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I thought this https://twitter.com/GergelyOrosz/status/1590304422735015936 https://twitter.com/GergelyOrosz/status/1590304422735015936 was a good explanation:
by adrianmsmith 4y ago
I thought this https://twitter.com/GergelyOrosz/status/1590304422735015936 https://twitter.com/GergelyOrosz/status/1590304422735015936 was a good explanation:
> What this means is they don’t blame outside factors. Compare this w layoffs where the CEO says this is due to “the economy” “the macro climate”, suggesting they did everything right.
When someone says they take accountability, it means it was their poor decisions - that could have/should have been better - that led to this. You know who to blame.
- kraf 4y agoActually to me his explanation kind of sounds like he's blaming the economy
- sausagefeet 4y agoThis is a pretty poor take, IMO. I have not seen any difference in results of a CEO who "takes responsibility" vs "blames outside factors". Taking responsibility seems to be a cheap way to come off as a better person without actually doing anything differently.
- apineda 4y agoI understand this take but it seems to assume that people and systems aren't flawed.
- sausagefeet 4y agoMy take assumes that? I don't think it does. My point is simply that I don't see any evidence to say that someone who makes that claim is somehow better than someone that blames the environment. It's very easy to wrote those words down.
- pb7 4y agoDoes it get tiring being this cynical all the time? Admit it, nothing he could have said would have satisfied folks like you. This was a tactful announcement and a generous severance after providing a job with pay and benefits in the top 0.1% for potentially many years.
- Domenic_S 4y agoTrue, nothing he could have said would satisfy. But he is in a unique position to render stunning aid to those displaced. The severance is fine, not totally unusual for a company that isn't going under.
- sausagefeet 4y agoI am making a much more narrow point than you're interpreting it. The Twitter thread is claiming people who "take responsibility" are somehow superior to those who don't. I am saying I see no evidence to believe that. Talk is cheap. My personal belief is that I would like to see discussion of the system that gets us to the point of mass layoffs. As rich as Zuck or Musk or whoever is, they are still close to gears in the system than orchestrators, so we should probably have a discussion about if this situation is something we could modify the system to prevent, and if we want to modify the system in that way.
- Aperocky 4y ago> somehow superior to those who don't. Yes. Accepting responsibility is more preferable to not accepting it and blaming it on other people/things, period.
- sausagefeet 4y agoThe disagreement hinges on what it means to "accept responsibility". Anybody can write the words.
- Aperocky 4y agoThe first step to accept responsibility is to acknowledge it.
- sausagefeet 4y agoAnd you can also acknowledge it and then continue doing whatever you're doing.
- beambot 4y agoAre "results" the only thing that matter to you? Let's say you have two leaders in this situation. #1 says "The macro economic climate is bad, so we're laying people off." #2 says "I made a mistake; this was my fault." All other things equal, I know which one I'd prefer to work with... How a leader comports themselves is just as important as their results -- especially in bad times.
- Yhippa 4y agoI want to hear both. "The macro environment is bad, and we never baked that into any of our forecasts, which we should have. I take full responsibility for not doing that."
- sausagefeet 4y agoI don't really understand your counter. It costs an executive nothing to write those words down. What do you think should matter to me?