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I have to respectfully disagree. It is common for leaders to re-state their entity's reason for being as they bring bad news. See Churchill's speeches during th
by vages 6y ago
I have to respectfully disagree. It is common for leaders to re-state their entity's reason for being as they bring bad news. See Churchill's speeches during the battle of France, for instance.
I think this opening was well-written and clearly communicated Mozilla's purpose. You can blame it for being populist, but don't hate the player, hate the game.
- tingol 6y agoWhat if we all liked this player for not playing the game?
- Jare 6y agoI would say that's the sort of impossible standard the OP was probably referring to.
- rabuse 6y agoThe tech sector should not be politicized, IMO. It's the one bastion we've had from all the nonsense.
- TeaDrunk 6y agoThe tech sector has almost never not been politicized, damn, are kids these days forgetting how much open source was fought for and defended?
- pgeorgi 6y agoNot forgetting, they weren't there yet
- wizzwizz4 6y agoNeither was I. I remember. Youth is no excuse to be ignorant of recent history.
- raxxorrax 6y agoI remember that they fought for freedoms, not for corporate compliance.
- MaxBarraclough 6y agoTo channel RMS: The political concern there is Free Software. Open Source isn't a political movement, it's an approach to software development that has similar ideas on software licensing.
- j-krieger 6y agoOpen Source is not influenced by political factors. Influencing factors are almost entirely economical, with the exception being decisions by lawmakers. I'd rather they kept politics and so-called fights against racism out of Software, because they were never problematic there to begin with. The terms master and slave for example are only in bad taste because people make them to be.
- mavhc 6y agoEverything is political. Silicon Valley is polluted, all your hardware is made in China, algorithms shape what we see.
- GoblinSlayer 6y agoThat hardly a reason to sink deeper.
- otikik 6y agoConsider that it might have always been politized, but the previous status quo might have been more convenient/pleasant to you (i.e. made it easier for you to ignore problems which affect others).
- rawbot 6y agoI think this sentiment is a few years too late.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- quickthrower2 6y agoI think they could have learned something from wartime speeches here in terms of reading their audience. People who care about Mozilla as an entity are sophisticated readers. They could have said pretty much the same thing, but with a nod to the fact that it is hard to believe the corporate version. E.g. "Mozilla has laid off 250 employees today. Why? Well here are our reasons, let's start at the beginning...". And then I'd be more interested to read. I would love to know why - short on cash? Google's teet running dry? Or do they believe fewer people = more agility? or maybe the roles really were redundant.
- GoblinSlayer 6y agoThe audience is her employers.
- KerryJones 6y agoIt was also common for leaders to own slaves. What is common does != what is right, meaningful, or that it should be used as a guide.
- asdff 6y agoBit of hyperbole there. This is a press release that their PR head pumped out in 5 minutes, using whatever techniques they teach PR heads at communications schools. Insert any company that can lay off 250 employees and keep ticking, and you will probably get about the same exact document from a similarly schooled PR head.
- tempestn 6y agoYou think their PR head would only spend 5 minutes crafting a post announcing the layoff of a quarter of their staff?
- asdff 6y agoFor a well trained and well paid one? Yeah, they probably have a template.
- KSteffensen 6y agoI wouldn't expect there to be a corporate template for a mass layoff press release. Having such a thing would be a warning sign for the future of the company to me. Also, people who don't know anything about a task tend to underestimate its complexity. I can't remeber the name of the effect but it's a variant of the Dunning-Kruger effect. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
- j-krieger 6y agoMass layoffs are and have been standard procedures in any company, regardless of size. Writing such templates in good times instead of wasting resources elsewhere is just good risk management.
- chappi42 6y agoThe opening, coming from a super well paid CEO, pissed me off. I need a good browser, maybe with accompaigned products but no save the internet, racism, bl, etc. Most likely won't ever support Mozilla with such language.
- collyw 6y agoAgreed i was pissed off when they started injecting politics into my browser recently.
