This isn't the first incident. [1] This is a grassroots effort coming directly from employees. Her company consists of human beings that work towards business goals. Plain and simple - she couldn't set her ego aside to actually do the work of leading these people. After the first incident, she issued and apology and stepped down. Then she deleted any trace of her apology, said she regretted "falling on her sword" publicly, and then became co-CEO again. Now she's stepping down again. This is not normal behavior. And if she could actually lead (which surprise - involves people and gaining their trust) then she wouldn't have found herself in this predicament in the first place. She failed at her basic duty and should not be CEO or anywhere near the C-suite. [1] https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/5/20995453/away-luggage-ceo-steph-korey-toxic-work-environment-travel-inclusion https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/5/20995453/away-luggage-ceo...
- Nextgrid 6y ago
  This might not be the first "incident", but it still sets a dangerous precedent where not posting about whatever social cause is currently being hyped up becomes dangerous for your career.
  - boogie1488 6y ago
    in this climate, you're best bet is to say nothing at all or pretend you care about bs social movements and put #blm in your bios. some dean for nurses, the IRONY, got fired for saying everyone's life matters whilst also supporting blm. its never enough for hese people however, i sleep tight knowing that trump will get 4 more years. https://campusreform.org/?ID=15157 https://campusreform.org/?ID=15157
  - microtherion 6y ago
    I think the controversy was not so much about the "not posting about a social cause" but about what she did post, i.e. the pursuit of a vendetta against a journalist who first exposed her behavior.
    - aklemm 6y ago
      Exactly. The parent to your reply typifies the intellectual dishonesty we’re seeing in the anti-protest efforts. It’s really pathetic.
      - Nextgrid 6y ago
        I am not anti-protest at all and actually support the BLM cause. To be honest I have nothing to gain from taking any side anyway. However, I am very concerned that not posting something can now be seen as a bad thing. It used to be that as long as you don't post "bad" things you'll be fine, now it seems that you have to post certain things (potentially contrary to your interests, opinions or the primary purpose of that particular social media feed) otherwise you'll be labelled as a "bad" person. When does it end? Does not having any significant social media presence on which to post this stuff now also make you a "bad" person?
        dundarious 6y ago
        She did post a bad thing, and someone made a reference to BLM as a big societal thing someone might post about instead. You could get the same point across with "instead of posting about building her new gaming rig". There isn't even a quotation on the BLM remark.
    - dundarious 6y ago
      Precisely. People are reading a lot into this paragraph: The posts rankled some workers, who found that her decision to write about the media in the midst of her maternity leave, rather than Black Lives Matter or Pride, reflected poorly on the brand. “Why is this the moment she chose to be present and speak up?” they asked. “It’s becoming very clear that it’s because Steph Korey values her own reputation over the wellbeing of the company and her employees.” I read that as someone remarking that, among all the huge societal events happening in the world, Steph took time out of her leave to talk about her own reputation in a way that again alienated the legitimate problems employees had with her previous actions. With this quotation being the kicker, “Her own actions (including deleting the only apology she ever made following The Verge article) prove that she has not learned or grown from the December incident”.
  - askafriend 6y ago
    Respectfully, that's missing the forest for the trees and isn't the point at all. Nothing happened here just because she went off on some random rant on Instagram. If that was the whole story, we wouldn't be talking about it right now. Rough Example: Imagine your CEO forced everyone to take paycuts and work during Christmas while they posted pics of themselves on the beach and didn't show up to the office that week. That CEO wouldn't lose trust because they posted pictures on the beach. The pictures or social media isn't the point. It's something much deeper.
- nashashmi 6y ago
  Seriously? Employees don't like boss? So employees use every argument against boss?Including her actions while she is on leave? And thus boss does not deserve to be boss? I'm losing my mind on the kind of sense this argument makes. No offense to you but the article is also along the same line. I don't get it.
  - dundarious 6y ago
    I'd urge you to read The Verge's original article on the employee complaints: https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/5/20995453/away-luggage-ceo-steph-korey-toxic-work-environment-travel-inclusion https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/5/20995453/away-luggage-ceo... A choice section quoted below: The day before Valentine’s Day, Korey decided she was going to stop the team from taking any more time off. In a series of Slack messages that began at 3AM, she said, “I know this group is hungry for career development opportunities, and in an effort to support you in developing your skills, I am going to help you learn the career skill of accountability. To hold you accountable...no more [paid time off] or [work from home] requests will be considered from the 6 of you...I hope everyone in this group appreciates the thoughtfulness I’ve put into creating this career development opportunity and that you’re all excited to operate consistently with our core values.” (The emphasis is Korey’s.) Four days later, when she noticed two managers still had time off on the calendar, she was livid. “If you all choose to utilize your empowerment to leave our customers hanging...you will have convinced me that this group does not embody Away’s core values,” she said. (Again, emphasis Korey’s.) Korey said her messages were necessary to get the team back on track. “Managing people brings with it the responsibility to invest time and energy into providing thoughtful context around performance expectations and feedback,” she wrote in a statement to The Verge.
    - nashashmi 6y ago
      Sounds like an Uberish Travis Kalanick culture but more haphazard and murky. Also sounds like that only resentful employees provided input for the article. She does not treat humans like humans. That is a pretext. But the (non-)actions during her LEAVE should not be the cause for stepping down. And it is not like her actions were bad but how she did not take the same actions like other members of her class were taking. This is absurd.
bArray 6y ago
> people have different interests. and not everybody wants to > be an activist. in fact people should be encouraged to talk > about different issues. Yep. Just because the BLM protests and coronavirus are happening, doesn't mean the world stopped spinning. There will ALWAYS be another cause - groups of people will never stop being unhappy about something. It's your right to pick which hill you want to die on, i.e. which cause you want to fight for. We need diversity in causes, otherwise the others will be neglected. The fact that she was on her maternity leave, i.e. not even representing the company at that time - is completely wild. You would think these activists would be able to show some sympathy to a woman who's hormones are probably going crazy. What she is supposed to have said doesn't even appear to be opposed to what the BLM activists want - the media IS a big problem in all of this. They of all people should realize that the media has had a big hand in the public's positive and negative perception of their cause. But, that message is opposed to what The Verge believe - so I guess we understand the motive behind the witch hunt. The Verge should be ashamed.

