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No mention of who is taking full responsibility for the situation! Edit: The CEO takes full "accountability" instead, further down the original announcement[0]

• halgir 4y ago
  The actual statement by Ek contains: "I take full accountability for the moves that got us here today." Interestingly, responsibility is usually used as a get-out-of-jail-free phrase, while accountability literally means that you will take consequences. Maybe I'm just reading too much into the literal meaning of otherwise similar words.
  • jungong 4y ago
    [dead]
  • michaelmior 4y ago
    The dictionary definition of accountable says nothing about consequences. From Merriam-Webster 1) subject to giving an account : answerable 2) capable of being explained : explainable
    • halgir 4y ago
      You're right. Though checking their synonym guide [1], there is this: > accountable suggests imminence of retribution for unfulfilled trust or violated obligation. [1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/accountable https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/accountable
    • marcosdumay 4y ago
      It sure does imply consequences. Click on that link in "answerable".
      • michaelmior 4y ago
        The most relevant definition seems to be "1: liable to be called to account : responsible" I still don't see any implication of consequences.
  • rchaud 4y ago
    It is a get-out-of-jail free card only if you've squared it with the board of directors beforehand.
• PragmaticPulp 4y ago
  Given how much all of the accountability statements are getting sneered at and used for media/social media outrage bait, I wouldn’t blame companies for going back to simple just-the-facts announcements. In the current climate where every word and every sentence is picked apart, saying as little as possible might be the only strategy that minimizes outrage, ironically.
  • halgir 4y ago
    I think just dropping the free accountability statement would help. It's not so much the lack of responsibility, it's the accompanying false humility that annoys people. Or even better, back your words with actions. Like the Nintendo executive team did a decade ago.
• CydeWeys 4y ago
  They're all meaningless buzzy catchphrases. Until a CEO takes responsibility by resigning themselves, or forfeiting their pay, or something else meaningful, it's all just words.
  • juve1996 4y ago
    CEOs will never really take the same responsibility. They're all rich. Even if they resign they'll have another job easily. The problem is the system. With an adequate social safety net, these layoffs matter much, much less.
  • xyzelement 4y ago
    I disagree, adults speak in language of responsibility which doesn't imply throwing yourself on the sword. When you get a speeding ticket, do you blame the cop, the car, the state, anyone but yourself? Or do you say "yup, I am the one behind the wheel so I am responsible" It doesn't mean you will never allow yourself to drive again or to only go 10mph from now on as self punishment. It just means you acknowledge your part like an adult instead of finding a way to appear blameless. or: We had a prod outage, I was the code reviewer. "yup, I am the one who fucked up. It's my responsibility". Doesn't mean I am going to forego salary for the next 10 years to make the company whole for the outage. I wonder if people confused by the 'responsibility' language themselves take responsibility for things in their lives, because they seem literally confused about what it means.
    • CydeWeys 4y ago
      > When you get a speeding ticket, do you blame the cop, the car, the state, anyone but yourself? Or do you say "yup, I am the one behind the wheel so I am responsible" If you admit you're the one who was behind the wheel and thus responsible, then you DEAL WITH THE PENALTY, which includes paying a fine, points on your license, potential driver's ed, etc. These CEOs aren't facing any actual consequences here. They're just parroting the empty words "I take responsibility". > or: We had a prod outage, I was the code reviewer. "yup, I am the one who fucked up. It's my responsibility". Doesn't mean I am going to forego salary for the next 10 years to make the company whole for the outage. Complete red herring. I'm struggling to believe that you're arguing in good faith here, actually. You really can't see any difference between thousands of people being laid off and making a bug in a code review??
• fleddr 4y ago
  In the tech sector, "taking responsibility" means admitting your decisions led to the situation yet you'll externalize the consequences to employees. In other words, it means nothing. Taking actual responsibility could include stepping down, canceling bonuses, reduced compensation for leadership. It could include steps to become better at forecasting rather than randomly guessing. It could include ironing the business model to become less dependent on the whims of advertisers. It could include re-education and internal placement of the excess employees or reducing their hours rather than firing them. Why would you do that though when not only can you get away with doing nothing, the market rewards it.
  • cryptos 4y ago
    You nailed it! I'm always wondering how someone takes responsibility and then absolutely nothing changes for him personally.
  • rchaud 4y ago
    Tim Cook had his compensation cut, and Reid Hoffman left the CEO role (becoming exec chairman). AFAIK, all other bigco CEOs did the 'taking responsibility' thing of doing absolutely nothing. I can see why Spotify is reluctant to dump the CEO. Theirs is a business model that's never been profitable anyway, so keeping the founder on couldn't make things any worse.
  • deltree7 4y ago
    I'm sure you took responsibility for your bad stock markets returns in 2022 by saying you'll never make investment decision ever again and hand everything to your partner, right?
    • fleddr 4y ago
      I've never in my life owned a single stock, nor has my partner.
  • expazl 4y ago
    > yet you'll externalize the consequences to employees. If a F1 driver admits his driving led to them loosing the race even though engineering did everything right, it's still the entire team that doesn't get the price. And if the entire team doesn't get enough funds in from their endeavor they might have to carry out layoffs. And you can be sure they'll lay off one of the 40 engineers before they lay off the driver. That does not mean the driver can't mean it when he says he's sorry and taking responsibility. Trust me, he would rather be on the podium than loosing. The mob mentality of "fire the driver first" will only leave you with 40 engineers starring at a car in a lot. You might say they need to change the driver, and that's certainly what's going to happen if management sees an opportunity for a better driver, but they can't just switch drivers between every race, imagine the spectators outrage at this team that's completely unpredictable and only ever keeps a driver for multiple races when he's first on the podium. And what driver would ever want to sign such a contract? Leave which ever team they are on for the chance at a higher pay, conditioned on getting 1 every time, otherwise the contract is void.
• niij 4y ago
  Do we have to have this same conversation on every single one of these threads?
  • krono 4y ago
    My comment was posted mostly in jest - my stance on it is mostly neutral, but considering the level of engagement it still generated even though this meme is admittedly getting old, there is or was clearly more to be said on the subject.
• deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]