5 ms·

That time Sprinklr's VP of design tried to get me fired

47 points by devscreen 6y ago

jitl 6y ago
Why is this flagged?
oh_sigh 6y ago
I'm only part way through, it does seem like Sprinklr or the VP is in the wrong, but I'm curious how the author can say simultaneously that her tweets don't matter, and then also call herself a leading voice in her industry, and brag about the amount of twitter followers she has.
- minimaxir 6y ago
  As the article notes, not all tweets from people that have large followings get guaranteed substantial engagement/notice.
  - oh_sigh 6y ago
    Yes, but a tweet directly going viral is not the only way that a tweet can get attention. If you were an industry analyst scrolling through Bill Gates' twitter, and saw that a year ago he said "Dell computers are a rip off", and it only got 600 likes and no other mentions, you might decide to write an article on that and re-bring light to it. Couldn't the same thing happen with this person? I don't know her, I don't work in her industry, so I'm just taking her word for it that she is a leading voice.
Waterluvian 6y ago
Please stop naming companies Somethingly or Boggl or Toddlr or Nameify.
- Daho0n 6y ago
  Domain hoarders are to blame but yes it is annoying.
viklove 6y ago
I now have all this knowledge about Amy Brown's uterus, hormones, large eggs, and husband's sperm that I feel did not contribute to this story in any way...
kernoble 6y ago
An eye for an eye, I guess. You'd probably get more done writing them a letter directly, or suing him/them.
brianberns 6y ago
I fully support this lady’s “right to say dumb shit on the internet”, but if Gina Carano can be fired by Disney for her tweets, so can she (who actually wasn’t even fired). Freedom of speech isn’t freedom from consequences.
- dariusj18 6y ago
  Gina Carano is an actress. Image is her business. She wasn't really fired for the content of her tweet, but for her inability to maintain her image.
- longerthoughts 6y ago
  was this really about whether or not Figma had a right to fire her if they’d decided to? afaict the intended point was that Sprinklr exposed themselves as insecure and vindictive over something relatively small and still haven’t been able to let it go.
- minimaxir 6y ago
  There's a difference between being fired for an innocuous negative joke about a company and being fired for transphobia and antisemitism.
  - brianberns 6y ago
    Of course there is, but the relevant similarity is that both cases caused a negative impact on their respective employers from actual and/or prospective customers. Employers have every right to dislike that.
  - yanderekko 6y ago
    Right, as long as you can pretextually (very pretextually, in the Gina Carano case) justify your outrage as "punching up" along those lines, you're fine! The OP clearly understands this as well, as she repeatedly stresses that the person who was upset with her was both male and likely richer than her (I'll assume that he wasn't white, or else that likely would have been mentioned as well) - therefore any sort of negative action against her would be unjustifiable since there's no "punching up" narrative, and if he ends up being punished then we can celebrate.
souldeux 6y ago
I've read this twice now, and both times I've come away with the same feeling: this is an immature reaction to an immature reaction to an arguably immature action.
Aqua 6y ago
> So I looked at my husband and asked the big question: How far would he support me in taking this? What if I didn’t delete the tweet and I got fired for it and we lost our health insurance? He told me to stand my ground, even though he’s in multiple high-risk categories for COVID as a cancer survivor with asthma, and that’s why I love him so much. Heh I'll probably get downvoted for saying this, but that's not brave, that's just plain irresponsible and stupid, she's literally trading more risk(and that risk concerns her family too) for no gain whatsoever (it costs nothing to delete a tweet, but the loss of her job could potentially cost her everything). Be smarter and pick your battles wisely.
- longerthoughts 6y ago
  >it costs nothing to delete a tweet this assumes placing no value on principles or pride, which is probably not true of most people and varies by individual. you can’t reasonably price this for a person you don’t know. >but the loss of her job could potentially cost her everything again, you can’t answer this for somebody you don’t know. she’s in a better position to estimate the probability of being fired and how much it would cost her. clearly she thought a 100% probability of giving in was more downside than an x% chance of losing her job. the preference is individual even if we know all of the variables, which we don’t.
- restingrobot 6y ago
  I think most sane people agree with this; its a tweet, delete it and move on. But we live in a world where supposed virtue and feelings matter more to some people than rational thought. If I were an interested party in Figma and this tweet cost the company a big sale, of course I would fire the employee. This whole "feelings before business" is asinine and I hate that these posts are becoming more and more common.
  - viklove 6y ago
    Honestly though, I would have done mostly the same thing she did in this situation. One thing about living in the 21st century is this constant understanding that you're tiny and these huge corporations can swing their balls and knock you out in the process. Being able to stick it to a billion-dollar corp, to the point of them threatening a lawsuit against you, is hilarious. Now, I have a high-paying job and enough in savings to hold out for a few years with no income, so I'm not saying everyone should do this. But yeah, I would gladly go down if it meant I could flip the bird to these narcissistic assholes who think everyone in the world should bow down to them because they're rich.
ugh123 6y ago
I had to read this twice to understand how the Sprinklr VP tried to get her fired. He didn't. They threatened legal action and thats about it. The author overreacted and then let that contribute to "burn out" which influenced her decision to leave the company.
- readflaggedcomm 6y ago
  He was "in a position of power" and she was willing to be fired. Her feelings are valid even if she isn't a white male.
  - ugh123 6y ago
    Sure, her feelings are valid. But personally attacking someone by assuming ill intent (and clearly misunderstanding intent) isn't a valid excuse.
mimikatz 6y ago
Sprinklr get this flagged?
- throwaway19937 6y ago
  I didn't flag this story but it doesn't gratify one's intellectual curiosity (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html). The author wrote a tweet that upset one of her employer's clients - there's nothing you can learn from this.
- devscreen 6y ago
  I posted it as I thought it was relevant to get a glimpse into the culture of both companies. I was surprised at how both companies managed it. Also of note is the recent news that Sprinklr confidentially filed for IPO: https://techcrunch.com/2021/03/15/customer-experience-startup-sprinklr-files-confidential-s-1-with-sec/ https://techcrunch.com/2021/03/15/customer-experience-startu...
PeterWhittaker 6y ago
Classic heavy-handed information suppression tactics, good for her for sticking to her guns and good for Figma for supporting her.
ryanwhitney 6y ago
Shouldn’t be flagged. This is super insightful into the inner workings of two companies. Good on the manager for supporting their employee and good on Figma for not giving into these scare tactics. Only a shame that the email from sales didn’t come with a “we don’t plan to give in over this or pressure our employee” as the email itself seems like undue pressure. Hope Sprinkr is forced to use lesser tools because their VP decided to make an ass out of themselves over an innocuous tweet.

