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It was cringe. When I first saw it, I couldn't make it past the first few sentences. He turned layoffs into a marketing post for his company or at least it appe

It was cringe. When I first saw it, I couldn't make it past the first few sentences. He turned layoffs into a marketing post for his company or at least it appeared so since his company does LinkedIn content consulting. Hence, people didn't think it was genuine. And many commentators were right that he made it about himself. People making the layoffs need to stop saying things like "I take responsibility. I made the choices. It was my fault". Saying this is an insult to the rest of the company and to the people being laid off. It's the company's responsibility. Hiring and firing is not a one-man show. If it is, then you're micromanaging. It also insults the people getting laid off because you're making it about you, as if you get to hire and fire anyone at anytime. If you truly take all the responsibility and blame, then set your compensation to $0 or much lower and keep as many employees as possible. Apologize to the employees leaving as a company. Explain why. Tell them what happens next. Apologize again. Don't insult them by making it about yourself.

nathanappere 4y ago
You pretty much only "take responsibility" if you step down.
- sprkwd 4y ago
  An even then you will probably get paid a stepping down fee.
JumpCrisscross 4y ago
> It's the company's responsibility. Hiring and firing is not a one-man show. The buck stops with the CEO. Every hire/fire decision may not be made by them. (It should be at a smaller shop.) But the decision to lay off must be. > Apologize to the employees leaving as a company. Explain why. Tell them what happens next. Apologize again. Apologising to people you’re letting go is condescending. Doing so publicly is asinine. Telling them what happens next is…awkward? There is no next, at least not in a mutual context. You laid them off. Messaging should focus on the people remaining. The CEO should speak to them and honestly acknowledge the mistakes they made that lead to a lay-off. Explain how they are over-correcting in response to those mistakes to safeguard the jobs of those who remain. Then get back to work. Caveat: every culture is different. What’s expected in one is cringe worthy in another. This is what makes anything said publicly likely to backfire for all but the most anodyne firms. > set your compensation to $0 or much lower and keep as many employees as possible If you’re independently wealthy, sure. If not, you’re liable to freak everyone out. It says quite plainly your shop is at the red line.
- Aeolun 4y ago
  > Apologising to people you’re letting go is condescending. Doing so publicly is asinine. Telling them what happens next is…awkward? There is no next, at least not in a mutual context. You laid them off. This reads to me like: “Sorry we hired you in the first place, and now have to let you go. But (what happens next) we’ll give you 3 months of severance, which will hopefully soften the blow a bit.”
  - JumpCrisscross 4y ago
    Got it. Yes, that’s fair. I pictured a regaled tale of overcome personal hardship, the modern “stiff upper lip, kid.” If “what’s next” is within a mutual context, it’s fine.
- senttoschool 4y ago
  >The buck stops with the CEO. The people getting laid off work for the company, not for the CEO. The CEO is also an employee of the company. >Apologising to people you’re letting go is condescending. "I want to apologize to the people leaving today. We failed our commitment to you as a company." How is that condescending? >Messaging should focus on the people remaining. The CEO should speak to them and honestly acknowledge the mistakes they made that lead to a lay-off. Explain how they are over-correcting in response to those mistakes to safeguard the jobs of those who remain. Then get back to work. Part of softening the blow to the people remaining is treating the people leaving with respect and dignity. How does it look to the remaining employees if you treat the people leaving like shit?
  - JumpCrisscross 4y ago