askafriend 6y ago

You're missing the full story. This isn't the first incident. [1] This is a grassroots effort coming directly from employees. Her company consists of human beings that work towards business goals. Plain and simple - she couldn't set her ego aside to actually do the work of leading these people. After the first incident, she issued and apology and stepped down. Then she deleted any trace of her apology, said she regretted "falling on her sword" publicly, and then became co-CEO again. Now she's stepping down again. This is not normal behavior. And if she could actually lead (which surprise - involves people and gaining their trust) then she wouldn't have found herself in this predicament in the first place. She failed at her basic duty and should not be CEO or anywhere near the C-suite. [1] https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/5/20995453/away-luggage-ceo-steph-korey-toxic-work-environment-travel-inclusion https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/5/20995453/away-luggage-ceo...

Nextgrid 6y ago
This might not be the first "incident", but it still sets a dangerous precedent where not posting about whatever social cause is currently being hyped up becomes dangerous for your career.
- boogie1488 6y ago
  in this climate, you're best bet is to say nothing at all or pretend you care about bs social movements and put #blm in your bios. some dean for nurses, the IRONY, got fired for saying everyone's life matters whilst also supporting blm. its never enough for hese people however, i sleep tight knowing that trump will get 4 more years. https://campusreform.org/?ID=15157 https://campusreform.org/?ID=15157
- microtherion 6y ago
  I think the controversy was not so much about the "not posting about a social cause" but about what she did post, i.e. the pursuit of a vendetta against a journalist who first exposed her behavior.
  - aklemm 6y ago
    Exactly. The parent to your reply typifies the intellectual dishonesty we’re seeing in the anti-protest efforts. It’s really pathetic.
    - Nextgrid 6y ago
      I am not anti-protest at all and actually support the BLM cause. To be honest I have nothing to gain from taking any side anyway. However, I am very concerned that not posting something can now be seen as a bad thing. It used to be that as long as you don't post "bad" things you'll be fine, now it seems that you have to post certain things (potentially contrary to your interests, opinions or the primary purpose of that particular social media feed) otherwise you'll be labelled as a "bad" person. When does it end? Does not having any significant social media presence on which to post this stuff now also make you a "bad" person?
      - dundarious 6y ago
        She did post a bad thing, and someone made a reference to BLM as a big societal thing someone might post about instead. You could get the same point across with "instead of posting about building her new gaming rig". There isn't even a quotation on the BLM remark.
  - dundarious 6y ago
    Precisely. People are reading a lot into this paragraph: The posts rankled some workers, who found that her decision to write about the media in the midst of her maternity leave, rather than Black Lives Matter or Pride, reflected poorly on the brand. “Why is this the moment she chose to be present and speak up?” they asked. “It’s becoming very clear that it’s because Steph Korey values her own reputation over the wellbeing of the company and her employees.” I read that as someone remarking that, among all the huge societal events happening in the world, Steph took time out of her leave to talk about her own reputation in a way that again alienated the legitimate problems employees had with her previous actions. With this quotation being the kicker, “Her own actions (including deleting the only apology she ever made following The Verge article) prove that she has not learned or grown from the December incident”.
- askafriend 6y ago