47 points by devscreen 6y ago

jitl 6y ago

Why is this flagged?

I'm only part way through, it does seem like Sprinklr or the VP is in the wrong, but I'm curious how the author can say simultaneously that her tweets don't matter, and then also call herself a leading voice in her industry, and brag about the amount of twitter followers she has.

minimaxir 6y ago
As the article notes, not all tweets from people that have large followings get guaranteed substantial engagement/notice.
- oh_sigh 6y ago
  Yes, but a tweet directly going viral is not the only way that a tweet can get attention. If you were an industry analyst scrolling through Bill Gates' twitter, and saw that a year ago he said "Dell computers are a rip off", and it only got 600 likes and no other mentions, you might decide to write an article on that and re-bring light to it. Couldn't the same thing happen with this person? I don't know her, I don't work in her industry, so I'm just taking her word for it that she is a leading voice.

Waterluvian 6y ago

Please stop naming companies Somethingly or Boggl or Toddlr or Nameify.

Daho0n 6y ago
Domain hoarders are to blame but yes it is annoying.

viklove 6y ago

I now have all this knowledge about Amy Brown's uterus, hormones, large eggs, and husband's sperm that I feel did not contribute to this story in any way...

kernoble 6y ago

An eye for an eye, I guess. You'd probably get more done writing them a letter directly, or suing him/them.

brianberns 6y ago

I fully support this lady’s “right to say dumb shit on the internet”, but if Gina Carano can be fired by Disney for her tweets, so can she (who actually wasn’t even fired). Freedom of speech isn’t freedom from consequences.

