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>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 p

>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.
- deleted 4y ago
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- viraptor 4y ago
  The commitment is to running the company well. If you overhire and fail to lower costs / positions over time to match the revenue, that's a problem. If you haven't significantly slowed down hiring in the previous year to make the natural attrition help with the issue, that's a problem. If you suddenly need to let lots of people go, that feels very much like a last resort thing and problems with planning.

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.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
viraptor 4y ago
The commitment is to running the company well. If you overhire and fail to lower costs / positions over time to match the revenue, that's a problem. If you haven't significantly slowed down hiring in the previous year to make the natural attrition help with the issue, that's a problem. If you suddenly need to let lots of people go, that feels very much like a last resort thing and problems with planning.