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Twitter's consumer product team is truly awful and have just made the product more and more miserable to use, so I don't cry too much about the change in leader

Twitter's consumer product team is truly awful and have just made the product more and more miserable to use, so I don't cry too much about the change in leadership. Having said that, firing someone on paternity leave is terrible and would be rightly illegal in many countries.

criley2 4y ago
Firing someone for being on paternity leave is definitely illegal in most places, but laying off executives and high level business folks before a transition at the top isn't illegal. I wonder if being on paternity leave is a "get out of layoffs free" card where you simply cannot be laid off with others while you're out.
- spiderice 4y ago
  My wife was on maternity leave when Covid layoffs happened at her company. She didn’t get laid off. But at the time we both looked at each other and wondered “did we just get saved by maternity leave?” She is great at her job so we have no reason to think she would have otherwise been laid off. But plenty of people who were great at their jobs got laid off due to Covid. So it’s hard not to wonder.
- atonse 4y ago
  I haven’t seen claims anywhere that he was fired FOR being on paternity leave. It’s that he was fired when he happened to be on paternity leave. But at the end of the day, isn’t it another form of paid leave? So if he was paid out in advance for that time off would that fulfill the company’s obligations? Genuinely asking, I am neutral on this since I don’t know the intents involved.
YSoManyRaptors 4y ago
I mean, what do you expect from the United States, one of the only countries in the UN that doesn’t require employers to have paid parental leave.
- s1artibartfast 4y ago
  Ridiculous claim. Here is some actual information https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/06/14/619604235/which-countries-guarantee-that-new-dads-get-paid-paternity-leave https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/06/14/6196042...
asojfdowgh 4y ago
I'd strongly disagree just because of periscope alone, putting twitter at the forefront of citizen powered news, like livestream before it. if your boss or board wants numbers, no product will ever end up good, no matter the people in the product teem
- weego 4y ago
  Twitter is an engineering for the sake of it company. Pair that with their actual consumer product being a chaotic scattergun of failed sub-projects, terrible client UI relaunches and the apparent inability to ship anything meaningful given years of time and resources and frankly if I was a large enough investor I'd have been wanting wholesale firings and reorganisation years ago.
nullc 4y ago
> firing someone on paternity leave is terrible If he was paid through it, which I would assume-- any kind of senior dismissal will come with months of severance, what would the problem be?
- runjake 4y ago
  > what would the problem be? Well, for one: PR at a critical time, obviously. And, general employee morale.
  - pastaguy1 4y ago
    The problem is, if they decided they wanted to move on, when would it be "appropriate" "PR-wise"? After he comes back? A few weeks after? They all seem like bad options.
    - runjake 4y ago
      I don't know. That's why I'm not in PR. I'm a systems guy. I'm into straight up logic. Emotional intelligence scares and confuses me.
s1artibartfast 4y ago
We have no information on what his severance package is. It would be hard to cry Foul Play if they receive a giant golden parachute

criley2 4y ago

Firing someone for being on paternity leave is definitely illegal in most places, but laying off executives and high level business folks before a transition at the top isn't illegal. I wonder if being on paternity leave is a "get out of layoffs free" card where you simply cannot be laid off with others while you're out.

spiderice 4y ago
My wife was on maternity leave when Covid layoffs happened at her company. She didn’t get laid off. But at the time we both looked at each other and wondered “did we just get saved by maternity leave?” She is great at her job so we have no reason to think she would have otherwise been laid off. But plenty of people who were great at their jobs got laid off due to Covid. So it’s hard not to wonder.
atonse 4y ago
I haven’t seen claims anywhere that he was fired FOR being on paternity leave. It’s that he was fired when he happened to be on paternity leave. But at the end of the day, isn’t it another form of paid leave? So if he was paid out in advance for that time off would that fulfill the company’s obligations? Genuinely asking, I am neutral on this since I don’t know the intents involved.

YSoManyRaptors 4y ago

I mean, what do you expect from the United States, one of the only countries in the UN that doesn’t require employers to have paid parental leave.

s1artibartfast 4y ago
Ridiculous claim. Here is some actual information https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/06/14/619604235/which-countries-guarantee-that-new-dads-get-paid-paternity-leave https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/06/14/6196042...

asojfdowgh 4y ago

I'd strongly disagree just because of periscope alone, putting twitter at the forefront of citizen powered news, like livestream before it. if your boss or board wants numbers, no product will ever end up good, no matter the people in the product teem

weego 4y ago
Twitter is an engineering for the sake of it company. Pair that with their actual consumer product being a chaotic scattergun of failed sub-projects, terrible client UI relaunches and the apparent inability to ship anything meaningful given years of time and resources and frankly if I was a large enough investor I'd have been wanting wholesale firings and reorganisation years ago.

nullc 4y ago

> firing someone on paternity leave is terrible If he was paid through it, which I would assume-- any kind of senior dismissal will come with months of severance, what would the problem be?

runjake 4y ago
> what would the problem be? Well, for one: PR at a critical time, obviously. And, general employee morale.
- pastaguy1 4y ago
  The problem is, if they decided they wanted to move on, when would it be "appropriate" "PR-wise"? After he comes back? A few weeks after? They all seem like bad options.
  - runjake 4y ago
    I don't know. That's why I'm not in PR. I'm a systems guy. I'm into straight up logic. Emotional intelligence scares and confuses me.

s1artibartfast 4y ago

We have no information on what his severance package is. It would be hard to cry Foul Play if they receive a giant golden parachute