- espadrine 6y agoDid you police yourself? It seems you replaced a word you intended with the word “politics” to be PC. Mozilla has always been political. It was born so. Why do you think Jamie Zawinski got Shepard Fairey to design its logo? The Mozilla manifesto is full of political statements. Do you remember the fight against DRM? Net neutrality? SOPA? Often, people that speak like you mean “speech favoring equal treatment” instead of “politics”. https://www.jwz.org/blog/2016/10/they-live-and-the-secret-history-of-the-mozilla-logo/ https://www.jwz.org/blog/2016/10/they-live-and-the-secret-hi...
- Nextgrid 6y agoThere's a difference between politics to improve Internet-related things (like fighting DRM, SOPA, or promoting net neutrality) and other political issues that while important are completely irrelevant to a browser development company.
- Nextgrid 6y agoI'd like to add that Mozilla has relatively limited resources and it's more worthwhile for them to focus on issues that are directly related to what they do (the web) instead of unrelated social issues. Furthermore Mozilla has the expertise, connections and brand when it comes to the web they can use as leverage to solve web-related social/political issues, but might not have much leverage for unrelated issues so the risk/reward ratio will not be in their favor.
- vadym909 6y ago"But we know we also need to go beyond the browser to give people new products and technologies that both excite them and represent their interests" I was a loyal Firefox user and can't even remember why I switched to Chrome. Sometimes shit happens. Kohler can be all ecited about making the next great toilet bowl. Just don't expect me to get excited every morning to go take a poop on that bowl. It's an impossibly high standard!
- momokoko 6y agoThis lay-off is not because of Covid or racism. It is because of the overwhelmingly awful executive leadership at Mozilla. Watching Mozilla leadership drive Mozilla into the ground over the last 8-10 years has been like watching a bus accident in slow motion. FirefoxOS anyone? The only benefit Mozilla now provides is a warning to companies that place how liked and popular employees are over how skilled and hard working they are. Mozilla has collected such a large group of well behaved and well liked underperformers to an absurd level like no other company in history. This is no more obvious than the woefully under-qualified and perennially under-performing leadership. Someone please explain to me how Mitchell Baker continues to have a job? How is Mozilla still paying this person millions, yes millions, of dollars? Pocket?! You are going to save Mozilla with a glorified bookmarking app? What a sad waste.
- nextaccountic 6y ago> This lay-off is not because of Covid or racism. It is because of the overwhelmingly awful executive leadership at Mozilla. Yeah! They are cutting out key technical employees while not cutting top-level exec salaries. https://twitter.com/lizardlucas42/status/1293232090985705478 https://twitter.com/lizardlucas42/status/1293232090985705478
- DangerousPie 6y agoI never really understand why people ask for things like this. Presumably Mozilla is paying these salaries because that's what they need to pay to hire good people at that level. Why would those people stay at Mozilla if they suddenly had their salary cut? They are probably already making less than they could make in a comparable position elsewhere.
- abalone 6y ago> I think this opening was well-written and clearly communicated Mozilla's purpose. I didn’t think it was well written at all. The sheer number of words is a red flag. There are five focus areas that are all extremely vague. Good writing is clear and concise.
- raxxorrax 6y agoI agree that the criticism is disproportionate, especially after all Mozilla has done for the net. I am disappointed what issues take up a priority today. I primarily think of focusing on community as policing speech in repositories and terminology, brave new world style. I don't think the old leadership failed, I think the new one is just very quick with results. Mozilla was beloved because they had a different image. I am in a position where I dislike their advocacy, because it just doesn't resonate with me for improving anything, on the contrary. I don't judge them for trying to monetize some of their services, but I also see it as a result of expanding aimlessly. And they want to offer me leadership? For what? Seriously considering if Mozilla still has a place on the donation list. This blog post is pretty bad. Doesn't mean I just drop my support, but I don't see how you cannot be disappointed here or who feels like this is a road to improvement.
- schwinn140 6y agoAgreed. Think of the countless companies, arguably most, that will never publicly acknowledge their layoffs. "Corporate double-speak" is still far better than not saying anything and/or hoping that nothing leaks. Public acknowledgement in difficult times is near impossible for most companies, especially those that are private, to accomplish.
- whywhywhywhy 6y ago> I think this opening was well-written and clearly communicated Mozilla's purpose If the purpose of Mozilla is to fight systematic racism, then I'm sorry building a web browser and running a VPN is a terrible way to go about it and the leadership team should be removed.
- tzjmetron 6y agoYou must live in a bubble.