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Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg Says He Is Accountable as Company Preps for Mass Layoffs
- mikequinlan 4y agohttps://archive.ph/dIJ6A https://archive.ph/dIJ6A
- FartyMcFarter 4y agoNewer version with more details: https://archive.ph/IeS1X https://archive.ph/IeS1X
- ripvanwinkle 4y agogoing through captcha hell with that one, did about 10 of these and it doesn't stop
- polishdude20 4y agoHim saying he's accountable and not actually being held accountable is not really being "accountable".
- prottog 4y agoWell, he still owns >10% of the company. Accountability when you're a significant owner, not to mention a founder, doesn't just mean that you get fired and sent away from the table.
- ralphmelish 4y agoAnd has >50% of the votes via special shares. He is basically unaccountable.
- valeness 4y agoSo what does it mean?
- jstx1 4y agoHe's losing 10s of billions, that seems like a very real way in which he's being held accountable.
- DaiPlusPlus 4y agoOnce you're worth north of a few hundred million dollars, what practical, concrete, difference does a few billion added - or removed - from one's personal wealth make?
- avidphantasm 4y agoThis is why being a billionaire should be functionally illegal. Tax away all of that wealth. It is immoral that we allow people to control that much wealth. Vast wealth should be under democratic control.
- jstx1 4y agoTax away… all the Meta stock? We’re talking about ownership of assets, not about income. What do we do when we take his stock - do we sell it back on the market crashing the price or do we establish government ownership of every large company? How did you come up with 1 billion as the appropriate number? Do we get to decide that part democratically?
- avidphantasm 4y agoYou are presupposing that Meta should be allowed to exist at its present scale and market share. I am not.
- spiderice 4y agoThen what are you proposing? You didn't answer a single one of GPs questions about the details of what you're proposing. You're just throwing out vague one-liners and expecting everyone else to see how this plan of yours is supposed to work.
- time_to_smile 4y agoJust like we've seen the word "literally" transform into meaning roughly the same a "figuratively, but very strongly" we'll might see the word "accountable", start to mean "no consequences for me, but I do want people to think I feel bad (but don't worry, I don't)".
- andirk 4y agoWhile I don't agree with the sentiment in this incident, the "accountable" word often means like "I wish I could make this better by doing absolutely nothing".
- justapassenger 4y agoWhat would you consider being held accountable? Sure, resigning is an atomic option, for a CEO, founder, board member and person having controlling amount of votes. Is there anything else that you'd consider as true to that statement?
- ripvanwinkle 4y agoWell he do something meaningful - say pay a full years wages for everyone laid off from his personal funds
- TechBro8615 4y agoYou think he should donate $1,000,000,000+ to the employees his company needs the least?
- ripvanwinkle 4y agowell yes, he brought them in - many if not most were probably just fine in the previous jobs. If he truly feels accountable for what's happening to the people being laid off why shouldn't he.
- TechBro8615 4y agoIt's not like he's depriving them of a job, they can go work somewhere else.
- falcolas 4y agoIf the layoffs are indeed his fault (and not his employees, as he says in his announcements), why not? Call it an "punitive fine" to stop him from making this same mistake.
- karaterobot 4y agoThink of it another way: accountability is answering to someone. As the majority shareholder and CEO, who is Zuckerberg accountable to? Nobody, really. He might say "I am accountable to the billions of Facebook users", but of course that's lip service: try scheduling a meeting with him to review his performance and put him on an improvement plan. He has arranged the company so that he is not accountable to anybody, so him saying he is accountable is either a lie, or a misuse of that term.
- TechBro8615 4y agoIf he does nothing, then eventually none of his employees will have a job.
- falcolas 4y agoBeing accountable could look like taking a hit himself - dropping his pay or stock option grants or a portion of his golden parachute, etc. If this isn't happening, he's not being held accountable.
- twelve40 4y agosure, but nobody forced him to hire 87,000 people in the first place, to work on bullshit projects. That's what he's "holding himself accountable" for. That's a lot of friggin people!!
- andirk 4y agoLayoffs are always unfortunate, but didn't his company have the bright idea of making meetings all day into a virtual Second Life world where you can actually _see_ the other person's dog barking on the call? The experimental parts of the company hired a lot of those people and now can't keep them. If he gives outgoing employees months of health care, all their PTO, etc. then what is the issue?
- fleddr 4y agoThe thing he seems to miss is that people that have business meetings over Zoom/Teams do not actually look at each other much. They're looking at a shared screen showing an Excel sheet, some slide deck, code, whichever. The video feed is just a nice little touch. Depending on company culture, quite a few meetings may be audio-only, further proving the point that seeing each other really isn't that important. It's nice, but not exactly the main purpose of the meeting.
- andirk 4y agoUpdate: > employees who lose their jobs will be provided with at least four months of salary as severance OK yeah for a decently skilled software engineer, that's 1 year of free rent in a very nice place in San Francisco. Those not laid off may wish they were.
- FartyMcFarter 4y agohttps://archive.ph/IeS1X https://archive.ph/IeS1X
- slaw 4y ago> at least four months of salary as severance That is very generous severance. Financially it was worth working for Facebook even when you were hired a year ago.
- kepler1 4y agoFunny how even if your position (you believe) is relatively secure, this news sucks the air out of the working environment and everyone has it in the back of their mind even as they continue holding meetings, etc. Specific info (1st hand knowledge): Concur has had a suspicious outage today, preventing people from submitting final reimbursement claims. As well as a general hold on purchasing requests (people I suppose trying to get their benefits in). A mysterious slowdown in meetings with director level leaders, etc. and certain things (project plans, kickoff meetings) being asked to wait for some more information before publishing. Shitposting forum blowing up with half-joking memes.
- gregjor 4y agoResponsible, but not really accountable. Accountable would mean falling on his sword.
- joegahona 4y agoInteresting: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/accountable https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/accountable 1: subject to giving an account : ANSWERABLE held her accountable for the damage 2: capable of being explained : EXPLAINABLE … leaving aside variations accountable as printer's errors … Peter Shaw Does "accountable" imply there's a price to pay for the person who is held accountable? (Wondering aloud, not challenging you.)
- gregjor 4y agoI think in context and common usage "accountable" means facing some consequences for your actions or mistakes. Watching your net worth shrink (on paper) counts in some respect, but Zuckerberg won't lose his job, his benefits, have to move, or have to scramble to find a job in this climate. I suppose we can call the Meta situation "capable of being explained" too. That won't really help the people getting laid off in the next week or two.
- jp0d 4y agoCEOs saying they're accountable is just another way of saying sorry (not really) and being polite. This is just business and as long as reasonable severance packages are paid, employees will be willing to work there when times are better.