    > We failed our commitment to you as a company This isn’t true! You didn’t commit to hiring them for life. If you wanted to, you could have contractually granted that. You didn’t. You hired them at will and are terminating them similarly. Lying to people is condescending. The company has no place apologising. The CEO may, personally, though I think that should be limited to expressions of sympathy for what the laid off are going through. Wrapping executive decisions in the veneer of the firm feels like deflection. Their peers didn’t make this call. You did, as CEO.
butler14 4y ago
//Hiring and firing is not a one-man show. If it is, then you're micromanaging. Have you heard of small businesses? I agree with your point about it being insulting and making it about himself, but there's plenty of businesses out there where one person's decision making leads to lay offs, and that doesn't equate to micromanaging...
- senttoschool 4y ago
  >Have you heard of small businesses? I'm not referring to small businesses. The layoff letters we see and read about on the internet are all from companies. I've yet to read a layoff letter from a small business during this layoff cycle.
  - JumpCrisscross 4y ago
    > yet to read a layoff letter from a small business during this layoff cycle The crying CEO leads a twenty-something person firm, according to LinkedIn.
jiggywiggy 4y ago
I dont think it's bad that he took personal responsibility. And normally people would applaud it. But it was too obvious. Too be honest almost all linkedin posts are ingenuine. It fathoms me how many people use their or their family diseases, suicides and misfortune to gain a bit of attention on LinkedIn (and ofc other social media). But he was just too much. At the same time I do think a female would have maybe gotten away with it.
- Ensorceled 4y ago
  > At the same time I do think a female would have maybe gotten away with it. What the heck is this? "A female"?
eurasiantiger 4y ago
Was it something like this guy’s performance? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOjm9g767xs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOjm9g767xs https://ksltv.com/499014/man-in-custody-after-leaving-hot-saw-on-generator-sparking-jacob-city-fire/amp/ https://ksltv.com/499014/man-in-custody-after-leaving-hot-sa...
smcl 4y ago
> Apologize to the employees leaving as a company. Explain why. Tell them what happens next. Apologize again. 100% bang on. I've been through a layoff, it sucked but the company were straight-forward, didn't mince their words and didn't fuck around. If I had to sit through some spiel about how the manager or CEO felt, I would've been upset. It reminded me of the scene when Jonah Hill's character in Moneyball learned how to tell a player they were cut/traded from their baseball team, and then had to actually do it (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTjhHrcyiQI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTjhHrcyiQI)
typeofhuman 4y ago
> He turned layoffs into a marketing post for his company or at least it appeared so since his company does LinkedIn content consulting. Good. This is what a CEO should be doing. Maybe if it is successful the company will generate more revenue and prevent further layoffs.
- senttoschool 4y ago
  Or it could backfire and cause businesses to blacklist his firm, existing customers to end contract, and leave a negative impression of him and the company on the remaining employees. I don't have a problem with him or his company profiting from this. But at the same time, I believe the backlash is well deserved.
logifail 4y ago
I've always thought the phrase "I take [full] responsibility" should be viewed as being completely and utterly meaningless, unless it's immediately followed by the words "so I am resigning with immediate effect".
- jghn 4y ago
  Yes, this. Once someone realizes that responsibility & accountability come with little to no consequences they become pretty free with the former. I don’t know if it’s a trend but I’ve noticed it a lot more over the last several years
- senttoschool 4y ago
  This is how I felt when I read Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong's self-centered layoff letter opening: "Today I am making the difficult decision to reduce the size of our team by about 18%, to ensure we stay healthy during this economic downturn. I want to walk you through why I am making this decision below, but first I want to start by taking accountability for how we got here. I am the CEO, and the buck stops with me." https://blog.coinbase.com/a-message-from-coinbase-ceo-and-cofounder-brian-armstrong-578d76eedb12 https://blog.coinbase.com/a-message-from-coinbase-ceo-and-co...