  Respectfully, that's missing the forest for the trees and isn't the point at all. Nothing happened here just because she went off on some random rant on Instagram. If that was the whole story, we wouldn't be talking about it right now. Rough Example: Imagine your CEO forced everyone to take paycuts and work during Christmas while they posted pics of themselves on the beach and didn't show up to the office that week. That CEO wouldn't lose trust because they posted pictures on the beach. The pictures or social media isn't the point. It's something much deeper.
nashashmi 6y ago
Seriously? Employees don't like boss? So employees use every argument against boss?Including her actions while she is on leave? And thus boss does not deserve to be boss? I'm losing my mind on the kind of sense this argument makes. No offense to you but the article is also along the same line. I don't get it.
- dundarious 6y ago
  I'd urge you to read The Verge's original article on the employee complaints: https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/5/20995453/away-luggage-ceo-steph-korey-toxic-work-environment-travel-inclusion https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/5/20995453/away-luggage-ceo... A choice section quoted below: The day before Valentine’s Day, Korey decided she was going to stop the team from taking any more time off. In a series of Slack messages that began at 3AM, she said, “I know this group is hungry for career development opportunities, and in an effort to support you in developing your skills, I am going to help you learn the career skill of accountability. To hold you accountable...no more [paid time off] or [work from home] requests will be considered from the 6 of you...I hope everyone in this group appreciates the thoughtfulness I’ve put into creating this career development opportunity and that you’re all excited to operate consistently with our core values.” (The emphasis is Korey’s.) Four days later, when she noticed two managers still had time off on the calendar, she was livid. “If you all choose to utilize your empowerment to leave our customers hanging...you will have convinced me that this group does not embody Away’s core values,” she said. (Again, emphasis Korey’s.) Korey said her messages were necessary to get the team back on track. “Managing people brings with it the responsibility to invest time and energy into providing thoughtful context around performance expectations and feedback,” she wrote in a statement to The Verge.
  - nashashmi 6y ago
    Sounds like an Uberish Travis Kalanick culture but more haphazard and murky. Also sounds like that only resentful employees provided input for the article. She does not treat humans like humans. That is a pretext. But the (non-)actions during her LEAVE should not be the cause for stepping down. And it is not like her actions were bad but how she did not take the same actions like other members of her class were taking. This is absurd.

bArray 6y ago

> people have different interests. and not everybody wants to > be an activist. in fact people should be encouraged to talk > about different issues. Yep. Just because the BLM protests and coronavirus are happening, doesn't mean the world stopped spinning. There will ALWAYS be another cause - groups of people will never stop being unhappy about something. It's your right to pick which hill you want to die on, i.e. which cause you want to fight for. We need diversity in causes, otherwise the others will be neglected. The fact that she was on her maternity leave, i.e. not even representing the company at that time - is completely wild. You would think these activists would be able to show some sympathy to a woman who's hormones are probably going crazy. What she is supposed to have said doesn't even appear to be opposed to what the BLM activists want - the media IS a big problem in all of this. They of all people should realize that the media has had a big hand in the public's positive and negative perception of their cause. But, that message is opposed to what The Verge believe - so I guess we understand the motive behind the witch hunt. The Verge should be ashamed.