5 ms·

CEO celebrates worker who sold family dog after he demanded return to office

74 points by SirLJ 4y ago

cratermoon 4y ago
"Clearlink, like many others, has struggled to adapt to a teetering economy and recently undergone a round of layoffs. To jumpstart the firm, Clarke sent a company-wide email on April 3 saying that people who live within 50 miles of the company’s new headquarters in Draper, Utah, would be required to come into the office four days a week, with limited exceptions, starting April 17. The decision, he wrote, was made to improve the company’s performance amid a “challenging” environment." That's a lot of words to say, "the beatings will continue until morale improves"
- lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 4y ago
  > within 50 miles of the company’s new headquarters in Draper, Utah For context, this encompasses the entirety of the Salt Lake Valley, most of Utah Valley, and most of Davis County (north of Salt Lake City). I don't know where I would find hard numbers but this sounds to me like the majority of the population of Utah.
  - Arrath 4y ago
    Further, it sounds like that 50 miles as the crow flies could be quite a bit more than 50 miles of travel.
  - cratermoon 4y ago
    Ogden is about 50 miles away, depending on where you measure from. Provo is half that distance. The only concentrated population centers not within 50 miles of Draper are the Logan area and the St. George area in the far SW corner of Utah. If companies start mandating in-person work based on distance from the office, that's a pretty good incentive for people to move away. If I lived 40 miles form the office and faced an ugly commute, moving 11 miles becomes a real option to weigh against other factors.
    - JohnFen 4y ago
      > moving 11 miles becomes a real option to weigh against other factors. Hopefully just to tide you over while you find another job so you can jettison this dirtbag company.
    - pxc 4y ago
      FTA: > The company added that the employees could not bypass the mandate by now moving outside of the radius, saying that would be “counterproductive to the purpose of this decision.”
      - cratermoon 4y ago
        I guess that's one way of laying more people off without having to fire them.
  - meowtimemania 4y ago
    Driving from Provo or salt lake would be a ~30 min commute plus or minus 10 min. Ogden would probably be 50+ minutes
loa_in_ 4y ago
If anyone is confused as to how it might happen, family members who used to care for the dog might have been forced to give up the dog, so if not in care of the worker it's only option is to be sold or given up got adoption. A big thing since in my opinion animals are family members no less.
thewildginger 4y ago
"you've mistaken my kindness for weakness" Wow people outside the military say this unironically? The military has some shit bags who really do think this way (taking advantage of people giving them a second chance), and while people say it and I never liked hearing it, to think a CEO has the nerve to say that like some paranoid despot is pretty out of touch. This dude sounds like he started listening to some other, much more successful, much more insane CEO's podcast during the pandemic and lost his mind in turn. That article read like the Facebook post of a terminally online friend who's having a mental break
- lostlogin 4y ago
  It reminds me of the day phone/night phone thing. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/03/dave-morin-path-interview/316895/ https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/03/dave-...
  - rospaya 4y ago
    Way back when that kind of thing was possible, people used two batteries for their phones. I honestly don't see any problems with the interview, I'm nowhere near as wealthy but have two phones and Uber to work when public transport isn't an option.
    - lostlogin 4y ago
      I suppose that's subjective, but for me he hits a notes that grate. If you explain it like you do, it's fine. Ringtone: None. “I don’t use a ring of any kind on my phone. This is so that I am always on offense and never defense.” https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2013/03/dave-morin-path-facebook-apple https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2013/03/dave-morin-path-f...
      - rospaya 4y ago
        Yeah, a lot of people don't use ringtones, but framing it like that just sounds obnoxious.
antondd 4y ago
What likely happened: the CEO got tired of coming to an empty office and not having underlings scurry around as his excellence powerwalks through the stunning estate of Clearlink Inc. The whole thing reads like a script for an unreleased episode of The Office.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
mikestew 4y ago
Wow, the lawsuits almost file themselves. "Ms. Jones was discriminated against because she was the primary caregiver to two children. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I'd like to play you a video of a recent town hall speech..." From the quotes in TFA, I could easily believe that Mr. Clarke had had a little too much to drink with lunch.
wilg 4y ago
I think it's interesting that the headline doesn't even bother to mention the company because nobody has heard of it.
- KyeRussell 4y ago
  Nobody has heard of the vast majority of companies? Hacker News just spends an outsized about of time talking about the same 6.
- 1123581321 4y ago
  That is typical and is an editor's decision based on the coverage area of the paper and a judgment of the notability of the subject. It applies to individuals, too, like in this article. It likely wouldn't have been a decision by the journalist. 'City area company' is another way to do it, e.g. many of these titles do not mention the company name. https://www.google.com/search?q=%22boston+area+company%22&tbm=nws https://www.google.com/search?q=%22boston+area+company%22&tb...
squarefoot 4y ago
“I challenge any of you to outwork me, but you won’t,” Yeah, sure. Just give them your salary and leave the company, then see. Workers are often fed up with their jobs also because of manipulative alpha-holes like that one.
- dajtxx 4y ago
  In a sea of madness, that stuck out to me. I'm sure he's getting paid somewhat more than anyone he's castigating. That guy is suffering a bad mental break. I do agree remote work isn't as good as being there - and I did remote work full time for 15 years and it broke me. I finally got a good local job and look forward to seeing my team mates each day. But if I had to commute that far I understand the gloss would wear off after about 1 day!
landswipe 4y ago
Damn I hope people like this fail hard and fast so they cause less damage to the unfortunate people who cross their path.
JonChesterfield 4y ago
"Utah-based digital marketing company" declares "We hate dogs" as publically as they could manage. Difficult to believe really. Someone running a marketing company hasn't clocked that how they present their firm affects their success in the market. Further, they think "I don't really get this marketing thing" is a good thing to shout to the internet. Shouldn't be survivable.
fbdab103 4y ago
>...to explain the reasoning behind the changes, Clarke unleashed on his employees, saying he had deduced that some 30 employees had not opened their laptops for a month (the quiet quitters)... So...just fire those 30 people for not delivering?