nathanappere 4y ago

You pretty much only "take responsibility" if you step down.

sprkwd 4y ago
An even then you will probably get paid a stepping down fee.

JumpCrisscross 4y ago

> It's the company's responsibility. Hiring and firing is not a one-man show. The buck stops with the CEO. Every hire/fire decision may not be made by them. (It should be at a smaller shop.) But the decision to lay off must be. > Apologize to the employees leaving as a company. Explain why. Tell them what happens next. Apologize again. Apologising to people you’re letting go is condescending. Doing so publicly is asinine. Telling them what happens next is…awkward? There is no next, at least not in a mutual context. You laid them off. Messaging should focus on the people remaining. The CEO should speak to them and honestly acknowledge the mistakes they made that lead to a lay-off. Explain how they are over-correcting in response to those mistakes to safeguard the jobs of those who remain. Then get back to work. Caveat: every culture is different. What’s expected in one is cringe worthy in another. This is what makes anything said publicly likely to backfire for all but the most anodyne firms. > set your compensation to $0 or much lower and keep as many employees as possible If you’re independently wealthy, sure. If not, you’re liable to freak everyone out. It says quite plainly your shop is at the red line.

Aeolun 4y ago
> Apologising to people you’re letting go is condescending. Doing so publicly is asinine. Telling them what happens next is…awkward? There is no next, at least not in a mutual context. You laid them off. This reads to me like: “Sorry we hired you in the first place, and now have to let you go. But (what happens next) we’ll give you 3 months of severance, which will hopefully soften the blow a bit.”
- JumpCrisscross 4y ago
  Got it. Yes, that’s fair. I pictured a regaled tale of overcome personal hardship, the modern “stiff upper lip, kid.” If “what’s next” is within a mutual context, it’s fine.
senttoschool 4y ago
>The buck stops with the CEO. The people getting laid off work for the company, not for the CEO. The CEO is also an employee of the company. >Apologising to people you’re letting go is condescending. "I want to apologize to the people leaving today. We failed our commitment to you as a company." How is that condescending? >Messaging should focus on the people remaining. The CEO should speak to them and honestly acknowledge the mistakes they made that lead to a lay-off. Explain how they are over-correcting in response to those mistakes to safeguard the jobs of those who remain. Then get back to work. Part of softening the blow to the people remaining is treating the people leaving with respect and dignity. How does it look to the remaining employees if you treat the people leaving like shit?
- JumpCrisscross 4y ago
  > We failed our commitment to you as a company This isn’t true! You didn’t commit to hiring them for life. If you wanted to, you could have contractually granted that. You didn’t. You hired them at will and are terminating them similarly. Lying to people is condescending. The company has no place apologising. The CEO may, personally, though I think that should be limited to expressions of sympathy for what the laid off are going through. Wrapping executive decisions in the veneer of the firm feels like deflection. Their peers didn’t make this call. You did, as CEO.

butler14 4y ago

//Hiring and firing is not a one-man show. If it is, then you're micromanaging. Have you heard of small businesses? I agree with your point about it being insulting and making it about himself, but there's plenty of businesses out there where one person's decision making leads to lay offs, and that doesn't equate to micromanaging...

senttoschool 4y ago
>Have you heard of small businesses? I'm not referring to small businesses. The layoff letters we see and read about on the internet are all from companies. I've yet to read a layoff letter from a small business during this layoff cycle.
- JumpCrisscross 4y ago
  > yet to read a layoff letter from a small business during this layoff cycle The crying CEO leads a twenty-something person firm, according to LinkedIn.

jiggywiggy 4y ago

I dont think it's bad that he took personal responsibility. And normally people would applaud it. But it was too obvious. Too be honest almost all linkedin posts are ingenuine. It fathoms me how many people use their or their family diseases, suicides and misfortune to gain a bit of attention on LinkedIn (and ofc other social media). But he was just too much. At the same time I do think a female would have maybe gotten away with it.

Ensorceled 4y ago
> At the same time I do think a female would have maybe gotten away with it. What the heck is this? "A female"?

eurasiantiger 4y ago

Was it something like this guy’s performance? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOjm9g767xs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOjm9g767xs https://ksltv.com/499014/man-in-custody-after-leaving-hot-saw-on-generator-sparking-jacob-city-fire/amp/ https://ksltv.com/499014/man-in-custody-after-leaving-hot-sa...

smcl 4y ago

> Apologize to the employees leaving as a company. Explain why. Tell them what happens next. Apologize again. 100% bang on. I've been through a layoff, it sucked but the company were straight-forward, didn't mince their words and didn't fuck around. If I had to sit through some spiel about how the manager or CEO felt, I would've been upset. It reminded me of the scene when Jonah Hill's character in Moneyball learned how to tell a player they were cut/traded from their baseball team, and then had to actually do it (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTjhHrcyiQI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTjhHrcyiQI)

typeofhuman 4y ago

> He turned layoffs into a marketing post for his company or at least it appeared so since his company does LinkedIn content consulting. Good. This is what a CEO should be doing. Maybe if it is successful the company will generate more revenue and prevent further layoffs.

senttoschool 4y ago
Or it could backfire and cause businesses to blacklist his firm, existing customers to end contract, and leave a negative impression of him and the company on the remaining employees. I don't have a problem with him or his company profiting from this. But at the same time, I believe the backlash is well deserved.

logifail 4y ago

I've always thought the phrase "I take [full] responsibility" should be viewed as being completely and utterly meaningless, unless it's immediately followed by the words "so I am resigning with immediate effect".

jghn 4y ago
Yes, this. Once someone realizes that responsibility & accountability come with little to no consequences they become pretty free with the former. I don’t know if it’s a trend but I’ve noticed it a lot more over the last several years
senttoschool 4y ago
This is how I felt when I read Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong's self-centered layoff letter opening: "Today I am making the difficult decision to reduce the size of our team by about 18%, to ensure we stay healthy during this economic downturn. I want to walk you through why I am making this decision below, but first I want to start by taking accountability for how we got here. I am the CEO, and the buck stops with me." https://blog.coinbase.com/a-message-from-coinbase-ceo-and-cofounder-brian-armstrong-578d76eedb12 https://blog.coinbase.com/a-message-from-coinbase-ceo-and-co...