8 ms·
I propose the title should be changed to “Salesforce decimates staff as part of restructuring”. :)
by VincentEvans 4y ago
I propose the title should be changed to “Salesforce decimates staff as part of restructuring”. :)
- marvel_boy 4y agoAbsolutely, in Roman times 'decimatio' was the punishment for a poor result in battle. The soldiers were obliged to choose one of ten, and kill him.
- Zigurd 4y agoHuh. Romans invented stacked ranking.
- Hasz 4y agoIt’s a bit more ironic than that —- at least according to to Wikipedia, they drew lots (I.e randomly) for the individual who was killed.
- llampx 4y agoLayoffs
- autophagian 4y agoI get the feeling that this is more-or-less how stack ranking actually tends to pan out.
- thomasjudge 4y agoMore like, managers playing favorites
- jrs235 4y agoThe toxic reason to never miss unpaid happy hours!
- illumego 4y agoI think the reasoning behind decimation was that it was supposed to be an equivalent bloodbath defeat. Historically, a rout typically resulted in about 10% casualties. Decimation reduced the calculus of a Roman soldier to 'stay in the fight, and risk a 10% chance of death' versus 'run, and risk a 10% chance of being killed at random by your tentmates'.
- ramenmeal 4y agoSeems like the low performers would have been taken care of already from the battle.
- scrumper 4y agoNot necessarily. Cowardice is a viable individual survival strategy.
- illumego 4y agoWhere would a Roman run? To somewhere in Gaul? "Ave! Auxilium requiro." "Oxnychz navar werun dosh? [laughs in extinct language]" "Quid?"
- SuoDuanDao 4y agoIn that kind of setting I imagine the low performers would sometimes be likeliest to survive, if they broke rank to run away. I imagine the lots would come out if everyone gave an honest effort.
- illumego 4y agoThat's not how the legions worked. The men assembled three ranks deep. The first rank was comprised of those with middling experience, who had seen combat before. The rear rank was the senior veterans. The cherries with no experience went in the middle, both to be reassured by the E4 mafia laying skunion in the front rank, and to be prodded on by the very experienced guys behind them.
- creaghpatr 4y agoHappened in Mexico too (may have been fictional or based on real events),in a great book I read once: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/b/rick-bass/diezmo.htm https://www.fantasticfiction.com/b/rick-bass/diezmo.htm
- joegahona 4y agoVery well done! Is there a word for when you use a word in the excruciatingly correct way but are guaranteed to misguide 99% of the audience who reads it?
- rightbyte 4y ago"Literally", which is such a word itself.
- manojlds 4y ago99% literally use literally wrong though.
- amarento 4y agoAnd the converse of "Literally" is, or should be, "Illiterally", I think, I don't know, literally.
- scrumper 4y agoM-x mansplain-pedant-mode It's "figuratively" or, more... literally, "metaphorically."
- 93po 4y agopretty sure it was a joke
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- shkkmo 4y agoI would consider the converse of "literally" to be "figuratively". "Literally" literally means "literally", but figuratively now means "figuratively".
- purpleblue 4y ago
- davely 4y agoMy wife woke up this morning to an email sent at 3:16AM informing her that she was laid off as part of this restructuring. It's a blessing in disguise, IMHO -- the work-life boundaries expected as part of her org were non-existent (calls with India every night at 8PM or 7AM, our time in California, on top of the normal 9-5 hours). It's definitely hard to process. Lots of feelings of anger, sadness, relief, etc. Fortunately for her, the severance is pretty generous (paid through March, then 6 months on top). But there's also anxiety about the job market right now with so many tech workers being let go.
- sequoia 4y agoIs this 9 months of full pay? How long was your wife's tenure if I may ask?
- smarx007 4y agoWhy would anyone wake up to an email at 3AM?
- Vaslo 4y agoI sometimes just wake up randomly in the middle of the night and use the restroom and check my email in the process. I know it’s dumb but I feel like punishing myself.
- carb 4y agoIt sounds like their job was pretty toxic and pushing through their work-life boundary. (This has happened to me before). When that happens regularly, and you get used to being woken up in the middle of the night to respond to a technical outage or needy management, the lightest phone buzz can shock you awake. Given the described situation, I'm not surprised they woke up to an unexpected phone notification :(
- smilekzs 4y agoDecimation in a signal processing context would suggest "keep 1/10" instead ;) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downsampling_(signal_processing) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downsampling_(signal_processin...