74 points by SirLJ 4y ago

"Clearlink, like many others, has struggled to adapt to a teetering economy and recently undergone a round of layoffs. To jumpstart the firm, Clarke sent a company-wide email on April 3 saying that people who live within 50 miles of the company’s new headquarters in Draper, Utah, would be required to come into the office four days a week, with limited exceptions, starting April 17. The decision, he wrote, was made to improve the company’s performance amid a “challenging” environment." That's a lot of words to say, "the beatings will continue until morale improves"

lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 4y ago
> within 50 miles of the company’s new headquarters in Draper, Utah For context, this encompasses the entirety of the Salt Lake Valley, most of Utah Valley, and most of Davis County (north of Salt Lake City). I don't know where I would find hard numbers but this sounds to me like the majority of the population of Utah.
- Arrath 4y ago
  Further, it sounds like that 50 miles as the crow flies could be quite a bit more than 50 miles of travel.
- cratermoon 4y ago
  Ogden is about 50 miles away, depending on where you measure from. Provo is half that distance. The only concentrated population centers not within 50 miles of Draper are the Logan area and the St. George area in the far SW corner of Utah. If companies start mandating in-person work based on distance from the office, that's a pretty good incentive for people to move away. If I lived 40 miles form the office and faced an ugly commute, moving 11 miles becomes a real option to weigh against other factors.
  - JohnFen 4y ago
    > moving 11 miles becomes a real option to weigh against other factors. Hopefully just to tide you over while you find another job so you can jettison this dirtbag company.
  - pxc 4y ago
    FTA: > The company added that the employees could not bypass the mandate by now moving outside of the radius, saying that would be “counterproductive to the purpose of this decision.”
    - cratermoon 4y ago
      I guess that's one way of laying more people off without having to fire them.
- meowtimemania 4y ago
  Driving from Provo or salt lake would be a ~30 min commute plus or minus 10 min. Ogden would probably be 50+ minutes

loa_in_ 4y ago

If anyone is confused as to how it might happen, family members who used to care for the dog might have been forced to give up the dog, so if not in care of the worker it's only option is to be sold or given up got adoption. A big thing since in my opinion animals are family members no less.