dariusj18 6y ago
Gina Carano is an actress. Image is her business. She wasn't really fired for the content of her tweet, but for her inability to maintain her image.
longerthoughts 6y ago
was this really about whether or not Figma had a right to fire her if they’d decided to? afaict the intended point was that Sprinklr exposed themselves as insecure and vindictive over something relatively small and still haven’t been able to let it go.
minimaxir 6y ago
There's a difference between being fired for an innocuous negative joke about a company and being fired for transphobia and antisemitism.
- brianberns 6y ago
  Of course there is, but the relevant similarity is that both cases caused a negative impact on their respective employers from actual and/or prospective customers. Employers have every right to dislike that.
- yanderekko 6y ago
  Right, as long as you can pretextually (very pretextually, in the Gina Carano case) justify your outrage as "punching up" along those lines, you're fine! The OP clearly understands this as well, as she repeatedly stresses that the person who was upset with her was both male and likely richer than her (I'll assume that he wasn't white, or else that likely would have been mentioned as well) - therefore any sort of negative action against her would be unjustifiable since there's no "punching up" narrative, and if he ends up being punished then we can celebrate.

souldeux 6y ago

I've read this twice now, and both times I've come away with the same feeling: this is an immature reaction to an immature reaction to an arguably immature action.

Aqua 6y ago

> So I looked at my husband and asked the big question: How far would he support me in taking this? What if I didn’t delete the tweet and I got fired for it and we lost our health insurance? He told me to stand my ground, even though he’s in multiple high-risk categories for COVID as a cancer survivor with asthma, and that’s why I love him so much. Heh I'll probably get downvoted for saying this, but that's not brave, that's just plain irresponsible and stupid, she's literally trading more risk(and that risk concerns her family too) for no gain whatsoever (it costs nothing to delete a tweet, but the loss of her job could potentially cost her everything). Be smarter and pick your battles wisely.

longerthoughts 6y ago
>it costs nothing to delete a tweet this assumes placing no value on principles or pride, which is probably not true of most people and varies by individual. you can’t reasonably price this for a person you don’t know. >but the loss of her job could potentially cost her everything again, you can’t answer this for somebody you don’t know. she’s in a better position to estimate the probability of being fired and how much it would cost her. clearly she thought a 100% probability of giving in was more downside than an x% chance of losing her job. the preference is individual even if we know all of the variables, which we don’t.
restingrobot 6y ago
I think most sane people agree with this; its a tweet, delete it and move on. But we live in a world where supposed virtue and feelings matter more to some people than rational thought. If I were an interested party in Figma and this tweet cost the company a big sale, of course I would fire the employee. This whole "feelings before business" is asinine and I hate that these posts are becoming more and more common.
- viklove 6y ago
  Honestly though, I would have done mostly the same thing she did in this situation. One thing about living in the 21st century is this constant understanding that you're tiny and these huge corporations can swing their balls and knock you out in the process. Being able to stick it to a billion-dollar corp, to the point of them threatening a lawsuit against you, is hilarious. Now, I have a high-paying job and enough in savings to hold out for a few years with no income, so I'm not saying everyone should do this. But yeah, I would gladly go down if it meant I could flip the bird to these narcissistic assholes who think everyone in the world should bow down to them because they're rich.

ugh123 6y ago

I had to read this twice to understand how the Sprinklr VP tried to get her fired. He didn't. They threatened legal action and thats about it. The author overreacted and then let that contribute to "burn out" which influenced her decision to leave the company.

readflaggedcomm 6y ago
He was "in a position of power" and she was willing to be fired. Her feelings are valid even if she isn't a white male.
- ugh123 6y ago
  Sure, her feelings are valid. But personally attacking someone by assuming ill intent (and clearly misunderstanding intent) isn't a valid excuse.

mimikatz 6y ago

Sprinklr get this flagged?

throwaway19937 6y ago
I didn't flag this story but it doesn't gratify one's intellectual curiosity (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html). The author wrote a tweet that upset one of her employer's clients - there's nothing you can learn from this.
devscreen 6y ago
I posted it as I thought it was relevant to get a glimpse into the culture of both companies. I was surprised at how both companies managed it. Also of note is the recent news that Sprinklr confidentially filed for IPO: https://techcrunch.com/2021/03/15/customer-experience-startup-sprinklr-files-confidential-s-1-with-sec/ https://techcrunch.com/2021/03/15/customer-experience-startu...

PeterWhittaker 6y ago

Classic heavy-handed information suppression tactics, good for her for sticking to her guns and good for Figma for supporting her.

ryanwhitney 6y ago

Shouldn’t be flagged. This is super insightful into the inner workings of two companies. Good on the manager for supporting their employee and good on Figma for not giving into these scare tactics. Only a shame that the email from sales didn’t come with a “we don’t plan to give in over this or pressure our employee” as the email itself seems like undue pressure. Hope Sprinkr is forced to use lesser tools because their VP decided to make an ass out of themselves over an innocuous tweet.