11 ms·

After negative news, it’s pretty safe to assume thr opposite when PR / Marketing says something like “we wont be shutting down” or when a CEO says “there wont

After negative news, it’s pretty safe to assume thr opposite when PR / Marketing says something like “we wont be shutting down” or when a CEO says “there wont be any layoffs”. If you read between the lines, those kind of announcements can usually be a good indicator of the appropriate “time to adapt”, whether that be to prepare for a layoff or to start buying IP on a survivable platform.

wil421 4y ago
A company I worked for moved from the Suburbs to downtown in the city I live in. Local news broke the story right when the deal was signed with the building contractor. For weeks on end they denied it, until they didn’t. Surprise we were always lying to you!
bink 4y ago
They usually couch it in weasel words such as "we have no plans to conduct layoffs at this time" rather than an outright lie.
- elil17 4y ago
  That is an outright lie if they do have plans for layoffs.
  - jedmeyers 4y ago
    Oh no, they have a plan to create a plan for layoffs, but as of right now there is no plan to layoff employees.
    - ConceptJunkie 4y ago
      More realistically, "We don't have a plan for laying off employees at this time. Our plan is for laying off employees next month."
  - hansvm 4y ago
    "at this time" just needs to refer to when the layoffs are happening rather than the existence of a plan.
    - Dylan16807 4y ago
      No, that is also lying.
chrsig 4y ago
As a general rule, I tend to invert any sentence any manager ever gives me.
jerf 4y ago
Companies, governments, and politicians do not say things to inform you about what is happening or what they are doing. They say things to produce in the listener the state they desire, whatever that may be, and they have few limitations as to what they will say to do that. (Not quite "zero", but definitely "few".) The sooner you learn this, the more information you can get from this sort of release. It doesn't mean you can perfectly decode it, it just means you can get more information. And the amount of time that "more information" outright contradicts the nominal content of the statement... it's not terribly uncommon. It's certainly the normal case that the decoded content heavily shades the nominal content.
- hdjjhhvvhga 4y ago
  I hope this becomes common knowledge and starts being taught in elementary schools.
  - jerf 4y ago
    I wish. People talk big about "critical thinking" but critical thinking curricula still tend to focus on the nominal content of claims. Motivation of the speaker and their desired goals is not an incidental concern to be briefly covered, it's the core of the skillset. Of course asking people teaching "critical thinking" to arm the students with a toolset that can be turned against the teachers is a pretty tall ask. I've had teachers who could take that level of heat, and props to them, but I've certainly had teachers that simply couldn't.
    - geodel 4y ago
      Excellent point!. I agree typical critical thinking courses seems to be about logical/mathematical consistency. I find a follow the money approach works much better in real life situations.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- falcolas 4y ago
lupire 4y ago
How many times has MS said "Xbox is not shutting down."? The corpo doth protest too much. If they have to say it, it has to be a lie.

wil421 4y ago

A company I worked for moved from the Suburbs to downtown in the city I live in. Local news broke the story right when the deal was signed with the building contractor. For weeks on end they denied it, until they didn’t. Surprise we were always lying to you!

bink 4y ago

They usually couch it in weasel words such as "we have no plans to conduct layoffs at this time" rather than an outright lie.

elil17 4y ago
That is an outright lie if they do have plans for layoffs.
- jedmeyers 4y ago
  Oh no, they have a plan to create a plan for layoffs, but as of right now there is no plan to layoff employees.
  - ConceptJunkie 4y ago
    More realistically, "We don't have a plan for laying off employees at this time. Our plan is for laying off employees next month."
- hansvm 4y ago
  "at this time" just needs to refer to when the layoffs are happening rather than the existence of a plan.
  - Dylan16807 4y ago
    No, that is also lying.

chrsig 4y ago

As a general rule, I tend to invert any sentence any manager ever gives me.

jerf 4y ago

Companies, governments, and politicians do not say things to inform you about what is happening or what they are doing. They say things to produce in the listener the state they desire, whatever that may be, and they have few limitations as to what they will say to do that. (Not quite "zero", but definitely "few".) The sooner you learn this, the more information you can get from this sort of release. It doesn't mean you can perfectly decode it, it just means you can get more information. And the amount of time that "more information" outright contradicts the nominal content of the statement... it's not terribly uncommon. It's certainly the normal case that the decoded content heavily shades the nominal content.

hdjjhhvvhga 4y ago
I hope this becomes common knowledge and starts being taught in elementary schools.
- jerf 4y ago
  I wish. People talk big about "critical thinking" but critical thinking curricula still tend to focus on the nominal content of claims. Motivation of the speaker and their desired goals is not an incidental concern to be briefly covered, it's the core of the skillset. Of course asking people teaching "critical thinking" to arm the students with a toolset that can be turned against the teachers is a pretty tall ask. I've had teachers who could take that level of heat, and props to them, but I've certainly had teachers that simply couldn't.
  - geodel 4y ago
    Excellent point!. I agree typical critical thinking courses seems to be about logical/mathematical consistency. I find a follow the money approach works much better in real life situations.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
falcolas 4y ago

lupire 4y ago

How many times has MS said "Xbox is not shutting down."? The corpo doth protest too much. If they have to say it, it has to be a lie.