thewildginger 4y ago

"you've mistaken my kindness for weakness" Wow people outside the military say this unironically? The military has some shit bags who really do think this way (taking advantage of people giving them a second chance), and while people say it and I never liked hearing it, to think a CEO has the nerve to say that like some paranoid despot is pretty out of touch. This dude sounds like he started listening to some other, much more successful, much more insane CEO's podcast during the pandemic and lost his mind in turn. That article read like the Facebook post of a terminally online friend who's having a mental break

lostlogin 4y ago
It reminds me of the day phone/night phone thing. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/03/dave-morin-path-interview/316895/ https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/03/dave-...
- rospaya 4y ago
  Way back when that kind of thing was possible, people used two batteries for their phones. I honestly don't see any problems with the interview, I'm nowhere near as wealthy but have two phones and Uber to work when public transport isn't an option.
  - lostlogin 4y ago
    I suppose that's subjective, but for me he hits a notes that grate. If you explain it like you do, it's fine. Ringtone: None. “I don’t use a ring of any kind on my phone. This is so that I am always on offense and never defense.” https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2013/03/dave-morin-path-facebook-apple https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2013/03/dave-morin-path-f...
    - rospaya 4y ago
      Yeah, a lot of people don't use ringtones, but framing it like that just sounds obnoxious.

antondd 4y ago

What likely happened: the CEO got tired of coming to an empty office and not having underlings scurry around as his excellence powerwalks through the stunning estate of Clearlink Inc. The whole thing reads like a script for an unreleased episode of The Office.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

mikestew 4y ago

Wow, the lawsuits almost file themselves. "Ms. Jones was discriminated against because she was the primary caregiver to two children. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I'd like to play you a video of a recent town hall speech..." From the quotes in TFA, I could easily believe that Mr. Clarke had had a little too much to drink with lunch.

wilg 4y ago

I think it's interesting that the headline doesn't even bother to mention the company because nobody has heard of it.

KyeRussell 4y ago
Nobody has heard of the vast majority of companies? Hacker News just spends an outsized about of time talking about the same 6.
1123581321 4y ago
That is typical and is an editor's decision based on the coverage area of the paper and a judgment of the notability of the subject. It applies to individuals, too, like in this article. It likely wouldn't have been a decision by the journalist. 'City area company' is another way to do it, e.g. many of these titles do not mention the company name. https://www.google.com/search?q=%22boston+area+company%22&tbm=nws https://www.google.com/search?q=%22boston+area+company%22&tb...

squarefoot 4y ago

“I challenge any of you to outwork me, but you won’t,” Yeah, sure. Just give them your salary and leave the company, then see. Workers are often fed up with their jobs also because of manipulative alpha-holes like that one.

dajtxx 4y ago
In a sea of madness, that stuck out to me. I'm sure he's getting paid somewhat more than anyone he's castigating. That guy is suffering a bad mental break. I do agree remote work isn't as good as being there - and I did remote work full time for 15 years and it broke me. I finally got a good local job and look forward to seeing my team mates each day. But if I had to commute that far I understand the gloss would wear off after about 1 day!

landswipe 4y ago

Damn I hope people like this fail hard and fast so they cause less damage to the unfortunate people who cross their path.

JonChesterfield 4y ago

"Utah-based digital marketing company" declares "We hate dogs" as publically as they could manage. Difficult to believe really. Someone running a marketing company hasn't clocked that how they present their firm affects their success in the market. Further, they think "I don't really get this marketing thing" is a good thing to shout to the internet. Shouldn't be survivable.

fbdab103 4y ago

>...to explain the reasoning behind the changes, Clarke unleashed on his employees, saying he had deduced that some 30 employees had not opened their laptops for a month (the quiet quitters)... So...just fire those 30 people for not delivering?