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Anyone in a leadership position has a responsibility to measure their words carefully, especially in a farewell email. "Sadly, rivers dry out, and when they do

Anyone in a leadership position has a responsibility to measure their words carefully, especially in a farewell email. "Sadly, rivers dry out, and when they do, you look for a new one." broadcasts extreme negativity to the people who remain. It almost reads like a cautionary warning followed by advice. One can write a heartfelt goodbye without ambiguity. Assuming the ambiguity was unintentional, the author was careless and paid the price. He could've gotten away with it in other places (large companies are generally too bureaucratic to fire someone who's already leaving) but obviously not in this case.

KptMarchewa 4y ago
>broadcasts extreme negativity to the people who remain ...which was immediately proven right by execs who fired him.
- laserlight 4y ago
  Firing is almost like a self-fulfilling prophecy. It signaled that misinterpretation is the right interpretation.
peterkelly 4y ago
I think honesty is a better approach. A team or an organisation that cannot look at itself critically and recognise its problems is unable to remedy them. When people are afraid to speak about problems, those problems are more likely to remain. That's not a healthy culture.
- bruce511 4y ago
  Your point is valid, but in my experience it can be hard to get concensus on what the problems are, much less what the solutions are. And I work in a tiny company - I can't imagine what it's like for Apple. Part of the problem is that everyone sees everything from their point of view, and not always from a holistic point of view. Someone working on homepod sees the potential there and gets frustrated that its not equivalent to an iPhone or ipad. Someone else, in the siri division has his own list of priorities and demands (perhaps from the iPhone team). Management isn't trying to fix every problem, or make everyone happy, they're trying to triage as best they can. In my personal context we get all kinds of feedback from employees, but ultimately we have more ideas, and suggestions, than money. For some problems everyone has a proposed solution, half of which conflict with the other half. Sometimes suggestions fix some of a problem, but are short term, we may be holding out for a long term approach. I guarantee that wherever you work you won't be happy with all decisions and directions - and I'm sure that includes people making those decisions and directions. I've had people leave. Some on good terms, some on bad. Some are positive on the way out, but we stomp on negative. There's a place for negative feedback, and that's up the pipeline (where we always take it seriously) but whining to co-workers who have no authority to effect change, especially after resigning, is not a good look, and is not constructive.
socialdemocrat 4y ago
Sounds like you demand that people walk on eggshells around some thin skinned psychopath. It is human to make some mistakes or miscommunicate. The normal thing would be to have a talk and clear things up. Management must react when an employee keeps screwing up despite feedback. Here was a one strike rule. Even the California prison system is more easy going than that ;-)
- protastus 4y ago
  Indeed, life is not easy going when someone is senior enough to work with a CxO at a giant company, and writes emails with thoughts that influence entire organizations.
- justin66 4y ago
  > Sounds like you demand that people walk on eggshells around some thin skinned psychopath. If you're almost vested and planning on leaving very soon, that is not a terrible approach to take, even if the parties involved are not psychopaths.
- MichaelZuo 4y ago
  How do you know they didn't have a talk and the email writer refused to send a clarification email in apology? We are only getting one side of the story after all.
Aeolun 4y ago
I really don’t know how you can signal more negativity about the outlook of either company or position than by leaving.

KptMarchewa 4y ago

>broadcasts extreme negativity to the people who remain ...which was immediately proven right by execs who fired him.

laserlight 4y ago
Firing is almost like a self-fulfilling prophecy. It signaled that misinterpretation is the right interpretation.

peterkelly 4y ago

I think honesty is a better approach. A team or an organisation that cannot look at itself critically and recognise its problems is unable to remedy them. When people are afraid to speak about problems, those problems are more likely to remain. That's not a healthy culture.

bruce511 4y ago
Your point is valid, but in my experience it can be hard to get concensus on what the problems are, much less what the solutions are. And I work in a tiny company - I can't imagine what it's like for Apple. Part of the problem is that everyone sees everything from their point of view, and not always from a holistic point of view. Someone working on homepod sees the potential there and gets frustrated that its not equivalent to an iPhone or ipad. Someone else, in the siri division has his own list of priorities and demands (perhaps from the iPhone team). Management isn't trying to fix every problem, or make everyone happy, they're trying to triage as best they can. In my personal context we get all kinds of feedback from employees, but ultimately we have more ideas, and suggestions, than money. For some problems everyone has a proposed solution, half of which conflict with the other half. Sometimes suggestions fix some of a problem, but are short term, we may be holding out for a long term approach. I guarantee that wherever you work you won't be happy with all decisions and directions - and I'm sure that includes people making those decisions and directions. I've had people leave. Some on good terms, some on bad. Some are positive on the way out, but we stomp on negative. There's a place for negative feedback, and that's up the pipeline (where we always take it seriously) but whining to co-workers who have no authority to effect change, especially after resigning, is not a good look, and is not constructive.

socialdemocrat 4y ago

Sounds like you demand that people walk on eggshells around some thin skinned psychopath. It is human to make some mistakes or miscommunicate. The normal thing would be to have a talk and clear things up. Management must react when an employee keeps screwing up despite feedback. Here was a one strike rule. Even the California prison system is more easy going than that ;-)

protastus 4y ago
Indeed, life is not easy going when someone is senior enough to work with a CxO at a giant company, and writes emails with thoughts that influence entire organizations.
justin66 4y ago
> Sounds like you demand that people walk on eggshells around some thin skinned psychopath. If you're almost vested and planning on leaving very soon, that is not a terrible approach to take, even if the parties involved are not psychopaths.
MichaelZuo 4y ago
How do you know they didn't have a talk and the email writer refused to send a clarification email in apology? We are only getting one side of the story after all.

Aeolun 4y ago

I really don’t know how you can signal more negativity about the outlook of either company or position than by leaving.